Readings and Public Appearances
Performances and Readings
2013
Feb 7
Featured poet at Livewords monthly Reading Series, Toronto.
Feb 12 – 26
Participant in the Radical Restoration Writing and Yoga Retreat in Hatillo, Costa Rica. Facilitated by Susan Lynn Reynolds, Deepam Wadds and Esana Lotfy.
April 7th
Hosted and moderated the Books and Brunch Series at the Wooden Sticks Golf Club. Sponsored by Blue Heron Books. Interviewed Colin McAdam about his award winning novel, A Beautiful Truth and Ania Szado about Studio St. Ex.
April 20
Facilitated a poetry workshop at The Spirit of the Hills monthly meeting
in Grafton, Ontario
month?
Interviewed on Stouffville radio about…
May 12
Co-Hosted (with radio personality Brenda Amelard)and performed at the “Scripts and Scores” fundraiser in support of The Whistle Radio Station and Stouffville Public Library. Poets aand musicians performed the entire afternoon.
May/June
Profiled in The Word Weaver Newsletter by Barb Hunt, President of the OWC.
June …..
Hosted the WCDR Summer Slam Qualifier evening at The Bear and Firkin bar in Pickering, Ontario.
June 22
Co-produced and hosted the “We all Love Kate Marshall Flaherty” party at the Children’s Peace Theatre, Toronto.
Aug 15
Read my poetry at The Words of the Season quarterly reading series at The Bear and Firkin bar in Pickering, Ontario
Oct. 29
Read at The Words of the Season quarterly reading series at The Bear and Firkin bar in Pickering, Ontario
2012
March 9th
Invited by Durham College to participate in a planning meeting about creating a creative writing prograsm similar to The Humber School for Writers
month??
Interviewed on Stouffville radio about…
March/April
Poem: Flashback featured on The Toronto Quarterly website – March ??
April 15
WCSC Presentation and workshop – April __?
April is National Poetry Month.So what is poetry? What makes it so unique and why does it scare so many people? Join James Dewar in a fun, interactive presentation on “that other kind of writing”. It’s harder than it looks and easier than you think.
May:
CAA Annual Conference in Orillia, Ontario
emceed several events
May 10 – 13th
CCWWP first conference at Humber College
Session 6 PANEL. Creative Writing Community and the Public Good
Chair: James Dewar
PAPER PRESENTED: James Dewar The Role of the Community Based Writing Organization
Other participants: Miranda Hill Reading Here: Building our National Literature with Project Bookmark Canada; and Thom Vernon Selling It: Creative Writing & the Pubic Good
August
Judged the Grimm’s Postcard Writing Contest
sponsored by The Stouffville Public Library
August 27
Facilitated the “Hook, Line and Sinker” Writing workshop for Purdue Pharma Corporation in Pickering, Ontario
A workshop I created to introduce employees to creative writing elements that will help them compose engaging, readable newsletter articles with the necessary corporate information embedded.
Oct 24 – 28
Algonkian Pitch Conference in Niagara Falls, Ontario
An intensive 3 day event where authors fine tune their pitches, guided by Michael Neff and Barbara Kyle, and then pitch them to agents and aquisition Editors from the big New York publishing houses. Terrifying and inspirationasl at the same time. I learned so much about the business.
2011
Feb. 11
Featured reader at the Livewords 3rd anniversary event “A Night of Hosts”
Feb.
One of the three judges of the Jessamy Stursberg Poetry Contest for Youth
sponsored by The League of Canadian Poets
MENTORED THE START OF THE WCSC and WCYR (w/Sue Reynolds) 2011?
May 28th
Getting Published
– full day workshop facilitated by Robyn Read
June
WCDR SUMMER SLAM preliminary round Host
Spring?
Sept.
Featured poet at The Beautiful and the Damned
Oct. 15th
Featured poet at Plasticine Poetry Series
2010
Feb. 28th
Featured poet at the Artbar Poetry Series
March 2nd:
Hosted a sgement of the Literacy in Durham 2nd Annual Coffee, Tea & Words Read-a-Thon
in support of adult literacy programs.
