Banff Centre – Literary Journalism Deadline

This two-week residency encourages the exploration of new ideas in journalism and experimentation in writing. Designed to challenge and stimulate, the program aims to inspire creative pieces of nonfiction and to assist the writers in their completion. A preeminent space for long-form journalism, this residency emphasizes the strengths of thorough and articulate reporting, distinctive storytelling, and literary devices. Work created in this program has been published in many outlets including The Globe and Mail, The Walrus, and The Atlantic, and pieces have gone on to win National Magazine and National Newspaper Awards.

What does the program offer?

This 13-day residency provides mentorship from faculty members and one-on-one workshopping. Instructors will discuss ideas, experiences, and obstacles that participants may be encountering with their literary journalism. Writers will have time to work on their manuscripts, receive individual consultations with faculty, and participate in group discussions.

Successful applicants will receive 100% scholarship to cover tuition, on-site accommodation, and on-site meals.

Billy-Ray Belcourt delivers the 2022 Shirley Greenberg Annual Lecture in Women’s Studies

Acclaimed writer and academic Billy-Ray Belcourt will deliver the annual Shirley Greenberg Lecture hosted by the Institute of Feminist and Gender Studies at the University of Ottawa. Dr. Belcourt’s talk is titled: What is an Anti-Colonial Notion of Literature?

Register here.

Billy-Ray Belcourt is from the Driftpile Cree Nation in northwest Alberta. He lives in Vancouver, where he is an Assistant Professor of Indigenous Creative Writing in the School of Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia. His books are This Wound is a World, winner of the 2018 Griffin Poetry Prize, NDN Coping Mechanisms, longlisted for Canada Reads, and A History of My Brief Body, winner of the 2021 Hubert Evans Prize for Non-Fiction and finalist for the 2021 Governor General’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction. His novel, A Minor Chorus, will be published in September 2022.

Dr. Tricia McGuire Adams (from Bingwi Neyaashi Anishinaabek), Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Ganandawisiwin/Good Health Sovereignties at the University of Ottawa, will introduce Dr. Belcourt.

The event will feature ASL (American Sign Language) and live, translated captioning from English to French.

She, The Rock (Poetry + Panel Discussion)

She, the Rock is a braided poetic event followed by a panel discussion, showcasing the voices of Rayanne Haines, Dwennimmen, Emily Riddle and Dawn Carter, four of Edmonton’s celebrated poets and storytellers. Happening March 7 at the ATB Financial Arts Barns in Edmonton, Alberta.

Hosted by acclaimed author, Jacqueline Baker, She, the Rock is the highly anticipated follow up to She, the River, a 2020 film featuring eight powerhouse Edmonton poets of varying ages and cultural backgrounds. She, the Rock, explores the poets’ upbringing, truths, and family journeys. Together, they share with us the embodiment of their personal stories as they intertwine in this city. By interweaving their journeys together in story on the stage, they invite you to embrace and celebrate the collection of their diverse histories and present realities.

C.U.E.: Readings from Asian, Black, and Indigenous Writers

Let us enrich and encourage each other with an afternoon of poetry reading from Asian, Black, and Indigenous communities in Edmonton. The writers are: Shima Robinson, Sandra Ngo, Naomi McIlwraith, Mubarik Adams, Mila Philipzig, Kehrl Reyes, Lisa Dublin, Daniel Poitras, Carley Lizotte, and Candice Joy Oliva. Music from Marianela Adasme. The venue follows vaccination protocols for indoor events.

Happening at the CoLab Community {Arts} Laboratory in Edmonton

Writers for Ukraine (Lyric Theatre)

Standing in solidarity with our peers in Ukraine, local Northern Irish writers are coming together to read excerpts from contemporary Ukrainian works.

Organised and hosted by Jan Carson, the night will include:

Glenn Patterson reads Oksana Zabuzhko (novelist and short story writer)

Dara McAnulty reads Myroslav Laiuk (poet)

Anna Burns reads Olena Stiazhkina (novelist)

Leontia Flynn reads Oksana Lutsushna (poet)

Jan Carson reads Haska Shyyan (novelist)

Stephen Sexton reads Ilya Kaminsky (poet)

Kabosh direct a short extract by Natalya Vorozhbit (playwright and filmmaker)

All proceeds from the evening will go to the Red Cross Ukraine appeal. The venue, staff, performers, promotional materials, photography and streaming facility have all been donated through people’s time and generosity.

When purchasing a ticket donations begin at £12. You can buy a donation ticket at £12, £25 or £50 and also top up the donation in the basket.

If you can’t attend the show in person, click here to purchase a ticket to the livestream.

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Mine, Yours

Ani Gjika, translated from the Albanian written by Luljeta Lleshanaku

copyright ©2018



One of the few things my mother saved was a doll.
It was the same height as my six-year-old self,
with the same grey-coloured eyes, brown hair,
the same fear of the dark
and drawn to it.
‘Don’t touch her!’ I was told.
‘I have nothing else to sell if we go broke!’
Until the day I secretly stole her
and broke her heel by accident.
It was worth nothing now. No capital.
And then it became mine.

