Grey Bruce Poetry Project - 2007-2008 Archive

david sereda has performed in concerts and festivals across Canada, including Toronto’s Harbourfront and Glenn Gould Studio, and Montreal's Place des Arts. He has three albums on his independent label Rocky Wednesday Records, including the critically acclaimed CD The Blue Guide, with another two in the works.

sereda studied classical piano but got the theatre bug in high school. Then he trained under renowned acting teacher Powys Thomas at the Playhouse Acting School in Vancouver, but his boyish looks got him cast solely as a teenager. To keep inspired and working, he co-produced and performed in alternative theatre in Edmonton, including poetry and music performances. He began performing his own songs, touring in earnest. He was one of the first people in Canada to write and perform songs from a gay male perspective.

He returned to theatre as composer and musical director of new Canadian works at the Tarragon (Love Jive and Siren Song with Don Hannah) and Buddies in Bad Times (The Dressing Gown) in Toronto, Public Dreams Co. in Edmonton (The Snow Queen) and in musicals by Connie Kaldor (The Destruction of Eve), Morris Panych (Last Call!). His work been nominated for two Dora awards.

His latest project, TOM, is a full-length musical with writer/director Joan Chandler, inspired by the passion and life of painter Tom Thomson. Produced by local theatre company Sheatre, TOM had a successful premiere in Owen Sound in August 2007. david tours that music in the concert Songs in the key of Tom. He also produces the Stray Dog Salons: evenings of music, poetry and theatre, where artists like Anne Michaels, Daniel MacIvor, Shirley Eikhard and Michael Ondaatje have performed.

david also leads workshops in voice, music theatre and songwriting, and with Joan Chandler, leads the Brush workshops, based on Tom Thomson's life and art, in schools and communities across Ontario. He lives in Annan, near Owen Sound.

I am a late bloomer – or rather a stunted bloomer. I was beginning to blossom as a writer at the age of 16 after receiving recognition as recipient of honorable mention in the Canada Permanent Trust National writing contest when I bought into the Cinderella Syndrome and fell for the belief of marrying and living happily ever after. However, after 18 years, I realized this story wasn’t working for me, and I began over.

This time I am writing my own, unique life story, the ending of which is yet to be determined (and many years down the road, I would hope!).

I am a lifelong resident of Grey County (disregarding a couple of years of city-life during a period of what I like to think was "temporary" insanity). I am currently a resident at A Brush With Words, a four acre property located in the suburbs of Massie, Municipality of Chatsworth with partner, landscape artist and sculptor, Peter John Reid.

I am a self-published author of several children's books and a collection of vignettes & poetry, "Growing in Grey"; also a member of the Highway 4 Writer’s Group. A member of Owen Sound’s Studio XX, I am currently working towards culminating a collection of works for a visual art show as guest artist at the Owen Sound Artist’s Co-op for the month of March, 2008.

For the past six years, Royal LePage RCR Realty in Flesherton has assisted me in paying my bills and helping put my two daughters through University. Further personal history can be gleaned from my biography in poetic form (I Got) which I believe was instrumental in my receiving a scholarship at The Haliburton School of the Arts in 2004.

I would be described as quick-witted with a good, if not wicked, sense of humor and most people are surprised at the dark tone and content of most of my writing.

Rhya Tamasauskas is a Toronto based writer and visual artist. She grew up in the small village of Priceville, Ontario and spent most of her time running along concessions, mapping her memories with gravel roads and river stones. She began documenting her day-to-day life at the age of seven in a brown daily diary given to her by a close family friend and has not looked back since.

Rhya completed her B.F.A from Ryerson University in image arts in 2000. These days she spends most of her days making the many monsters that live in the nooks and crannies of her mind, come to life at the Monster Factory Studio. She is also an active member the independent writing collective Tuesday, which meets weekly to discuss poetry, between delicious mouthfuls of coffee, tea and the best cornbread muffins you can imagine.

Rhya’s poems have most recently been included in the second volume of the Pilot Pocket Book series, as well as in various magazines and online sites. Her work with the Monster Factory, has been exhibited in Toronto, Seattle , New York and L.A. She has also participated in Toronto’s Nuit Blanche, as a member of A Collection of Foreign Objects art collective. Follow these links to see more: rhyatamasauskas.com and www.acofo.com

Daniel Kolos is a Hungarian-born, US citizen living in Canada. He is an academically trained Egyptologist and co-author of The Name of the Dead, Tutankhamun Translated. He produced documentaries on the ancient Near East for CBC Radio, Ideas and founded Benben Books – a specialty bookstore on ancient Egypt. In 1988 he retired to Priceville to write short stories and poetry. His first book, Slipped Out (London, 2003: Pendas Productions), has been warmly welcomed and his second poetry collection, From One Child to Another was published in February, 2007. His work has also appeared in numerous poetry magazines and anthologies, such as Quills, The Canadian Poetry Magazine (Winter, 2003, and 2006) and The Poetry Tribe Review Anthology (Plymouth, Michigan, 2003) among others. Daniel is a member of the Highway 4 Writers (since 1995), Words Aloud Poetry Collective (Since 1999), The Ontario Poetry Society (Since 2003) and the League of Canadian Poets (Since 2007).

