S1: iteration four
S1: ​iteration four

wednesday, february 17, 2021
​7:30pm EST​ • via Zoom

iteration four is guest curated by Helen Robertson

Possible witch, definite bitch, and full time disaster Helen Robertson is a genderqueer trans woman moving through the lifelong process of accepting how lucky she’s been; using poetry to excise their ire and sorrow — hopefully turning it into something worthwhile. Her work has appeared in CV2, The New Quarterly, The Fiddlehead, The Puritan, and other Canadian publications. They are a reader for Bywords.ca, Secretary for Tree Reading Series, and a member of VII. They were longlisted for the 2019 Vallum Award for Poetry.

featuring
Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch
Ashley Hynd
Ben Ladouceur
& Arianna Verbree

ELI TAREQ EL BECHELANY-LYNCH

Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch is a queer Arab poet living in Tio’tia:ke, unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory. Their work has appeared in The Best Canadian Poetry 2018 anthology, GUTS, carte blanche, the Shade Journal, The New Quarterly, Arc Poetry Magazine, and elsewhere. They were longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize in 2019. You can find them on Instagram and Twitter: @theonlyelitareq.

​Their book, knot body, was published by Metatron Press (September 2020) and their upcoming book, The Good Arabs, will be published by Metonymy Press in 2021.

ASHLEY HYND

Ashley Hynd is a poet with mixed ancestry who lives on the Haldimand Tract and respects all her relations’ relationships with the land. She was consecutively longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize (2018 & 2019), shortlisted for Arc Magazine's Poem of the Year (2018), and won the Pacific Spirit Poetry Prize (2017). Her work has appeared in several publications including ARC, Room, PRISM, Grain, TNQ, Malahat, Best Small Fictions 2019 (Sonder Press), Changing the Face of Canadian Literature (Guernica Editions) and Best Canadian Poetry 2020 (Biblioasis). Her debut chapbook Entropy is available with GapRiot Press.
​
Founder and facilitator of Poets & Pancakes, a monthly brunch for writers run from her home, Ashley believes in building and fostering community. She sits on the editorial board for both Canthius Literary Journal & Textile KW. Her hobbies Include trampling the patriarchy, avoiding doing the dishes and getting lost in conversations. Follow her on Twitter: @ashley_hynd

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BEN LADOUCEUR

Ben Ladouceur is an author. His second collection of poetry, Mad Long Emotion, was selected as a CBC 2019 Book of the Year and awarded the Archibald Lampman Prize. His first collection, Otter, was selected as a best book of 2015 by the National Post, nominated for a Lambda Literary Award, and awarded the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award for best debut collection in Canada. In 2018, he received the Writers’ Trust Dayne Ogilvie Prize for emerging LGBT writers; in 2019, he was awarded the 2019 National Magazine Award for Poetry, and his short fiction was featured in the Journey Prize Anthology and awarded the Thomas Morton Prize. He lives on the unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabe Nation (Ottawa).

ARIANNA VERBREE

Arianna Verbree is a fiction writer, poet, and musician living on unceded Anishnaabe territory in Ottawa, Ontario. Her poetry has recently been featured in the zine, Kill Your Lawn Vol.1 published by Late Bloomer Press. As a musician, Arianna is most prominent as the bassist and music director for Cabaret Live!, a live music variety show. She also plays in various regional orchestras as a session musician.

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OPEN MIC

FIVE SLOTS
TWO MINUTES EACH

S1: iteration three
​S1: iteration three

wednesday, november 18, 2020
​7:30pm EST​ • via Zoom

iteration three features the edgy literary performances of
​Boston-based Lillian-Yvonne Bertram & Toronto-based Stedmond Pardy
with live music from Ottawa-based musical duo Unsociably High

LILLIAN-YVONNE BERTRAM

Lillian-Yvonne Bertram is the author of several books, most recently Travesty Generator, a book of primarily computationally generated poetry that received the Noemi Press Poetry Prize, the 2020 Poetry Society of America Anna Rabinowitz Prize for venturesome work, and was longlisted for the 2020 National Book Award. Previous books include How Narrow My Escapes, Personal Science, a slice from the cake made of air, But a Storm is Blowing From Paradise, and the artist book Grand Dessein. Bertram attends faculty meetings for a living, while directing the MFA in Creative Writing at UMass Boston. Find them at lillianyvonnebertram.com and on IG: @lillianyvonnebertram

STEDMOND PARDY

Stedmond Pardy is a self educated, left handed poet
from Toronto. His first full length book
the pleasures of this planet aren't enough will
be released by Mosaic Press soon. A sample of his work can be found on YouTube at Stedmond Pardy "For You"

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UNSOCIABLY HIGH

Unsociably High is a Canadian duo from Ottawa, Ontario. Their sounds of smooth soul will take you from laying in the grass on a sunny day to sitting alone in a dark room contemplating life. Seasoned with sparkling vocals, funk progressions, and loop stations, Unsociably High presents a new wave of melodies that reduce the speed of heart beats.  They have performed in a variety of bars, cafes, and music venues in Ottawa, such as Art House Cafe, Avant-Garde Bar, and Live on Elgin. In February 2020, Unsociably High performed nude for a sold out life and death drawing anniversary at Arlington Five Cafe.

​Unsociably High is set to release a full production album on March 5th, 2021 which will be available on iTunes and Spotify. 

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OPEN MIC

FIVE SLOTS
TWO MINUTES EACH

S1: iteration two
​S1: iteration two

wednesday, august 19, 2020
​7:30pm EST​ • via Zoom

iteration two features a live writing competition between Nathan, IAN & Set.
Tune in on Wednesday, August 19 to find out which prompt takes the cake!

