SINGLE ONION #174
WHAT: The Single Onion presents four excellent poets: Alison Clarke, Marie Metaphor Specht, Laura Swart, and K. B. Thors.
WHEN: Thursday, April 15, 7:00 pm (MST)
WHERE: Register HERE
About the readers:
Alison Clarke is a poet and fantasy author who is also a creative writing and visual arts instructor. Alison has a Master’s degree in English focussing on Children’s literature from Hollins University. She also experiences life as a spoken word artist and is also an award winning visual artist. Alison is the 2021 Writer In Residence of the Alexandra Writers’ Centre in Calgary. She is also the author of Phillis: A Poetry Collection that has been published by the University of Calgary Press in October 2020. She is also the author of The Sisterhood, a young adult fantasy novel about Oppie, a sorceress’ daughter, and her best friend, Aurie, who is a dragon, and the journey they go on to save the universe. The Sisterhood is Book One of The Sisterhood Series, for which Alison won the award 2016 Writer of The Year by Diversity magazine. The second book in the series is Racine and the third is Circle which was released on November 27, 2018. Alison is also the recipient of the 2020 Fil Fraser Award for her contribution to the literary and visual arts. Alison believes that storytelling can change the world.
Marie Metaphor Specht is a multidisciplinary artist and educator living on the traditional territories of the Lək̓ʷəŋən speaking peoples, (Victoria, BC). The vocabulary of the sea, the chlorophyll dialects of the forest and the anchor of this soil are integral to her work. Marie’s poetry has been published in a number of anthologies and journals in print and online and she has collaborated with musicians, film-makers and lighting technicians to create elaborate and often interactive works. She has performed at a wide variety of venues ranging from literary festivals to interdisciplinary arts events to local poetry slams and has been coaching youth poets for nearly a decade. Marie’s work leads with compassion as she endeavors to create moments of intimacy, tapping into art’s unique ability to breed empathy and connection among diverse individuals and communities. She believes in reckless acts of beauty. She believes in the power of stories shared.
Laura Swart is passionate about writing and teaching. She has taught creative and critical writing classes for thirty years, encouraging students to find and raise their writing voices. She is a published novelist, poet, and playwright and director of I-AM ESL, an online language school that uses story and song to teach the intricacies of English to refugees. Laura’s degrees and research in education, philosophy, and theology have shaped her thinking, her teaching, and her writing.
K.B. Thors is a poet, translator, writer and educator born and raised on Treaty 6/7 land in what’s also known as Alberta. The author of Vulgar Mechanics (Coach House Books), Thors is the Icelandic-English translator of Kristín Svava Tómasdóttir’s Stormwarning (Phoneme), nominated for the 2019 PEN Literary Award for Poetry in Translation, and the Spanish-English translator of Soledad Marambio’s Chintungo: The Story of Someone Else (Ugly Duckling Presse). After earning an MFA at Columbia University in New York City, Thors was awarded Columbia’s Teaching Fellowship in Poetry, then went on to teach at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology, the Harvey Milk High School for LGBTQ Youth, and the University of Toronto. Currently at work on a collection of poems about fracking, water, and intergenerational mental health, Thors is also penning a historical tv series about gender fluidity on the frontier.
The Single Onion takes place the third Thursday of the month, nine times a year. Our event schedule can always be found at:
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We gratefully acknowledge the support of The Canada Council for the Arts, The League of Canadian Poets, and the Calgary Arts Development.
