About this Event
On Wednesday May 14, 2025, The Ontario Poetry Society presents Poetry Night at Station Gallery, a free community event hosted by Durham Region Branch Manager for The Ontario Poetry Society, Lisa Reynolds, assisted by poet and author John Oughton, and a team of community volunteers.
Poetry Night at Station Gallery is a celebration of Poetry and a tribute to the six feature poets invited to attend.
The honourable guest poet and MC for this event is Patrick Connors (a 2024 featured poet) with readings by esteemed poets: Lillian Allen, Allan Briesmaster, I.B (Bunny) Iskov, Keith Garebian, Kate Rogers, and Stuart Ross.
With the support of Station Gallery’s Curator, Olex Wlasenko, and Station Gallery’s Executive Director, Natasha Downes, this is an all-ages event with featured poets reading from their work.
During intermission there will be free refreshments, including coffee from a local Tim Hortons, and desserts courtesy of an anonymous benefactor. Attendees will have the opportunity to mingle with poets and purchase their books. There will also be door prizes and a raffle with all proceeds from the raffle being donated to Youth Programs at Station Gallery.
Sponsors of this event include: Canada Council for The Arts, League of Canadian Poets, The Ontario Poetry Society, The Writers’ Union of Canada, and Tim Hortons.
Event Organizer:
Lisa Reynolds is the Host and Organizer of Poetry Nights at Station Gallery. She is the Durham Region Branch Manager for The Ontario Poetry Society and an internationally published writer of poetry and short stories with poetry translations in Farsi, Italian, Mandarin, and Spanish. Lisa’s poetry has been featured in art/poetry exhibits in Canada and the US, and used as instructional resources for writing workshops. Lisa is a member of the League of Canadian Poets and The Writers’ Union of Canada. She has lived in Durham Region for over twenty years.
Lead Consultant:
John Oughton was a featured poet on Poetry Night at Station Gallery in October 2023. In 2024, John joined the Poetry Night Team, providing professional advice, expertise, and technical support. John lives in Toronto and is the author of six poetry collections, most recently The Universe and All That (Ekstasis Editions), a mystery novel, and a book on how to teach in higher education. He is a free-lance editor, retired community college professor, and the current Treasurer of The Writers’ Union of Canada
Guest Poet & MC
Patrick Connors is the Honourable Guest Poet and MC for The Ontario Poetry Society’s Spring 2025 Poetry Night event at Station Gallery. Patrick’s first chapbook, Scarborough Songs, was released by Lyricalmyrical Press in 2013, and charted on the Toronto Poetry Map. He contributed 18 poems to Bottom of the Wine Jar, published in 2017 by SandCrab Press, and launched in Gibara, Cuba. He has performed at the Austin International Poetry Festival; featured in numerous reading series such as The Art Bar, Wild Writers, and Plasticine Poetry; hosted events under the 100,000 Poets for Change banner, as well as the United May Day Committee; and was on the organizing committee for The Great Canadian Poe Train tour. His first full collection, The Other Life, was released in 2023 by Cactus Press. His latest collection, The Long Defeat, was released by Mosaic Press in 2024.
Featured Poets:
Lillian Allen is the 7th Poet Laureate of Toronto and a professor of creative writing at Ontario College of Art and Design University. Lillian is a two time JUNO Award winner and trailblazer in the field of spoken word and dub poetry. Lillian’s debut book of poetry, Rhythm An’ Hardtimes became a Canadian best seller, blazing new trails for poetic expression and opened up the form. Lillian’s latest collection Make the World New: The Poetry of Lillian Allen, edited by Ronald Cummings was published in Spring 2021 and is part of the Laurier Poetry Series. Her other collections, Women Do This Everyday and Psychic Unrest are studied across the educational spectrum. Her literary work for young people includes three books: Why Me, If You See Truth, and Nothing But a Hero. _____________________________________________________________________________
Allan Briesmaster is a poet, freelance editor and publisher who has been active on the Toronto-area literary scene for many years. He has been a workshop leader and reading series organizer and was a partner in Quattro Books from 2006-2017. He currently operates his own small independent press, Aeolus House, specializing in custom-designed, limited-edition books of poetry. The most recent of Allan’s ten poetry collections are Windfor, from Ekstasis Editions in 2021, and Later Findings, also from Ekstasis, in 2024. He has read his poetry, given talks, been on panels, and hosted events at venues from Victor to St. John’s. Allan is a Life Member of the League of Canadian Poets and of The Ontario Poetry Society. He lives in Thornhill, Ontario.
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I.B. (Bunny) Iskov is the Founder of The Ontario Poetry Society. She was the Poetry Reviews Editor for People’s Poetry Letter and she held volunteer Poetry Editor positions for over ten years in community outreach programs. Her poems have been published in many anthologies and literary journals. Bunny has several poetry collections and she has won numerous contest prizes. In 2009, Bunny was the recipient of the R.A.V.E. Award (Recognizing Arts Vaughan Excellence) in recognition of outstanding contribution to the cultural landscape of the City of Vaughan as Art Educator/Mentor in the Literary Arts discipline. In 2017, she received the Absolutely Fabulous Women Award for women over 40, for her contribution to the literary arts in the Golden Horseshoe. Bunny’s latest book, One Place the Light Remains, was released by Mosaic Press in January 2025. She lives and writes in North York, Ontario.
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This year marks the 50th anniversary of Keith Garebian’s professional writing career as a freelance theatre and literary scholar, poet, and editor. His best-known poetry collections are Frida: Paint Me As a Volcano; Blue: The Derek Jarman Poems; Children of Ararat; Poetry is Blood; Against Forgetting; Finger to Finger; and In the Bowl of My Eye. He has also published five poetry chapbooks, and has a CD of his own poetry. Some of his poetry has been translated into French, Armenian, Hungarian, Romanian, and Bulgarian. A winner of many awards, he has served on theatre and literary juries for the League of Canadian Poets. He lives in Mississauga, Ontario.
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Kate Rogers’ poetry, essays and critical writing have appeared in many literary journals and anthologies both in Canada and abroad. She won first place in the subTerrain magazine 2023 Lush Triumphant Contest for her five-poem suite, “My Mother’s House.” Her poetry also recently appeared in Where Else? An International Hong Kong Poetry Anthology. Kate has been published in such notable journals as World Literature Today; Cha: An Asian Literary Journal and The Windsor Review. Between 2023 and 2025 Kate was director and co-director of Art Bar, Toronto’s oldest poetry reading series. She is co-author of Homeless City with Donna Langevin. Kate’s latest poetry collection is The Meaning of Leaving. In 2019 Kate re-patriated to Canada after teaching in mainland China and Hong Kong for 20 years.
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Stuart Ross has been working in the small press trenches of Canadian writing for 50 years. He has published over 20 books, most recently the poetry collection The Sky Is a Sky in the Sky, the Trillium Book Award–winning memoir The Book of Grief and Hamburgers, and the short story collection I Am Claude François and You Are a Bathtub. He has received the Canadian Jewish Literary Award for Poetry and the ReLit Award for Short Fiction, as well as the Harbourfront Festival Prize for his contributions to Canadian literature. Stuart runs the Feed Dog Book imprint for surrealist poetry at Anvil Press and the 1366 Books imprint for experimental fiction at Guernica Editions. He lives in Cobourg, Ontario.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
1450 Henry St, 1450 Henry Street, Whitby, Canada
CAD 0.00