NATHAN ADLER

Nathan Adler is the author of Wrist, an Indigenous monster story written from the monster's perspective (Kegedonce Press), and co-editor of Bawaajigan ~ Stories of Power, a dream-themed anthology of Indigenous writers (Exile Editions). He is also an artist and filmmaker who works in a variety of mediums including audio & video, and drawing & painting. Nathan is a first-place winner of the Aboriginal Writing Challenge and recipient of a Hnatyshyn REVEAL Award for Literature. He has a BA in English Literature & Native Studies (Trent University), a BFA in Integrated Media (OCAD), and an MFA in Creative Writing (UBC). His writing is published in Redwire, Canada’s History, Shtetl, Kimiwan, Shameless, Prairie Fire, CV2, and Event Magazine, as well as various blogs, and anthologies: The Playground of Lost Toys, Those Who Make Us ~ Canadian Creature Myth and Monster Stories, Love Beyond Body Space and Time, and Love After the End ~ Two-Spirit Utopias & Dystopias (Exile Editions, Bedside Press, Arsenal Pulp Press). He is Anishinaabe and Jewish, and a member of Lac Des Mille Lacs First Nation.

IAN MARTIN

IAN MARTIN is a lost cause living and writing in Ottawa. IAN's work has appeared recently in Cypress: A Poetry Journal, The Wild Literary Magazine, SURFACES.cx, release any words stuck inside of you II, paintbucket.page, small poems 🍓, the DUSIE blog, G U E S T, and BAD DOG. IAN has published four chapbooks, most recently ​I DON'T TRUST SKINNY PEOPLE (Ghost House Press, 2020) YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO KEEP THIS UP FOREVER (AngelHousePress, 2018) and PLACES TO HIDE (Coven Editions, 2018). When not writing, IAN makes small video games and complains online. [ www.ian-martin.net ]

SET L. SHUTER

Set L. Shuter is a writer, filmmaker, and storyteller from Toronto. Her first solo show, Hysterical Woman! was cancelled due to COVID-19, but will be at Fundy Fringe and Halifax Fringe in 2021. Set is currently writing a medical memoir (also titled Hysterical Woman!) while enrolled in The University of King's College's MFA in Creative Nonfiction program. When she isn’t on stage or working, you can find Set watching a horror movie in the dark, or in Nova Scotia writing her days away by the ocean. 

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MELODY MCKIVER

An Anishinaabe violist and composer, Melody McKiver is “changing the way we think about the viola” (CBC). Praised for their “unique and captivating world of sound” (Exclaim!), Melody is a compelling solo performer based in Sioux Lookout (Northwestern Ontario) within their homelands of Obishikokaang Lac Seul First Nation. Their work integrates electronics with Western classical music to shape a new genre of Anishinaabe compositions. Their debut EP “Reckoning” was nominated for an Indigenous Music Award, and they were a participant in the Banff Centre for the Arts’ inaugural Indigenous Classical Music Gathering. Melody was a finalist for the inaugural Johanna Metcalfe Performing Arts Prize and is nominated for the 2020 Ontario Arts Council Indigenous Arts Award. Most recently, Melody was invited to the Berlinale Talents Sound Studio as a music and composition mentor for the 2020 Berlin International Film Festival. 

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OPEN MIC

FIVE SLOTS
TWO MINUTES EACH

Prize pack courtesy of:

S1: iteration one
S1: iteration one

wednesday, may 20, 2020
​7:30pm EST​ • ​4:30pm PST​​ • ​via Zoom

CONYER CLAYTON

Conyer Clayton is an Ottawa-based artist and gymnastics coach, originally from Louisville, Kentucky. She has 6 chapbooks; most recently Trust Only the Beasts in the Water (above/ground press, 2019). In 2018, she released a collaborative album with Nathanael Larochette, If the river stood still. She is the winner of Arc's 2017 Diana Brebner Prize and The Capilano Review's 2019 Robin Blaser Poetry Contest, and writes reviews for Canthius. Her debut full-length collection of poetry, We Shed Our Skin Like Dynamite (Guernica Editions), is forthcoming May 2020.

EMILY KELLOGG

Emily Kellogg is a writer, editor, cultural policy analyst, and veteran book publishing professional based in Toronto, Ontario. Her work has appeared in publications such as The Humber Literary Review, The Nasiona, Minola Review, Entropy Magazine, The Puritan, and Room Magazine. In 2018, she was named one of three finalists for the carte blanche/Creative Nonfiction Collective Society prize. A selection of her published work is available at emilykellogg.com.

DAVID LY

David Ly is the author of Mythical Man (Anstruther Books, 2020) and the chapbook Stubble Burn (Anstruther Press, 2018). His poems have appeared in Plenitude, The /temz/ Review, PRISM and others. He is the Poetry Editor of This Magazine and sits on the Editorial Collective of Anstruther Press. Twitter: @dlylyly.

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LINSEY WELLMAN

Photograph © Ming Wu

An active member of the Ottawa music scene, Linsey Wellman is known as a creative and spontaneous improvisor. In addition to being a soloist on the alto and baritone saxophones, he is a member of 2019 Polaris Prize shortlisted art-punk ensemble FET.NAT, JUNO award winning calypso outfit Kobo Town and the Craig Pedersen Quartet, all while taking part in countless improvised music and jazz ensembles. He has released two solo alto saxophone albums, Ephemera (2010) and Manifesto (2016). A third solo album: Extinction, for baritone saxophone is scheduled for release this fall. 

He is co-founder and co-curator of the Improvising Musicians of Ottawa/Outaouais (IMOO) concert series. linseywellman.com

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OPEN MIC

FIVE SLOTS
TWO MINUTES EACH

This iteration is generously supported in part by: