two upcoming readings

My last two readings of the spring season are coming up in the next couple weeks. First I'll be reading at the Dead Poets Reading Series event on May 13th:

Dead Poets Reading Series
Sunday, May 13th, 3 - 5 PM
Project Space
222 East Georgia Street, Vancouver
Featuring: Loren Eiseley (read by Catherine Owen), Hanshan (read by Lilija Valis), David Lerner (read by Chris Gilpin), Larry Levis (read by Rob Taylor) and John Updike (read by Evelyn Lau)
By Donation
Facebook Event Page

I was added to the bill as a late fill-in for George McWhirter. George couldn't make it, and will now be reading at our event in July (speaking of George, he's reading at the Twisted Poets Reading Series tonight with Kevin Spenst - more info here).

I'll be reading the poetry of Larry Levis, a poet whom I've come to know and love over the past few years. Still, I'd like to know him a lot better before I read his work in public, so the next ten days are going to be a bit of a Levis crash-course for me. I've already received reading suggestions from Levis-enthusiast Chris Banks and welcome more if anyone out there has a favourite or two.


My second reading will take place three days later:

lunch poems @sfu
Wednesday, May 16th, Noon - 1 PM
Teck Gallery (main floor), SFU Harbour Centre
515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver
Featuring: Sandy Shreve and Rob Taylor
Free!
Facebook Event Page
Poster (PDF)

This is a new series started by Wayde Compton, Renee Saklikar, Kim Gilker and others over at SFU Harbour Centre. Its goal is to offer some lunch-hour poetry to students, teachers and local businesspeople. The series is structured so that one well-established poet is invited to read, along with an up-and-coming poet of their choice. I'm very honoured that Sandy Shreve has asked me to read with her.

Perhaps in part inspired by our recent exchange on villanelles, Sandy and I have been asked to read form poems and discuss formal writing, something we are both more than happy to do (though I suspect I will mostly be saying "What she said" after Sandy's answers). We have already "choreographed" our reading, in which we will take turns readings poems that flow together either thematically or formally. I'll be reading a number of poems from The Other Side of Ourselves that I don't often share at readings, and Sandy will be reading some knockout poems, including a new ghazal based on her father's notebooks that's pretty darn fantastic. It should be fun!

I hope to see you at either of these events or, if you're really itching for a gold star, both!