Billy Mills has posted a brief capsule review of my latest volume of criticism, The Unbearable Contact with Poets (Manchester: If P then Q, 2015) …
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over on twiiter at @erasingwarhol i’ve just posted page TWO HUNDRED of my “a a novel” in which i erase warhol’s 1968 novel leaving a landscape of punctuation & street noise
I write on the writers who have crafted calgary’s imagination for CBC News
As Calgary’s poet laureate, I tried to serve as an artistic ambassador for the city — presenting at events and producing literary work that reflects our city and its citizens both locally and internationally.
In my position, I had one task in mind: to honour and recognize the city’s rich literary history: our journalists, our novelists, our poets and playwrights.
The role of the poet laureate is to be reflective of, and responsive to, community. To dialogue, teach, teach, learn and listen — to provoke, initiate, inspire … and to remember.
My lovely partner Kristen Beaulieu teaches Seniors Yoga at Calgary’s Scandivanvian Centre and has an incredibly eager and excited group of students . Upon hearing that i have traveled on numerous occasions as Poet Laureate to the Nordic countries, they were excited to hear more about what I had encountered in those literary communities.
Last night i shared an hour with members of Calgary’s Scandinavian community discussing the role of the Poet Laureate, my interactions with Scandinavian communities and fielding some amazing questions …
damian lopes’s afterwords literature has just published a new leaflet of mine in celebration of National Poetry Month and the Mayor’s Poetry Challenge …
Brock University’s English MA program has just featured my work in their promotional material …
New from NO PRESS:
“Dishwashing Event PART ONE: TIANJIN, CHINA”
by Sacha Archer
Produced in alimited edition of 40 copies, 20 of which are available for sale for $4.50 each
(please email derek@housepress.ca to order)
From the author’s note:
The poems in Dishwashing Event were written by my washing of dishes (by hand). Or, a speech recognition program has written the poems by translating/ transforming the noise of my washing of dishes into words recorded in to a document in Microsoft Word. Each poem records one day’s bout of washing. Post-event, I returned to the texts and cut them into a verse form to add room for breathing and greater coherence in the reading, but otherwise they are exactly how they were first produced by the speech recognition program. At the time, I was living in Tianjin, China, and there was no dishwasher (but the hands of my wife and I) in our apartment. The following poems are experiments of extraction and/or transformation. I set up the procedure. The dishes were cleaned. Poetry in the kitchen (not cooked up, but sparkling).
Sacha Archer was born in Hamilton, Ontario in 1984. He earned his B.A. in English Literature in 2008 from Trent University. In his last year at Trent he won the 2008 P.K. Page Irwin Prize for his poetry. In 2010 he was chosen to participate in the Elise Partridge Mentor Program. His work has appeared in ditch poetry, Eunoia Review, 491 Magazine, filling Station and ACTA Victoriana.
Also now available from NO PRESS:
- lopes, damian. en vers un beau lieu: beaulieu inverse. Calgary: No press, March [i.e. April] 2016. 60 copies. $0.50 ea.
- Hunt, Ken. Antiverse Palindrome. Calgary: No press, March 2016. 50 copies. $0.50 ea.
- Clarke, George Eliott. The University of Timbuctu: Prospectus (1327). Calgary: No press, April 2016. 60 copies. $0.50 ea.
I discuss “The horror of being a novelist” in the nightmarish stairwell of Alberta College of Art + Design (click image for link): 
To celebrate National Poetry Month and UNESCO World Poetry Day, each year municipalities across Canada are challenged to bring poetry into politics. One mayor leads this annual challenge by inviting a poet to read at a council meeting in March or April, and challenges mayors and councils across the nation to follow suit and join the celebration. Initiated by Regina Mayor Pat Fiacco in 2012, the Mayor’s Poetry City Challenge celebrates poetry, writing, small presses and the contribution of poets and all writers to the rich cultural life in our country. Last year the torch was passed from Regina to Calgary, and Mayor Nenshi’s first challenge was a huge success. With over seventy participants, the 2015 challenge was our largest yet—but we hope for even more in 2016!
Calgary’s Poet Laureate derek beaulieu—in partnership with Barrie, Ontario’s Poet Laureate damian lopes have a friendly challenge to Poets Laureate across Canada!
We challenge Canada’s Poets Laureate—the celebrated poets across the nation—to reach out to each other and publish, in a small press edition, a poem by one another that can be distributed in your city’s council chambers.
Lopes and beaulieu challenge Canada’s Poets Laureate to request a poem from one of their fellow Poetry Challenge poets, design and publish a small edition and then graciously distribute that edition to members of their city council during National Poetry month and the Mayor’s Poetry Challenge.
With over 40 years of small press publishing combined, beaulieu and lopes believe that small press publishing is an easy and fun way of distributing poetry—anyone can do it! Any printed and folded page can enclose a poem in a thoughtful, simple means of slowing down the reader with a poetic moment.
These small editions will distribute the nation’s poems to city councilors and put poetry in people’s hands – weaving together the nation’s Poets Laureate into a tapestry of voices celebrated in city chambers across Canada!
March 5, 2016 – Panel Discussion: “What is the Role of the Public in Public Art?”
There is an increasing demand for the public to have a stronger voice in the selection and design of a public art project, particularly when it is publicly funded. This places an additional demand on the artist, which may or may not integrate well with his/her own artistic practice.
Please join our panel of arts and community experts as we explore the role of public participation in an arts practice. Panelists include:
- Councillor Gian-Carlo Carra
- Poet Laureate derek beaulieu
- Alberta College of Art + Design (ACAD) Instructor, Alana Bartol
- Independent arts administrator Ciara McKeown
The panel will be moderated by Sarah Iley, manager of Arts and Culture at The City of Calgary. Each panelist will provide a brief presentation followed by a series of questions posed to the panel.
Date: Saturday, March 5, 2016
Time: 1 – 4 p.m.
Location: Nickle Galleries, Gallery Hall, Taylor Family Library University of Calgary
Register: Email publicart@calgary.ca
derek beaulieu's blog 