On our first show for Poetry Month this year, we interview poet, Kate Rogers. Kate’s poetry collection, The Meaning of Leaving, launches in Toronto on April 20th. Homeless City, a chapbook co-authored with Donna Langevin, debuted in the first week of January 2024. Kate recently won first place in the subTerrain magazine 2023 Lush Triumphant Contest for her suite of poems, “My Mother’s House.” Her poetry also recently appeared in Where Else? An International Hong Kong Poetry Anthology. She has been published in such notable journals as World Literature Today; Cha: An Asian Literary Journal and The Windsor Review. She is a Co-Director of Art Bar, Toronto’s oldest poetry reading series. More at: katerogers.ca
poetry month
James Pickersgill
We interview James Pickersgill this week. If asked, “When did you most recently compose a poem?” James will likely be able to say, “A few hours ago” or “Earlier today, I was continuing to work on a current one.”
Any poem James writes will very often be a love poem for his wife, who consistently refuses to be identified as “his muse” and rightly so.
James has been a happy-warrior type of poetry activist in our lively Cobourg Arts scene for many years, including service as a member of the various selection Committees appointed by Town Council to discern who should be our 2nd, 3rd and 4th Poets Laureate. James is the coordinator of the Third Thursday Readings and the Cobourg Poetry Workshop.
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Kate Rogers
Kate Rogers describes herself as a transnational poet. Her poetry has appeared in literary journals and anthologies based in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Canada, the U.S. and U.K. During her more than two decades in Asia, Kate was inspired to write about the impact of colonialism and the destruction of the natural environment. Kate’s collection, Out of Place expresses her life in the liminal zone between countries, cultures and identities. Kate repatriated to Canada in December 2019 after spending one third of her life in Asia. The poems in Out of Place evoke for the reader the experience of being of a place, yet never belonging; they explore longing and transformation. Kate Rogers’ next poetry collection, The Meaning of Leaving, is forthcoming with Montreal-based publisher, Ace of Swords (AOS), in early 2024. Her poems recently appeared in SubTerrain, The Windsor Review and Looking Back at Hong Kong.
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Antony di Nardo
Our celebration of Poetry Month continues with a conversation and reading from Antony di Nardo which we made last year. Antony has written six books of poetry. His work appears widely in journals and anthologies across Canada and internationally, and has been translated into several languages. His long poem suite May June July was winner of the Gwendolyn MacEwen Poetry Prize for 2017 and was short-listed for a National Magazine Award. He spent the last years of a teaching career in Beirut where he launched his first book of poetry Alien, Correspondent in 2010. His collection Forget – Sadness – Grass was recently released by Ronsdale Press. The winner of the inaugural Don Gutteridge Poetry Award, Through Yonder Window Breaks is published by Wet Ink Books.
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Frances Boyle
Meet Frances Boyle, who recently read in The Third Thursday’s Reading series in Cobourg. Frances is the author of Openwork and Limestone (Frontenac House, 2022). Her earlier books are the poetry collections This White Nest (Quattro Books, 2019) and Light-carved Passages (BuschekBooks 2014), Seeking Shade (The Porcupine’s Quill, 2020) an award-winning short story collection, and Tower, (Fish Gotta Swim Editions, 2019), a novella. Frances’s writing has appeared throughout North America and internationally. Raised in Regina, she has long made Ottawa home, with involvement in the literary community including serving on the board of Arc Poetry Magazine for more than 10 years, volunteering with literary festivals and leading workshops.
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Felicity Sidnell Reid
This week, we talk with Word on the Hills’ co-producer and co-host, Felicity Sidnell Reid. After graduating from the University of London, Felicity arrived in Canada to spend seven years in New Brunswick. Then she moved to Ontario. Felicity has taught children from Grade 5 to university students and adults, in Canada, England and Thailand. She is the author of educational materials, including a book for teachers, ESL is Everybody’s Business (with Frances Parkin) and a series of textbooks for language learners. Her books include a novel Alone: A Winter in the Woods (Hidden Brook Press, 2015, e-book in 2020) and two poetry collections The Yellow Magnolia (Glentula Press, 2021) and The Many Faces (Aeolus House, 2022). Her poetry and short fiction have been published in anthologies, online journals and collections. She is a member of The Writers’ Union of Canada and the League of Canadian Poets and was a Board Member of Spirit of the Hills Arts Association for two four year terms. She also chaired the Spirit of the Hills Writers’ Group for many years retiring in January 2023. In 2017 and 2019 she led the executive committees of Spirit of the Hill’s Arts Festivals and was recognised with a Distinguished Civic Award from the Town of Cobourg. She is a director and secretary of the rebranded Northumberland Festival of the Arts and headed the programme committee in 2022.
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Kate Rogers
Kate Rogers’ poetry recently appeared in the “Neighbours” issue of SubTerrain and the following anthologies: Looking Back at Hong Kong (CUHK Press), The Beauty of Being Elsewhere and Dove Tails: Letters from the Self to the World, the 10th Anniversary Writing for Peace Anthology, among other publications. Kate’s essay “The Accident,” appeared in the Spring 2021 Windsor Review. Kate’s reviews have been published in many journals, including; Arc Poetry Magazine, Verse Afire, and in Prism International. Kate volunteers for the League of Canadian Poets and Art Bar, Toronto’s longest running poetry reading series. Her most recent poetry collection is Out of Place, published by Aeolus House/Quattro Books, Toronto, in 2017. Kate re-patriated to Canada in late 2019 after teaching in Hong Kong for two decades.
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Jessica Outram
Our celebration of Poetry Month 2022 begins with interviews with and readings by Jessica Outram, Cobourg’s 4th Poet Laureate. She is a Métis writer and educator with roots in the Georgian Bay Métis Community. She currently works as Principal of Indigenous Education, supporting all schools K-12 in Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board. As Poet Laureate, Jessica curates a weekly email series, Poetry Present. Since July 2021, she has also featured a local poet in “Cobourg Now” by sharing one of their poems and writing an accompanying letter in Letter to a Poet. In 2021, Jessica shared monthly prompts and collected poems in an evolving eChapbook, Cobourg Present, that grew in to a 120 pages of poetry featuring 37 poets. Jessica also has a strong presence as a blogger at Sunshine in a Jar and on other social media where she posts among other offerings her engaging photographs taken on her Poetry Walks
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Poets inspired by spring
This week we air our final episode dedicated to celebrating Poetry Month 2021. Join us to hear eleven local poets, Carol Ann Judd, Gwynn Scheltema, Kim Aubrey, Wally Keeler, Antony Di Nardo, Jessica Outram, Kathryn Macdonald, Chris Cameron, Katie Hoogedam, Christopher Black and Felicity Sidnell Reid read their poems inspired by spring.
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Word on the Hills Radio Program 