March 30th
GETTING PUBLISHED IN THE NEW MILLENIUM panel
Live broadcast videotaped by Avtel Media Communications
Hosted by Ted Barris. Panel: Ruth Walker, Dawn James, Erin ……….. and myself.
May 17
Hosted the “Wicked Words” prose anthology in Ajax, Ontario.
April 18th:
Poetry recording and performance on Ryerson Radio hosted by Brian Cauley
April 22nd:
Poetry in the schools presentation at All Saints High School, Whitby, Ontario
sponsored by The League of Canadian Poets
MAY 5th 2010
Full day writing workshop, co-presented with Penn Kemp
at Traill College, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario
Sponsored by the Peterborough Board of Education and Trent University
July:
WCDR SUMMER SLAM preliminary round Host
August 14th
Live reading on CBC Radio Cross Country Checkup with Rita Celli. Read “What I Lost” and discussed the topic “Geography and Home”
Sept. 25th
Produced and hosted the Outdoor poetry slam at the Uxbridge Ontario Arts Festival
FALL
Facilitated an Erotic writing workshop: “Writing with a slow hand: From Romance to Erotica and Beyond” (w/ Sue Reynolds)
at “Wordstock”, the annual writing symposium put on by the Ryerson University Journalism Program. Hightlight: Ian Brown’s keynote address.
Oct. 1
Poetry in the schools presentation at Markham, Ontario High School
sponsored by The League of Canadian Poets.
Oct. 12th to 17th
Participated in Wordfest, a writing Conference hosted by the University of Calgary and The Banff Centre. Culminated in the creation of the Canadian Creative Writers and Writing Programs (CCWWP).
Nov, 29th
Poetry in the schools presentation at Henry St. High School, Whitby, Ontario
sponsored by The League of Canadian Poets
2009
January
Featured article about me and Hot-Sauced Words in the Riverdale-East York Town Crier
January – Took Fred Ford’s “Discovering Your Writer’s Voice” workshop
Jan. 17
Attended the “Deepening Your Writing” workshop at Stoufville Public Library
presented by Charlene Jones and Kate Gilderdale
Jan. 17th
Creator, organizer and co-host of the Bye Bye Bush Bash, uniting the four major poetry reading hosts in Toronto for an evening of varied poetry styles and comedy in celebration of the end of the george Bush Presidency.
with David Silverberg, Edward Nixon and Yehuda Fisher
Feb. 26
SEB business panel: Thank you for taking part in the panels for the Group 28 Marketing & Sales Plan Presentations which will take place on Thursday, February 26th from 9:00-5:00.
April 3rd
Featured poet at Cryptic Chatter
May 29th
Produced and hosted the Ajax Festivalk of the Arts all day reading
May 28th
Appearance on Rogers TV Midday program interviewed with Sue reynolds about the
June 3rd
Appearance on Rogers TV Midday program interviewed with Stella Ducker, organizer of the Stellar Literary Festival
June 13 and 14
Stellar Literary Festival at Oshawa Valley Botanical Gardens and Parkwood Estate
Two Day literary Festival
co-emceed with Sue Reynolds
June 14th
Featured Poet at WordJam in Toronto
Sept 24th
Featured poet at Livewords with John. B. Lee and Elana Woolf
Oct. 5th to 11th
Random Acts of Poetry
w/Sandra Kasturi, Domenico Capilongo and others.
Oct 17
Featured Poet at The Reading Series in Owen Sound, Ontario
Sponsored by The League of Canadian Poets
FALL
Attended WRITESCAPE WRITING RETREAT: TURNING LEAVES, 2009
Elmhirst, Ontario
Nov 22
Hosted the “She Takes What She Needs”, by Annabelle Murray, booklaunch at Harlows in Uxbridge, Ontario.
2008
January 22
Featured reader at Plasticine Poetry Series, Toronto.
Feb 29 – March 1st
Attended the Doing it in Public writers’ Conference at Trent U in Peterborough, Ontario. Workshops with Alexis O’Hara, Derek Beauliru and Angela Rawlings.
Highlight: “Writing in Your Own Absence” with Christian Bok.