I met you one day in May—
pure blue sky with sparse white clouds on the horizon
and nothing more, as if tiny drawings in a biscuit box
made to look tasty to angels and not humans.
What could I do to own such a day
except give it a hard kick in the heel?

For Achilles, the heel would be meaningless
if he hadn’t had to choose between glory and a happy life.
Happiness is anonymous, a face without features.
it belongs to no one. But glory, yes. Even to this day
he drags it behind him – his one and only divine defect.

And the motherland? If there weren’t a cracked pane
of glass between us, and ethereal wound, an undeniable
physical reality no matter the side that bleeds,
I would doubt such a place even exists.

We do everything we can to own life –
‘my life,’ ‘your life’ –
when in fact, the opposite happens.
Life needs more than a heel to fasten you to itself;
it hits you hard on the neck
and spits you into two, with no time for wonder.
So one day, you find yourself
exhibited in two separate museums at once.

At this very moment, I cannot be sure
which part of me is speaking to you
and which part the guide’s
commenting on and pointing to.

Notes on the Poem

Our Poem of the Week is from the 2019 Griffin Poetry Prize shortlisted collection, Negative Space by Ani Gjika, translated from the Albanian written by Luljeta Lleshanaku.

Of the collection, the judges said, “Luljeta Lleshanaku’s Negative Space offers a rare glimpse into contemporary Albanian poetry. Effortlessly and with crisp precision, Ani Gjika, herself a poet, has rendered into English, not only the poems in Negative Space, but also the eerie ambience which resonates throughout the book, the deep sense of impermanence that is one of the many consequences of growing up under severe political oppression...”

Listen to translator Ani Gjika and Luljeta Lleshanaku read from Negative Space here. 

Don’t miss Ani Gjika in Translation Talks with Dunya Mikhail on Thursday March 10. Register here.

Translation Talks is the Griffin Poetry Prize’s new series of conversations about translation and poetry where shortlisted and winning authors are invited to discuss their craft in company of other poets and translators.

Words out Loud

Mark Fishbein and Nancy Pagh read from their poetry. Includes a literary trivia quiz and a brief open mic.

About this event

Mark Fishbein and Nancy Pagh read from their poetry. Includes a literary trivia quiz and a brief open mic.

A native New Yorker, Mark Fishbein graduated CCNY in 1971, followed by a maîtrise from the Sorbonne in Paris. He has published in several magazines and has six collections of poetry available, including Reflections in the Time of Trumpius Maximus, a four-year poetic journal (Atmosphere Press, 2021). He is Chancellor of the Poetry Academy of the Global Poetry Network, a virtual international poetry hub for news and events. Currently living in Michigan, he was a resident of Washington, DC for 12 years, where he hosted two writers’ workshops,  Poets on the Fringe and DC Poets which now continue weekly on Zoom. He is also a classical guitarist.

Nancy Pagh burst onto the literary scene as a teenager, publishing Is a Clam Clammy, Or Is It Just Wet? in a local boating magazine.  Tim Seibles selected her first volume No Sweeter Fat for the Autumn House Poetry Prize.  She has authored three collections of poems and the creative writing textbook, Write Moves from Broadview Press.  She has been the D. H. Lawrence Fellow at the Taos Summer Writers Conference and received an Artist Trust Fellowship.  She teaches creative writing at Western Washington University in Bellingham.

The Voiceful Eight – An Evening of Literature and Music

As the pandemic seems to be on the wane, we escape our digital exile to return to in-person events with a celebration of Romanian-American women authors who have  been the focus of one of our most successful online programs, set up in partnership with Bucharest Inside the Beltway. Come and meet some of the female writers who have appeared in the “Romanian Women Voices in North America” series for an evening of readings, conversations, music and pure joy after months of isolation and boredom. Featuring Raluca Albu, Cristina A. Bejan, Clara Burghelea, Adina Dabija, Mihaela Moscaliuc, Claudia Serea, and Adela Sinclair. With a live performance by fusion pianist Mischa Blanos.

Voices of Ukraine: Readings in support of Ukraine

As Ukraine faces a fight the likes of which it hasn’t seen since WWII, writers across the US joined by their Ukrainian colleagues will read in solidarity with all Ukrainian people. Paul Auster, Siri Hustvedt, Jennifer Haigh, Richard Ford, Ha Jin, Carolyn Forche and others will be accompanied by Ukrainian authors including Serhiy Zhadan, Victoria Amelina, Halyna Kruk, and Ostap Slyvynsky. Julia Fiedorczuk will join from Poland. The reading is organized in cooperation with Askold Melnyczuk, Jennifer Haigh, and Oksana Lutsyshyna. The event will last for 2 hours and will be conducted via zoom. Please register by following the link below.