Join Me in Celebrating the Launch of How the Light is Spent!
Please help me celebrate the birth of my tenth book and my second poetry collection!
6 pm – 8 pm
Faculty Club, University of Alberta
Edmonton Alberta
Thank you to the beautiful young women of Qatar University
poetry at Qatar University
a sea of black novitiates
clustered under the veil
we are cloistered together
in this room of metal and glass
late afternoon sun alight on open faces
* * *
they have come for the poetry
with half-formed half-conscious longing
they listen they write
strain for nuance and insight
into what makes this a poem
* * *
their fingers are so eager
hearts spilling onto the page
ears tuned to every word
I have not the heart to tell them
how little it is I know
* * *
but this:
here we are together
though worlds apart
palm to palm as holy palmers kiss
and our poem and their breath is a prayer
* * *
March 30, 2013
Doha, Qatar
Day Three and Four – Qatar University and American School of Doha
I was so honoured to present to the young women of Qatar University. To see so many young people devoted to poetry made me so very hopeful for the discipline. How wonderful to think that words matter so much to so many. I will never forget the experience. Two hours simply flew by! Thank you so much to the university for hosting me.
And thanks to the wonderful students of the American School of Doha who hosted me for two days of writers’ workshops. I so enjoyed working with you and hearing your words. A special hug of thanks to Janice Rolfe-Sage and Qatar Reads for hosting me this entire week!
Day Two – Qatar Academy
I met some wonderful young writers today and yesterday at Qatar Academy! Thanks to all who shared their writing and who gave the activities a try. I enjoyed your stories and poems. A big shout out to Mike Bowe for making me feel so welcome and for the much appreciated coffees! Qatar Academy writers – write on!
Day One in Doha, Qatar
The call to prayer wakes me. I love the call to prayer in its haunting beauty. My Western ears no longer let me sleep through the 4:20 am muezzin’s chant as they once did when I lived in Istanbul. Now the birds are singing, and they are telling me, “Sleep no more.” It’s quite a chorus outside my window.
Today I visit students at Qatar Academy. Very exciting!
I’m so lucky to be visiting my friends, Kevin, Janice, Livvy and Zach (and their cat Spiral). Poor Geoff and Desi – stuck at home.
When That I Was… a tour de force!
Christopher Hunt in When That I Was is simply superb! From moment to moment, he changes as though quicksilver: from aged Jack Rice to the same as mere boy; from young wanton to Elizabeth I; and delightfully to Shakespeare, his various characters and those who played them, the bard’s lovers and wife. The transitions are seamless, magic.
Set in Puritan England, there is much about this play by Edward Atienza and John Mortimer that resonates today…the Puritans’ suppression of the theatre, the public flogging of the actors, the hard times befallen the narrator, himself once a player. A parable for our times?
Beyond the political is that which is so very human in this play. There is lust and longing, ribaldry and jealousy. And, in a play so very much about Shakespeare, there is, of course, love and loss. Throughout runs the poignant undercurrent that we are all “poor player[s] that strut and fret [our] hour upon the stage, and then [are] heard no more.” As a storyteller myself, I was completely spellbound by Christopher Hunt’s storyteller, and touched by the homage paid to those who write and create plays.
I urge you to see this remarkable performance and this wonderful play! A big standing O!
As part of Shadow Theatre’s season of “Escapes and Pursuits,” the show runs until March 24 at the Varscona Theatre in Edmonton. http://www.shadowtheatre.org
Young Authors’ Conference 2013 – What a blast!
Had a terrific time today!
Young writers I met today – thank you for your words and for sharing them with me. To the organizers of the Young Authors’ Conference of Elk Island Public and Catholic Schools – many thanks for inviting me to your grand event and congrats on a successful conference, yet again! And to my fellow writers and illustrators, what a treat to spend the day in your company!
Merci to all of you who bought Not With a Bang or any of my other books!
YouthWrite and the Bennett Centre = Win Win!
YouthWrite Society Canada
is pleased to partner with the Bennett Centre Young Writers’ Camps!
Check out the talent below!
Please encourage young writers you know to sign up for these fantastic opportunities.
Bennett Centre Young Writers’ Camps 2013
February 28 & March 1 (Grades 4-6)
- Carolyn Pogue (author of the award-winning Gwen series)
- Joseph Simons (fiction and historical fiction writer)
- Mark Haroun (TV writer on CBC’s Heartland)
- Stephanie Chan (illustrator and comics specialist)
March 25 & 26 (Grades 4-6)
- Tololwa Mollel (award-winning picture book author and storyteller)
- Malcolm Azania (SF and fantasy writer)
- Tyler Enfield (SF writer)
- Spyder Yardley-Jones (illustrator and cartoonist)
March 27 & 28 (Grades 7-9)
- March 27: Jocelyn Brown (author and former EPL Writer in Residence)
- March 27: Mary Pinkoski (poet and spoken word performer)
- March 28: Jacqueline Guest (award-winning author of 17 children’s and YA books)
- March 28: Timothy Anderson (former publisher, author and playwright)
For information or to register Phone 780-468-1439 or 1-800-664-6630
Please support an Albertan author! Please vote for Not With a Bang
Please help Not With a Bang become a finalist in the Alberta Readers’ Choice Awards!
Vote here: http://www.epl.ca/2013-ARCA-submissions
Thank you for your kind support!
