Hey, everybody! Join us for Word Up’s next event @ Unity Market Cafe & Studios. We’ll start at the usual 7 pm and feature one or two guest authors, followed by the ever-popular and always inspiring open mic.
May 9, 2019
Doyali Islam. Photo by Llisa Spidle
Doyali Islam’s second poetry book is heft (McClelland & Stewart, 2019). Poems from this collection have been published in Kenyon Review Online, The Fiddlehead, and Best Canadian Poetry. In 2017, Doyali was a National Magazine Award finalist and a guest on CBC Radio’s The Sunday Edition. She serves as the poetry editor for Arc Poetry Magazine and lives in Toronto.
Originally from Six Nations of the Grand River Territory in Southern Ontario, Linda McGregor is the Manager of Indigenous Education, an award-winning program with the Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board. A former student of best-selling author and Professor, Dr. Bruce Meyer, Linda was invited to write a manuscript for a publisher she called Secrets of a Native Mind. Linda will be reading an excerpt from this manuscript and a poem she wrote called Creator of All People – that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada described as “how easy it is to start” the process of reconciliation.
June 13, 2019
Michael Fraser has been published in numerous national and international anthologies and journals, including Paris/Atlantic, Arc Poetry Magazine, Contemporary Verse 2, and The Caribbean Writer. He was published in Best Canadian Poetry in English in 2013 and 2018. He has won numerous awards, including Freefall Magazine’s 2014 and 2015 poetry contests, the 2016 CBC Poetry Prize, and the 2018 Gwendolyn MacEwen Poetry Competition.
David Rankine Over the past 35 years, David Rankine has used his art, music and writing to explore the nature of creativity and its place in healing and in the development of consciousness. He has recorded 10 CDs of original music and written numerous articles on Sacred Art, Mandalas, Celtic Art and Healing. Teaching workshops for all age levels, David has also lectured on Medieval sacred art and Mandalas and his work with mandalas as a healing tool has been recognized in a number of publications. 2019 marks his entry into the world of fiction writing with a collection of stories based on his dreams, titled the Warrior’s Tale (pub. One Thousand Trees). Some of these stories have been performed live at various events and festivals over the years. He lives and works in rural Huron County, Ontario.