Click above to watch Daniel Kolos reading one of his poems.

Anne Duke Judd grew up in Muskoka District and lived in several waterside Ontario communities before moving to Bruce County in 1970. She began writing for pleasure as a teenager and has worked as a freelance writer and editor for many years.

You can find her poetry in diverse publications from “The Missing Line” anthology, (Inanna Publications, 2004), to “Brush Strokes” for Sheatre, to a calendar in support of Walker House Restoration, Kincardine. Her poem Leaving the Farm won first prize at Wingham Literary Day, (now Alice Munro Festival of Writing) the only year that contest accepted poetry. She has created a hand-bound chapbook called “The Pond Papers.”

A bookseller since 1976, Anne is the founder of The Brucedale Press, an active member of the local Writers’ BLOC, The Ontario Poetry Society and the poets performing as Words Aloud. She helped initiate the Queen’s Bush Book & Author Fair and Wild for the Arts festival.

Imported to Owen Sound from the suburban wasteland of Mississauga at a young age, Lauren Best has been singing since before she could talk. After starting to sing, she learned to talk, and talk she did. After a whirlwind of toddler-dom (including highlights such as singing "You Are My Sunshine" to a delighted bar crowd), she eased into elementary school.

She wrote her first song, entitled "Tick Tock Goes the Clock", about her difficulties with punctuality when starting a school-day morning. And the rest, as they say, is history. She made her big-stage Grey County debut with Salome Bey in 1997 at the Three-Fires Sacred Assembly. Many musical and creative influences, inspirations, and experiences later, she is poised to generate some musical heat before graduating from high school.

A driven songwriter, singer and keyboardist, Lauren is creatively engaged in performing, collaborating, and working on her debut album. She has recently appeared on stage with her Renegade Company at numerous venues including Summerfolk 07 and opening ceremonies of Owen Sound's 150th Homecoming, in addition to performing and recording with the First Rate People and recently joining the Big Love.

As a triple-threat performing artist she has worked with Sheatre, collaborating and appearing in TOM (A New Musical) and Far From The Heart. Lauren continues to perform in and produce acclaimed concerts, and is honoured be Owen Sound's Poet Laureate's Poet of the Month for June 2008. She is has worked in partnership with the Georgian Bay Folk Society and the Knox Acoustic Cafe as a host, performing artist, and producer as part of Young and Hungry Discoveries. Catch her the evening of July 13th as part of the Harbour Nights Concert Series.

Reading Melanie Knapp's poetry is like finding a lucky penny on your path. You pick up it and dream of wishes, hopes and prayers. Melanie's poems epitomize the saying that "poetry is the shortest distance between two hearts." Her poems are playful and serious, musical and lyrical, passionate and compassionate. Here's Melanie in her own words: "Poetry is one of many experiences that stretch people and help build mystical muscles. It's good for the spirit and soul! I'm glad the community of Owen Sound is embracing poetry."

"I developed artistically over years and years of writing word after word, leading to carefully walking step by step, along a creative path of healing and discovery. Finally, I find that my brown hair shines, while the dolphin earring I sometimes wear high on my right ear adds to the zest of a creative spirit who enjoys her funky hats. It is delightful that my fun-filled style is symbolic of an emerging poetic artist."

Melanie Knapp learned a lot about people from her schooling at the University of Waterloo where she studied Psychology. When she was younger she used her talents to direct Presqu'ile Rotary/YMCA Youth Camp. She recently had the rewarding experience of working with some elderly people at John Joseph Place. In the present she is Lead Volunteer for workshops with youth that promote positive Mental Health.

Melanie's background is partly Italian. She particularly loves a special occasion of Italian food. She can think up lots of reasons for such special occasions. Melanie spent some time volunteering in beautiful Costa Rica in her early twenties. When she found poetry she was in a bit of a difficult spot and the ongoing conversation of poetry was supportive company. She found voice and peace in the expression of poetry. She also loves many artistic forms and especially the universal language of music.

One of many aspects of being me involves being aware of the earth with respect and value.

