Read Local BC

Rahat Kurd at Planet Earth Poetry
2025-11-21 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Vancouver) | Russell Books, Victoria, BC, Canada
On November 21, head to Russell Books to see Rahat Kurd feature at Planet Earth Poetry! Kurd will be sharing poetry from her brand new collection The Book of Z. Now in their 30th season, Planet Earth Poetry is Victoria’s longest-running poetry-only open mic and reading series. All of the information can be found here.
Rahat Kurd at Planet Earth Poetry
Russell Books
Victoria, BC
November 21, 2025
7:00 p.m.

Four BC Poets Laureate
2025-11-28 19:30 - 21:00 | Russell Books, Victoria, BC, Canada
ON Friday, November 28, Planet Earth Poetry is presenting a special evening of readings by four British Columbia Poets Laureate (presented as a sister event with Twisted Poets Reading Series in Vancouver on January 21, 2026).

Incite: Maggie Helwig on Encampment
2026-02-10 19:00 - 20:00 | VANCOUVER PUBLIC LIBRARY – CENTRAL LIBRARY
Presented in partnership with Vancouver Public Library.
The housing crisis plaguing major urban centres across Canada has sent countless people into the streets. In spring 2022, some of them found their way to the yard beside the Anglican church in Toronto’s Kensington Market, where Maggie Helwig is the priest. They pitched tents, formed an encampment, and settled in. Known as an outspoken social justice activist, Helwig has spent the last three years getting to know the residents and fighting tooth and nail to allow them to stay.
Winner of the 2025 Toronto Book Award and one of CBC Books’ and the Globe and Mail’s best books of 2025, Encampment tells the story of Helwig’s life-long activism as preparation for her fight to keep her churchyard open to people needing a home. More importantly, it introduces us to the Artist, to Jeff, and to Robin: their lives, their challenges, their humanity. It confronts our society’s callousness in allowing so many to go unhoused and demands, by bringing their stories to the fore, that we begin to respond with compassion and grace.
Helwig shares her story and theirs, and answers audience questions, with The Tyee senior editor Jackie Wong, whose journalism on housing and drug policy has been published widely. Books will be for sale at the event by Upstart & Crow, with a signing afterwards.

Off the Shelf Poetry Reading Series: Jeff Derksen & Saba Pakdel
2026-02-27 19:00 - 21:00 | SFU Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Please join Simon Fraser University’s Department of English and Poetry in Canada for a poetry reading featuring Jeff Derksen and Saba Pakdel.
Details:
Date/Time: Friday, February 27th (Doors 6:30 PM; Event: 7-9 PM)
Location: SFU Belzberg Library at Harbour Centre campus (515 West Hastings St. Vancouver, BC V6B 5K3)
This is a free event, no RSVP required.
Bios:
Jeff Derksen: https://www.sfu.ca/english/people-dir/faculty/jeff-derksen.html
Saba Pakdel: Saba Pakdel: Saba Pakdel is a poet, migration literature scholar, and PhD candidate in English at the University of Victoria. In her SSHRC-funded PhD research, Saba specializes in migration study and climate-induced mobility with a focus on modern and contemporary literature, exploring the experience of exile, displacement, and climate crises. Saba has published two poetry chapbooks In-Between (2022) and Un-Composed (2024) by above / ground press.
Venue Accessibility:
This in-person event takes place at the SFU’s Harbour Centre campus. It is easily accessible by transit and near SkyTrain. The campus is wheelchair accessible and has wheelchair accessible washrooms. Gender neutral washrooms are also available.

Poetry Reading: Steven Seidenberg & Danielle LaFrance
2026-03-08 19:00 - 21:00 | People’s Co-op Bookstore, 1391 Commercial, Vancouver, British Columbia, V5L 3X5, Canada
Poets Steven Seidenberg and Danielle LaFrance will be reading at People’s Co-op Bookstore on Sunday, March 8th (7-9 PM).
This is a free event and all are welcome – no need to RSVP.
*This event is hosted by Simon Fraser University’s Department of English.
Bios:
Writer and artist Steven Seidenberg’s literary works include “Coda” (Omnidawn, Fall 2025), “Anon” (Omnidawn, 2022), and “plain sight” (Roof Books, 2020). His books have been published in Italian, Portuguese and Swedish translation, and his most recent collection of photographs is “The Architecture of Silence” (Contrasto, 2023).
Danielle LaFrance is a poet and information malprofessional. Their commitments are anchored to liberation, resistance, and pleasure. LaFrance is the author of “species branding” (Capilano University Editions, 2010), “Friendly + Fire” (Talonbooks, 2016), “JUST LIKE I LIKE IT” (Talonbooks, 2019), and “#postdildo” (Talonbooks, 2022). LaFrance co-created the reading and journal series, “About a Bicycle” and currently collaborates on the ad infinitum intertextual sound project, “Yes, Sydo”. Their forthcoming book, “Verbal Violence” (Talonbooks, 2026) is a scrolling indictment of the professional managerial class. They reside as a guest on still occupied and still unceded xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səlilwətaɬ lands.

