O'Connor: the travelling poet photo: Aaron McKenzie Fraser

On September 11, the Mercury Lounge will be hosting the Toronto Word Exchange, an evening of poetry readings and workshops.

The Word Exchange is the brainchild of Ottawa poet, Wanda O'Connor: "I traveled to Toronto last fall to seek out fresh poetic presence and discovered another world of poets existing and creating. I had this idea to pluck a bunch of out-of-town poet talent and convince them to trip the light fantastic to Ottawa."

Prior to the readings two workshops will be offered. Toronto's Stuart Ross will teach the poetry session ("a quick-paced, lively workshop that explores exciting, unusual ways of creating poems," says the description) while Ottawa's Mark Frutkin will man the prose workshop ("a short introduction to writing from detail to detail, using words sparked by the senses, to create text that can be heard, seen and felt.")

Following the workshops, five poets from each city will give readings. Ottawa poets include O'Connor, Frutkin, Matt Peake, Melanie Noll, and Peter Norman. Representing Toronto are Ross, Myan Wallin, Kevin Fortnum, Zayla Weedz and Valentino Assenza.

"It can sometimes happen that small communities of writers and artists tend to lean towards the insular when cumulating in poetic circles," O'Connor said. "I'd like this event to be a stab at widening the gates of those exchanging ideas, expanding poetic community, and growing one's craft through workshop."

TORONTO WORD EXCHANGE

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11

WORKSHOPS: 6 TO 7:30 P.M., $30 EACH

READING: 8 P.M., $8

MERCURY LOUNGE

Visit www.ncf.ca/~ew702/TorontoWordExchange/workshops.html for information on how to register for the workshops.

 
 

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