It is my hope that people continue to create sensitive art around the health of the environment. I love observing this kind of art and I think it helps the earth and it's people."

Caroline Menzies was born in England and raised there for twelve years. After living in Michigan and various places in Ontario, she moved to Owen Sound in 1979. Married to retired teacher and cartoonist, Robert Menzies, their blended family includes six children, a grandchild, and several fur-balls.

Writing credits include: 50 or so articles for local arts and entertainment rags, two short stories, one with Brucedale Press, the other with Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine (Dec. 2007); and an unpublished novel. Her poetry has appeared in “Brush Strokes” (Ginger Press/Sheatre, 2007), and in a self-published chapbook, “Walking in Sky” (Dec. 2007). She manages the Owen Sound Artists’ Co-op, and also makes hand-bound journals.

Meaghan Strimas, Owen Sound bred poet, editor and novelist-in-the-works, definitely gives us something to shout about. Her poems are taut & tender, heavenly & boozy, refreshing & inventive. Not only does she have a strong poetic voice, but her work as editor of The Selected Gwendolyn MacEwen is a great accomplishment.

If you’re not familiar with MacEwen, who has been called the greatest poet of her generation, Strimas has provided us with a beautiful compilation of her work. When asked what she hoped the book would achieve, Meaghan replied: “that MacEwen’s work finds a bigger audience . . .” And I’d say the same for Strimas’s poetry.

Liz Zetlin was born in Norfolk, Virginia and immigrated to Canada in 1969. After working in Toronto as a waitress, community organizer and commodity futures broker, poetry appeared in her late forties, when she found herself writing in every room of the house.

Retired twice, first from the Toronto Public Library and then the Tom Thomson Art Gallery, Liz now devotes most of her time to promoting and writing poetry. As part of the National Random Acts of Poetry Week, she’s traveled thousands of kilometers, done hundreds of readings and given away boxes of poetry books to people all over Grey/Bruce.

Best known as a “nature poet with a twist,” Liz plants garlic to form words of prayer; inscribes words on ornamental gourds as catalysts for poems; grows punctuation marks in her hay field and writes odes to punctuation marks.” “Her poetry celebrates the human community, at once passionate and compassionate, a delight for eyes, ears and sensory appetite,” says Olive Senior, winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize.

Liz's publications include The Thing With Feathers (BuschekBooks, 2004), Taking Root (Seraphim Editions, 2001), Said the River (Penumbra Press, 1995); Connections (Always Press, 1994), and Ghost of Glenelg (Always Press, 1995), all collaborations with visual artists.

Her chapbook The Gourd Poems received the Canadian Poetry Association's Shaunt Basmajian Award. Her poem “Holy Days” received a Stephen Leacock award. Her video poems, The Limestone Ghazals, were exhibited at the Tom Thomson Art Gallery and in Newfoundland and Ireland, with the Limestone Barrens Project.

Liz is also a teacher, workshop leader, editor, arts advocate and co-artistic director of the Words Aloud Spoken Word & Storytelling Festival, which produces the annual Words Aloud Spoken Word Festival in Durham.

She is the mother of two sons, Ira Zingraff and Chiah Holman, and grandmother of Zoe and Keagan Holman. She lives in Traverston, near Markdale, with her husband Don Holman.

Marion Fields Wyllie was born October 26, 1906 near Collingwood, Ontario. Her autobiography, My Nine Lives, was published by the Ginger Press for her 100th birthday. It is, she says, "the story of my life so far." An award-winning author, Marion's observations on the past century are intriguing. She was there (age 3) when the first airplane flew over Toronto and she remembers when running water and electricity replaced outhouses and oil lamps. Besides writing, Marion has been a farmer, parent, Sunday school teacher, lay preacher, and news correspondent. Marion has also self-published five chapbooks and two haiku calendars, as well as a children's book and skits for amateur actors. For 20 years, she published the quarterly “Soft Voices” and was religious columnist for “50 Plus” for two years. Marion is the founder of the Grey-Bruce Writers' Club, which continues to meet and provide support for many local writers.

My name is Kristan Anderson. Kris being the one syllable version that most names get shortened to. I was born in Owen Sound 38 years ago and lived the first year and a bit of my life in Annan. My father was the minister of the church there and when we moved at the ripe old age of 18 months or so, I did not return to my "Motherland" until just last June. Kind of an interesting fact, returning to the land that gave birth to me and yet, not having much familiarity with it. My own nuclear version of a family now includes my partner Vickie. Four lovely (most of the time) children: Raewyn, Eilish, Hannah and Shea'mn. And my partner's mother Aida.

