Famous Last Words Halloween

Famous Last Words is the first event we created at Death Rides a Unicorn and runs 3-4 times a year in Vancouver. The show itself involves poets participating in six rounds of a faux competition where they create new work to 'compete' in a series of poetry related events that are in turn, 'judged' by our host (with input from our audience).

These games include poems written in unusual forms (haiku, sonnet, limericks, etc.) or on silly themes (love poems directed to someone in the room) or with funny addendums (poems must be written from the perspective of a puppet and must be read with said puppet). There are 25 potential games that can occur during any episode of Famous Last Words thus no two shows are exactly the same.

This show which is part of the will feature Catherine Lewis, Dina Del Buchhia, Dr. Dru, Kevin Spenst, RC Weslowski, Uni the Unicorn and our host Sara Bynoe.

Catherine Lewis (she/her) is a Chinese Canadian writer and poet who lives in Vancouver on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. Her debut poetry chapbook Zipless is a finalist for two Bisexual Book Awards, including Bi Writer of the Year. Her poetry and prose have been featured in PRISM international, The Humber Literary Review, Pulp Literature, and Plenitude Magazine. First runner-up for Pulp Literature’s 2023 Magpie Award for Poetry, Catherine has been a finalist in creative nonfiction contests hosted by The Fiddlehead, Room Magazine, and The Humber Literary Review. She has performed at the Poets Corner Reading Series, Word Vancouver, and the Verses Festival of Words. A graduate of the Writer’s Studio at Simon Fraser University and of the Vancouver Manuscript Intensive, she is a Banff Centre Literary Arts alumna. Catch her on Twitter or Instagram at @cat_writes_604 or at www.catherinewriter.com.

Dina Del Bucchia is a writer, podcaster, literary event host, editor, creative writing instructor and otter and dress enthusiast living in Vancouver on the unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh people. She is the author of the short story collection, Don’t Tell Me What to Do, and four collections of poetry: Coping with Emotions and Otters, Blind Items, Rom Com, written with Daniel Zomparelli, and, It’s a Big Deal! She is the Artistic Director of the Real Vancouver Writers’ Series, hosts the podcast, Can’t Lit, with Jen Sookfong Lee and is on the editorial board of fine.press. Her chapbook, Douche Process, is available online at ryanfitzpatrick.ca/modelpress/. You can check out her website at dinadelbucchia.com.

Kevin Spenst, a Pushcart Poetry nominee, is the author of Ignite, Jabbering with Bing Bong, Hearts Amok: a Memoir in Verse and A Bouquet Brought Back from Space, and 16 chapbooks including Surrey Sonnets (JackPine Press), Upend (Frog Hollow Press) a holm with the Alfred Gustav Press and the collaboratively written Recto, Verso, Chez the Devil’s Printers with Joshua Pitre (Collusion Books). In 2019, he was writer-in-residence at the Joy Kogawa House. His work has won the Lush Triumphant Award for Poetry, been nominated for both the Alfred G. Bailey Prize and the Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry, and has appeared in dozens of publications including Event, the Malahat Review, Prairie Fire, CV2, the Rusty Toque, Lemon Hound, Poetry is Dead, and the anthologies Best Canadian Poetry 2019, Best Canadian Poetry 2020 and Sweet Water: Poems for the Watersheds. He co-organizes the Dead Poets Reading Series, writes a chapbook column in subTerrain magazine, is an occasional co-host with RC Weslowski on Wax Poetic on Co-op Radio, was the 2022 Poetry Mentor at SFU’s Writers Studio and teaches Poetry 2 through the Writers Studio. He lives in Vancouver on unceded Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh territory.

RC Weslowski is an award-winning spoken word poet and radio broadcaster. He has featured at such distinguished events as the Nuyorican Café Poetry Slam, The Bowery Poetry Club, The Toronto Poetry Slam, The Art Bar Reading Series, Planet Poetry, The Poets Corner, The Otoba Poetry Slam, Song and Bird Reading Series, the Verses Festival of Words and now the Edmonton Poetry Festival. RC has led poetry “wordshops” with Word Travels Australia, The Banff Centre for the Arts, The Tuscon Poetry Festival, The Victoria Spoken Word Festival and many more. RC’s first book of poetry, “My Soft Response to the Wars” is out on Write Bloody North Publishing. www.writebloodynorth.ca

Sara Bynoe is an actor, writer, and comedy show producer who is best known for her shows Teen Angst Night, Say Wha?! Readings of Deliciously Rotten Writing, and for appearing in commercials as the frazzled woman in need of a product.

The Georgia Straight called her "charismatic" and the WestEnder twice included her in their list of Vancouver's funniest people. Her comedy shows have made many lists of "things you should do tonight" and toured to Toronto, Seattle, Portland and the UK. She has appeared at the All Jane No Dick Comedy Festival, The Vancouver Comedy Festival, Verses Festival, The Vancouver Poetry Festival, The PuSh Festival, The Olio Festival, Latitude Festival, and Bumbershoot.

She is a graduate of the acting program at Studio 58 and has an MA in Creative and Life Writing from Goldsmiths, University of London. Her column The Environmentalist from Hell appears in Asparagus Magazine where she writes about sustainability and environmental matters. She recently returned to professional theatre in a run of Mom's The Word at Theatre North West.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

LanaLou's Restaurant, 362 Powell Street, Vancouver, Canada