WCDR offers concrete poet

Writers’ Community of Durham Region (WCDR) is another large and well established organization that serves the eastern portion of the GTA. It has spawned several GTA writing groups including a number mentioned regularly in this blog.

WCDR’s March 16 meeting features poet Daniel Scott Tysdal. Daniel has authored two books of poetry, The Mourner’s Book of Albums (published by Tightrope in 2010) and Predicting the Next Big Advertising Breakthrough Using a Potentially Dangerous Method (Coteau in 2006). Predicting received the ReLit Award* for Poetry (2007) and the Anne Szumigalski Poetry Award (2006).  His work is experimental and includes concrete poetry, pieces shaped like the stories they’re telling — for one of his pieces, you actually have to fold the page in order to decipher the poem.

Daniel is presently a lecturer in creative writing at U of T’s Scarborough campus.

WCDR holds its meetings at Ajax Convention Centre, 550 Beck Crescent, Ajax. Members may pay in advance online, $20, or $25 at the door. Non-members must  pay in advance online, $25. In all cases, advance registration is necessary to ensure sufficient seating and food. Registration closes at 9 a.m. on Wed., March 13.  If you’d like to attend, go to WCDR’s registration page and scroll down: http://wcdr.ca/wcdr/breakfasts/

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* Canada’s ReLit Award was founded to acknowledge the best new work released by independent publishers. The recipients get a gold ring. We have a couple hundred independent and regional publishers in Canada, viable alternatives who are willing to take a chance on new writers. ReLit was started by Kenneth J. Harvey in 2000 as an alternative to mainstream award programs like Giller and Governor General’s Awards. Harvey is internationally acclaimed with his books being published in 16 countries. His work has been nominated twice for the Giller prize.