Five poets discuss their craft

The poets will read from their work, and take questions from the audience.

“Five is a lot to handle, so they’ll have to behave themselves,” said Pomerance. “We want the poets to get along with each other, but we think they’re going to argue a little bit. We want a bit of sparring ... We want to talk about the contentious nature of poetry.”

The panel will consist of the following five poets:

Stephanie Bolster is the winner of the 1998 Governor General’s Award for Poetry, for her book 'White Stone: The Alice Poems'. The book also won the Gerald Lampert Award for the best first book of poetry by a Canadian poet. Her 1999 volume, 'Two Bowls of Milk', won the Archibald Lampman Award. Her most recent book, 2002’s 'Pavilion', has been praised for its starkness and subtlety.

Susan Gillis had her first book, 'Swimming Among the Ruins', published in 2000. Her second book, 'Volta', won the 2003 A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry. The book was named for the eighth line of a sonnet, which traditionally marks a shift in the subject of the poem, and featured a series of 16th-century sonnets by the Earl of Surrey rewritten by Gillis. Gillis has also published a chapbook of poems, 'Attar of Rose'.

David McGimpsey has written a book on baseball, 'Imagining Baseball: America’s Pastime and Popular Culture', and a book of short stories, 'Certifiable', as well as his four books of poetry. 'Lardcake', 'Dogboy', and 'Hamburger Valley, California' take satirical looks at North American culture, as does his latest, 'Sitcom', which was published late last year.

Carolyn Marie Souaid has written four volumes of poems, 'Swimming Into the Light', 'October', 'Snow Formations', and 'Satie’s Sad Piano', the last of which was nominated for the 2006 Pat Lowther Award. She also reviews poetry for the Gazette and has published a chapbook of poems, 'Flight'. In 2006, she co-wrote 'Blood is Blood', a poem for two voices that was performed on CBC Radio One.

Carmine Starnino’s first book of poems, 'The New World', was nominated for the A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry and the Gerald Lampert Award. 'Credo', his second book, won the 2001 David McKeen Award for Poetry and the 2001 Canadian Authors Associate Prize for Poetry. In 2004, he published his third volume of poetry, 'With English Subtitles', as well as a book of essays on Canadian poetry, 'A Lover’s Quarrel'.

“That’s a lot of poets, and only one of me!” joked Pomerance. “They will do a lot of reading. We’ll weave the readings through the conversations ... we want to have fun with this.”

Also on April 9, poet Ann Lloyd will conduct a poetry workshop at 2 p.m. in the library. Participants will get to write their own short poem during the playful session. Participants are asked to register beforehand at the circulation desk.

• Shelley Pomerance will host the poetry panel at 7 p.m. in the Westmount Room of the Westmount Public Library, 4574 Sherbrooke St. W. For more information, call 514-989-5386.