Off the Shelf Poetry Reading Series: Joanne Leow, Garth Martens, Fenn Stewart
2026-03-27 19:00 - 21:00 | SFU Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Please join Simon Fraser University’s Department of English and Poetry in Canada for a poetry reading featuring our own Professor Joanne Leow and Garth Martens and Fenn Stewart.
Details:
Date/Time: Friday, March 27th (Doors: 6:30 PM; Readings 7-9 PM)
Location: SFU Belzberg Library (SFU’s Harbour Centre campus – 515 West Hastings St., Vancouver)
*Free Event; No RSVP Required
Bios
Joanne Leow is Associate Professor and Tier 2 Canada Research Chair of Transnational and Decolonial Digital Humanities in the Department of English at Simon Fraser University. Her first academic monograph is “Counter-Cartographies: Reading Singapore Otherwise” (Liverpool University Press, 2024). She is also a poet and writer with a debut collection of poetry, “Seas Move Away” (Turnstone Press, 2022) and a forthcoming creative-critical memoir, “Exhumations: In the Body of a Petrostate” (Alchemy Press, 2026). Her writing and research interests lie at the intersections of spatial theory, decolonial theory, postcolonial studies, transnational and diasporic texts, and the environmental humanities.
Garth Martens is the author of “Prologue for the Age of Consequence” and “Who Else in the Dark Headed There”. For his first book, he was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Poetry. He is also a past winner of the Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers. His poetry appears in “Dark Mountain Project”, “Poetry Ireland”, “Hazlitt”, “This Magazine”, “Vallum”, “Fiddlehead”, and “Best Canadian Poetry”. He is a co-founder and producer for Palabra Flamenco, a literary flamenco ensemble that joins traditional flamenco dance and music with poetry and oral storytelling. He lives in Victoria, BC.
Fenn Stewart is the author of three chapbooks and two poetry collections – “Better Nature”, which was longlisted for the 2018 Gerald Lampert Memorial Prize, and “women & roosters” (2025). A former editor of “The Capilano Review”, she continues to serve on the magazine’s editorial board. Stewart holds a PhD in social and political thought, and teaches literature and writing at Capilano University. She lives with her kids, and the world’s nicest dog, on unceded Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), xʷməθkʷəỷəm (Musqueam), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) territories.
Venue Accessibility
This in-person event takes place at the SFU’s Harbour Centre campus. It is easily accessible by transit and near SkyTrain. The campus is wheelchair accessible and has wheelchair accessible washrooms. Gender neutral washrooms are also available.

