word on the street 2011, destroyer of bucket lists

Word on the Street is less than a week away! I'm all the more excited about this year's iteration for a number of reasons. One is that WOTS has been expanded to a three-day festival, with events at Joy Kogawa House and Banyen Books and Sound on Friday and a full slate of readings and workshops at the Carnegie Centre on Saturday, all before the traditional Sunday festival kicks off at 11 AM at Library Square. The full schedule for all three days can be found by clicking around on the WOTS "What's On" page.

If you click that link and check out the lineup at the poetry tent, you'll understand the other reasons why I'm excited this year. I'll be reading twice on Sunday, back-to-back, at 1:30 PM and 2:30 PM. The 2:30 PM reading will be for The Other Side of Ourselves. Getting a reading spot at WOTS has always been a dream of mine, and I'm thrilled and appreciative that it's going to happen for my first book.

The only thing that might top that is the 1:30 reading, where I will be participating in the launch of the 2011 "Poetry in Transit" series (along with Gillian Jerome, Christine Lowther, Kate Braid, Laisha Rosnau and David Zieroth). Yes, oh list of my crazy dreams, you just lost another member: my poem "Summer", from The Other Side of Ourselves, will be included in Poetry in Transit this year! I'm not sure when it will start appearing on buses and Skytrains, but if you want to be sure to see it you can come by on Sunday, as they'll have a bus on site displaying all of the poems.

Last on my list of dreams accomplished, if you look really closely at the schedule for my reading you'll see that I've achieved the dream of all dreams - my own corporate sponsor! It's the library's own community-run, tchotchke-dispensing, fundraising storefront, book'mark:



Oh poetry, even your corporate sponsors are non-profit... Thanks, book'mark!

There will be many non-Rob-dream-related reasons to swing by WOTS on Sunday, as well, including readings from their new books by Sachiko Murakami (Rebuild) and Garry Thomas Morse (Discovery Passages). Also, there will be music, and sales tables (usually with good sales), and info on community groups and magazines, and those crazy kids at The Word Under The Street, and gaggles of readings from authors who shun line breaks.

So I'll see you there, right?