March
Finalist (with Sue Reynolds and Cameron Horack) in the annual Writing Fairy Humour Radio-Writing Contest
March
Featured reader at the Harm Reduction Conference in Ottawa, Ontario
July
Featured poet (3rd appearance) at the Art Bar Poetry Reading Series in Toronto, Ontario.
August 23rd
Event organizer and host of the summer Canada Cuba Literary Alliance Art and Lit-Fest in Brighton, Ontario.
Hosted the CCLA LIT Fest dinner reading featuring John. B. Lee, Ruth E. Walker and Allan Briesmaster
Sept 27
Attended the “Day in Applied Psychoanalysis” conference hosted by the University of Toronto. Highlights: presentation by former American Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky, and Canadian poet Ken Sherman.
Fall
Designer and Contest administrator of the WCDR Poetry Chapbook Challenge
Fall
Co-designer and administrator of Rock, Paper, Scissors the WCDR poetry contest for children and youth.
Oct 29
Cohosted (w/Sue Reynolds) The Wisdom of Old Souls” anthology booklaunch at the Whitby Library.
November 1 and 2
Attended the Writescape Writing Retreat at the Kempenfelt Conference Centre in Barrie, Ontario,
November 1
Won the stage vs page “Read-Off” Toronto Small Press Bookfair competition. Three page poets vs, three slam poets. Hosted by Cathy Petch and Myna Wallin.
December 7th
Featured reader at Rochdale Rhymes and Reasons reading series.
Dec 11th
I co-edited OPUS 3 and I hosted the book launch
Renaissance Conspiracy of Poets Anthology.
Dec. 16th
Sue and I reading at the Art Bar Dead Poet’s night. I read Ted Hughes; Sue read Antonio Machado.
Dec 20th
Emceed Bookland Press booklaunch evening:
Michael Fraser, The Serenity of Stone; and Marianne Paul, Dead Girl Diaries,
at 6:00 at The Supermarket, in Toronto.
December
Profiled in Surfacing magazine
Poems published Guys in Garages and Yuletide
2007
Feb.
Featured poet (2nd appearance) at the Art Bar Poetry Reading Series in Toronto, Ontario.
April
Featured reader at Coffee and Company in Kingston, Ontario.
May
Appearance on The Artist’s Lifestyle radio show, Hamilton radio (w/Sue Reynolds) hosted by Laura Hollick.
June
Invited to join The League of Canadian Poets
August 5th.
The First Annual Purdy Country Literary Festival 2007, in Marmora and Brighton, Ontario to celebrate People’s Poetry “Dog Days of August” Lit Fest Reading. Featured Readers: Allan Briesmaster, James Dewar, John B. Lee, Deborah Panko, Susan Lynn Reynolds and others
The Brighton Antiques Cafe
21 Meade Street, Brighton, Ontario
Aug. 12th
Vocable – A Creative Toolbox Workshop
– full day workshop facilitated by a.rawlings and Ciara Adams
Oct. 1 – 7th
One of 27 Canadian poets Invited to join Random Acts of Poetry, an annual international celebration of poetry
w/Kate Marshall Flaherty and others.
2006 and Earlier
SEVEN appearances since 2005 on Nik Beat’s “HOWL” radio show on CIUT 89.5 FM., the latest being on July 15th and September 23rd, 2008 and
Judge of the WCDR Dan Sullivan Memorial Poetry Contest 2005
Host of other poetry and spoken word readings and events since 2005
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2005
• Member of The Renaissance Conspiracy of Poets since 2004
• Poetry editor and publisher since 2004
May
Featured poet (1st appearance) at the Art Bar Poetry Reading Series in Toronto, Ontario.
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2006
March
Creator, Producer and host of Hot-Sauced Words Poetry and Spoken Word Performances series held monthly at the Black Swan Tavern in Toronto since 2006.
Hot-Sauced Words Poetry and Spoken Word Performances series also presented as a travelling forum to showcase local poets in Uxbridge, Durham College, Oshawa (5 times) and Brighton, Ontario.
May
Host and featured reader at the Toronto Artbar Tribute to Irving Layton
Judge of the WCDR Dan Sullivan Memorial Poetry Contest 2006
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