Fredericton’s literary community recently celebrated the 14th Annual UNB Poetry Weekend in Memorial Hall at the University of New Brunswick from September 29 - October 1. The weekend’s festivities began on Friday with the launch of The Collected Poems of Alden Nowlan published by Goose Lane, a beautiful tome which the collection’s editor and evening’s emcee Brian Bartlett referred to as the “Big Nowlan,” a nickname previously reserved for the poet himself. The launch featured readings from a number of writers and poets, including David Adams Richards, M. Travis Lane, Raymond Frasier, Lynn Davies, Ross Leckie, Allan Cooper, and Sue Sinclair.
Poetry Weekend 2017 featured more than 60 poets from all over Canada, many of whom read from new or recently released collections. Two Fiddlehead team members read from newly released chapbooks: Ian LeTourneau read from Core Sample, published by Frog Hollow press, and Emily Skov-Nielson read from Volta, published by Anstruther Press. Skov-Nielsen's editor, Jim Johnstone, also read from his Véhicule Press collection The Chemical Life, which was launched in Montreal on October 20th. Other readings from new collections by UNB associated poets included Claire Kelly reading from Maunder (Palimpsest Press), Allison LaSorda reading from Stray (Goose Lane), and Kayla Geitzler reading from That Light Feeling Under Your Feet (NeWest Press, forthcoming 2018).
Over the course of the weekend, The Fiddlehead editorial assistants Noah Page and William Bonfiglio interviewed poets Patrick O’Reilly, Sarah Cooper, Adam Dickinson, Benjamin Dugdale, Kate Cayley, Kateri Lanthier, Rebecca Păpucaru, and Rebecca Salazar.
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