VerseFest Presents: Laureate City 2: What is a Poet Laureate? (English)

with Afua Cooper, Deanna Young, Jason Heroux, John Barton and Marty Gervais

Presented with Ottawa Public Library and Library and Archives Canada

In Person Poetry

Admission

Free

Saturday

Nov , 2019

1:00pm

Eastern

Library and Archives Canada

395 Wellington St. • Ottawa

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VerseFest Presents: Laureate City 2: What is a Poet Laureate? (English)

Afua Cooper Deanna Young · Photo by Alice Young Jason Heroux John Barton Marty Gervais

Poet laureates from across Canada gather in Ottawa for three days of readings, discussions and performances.

Presented with Library and Archives Canada and Ottawa Public Library

The Authors

Afua Cooper

A celebrated poet, Afua Cooper was recently installed as Halifax’s Poet Laureate. She is the author of five books of poetry, including the critically acclaimed Copper Woman and Other Poems. She has also recorded two poetry CDs. A founder of the Canadian Dub poetry movement, Afua Cooper was instrumental in organizing between 2004 and 2009, three international dub poetry festivals. Afua holds a Ph.D. in Black Canadian Studies and the African Diaspora from the University of Toronto.

Deanna Young

Deanna Young is the author of four books of poetry. House Dreams (2014)) was shortlisted for several awards, including the Trillium Book Award for Poetry and the Ottawa Book Award. Reunion (2018) was shortlisted for the Pat Lowther Memorial Award and the Archibald Lampman Award. Originally from southwestern Ontario, she lives in Ottawa where she works as an editor and teaches poetry privately. In 2019 she was named Ottawa’s English Poet Laureate for a two-year term.

Jason Heroux

Jason Heroux is the current Poet Laureate for the City of Kingston. He is the author of four books of poetry: Memoirs of an Alias (2004); Emergency Hallelujah (2008); Natural Capital (2012) and Hard Work Cheering Up Sad Machines (2016). His most recent book is the novel Amusement Park of Constant Sorrow (Mansfield Press, 2018).

John Barton

John Barton joined the Arc board in 1988 and was Arc's co-editor from 1990 to 2003 before moving to Victoria, where he edited The Malahat Review from 2004 to 2018. His twelfth book of poetry, Lost Family: A Memoir, was nominated for the 2021 Derek Walcott Prize.

Marty Gervais

Marty Gervais is the poet laureate emeritus of the City of Windsor. The author of the Canadian bestseller The Rumrunners, Gervais was the recipient of the International Authors Festival Harbourfront Prize in 1999. He was also awarded the Queen’s Jubilee Medal and was the winner of the Milton Acorn People’s Poetry Award. Gervais is also the publisher of Black Moss Press and teaches editing and publishing at the University of Windsor.