Phyllis Webb Memorial Reading featuring Wayde Compton
2026-04-11 19:00 - 21:00 | SFU Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Please join SFU English and Poetry in Canada for the 4th annual Phyllis Webb Memorial Reading featuring award recipient Wayde Compton. This free event takes place on Saturday, April 11th (Doors: 6:15 PM; Event: 7-9 PM) at SFU Harbour Centre (Room 1400). Special guests include Cecily Nicholson and Courtenay Chan. Hosted by Professor Stephen Collis. Enjoy readings, discussion, and light refreshments.
The Phyllis Webb Memorial Reading honours a Canadian poet(s) with a cash award and a celebration of their work. This event will occur each April and will be organized and administered by the Poetry in Canada Society, https://www.poetrycanada.org/.
A Governor General’s Award–winning poet and a member of the Order of Canada, Phyllis Webb was a major Canadian cultural figure from the 1950s through the 1980s, publishing ten celebrated collections of poetry and prose and co-founding the CBC Radio program Ideas (in 1965). When “words abandoned” her in the early 1990s and she was no longer able to write, she took up photography, photocollage, and eventually painting.
As Stephen Scobie once wrote, the work of Phyllis Webb “has always been distinguished by the profundity of her insights, the depth of her emotional feeling, the delicacy and accuracy of her rhythms, the beauty and mysterious resonance of her images – and by her luminous intelligence.” It is this legacy that the Phyllis Webb Memorial Reading seeks to honour, by selecting a poet who is distinguished by similar qualities.
In 2026, the fourth annual Phyllis Webb Memorial Reading honours poet Wayde Compton, who is the author of six books and the editor of two literary anthologies. His collection of short stories, “The Outer Harbour”, won the City of Vancouver Book Award in 2015 and his work has been a finalist for three other City of Vancouver Book Awards. He won a National Magazine Award for Fiction in 2011 and was nominated for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize in 2000. In 2002, Compton co-founded the Hogan’s Alley Memorial Project, an organization devoted to researching and promoting Vancouver’s historical Black community and later helped establish the Hogan’s Alley Working Group and the Hogan’s Alley Society, its successor organizations. From 2006-2011 Compton co-published Commodore Books, Western Canada’s first Black Canadian literary press. He has been writer-in-residence at Simon Fraser University, Green College at the University of British Columbia, and the Vancouver Public Library. Compton currently teaches in the Department of Writing at the University of Victoria, and his latest book is “Toward an Anti-Racist Poetics” (U of Alberta P, 2024).
Important Information:
Venue and Accessibility: This in-person event takes place at the SFU Harbour Centre (Room 1400). It is easily accessible by transit and near SkyTrain. The campus is wheelchair accessible and has wheelchair accessible washrooms. Gender neutral washrooms are also available.
Please note: This event may be recorded and/or photographed. If you do not wish to be photographed, please inform the photographer.

Stage Your Own Play with Cee Peal - Part Two
2026-04-21 18:00 - 20:00 | VANCOUVER PUBLIC LIBRARY – CENTRAL LIBRARY
Gain a comprehensive understanding of the playwriting process from initial concept to production and finally opening night in this three-part series program. Learn about the concepts of Scene and Monologue Writing, Text Analysis, Staging, Performance, Production and more.
Use this time to explore the early stages of theatre development and experiment with others in a collaborative and unique process.
—
Cee Peal is a theatre artist from the Nisga’a First Nation of Northern B.C. now working in Vancouver on the traditional, unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), səl̓ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-waututh), and sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) peoples. He brings to the library his experience in storytelling, theatre, and image making, drawing from his experience working as an actor, director, writer, dancer, and producer on various productions. With a passion for Indigenous studies and cultural evolution, Cee is also the Indigenous outreach coordinator at The Cultch and the artistic associate at The Carmen Arts Group.
To find out more about Cee’s residency and keep up with his upcoming events visit: vpl.ca/storyteller

Off the Shelf Poetry Reading Series with Cornel Bogle, Lisa Richter, Salena Wiener
2026-04-24 19:00 - 21:00 | SFU Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Please join SFU English and Poetry in Canada for a poetry reading featuring Professor Cornel Bogle, Lisa Richter, and Salena Wiener.
Details:
Date/Time: Friday, April 24th (Doors 6:30 PM; Event: 7-9 PM)
Location: SFU Belzberg Library at Harbour Centre campus
This is a free event, no RSVP required.
Bios
Cornel Bogle engages Caribbean archives and diasporic memory through erasure, found, and lyric poetry. Their work has been published in literary platforms such as “brick”, “Arc Poetry Magazine”, and “Pree: Caribbean Writing”, and has been presented in readings across Canada and the Caribbean.
At SFU, they teach in areas such as Black and Caribbean literatures, decolonial literary studies, diaspora, transnationalism, and creative writing, guiding students to explore how storytelling travels across borders, histories, and communities. Originally from Kingston, Jamaica, they earned their BA at the University of the West Indies, and both their MA and PhD at the University of Alberta, joining SFU in 2023.
Lisa Richter is a Toronto-based poet, writer, and educator. She is the author of two books of poetry, “Closer to Where We Began” and “Nautilus and Bone”, winner of the Canadian Jewish Literary Award, the National Jewish Book Award (U.S.), and the Robert Kroetsch Award. Her work has been longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize, a National Magazine Award finalist, and appeared in “Best Canadian Poetry”, “The Fiddlehead”, “The Malahat Review”, and “The New Quarterly”, among other places. She holds an MFA from the University of Guelph and teaches at the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies. Her third book, “Sublunary”, is forthcoming with University of Alberta Press in March 2026.
Salena Wiener is a poet and PhD student in English Literature at Simon Fraser University. Her research interests include British Romantic women’s writing, print and manuscript culture, digital humanities, and ecopoetics. She has worked as a Research Assistant for SpokenWeb and the Women’s Print History Project. Her critical and creative work appears in “Honey & Lime Lit Magazine”, “Peculiars Magazine”, “Montreal Review of Books”, “Digital Studies”, and elsewhere. She is the author of two poetry chapbooks, “bodies like gardens” (Cactus Press 2023) and “Cities of Delusions” (Anstruther Press 2026).
Venue Accessibility
This in-person event takes place at the SFU’s Harbour Centre campus. It is easily accessible by transit and near SkyTrain. The campus is wheelchair accessible and has wheelchair accessible washrooms. Gender neutral washrooms are also available.

