Two published poets are featured at Poetry in the Park New West Pride Night.
This week’s Poetry in the Park is on Wednesday, Aug. 16 at 6:30 p.m. in the Queen’s Park bandshell. It will feature poets David Ly and Jen Currin.
Currin's latest poetry collection Trinity Street, was recently released by House of Anansi.
“Jen’s Hider/Seeker: Stories won a Canadian Independent Book Award, was a finalist for a ReLit Award, and was named a 2018 Globe and Mail Best Book,” said a notice about the event. “A white settler of mixed, mostly Western European lineage, they live on unceded Qayqayt, Musqueam, Kwikwetlem, and Kwantlen territories in New Westminster, B.C. and teach writing at Kwantlen Polytechnic University.”
Ly, the poetry editor at This Magazine, is the author of Mythical Man (2020), which was shortlisted for the 2021 ReLit Poetry Award, and Dream of Me as Water (2022).
“He is also co-editor (with Daniel Zomparelli) of Queer Little Nightmares: An Anthology of Monstrous Fiction and Poetry (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2022),” said the notice. “David’s poems have appeared in publications such as Arc Poetry Magazine, Best Canadian Poetry, PRISM International, and The Ex-Puritan, where he won the inaugural Austin Clarke Prize in Literary Excellence.”
Catherine Lewis, a bisexual Chinese Canadian writer based in Vancouver, will host the event. Lewis’s debut chapbook Zipless (845 Press) is a finalist for two Bisexual Book Awards.
Poetry in the Park runs Wednesday nights in July and August from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Each event begins with an open mic followed by two featured poets.
Evelyn Lau and Jenny Boychuk are the featured poets at the Aug. 23 event, which will be hosted by Alan Hill, a past poet laureate for the City of New Westminster.
The summer finale, taking place on Wednesday, Aug. 30, features Joseph Dandurand and Chantal Gibson.
