Tuesday, April 14, 2020

Isabel Sobral Campos, Sommer Browning, Sonia Di Placido, Tunchai Redvers + Erin Emily Ann Vance : virtual reading series #14


a series of video recordings of contemporary poets reading from their work, prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent cancellations, shut-downs and isolations; a reading series you can enjoy in the safety of your own protected space,

Isabel Sobral Campos : “The advantage of rain to think in sequence”

Isabel Sobral Campos is the author of the poetry collection Your Person Doesn’t Belong to You (Vegetarian Alcoholic Press, 2018), and the chapbooks Material (No, Dear and Small Anchor Press, 2015), You Will Be Made of Stone (dancing girl press, 2018), and Autobiographical Ecology (above/ground press, 2019). Her poetry has appeared in the Boston Review, Brooklyn Rail, BAX 2018: Best American Experimental Writing and elsewhere. Chapbooks are forthcoming with Sutra Press and The Magnificent Field. She is the co-founder of the Sputnik & Fizzle publishing series.

Sommer Browning : “Great Things from the Department of Transportation”

Sommer Browning is the author of two books of poetry, Backup Singers and Either Way I'm Celebrating (both with Birds, LLC), The Circle Book, an artist book out with Cuneiform, a joke book, You're on My Period (Counterpath Press), and various other chapbooks and editions. She draws comics, tells jokes, and runs a non-commercial art space, GEORGIA, in her garage when its warm. She's a librarian in Denver.  

Sonia Di Placido : “Viral Awakening,” “Viral Weed,” “Fleshing”

Sonia Di Placido is a poet, writer, editor and a sessional instructor of English for Academic Purposes (EAP), ESL and LINC at College Boréal. She has facilitated both independent Creative Writing and Translation Workshops and with ESL students at George Brown College in Toronto. Her poems have been published in The White Wall Review, Jacket2, Canthius Magazine, The Puritan, Carousel, The California Journal of Women Writers, Minola Review, Juniper Poetry Magazine and The Temz Review. Sonia has published 3 chapbooks. She is currently completing her MFA in Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia. In September 2016, Sonia attended The China Writers' Association International Residency for the cities of Tianjin, Binhai, and Beijing as guest Poet. Poetry books Exaltation in Cadmium Red published by Guernica Editions in 2012 and Flesh, in Autumn 2018 by Guernica Editions. Reviews of Flesh can be found in The Temz Review and the Quill and Quire. Blog: diplacido.wordpress.com

Viral Awakening

every morning there is an unheard listening
an imperceptible limp in the chest—heaving
a heart beats its echolocation as if underneath earplugs
wrangled limbs retort from a serene blood flow
                                    alarming consciousness
Isolate, is that how we are meant to hear ourselves rising?
The hot breath will say, “I should have
listened more to the inner echoes at dawn” now yawn,
like an undead essence           stand apart
with the living.


Viral Weed

I am the most finite of particles
undetected by human eyes.
Having released my speedy exhaust
into novel form flowering forward
onto Earth’s global Spring, this species
blows out its breath, inhales vacuous for
an entrance or invitation? What’s left
of me is dead undead, a microbe floating
for the welcome and warm insides of a host.
Vestibules or veins, my pathogen portends
itself, proteins cling weightless—now
a living germ vanquishing at spores.
I have my own way of cheating
every body’s plague does.

Tunchai Redvers : “intergenerational trauma,” “two halves of one whole,” “untitled”

Tunchai Redvers is a Dene/Metis two-spirit social justice warrior, writer, and wanderer belonging to Deninu K’ue First Nation. Born and raised in Treaty 8 territory, Northwest Territories, she is now living in Toronto. With a Master of Indigenous Social work, she is the co-founder of We Matter, a national organization dedicated to Indigenous youth hope and life promotion. Recognized nationally and internationally for her work, her advocacy and writing centers the reclamation and indigenization of identity, mental health and healing. She published her debut book, Fireweed, in 2019 with Kegedonce Press at the young age of 25. Fireweed can purchased online at chapters.indigo.ca.

Erin Emily Ann Vance : “We Used Bleach,” “The Mouth of Lynnhaven,” “The Purported Last Words of Ruth Blay”

Erin Emily Ann Vance is the author of Advice for Taxidermists and Amateur Beekeepers (Stonehouse Publishing 2019) and five chapbooks of poetry. She holds a master's degree in English and creative writing from the University of Calgary and studies folklore at University College Dublin.

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