news | Monday June 24, 2013

That’s a Wrap on the 2013 Whitehorse Poetry Festival

The Whitehorse Poetry Festival wrapped last night after three days of readings, panel discussions, and fun in the midnight sun. Guests included Noelle Allen, Stephanie Bolster, Brad Cran, Dina Del Bucchia, Jamella Hagen, Ian LeTourneau, Kitty Lewis, Bren Simmers, Garry Thomas Morse, and Jo Shapcott.

The attendance of poet and surrealist Garry Thomas Morse (Discovery Passages, 2011) was covered in local-interest magazine What’s Up Yukon, in which Morse discussed his presence at the festival, the significance of his First Nations ancestry, and his life as a poet. Morse was also interviewed on C.B.C.’s Airplay, which “scooped” the news that Morse will be relocating to the Yukon for a time. (He will apparently be the seventh of seven published poets who reside in the Territory.) We look forward to his forthcoming book, Rogue Cells / Carbon Harbour (coming Fall 2013, and part of Morse’s Chaos!Quincunx series), and we wish him all the best in the north!

Dina Del Bucchia also graced the festival with her presence, reading from her self-help send-up Coping with Emotions and Otters (2013) and taking instagram shots that made all her Twitter followers envious of her northern sojourn – an emotion they may better be able to handle after reading her book. Del Bucchia’s own interview with C.B.C.’s Airplay is here for the listening.

More information about the festival is available on the Whitehorse Poetry Festival website.