Exciting November Readings at Planet Earth Poetry!

November 5, 2010 – Catherine Owen and Paul Nelson

Catherine Owen will be reading from her seventh collection of poetry Seeing Lessons.

Mattie Gunterman (1872-1945) is a fascinating character, capable of walking from Seattle to Beaton, BC; running a full camp-kitchen; caring for her children and taking stunning portraits of a British Columbia that has all but vanished, both the people and the trees. In thoughtful and elegantly written poems, Catherine Owen traces the path of this remarkable woman, contrasting both modern life and the modern environment with what Mattie would have encountered. Part biography, part environmental elegy, Seeing Lessons leaves readers seeing the world in a different light.

Father/Poet/Teacher Paul Nelson, a Chicago native, is co-founder of SPLAB, author: Organic Poetry (Oct. ‘08, VDM Verlag, Germany) & A Time Before Slaughter (Oct. ’09, Apprentice House,) a serial poem re-enacting the history of Auburn, WA (originally called Slaughter.) Worked 26 years in radio, interviewed Allen Ginsberg, Michael McClure, Anne Waldman, Sam Hamill, Robin Blaser, Wanda Coleman, Eileen Myles, Jerome Rothenberg, George Bowering & others. He earned his M.A. from Lesley University in Organic Poetry, a study of North American poets writing (to different degrees) spontaneously, writes one American Sentence every day & lives in Seattle.

Paul Nelson will be offering a workshop on Saturday November 6. Contact planetearthpoetry at gmail dot com for details.

November 12, 2010 – see poster below – Launch of Walk Myself Home!

November 19, 2010 – David Fraser and Jannie Edwards

David Fraser lives in Nanoose Bay, on Vancouver Island. He is the founder and editor of Ascent Aspirations Magazine, www.ascentaspirations.ca since 1997. His poetry and short fiction have appeared in many journals and anthologies, including Rocksalt, An Anthology of Contemporary BC Poetry. He has published three collections of poetry, Going to the Well (2004), Running Down the Wind (2007) and No Way Easy, 2010. To keep out of trouble he helps develop Nanaimo's spoken-word series, WordStorm.. www.wordstorm.ca.

Jannie Edwards has three books of poetry — The Possibilities of Thirst (1997), Blood Opera: The Raven Tango Poems (2006), in collaboration with visual artist Paul Saturley, and Falling Blues (2010), part of Frontenac House's Dektet 2010, a celebration of 10 books of poetry selected from a national contest by bill bisset, Alice Major and George Elliot Clarke. An Edmonton theatre group, Prosperous Tangueros Consortium, recently adapted Blood Opera: The Raven Tango Poems for the stage, where it was featured in Edmonton's Workshop West's 2010 Canoe Theatre Festival.

Edwards' videopoem Engrams: Reach and Seize Memory is a multi-disciplinary collaborative work that features Edwards' English poetry translated into American Sign Language and performed by Deaf translator and actor Linda Cundy.

Thanks to The League of Canadian Poets for support in bringing Jannie Edwards to

Planet Earth Poetry.

November 26, 2010 - Wendy Morton turns 70!!!

A native of Sooke, British Columbia on the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Wendy is an insurance investigator as well as a poet, an occupation that sometimes provides her with delicious

material for her poems. She believes that poets ought to have the same corporate sponsorship as rock stars and athletes. She has been sponsored by West Jet Airlines, Chrysler, Fuji, and is currently sponsored by Prairie Naturals Vitamins and AbeBooks. She recently helped produce a book of poetry written by middle school students, We Can Say This, with the sponsorship of TD Bank Financial.

Come and Celebrate with Wendy Morton, long time host and organizer of Planet Earth Poetry.

We end the 2010 Reading Series on November 26, 2010.

Please come back in January 2011:

January 14, 2011 – Leaf Press Chap Book Launch – Collections from retreats with Master Poet Patrick Lane will be launched on this night.

January 21, 2011 – David Zieroth

Thanks to The Canada Council for the Arts.

January 28, 2011 – Planet Earth Poetry and The Malahat Review join to pay tribute to P.K. Page

Walk Myself Home!