April 29, 2011: Cynthia Woodman Kerkham launches her first collection of poems Good Holding Ground.

Cynthia Woodman Kerkham was born in Toronto, raised in Hong Kong and Vancouver and has lived in France. She has a degree in Asian Studies and English literature from UBC and has worked as a potter, journalist and teacher. Her poems have appeared in many literary journals including The Antigonish Review, Room, CV2, The New Quarterly, The Malahat Review, Grain and Prairie Fire. In 2009 she won the Federation of BC Writers Literary Writes Competition and in 2011 placed first in the Malahat Review's Open Season Awards. When not sailing the Westcoast, she lives in Victoria in a constant state of renovation. Good Holding Ground is her debut collection of poems.

April 22, 2011: Elizabeth Green and Betsy Warland

Betsy Warland wrote her first two lyric prose essays in open if broken (1984) and was the Saskatoon Public Library’s Writer-in-Residence from 1993-94. In 2002 she taught a poetry workshop at Sage Hill, and is currently the director of The Writer’s Studio at Simon Frasier University, as well as the Vancouver Manuscript Intensive.


Elizabeth Greene’s first collection of poems, The Iron Shoes, was published in 2007. Her poetry has appeared in the Queen’s Feminist Review, and FreeFall and has been anthologized in Crossing Lines: Poets Who Came to Canada in the Viet Nam War Era (2008) and in Arms Like Ladders: The Eloquent She (2007) as well as in two anthologies she has edited: Kingston Poets’ Gallery (2006) and Common Magic: The Book of the New (edited with Danielle Gugler) (2008). She edited (and contributed to) We Who Can Fly: Poems, Essays and Memories in Honour of Adele Wiseman (1997), which won the Betty and Morris Aaron Jewish Book Award Prize for Best Scholarship on a Canadian Subject (1998). She lives in Kingston and is the Ontario Representative for the League of Canadian Poets.

April 15, 2011: Naomi Beth Waka and Clea Roberts

Naomi Beth Wakan is a poet and personal essayist. She has written over thirty books including the ALA selection, Haiku – one breath poetry. Her recent titles from Wolsak and Wynn include Late Bloomer – on writing later in life, and Book Ends – a year between the covers. Her essays and poetry have appeared in many magazines including Geist, Room, Resurgence and Gusts. She is a member of the League of Canadian Poets, Tanka Canada and Haiku Canada. She lives on Gabriola Island with her husband, the sculptor, Elias Wakan. www.naomiwakan.com

Clea Roberts lives in Whitehorse, Yukon on the Takhini River. Her poems have appeared in The Antigonish Review, CV2, The Dalhousie Review, The International Feminist Journal of Politics, Lake: A Journal of Arts and the Environment, The Malahat Review, Prism International, and Room. Roberts has received fellowships from the Vermont Studio Centre, the Atlantic Centre for the Arts and is a three-time recipient of the Yukon Government Advanced Artist Award. Her work has been nominated for a National Magazine Award and her poem, “When We Begin to Grow Old,” won the After Al Purdy Poetry Contest. Clea co-organizes the Whitehorse Poetry Festival.

April 8, 2011: PEP is cancelled!!

Please go to Open Space Gallery instead to see Lorna Crozier and Susan Musgrave!!

April 1, 2011: The Father and Daughter team of Clara Blackwood and Allan Breismaster!

Clara Blackwood lives and writes in Toronto. Her first poetry collection, Subway Medusa (2007), was the inaugural book in Guernica Editions’ First Poets Series, which features first books by poets thirty-five and under. Her poetry has appeared in such journals as the Hart House Review, Misunderstandings Magazine, Quills, Rampike, Carousel, and the UK magazine Dream Catcher. She holds a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Toronto.



Allan Briesmaster is a freelance editor, publisher, and literary consultant. His most recent full-length poetry collections are Interstellar (Quattro Books, 2007) and Confluences (Seraphim Editions, 2009). He was a main organizer of Toronto’s weekly Art Bar Poetry Reading Series from 1991 until 2002. As an editor, working with several literary presses, Allan has been instrumental in the production of more than 100 books since 1998. He co-edited the ground-breaking anthology Crossing Lines: Poets Who Came to Canada in the Vietnam War Era, which was launched at Planet Earth and in fourteen other locations in 2008. He lives in Thornhill, Ontario, with his wife Holly, a visual artist with whom he has collaborated several times.

