Name: Single Onion #206
Start: 2024-11-21T19:00:00-07:00
Location: Shelf Life Books

The Single Onion wraps up its fall season with readings from rob mclennan, Christine McNair, and the Magpie Poets.
WHEN: Thursday, Nov. 21st, 7 pm
WHERE: Shelf Life Books, 1302 4 St SW
Streaming: You can also stream the event live on The Single Onion YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@SingleOnionPoetry
About the Poets:
rob mclennan's most recent titles include On Beauty: stories (University of Alberta Press, 2024), the poetry collection World’s End, (ARP Books, 2023), a suite of pandemic essays, essays in the face of uncertainties (Mansfield Press, 2022) and the anthology groundworks: the best of the third decade of above/ground press 2013-2023 (Invisible Publishing, 2023). His next poetry title, the book of sentences, is forthcoming with the University of Calgary Press, a follow-up to the book of smaller (UCalgary Press, 2022). The current Artistic Director of VERSeFest: Ottawa’s International Poetry Festival, he spent the 2007-8 academic year in Edmonton as writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta.
Christine McNair is the author of Charm (winner of the 2018 Archibald Lampman Award) and Conflict (finalist for the City of Ottawa Book Award, the Archibald Lampman Award, and the ReLit Award for Poetry). Her chapbook pleasantries and other misdemeanours was shortlisted for the bpNichol Chapbook Award. Her work has appeared in sundry literary journals and anthologies. Toxemia is a poetic memoir and her first work of hybrid nonfiction. McNair lives in Ottawa where she works as a book doctor.
The Magpie Poets:
Pamela Medland is a poet whose work has appeared online and in print in numerous anthologies and literary journals including Freefall, Grain, Prairie Fire and Room. Bright Blade, a chapbook, was published in 2020. Echo of Ash, a first full-length collection, was published in 2021. Medland is a contributing editor to Arc Poetry Magazine.
Liz Gibbs has broadened her wingspan writing haiku influenced by the pandemic and Residential School revelations. Her poems have been well received in the Asahi Shimbun Haikuist in Japan and at the Woodland Cultural Centre. She is pleased to be paying homage to the ancient female Japanese poets in this anthology with her fellow Magpies.
Meghan Elizabeth Jones has been writing haiku and tanka since 2015 when she joined the Magpies. Writing these deceptively simple and eloquent poetic forms helps her to see what she is seeing in the moment. She writes daily and has been published in Asahi Shimbun (Japan), Canada’s Tanka journal GUSTS, Wales Tanka Journal and others.
Josephine LoRe’s poetry has been read on the stage and in global zoom-rooms, published in literary journals and anthologies worldwide, put to music, danced, and integrated into paintings and visual art. Her two poetry collections, “The Cowichan Series” and “In My Father’s House” are bestsellers. Her haiku and tanka have been published internationally.
Dr. Irene Naested, Full Professor and Professor Emerita from Mount Royal University, is a visual artist, author, and educator, and daily practices some form of meditation, primarily through art, poetry, writing and movement. Her poetry, prose, art, journal articles and teacher resources have been published nationally and internationally.
June Read’s travel, volunteer and career choices continue to define her interests in the arts. She is a student of Ikebana who enjoys creating Haiku and Tanka poetry. Both art forms have taught her to be “in the moment”. Beyond exploring the world through poetry and flowers, June is a catalyst who revels in mystical synchronicity, matching people and ideas.
Mary Vlooswyk writes to reach unseen details, the mysteries held beneath what the eye first sees. She likes short form poetry such as haiku and tanka for the honesty that can be expressed in so few words. Her writing has been published locally and internationally. She is a contributing editor to Arc Poetry Magazine since 2019.
The Single Onion takes place the third Thursday of the month, nine times a year. Our event schedule can always be found at www.singleonion.com
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We gratefully acknowledge the support of The Canada Council for the Arts, the League of Canadian Poets, the Calgary Arts Development, and the Writers’ Guild of Alberta.