We have moved from North Vancouver Island to just south of Owen Sound; about half way between Owen Sound and Durham, near Desboro. We've always wanted to have a cozy country living and the kids are still young enough not to resent us for it. I've been interested in writing since I could hold one of those big red pencils and make some semblance of letters.

Of course, like many writers, I wanted to write the great Canadian novel. However, my ADD makes it difficult for me to focus on ideas long enough to sustain them for that long a stretch. Thus, poetry was my natural fallback. I've always loved theatre and acting as well, which is why I guess I went into teaching. I live for performance and live action. I enjoy the spontaneity of interacting with an audience or fellow thespians.

Being new to the community, I'm hoping to connect with the greater Owen Sound artistic community and join in with some collaborative projects, as well as share some of my own personal ideas. My goal for this year is to publish a compilation of some recent poetry and do as much performance bits as I can. Practically speaking though, I'm still in transition and am working to just familiarize and climatize myself to this place called "Home."

I am a poet and a medievalist and I have been both since I was in my early twenties. I am fifty now. When I was a child, my father read to me every night; we read Mark Twain and Dickens, Hawthorne and Melville. A most important thing for me was that we reread the Lord of the Rings every year, starting when I was about six. We read the whole thing every time; every boring speech, every ballad.

Tolkien was a medievalist, though I had no knowledge of this as a child hearing the story. Then, when I was an undergraduate I had to take a course in English Literary History, and we read some medieval lyrics. I remember reading the words “middle earth” in a Middle English poem (“middle earth” is a common term for this world – what lies under Heaven and above Hell – in Old and Middle English). And I suddenly thought: “So it’s all real!” I knew had found all the sources of Tolkien’s imaginative world. (Only it turned out, as so often happens, that the real history when I began to enter into it turned out more gripping and infinitely more strange than the fiction spun from it.)

I wound up at the University of Toronto some years later, in the PhD programme for Medieval Studies. On the way, I picked up a Creative Writing MA from Boston University. Long slippery slide to philology in that first experience, and I have never looked back. Both the academic writing and the poetry are so much a part of me I could not live without doing them – I can hardly imagine who I would be if I did not.

Don McKay has published numerous books of poetry including Birding, Or Desire (1983), Sanding Down This Rocking Chair on a Windy Night (1987), Night Field (1991), Apparatus (1997) and Another Gravity (2000). McKay has won two Governor General’s Awards for Poetry (in 1991 and 2000), a National Magazine Award in 1991, the Canadian Authors Association Literary Award for Poetry in 1983, was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award for Poetry (also in 1983) and was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2001 and 2005, winning in 2007. McKay also won the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize for Strike/Slip. Born in Owen Sound in 1942, McKay is known as a poet, an editor and creative writing teacher. He has taught at the University of Western Ontario, the University of New Brunswick, The Banff Centre, the Sage Hill Writing Experience, and the BC Festival of the Arts. He has served as editor and publisher of Brick Books, and from 1991 to 1996 he edited Fiddlehead magazine. He lives in St. Johns, Newfoundland.

Griffin Poetry Prize judges say this about McKay’s Strike/Slip: “In Strike/Slip, Don McKay walks us out to the uncertain ground between the known and unknown, between the names we have given things and things as they are. This is wonder’s territory, and from within it McKay considers a time ‘before mind or math’ before rock, in human hands, turned over in the mind, becomes stone. The poems confront the strangeness and inadequacy of using language to address the point at which language fails – the point where, ‘wild and incompetent, / you have no house’ – and suggest that in such an unsettled state we might truly pay attention.

In McKay’s work, attention is the foundation of a poetics and an ethics in which otherness is respected, indeed cherished, for its ability to unhouse. But Strike/Slip also speaks to the intimacy of our relationships with time. How, at once metaphysical, practical, and intuitive, the weight of it is thought, felt in the body, and discerned in the landscape as sediment and growth, rust and erosion. McKay’s meditations on time’s evidence acquire a similar heft, proposing, in their discipline of mind and generosity of spirit, a way to be at home in the world. A book of patience, courage, and quiet eloquence, Strike/Slip manifests, like quartz, ‘Some act of pure attention … simple, naked, perilously perfect’.”

I was born in the village of Brechin, Ontario and grew up in Barrie. I graduated from Ryerson University and my teaching degree is from Queen's. I have taught high school in Owen Sound for the last 20 years. My initial specialists were in English and Media; I've also taught World Religions, Creative Writing, and an interesting variety of alternative programs.