March 25, 2011: Barbara Pelman and Barry Dempster

For many years Barbara Pelman has taught English at high school and college, primarily in B.C. Born in Vancouver, she has degrees from the University of British Columbia and the University of Toronto. She has been an active participant in the Victoria writing community: as a member of the Random Acts of Poetry team, a regular reader at Planet Earth Poetry, and the instigator of Victoria’s “Poetry Walls,” created by her students, in the downtown core.

Pelman’s poems have appeared in many literary journals, including Event, Fiddlehead, Antigonish Review, Dalhousie Review and CV2. Borrowed Rooms is her second book of poetry, following One Stone published in 2005 by Ekstasis Editions.

Barry Dempster is the author of sixteen books, including a novel, The Ascension of Jesse Rapture, a children’s book, two volumes of short stories and twelve collections of poetry. He has been nominated for the Governor General's Award twice and has won a Petra Kenney Award, a Confederation Poets Prize, a Prairie Fire Poetry Contest and the Canadian Authors Association Jack Chalmers Award for Poetry. In 2010, he was a finalist for the Ontario Premier’s Award for Excellence in the Arts. He is also acquisitions editor at Brick Books. His most recent books include Love Outlandish (Brick), Ivan’s Birches (Pedlar Press) and Blue Wherever (Signature Editions).

Barry Dempster will offer a workshop on Saturday March 26 from 11-3 contact planetearthpoetry at gmail dot com for details

March Madness!!!

March 4, 2011: Susan Tefler and Aurian Haller

Susan Tefler lives in Gibsons, BC with her husband and three children. She teaches high school English and Social Studies. Her poems have been published in literary journals across Canada and she is the recipient of the Gillian Lowndes Award, by the Sunhsine Coast Arts Council. House Beneath is her first book.

Planet Earth Poetry acknowledges the support of The League of Canadian Poets.

Aurian Haller is an award winning poet and singer‐songwriter. He is the lead singer in the aurian haller band, whose unique blend of folk, rock and jazz is supported by Haller’s haunting lyrics. Haller’s poetry has appeared in Arc, Descant, The Antigonish Review and in his acclaimed collection, A Dream of Sulphur. He has won numerous national awards, including a National Magazine Award for poetry and the Malahat Review Long Poem Prize. Haller grew up in the foothills of the Rockies and now lives in Quebec City.

March 11, 2011: Derk Wynand and Karen Enns

Born in Germany, Derk Wynand came to Canada as a child in 1952. He has published several translations of works by the Austrian writers, H.C. Artmann and Erich Wolfgang Skwara, and the German Poet, Dorothea Grünzweig. From 1969 to 2004, he taught Creative Writing at the University of Victoria, B.C., serving two three-year terms as Chair of the Department, and six years (1992-1998) as editor of 'The Malahat Review'. He lives in Victoria with his wife, Eva.

Karen Enns is from southern Ontario, where she was born and raised in a Mennonite farm community. Her poetry has appeared in The Fiddlehead, The Antigonish Review, Grain Magazine, PRISM international and The Malahat Review. She lives in Victoria, B.C.

March 18, 2011: Alice Major and Sheila Martindale

Alice Major’s eighth poetry collection, The Office Tower Tales, won the prestigious Pat Lowther award (for a book of poetry by a Canadian woman) and the Book Publishers Association of Alberta’s Trade Book of the Year Award. Her ninth collection, Memory’s Daughter, has just been published by the University of Alberta Press. She is past president of the League of Canadian Poets and past chair of the Edmonton Arts Council. She served as the City of Edmonton’s first Poet Laureate from 2005 to 2007.

Planet Earth Poetry acknowledges the support of The League of Canadian Poets.

Sheila Martindale was born and educated in England, and came to Canada in 1966, settling in Montreal, but moving westward to London (Ontario), Calgary and finally Victoria, BC in 2009. She was poetry editor of Canadian Author from 1982 to 1997, and Canadian editor of Bogg magazine (USA) from 1988 to 2008. She was theatre columnist for Scene Magazine (London, Ontario) from 1989 to 2007. She has taught at the University of Western Ontario and Fanshawe College, and has been on many arts panels and juries.