I began taking my writing more seriously at Ryerson. At Queen's I was in a program for writers and started publishing and editing there. There have been a few contests and awards here and there and writing workshops through the Humber School for Writers and The Ginger Press. Through my Creative Writing course at the OSCVI, I have been fortunate to participate in special writing projects at Sydenham Public School and Summit Place. I have written many course curricula and other materials for the classroom. Most recently, these include my newsletter about educational issues called Teachability and my work with MendEd. I've come to believe there is a book-length piece of writing in my future but my timidity (rarely evident, I know) prevents further discussion.

My birthplace was Hamilton, Ontario but I never lived there. I had a transient childhood due to my father’s Forestry career. North Bay, Kapuskasing and Sault Ste. Marie were the northern towns I grew up in. At age 15 I returned to Southern Ontario, but within four years I was roaming again, this time Europe.

On my return, I worked in a restaurant in a small Southern Ontario town to be able to return to Sheridan College. This is where I studied Commercial Art, Painting and Drawing and Ceramics.

Within four months of graduating I was fortunate to become a full-time instructor of clay at George Brown College, Toronto, where I stayed for ten years. I began exhibiting my visual work as a student and have continued for over thirty years. In 2008 an exhibit of my recent work is planned for the Burlington Art Centre Courtyard.

I left teaching in 1985 for a self-funded sabbatical on the sunshine coast of B.C. Although I have never stopped writing since I first began in my early teens, it was out west that I passionately embraced it again. When I returned to Ontario, I moved to Grey County to establish a permanent studio with my partner, ceramic artist Jim Louie.

I have been a member of the Words Aloud Collective since its inception, performing poetry whenever possible. A first chapbook (The Last Nine) was self-published in 2004 and Exile No More (my first book of poetry) was published by Ginger Press, Owen Sound, in 2006.

I have done everything over the years from tree planting, painting houses and fences retail, Learning Through the Arts teaching and presently working as a dyer of wool, so that I can get a little bit of time in my studio and at my typewriter.

I was born in Guelph, Ontario, but have spent all but two years of my life, kicking around Bruce and Grey Counties. For the past 18 months, approximately two nights a week I wield a sword; Kendo practice at the Dragons Den. I am a Grade 12 West Hill student and I hope to take zoology at college, somewhere, at some point.

While my mother, yes my mother is Francesca Dobbyn, focuses her energies on human suffering, homelessness, hunger etc, I intend to focus on the suffering, hungry and homeless animals of our community. Eventually I hope to work as a zoo keeper.

I have 5 cats at home, all of them rescues of one sort of another. A bearded dragon and an older brother complete the creatures at my house.

I spend time writing in online forums, creating imaginative stories, collaborating with others to move the stories forward. When I get frustrated, angry or enraged I find writing calms me down and allows me to express how I feel. I’m always surprised when people like my work, to me, I’m just fooling around with words.

Born in Chicago on Robbie Burns Day (January 25, 1933), Paul Douglas Scott acquired his Master's in Education (MEd) and taught in the U.S., Yap Island in Micronesia, and Grey County. Always active in the arts, Paul was the first administrator of the Grey Bruce Arts Council and helped start the Summerfolk Music and Craft Festival. He began writing poetry at age six. Here is the earliest poem he can remember from that time:

Now retired, Paul continues to be a prolific poet, condensing his many life experiences into thoughtful and accessible reflections which resonate with many readers. For the past several years, Paul has written and read a poem at the annual Writers' Wordshop at the Owen Sound Library. He has also had poems published in several local anthologies and Mosaic magazine. Paul continues to support many local writers groups and is always willing to help wherever he can. Paul and his wife Stella Keenan McPeak Scott live in Owen Sound. He is currently working on a book of his poems to be published next year.

Elizabeth's quirky short stories about the guerilla warfare called relationships have been published in prestigious literary magazines throughout Canada, the United States and Great Britain. Her poetry has won international awards, been featured in anthologies and performed in Toronto & Japan. Her non-fiction articles have appeared regularly in industry magazines and the Financial Post.

Described by Canadian Fiction as one of "today's best new & emerging writers" Elizabeth is a graduate of Carleton University and has a Postgraduate Certificate in Creative Writing from Humber College.

A highly creative marketing and public relations executive, Elizabeth had a successful career working in the fashion industry in Paris, for Sotheby's auction house in London, and in the securities market on Bay Street before moving to Grey County to operate a farm. Needless to say, she writes from an eclectic background, often bringing these varied experiences to her writing.

I was born in Barrie, Ontario, and lived in Bradford until I was four, when my family moved to Owen Sound. In the summer of 2007 I graduated from McGill University with a major in English, and last October I went to the Banff Centre to write under the mentorship of Halifax poet Don Domanski. I now work and write in Kingston, Ontario.