The Art of the Book: Scott McIntyre
2026-04-30 18:30 - 19:30 | VANCOUVER PUBLIC LIBRARY – CENTRAL LIBRARY
At this upcoming Alcuin event, legendary publisher Scott McIntyre will offer a deeply personal retrospective on his nearly 50-year career at the forefront of the Canadian literary landscape. As the force behind Douglas & McIntyre, McIntyre will trace the evolution of one of the country’s premier independent houses, sharing behind-the-scenes anecdotes involving industry icons and celebrated authors. More than just a history lesson, the talk serves as a passionate defense of the physicality of books—emphasizing why craftsmanship in paper, binding, and design remains a vital tribute to the written word even in an increasingly digital age.
For Scott, the physicality of books remained fundamental. Echoing the imperatives of Knopf; paper, binding, and type design had to honour the words. That resulted in winning more Alcuin awards than any other single house, national or multinational, while building the largest art book program in Canada, and establishing an international reputation for high quality books. Even the D&M logo, the Burghead Bull, declared intent, based upon a carved image from a 9th century Pictish fort overlooking Moray Forth: defiant; Scottish; echoing the traditions of old-line publishing houses.
Anecdotes about the evolution of Canadian publishing will focus on important D&M projects: The Art of Emily Carr, History in Their Blood, Doug Coupland’s Souvenir of Canada, and A Story as Sharp as A Knife, amongst many others.
This will be his personal take on the world that he chose to embrace and why the old standards still matter, even in a digital world.
—
Scott McIntyre, CM, OBC, LLD (Hon), BA, is best known as the co-founder and the retired Publisher and CEO of the pre-eminent, Vancouver headquartered, Canadian publishing house Douglas & McIntyre. His company published over 2000 Canadian books from its founding in 1971 to his retirement in 2013. He also spent over 40 years engaged in industry/government relations.
Scott remains an active member of Canada’s cultural community. His recent Boards have included PEN Canada, the BC Achievement Foundation and, at UBC, Green College, the Global Reporting Centre, the Museum of Anthropology, and the Vancouver Institute. He delivered the 2019-2020 Clyne Lectures at Green College. His memoir, A Precarious Enterprise: Making a Life in Canadian Publishing, was published by ECW of Toronto on September 9, 2025. Scott is a graduate of UBC, and holds an honorary Doctor of Laws from SFU. He is a member of both the Order of Canada and the Order of British Columbia. His significant contributions to Canadian publishing have been further recognized by the Queen’s Golden Jubilee and Diamond Jubilee medals.

Talonbooks Spring 2026 Launch
2026-05-01 19:00 - 20:30 | Martha Lou Henley Rehearsal Hall, 1955 McLean Dr, Vancouver, BC V5N 3J7, Vancouver, BC, V5N 3J7, Canada
Join us at the Martha Lou Henley Rehearsal Hall for the launch of the Talonbooks spring 2026 titles! Come help us celebrate this season’s authors and books. Here’s the lineup! It’s going to be an amazing evening.
Taryn Hubbard will read from Beautiful Unknown Future
Jenn Ashton (attending digitally) will read from Growing My Way Home
George Bowering (attending digitally) will read from Pearl
Jónína Kirton will read from Save Your Prayers – Send Money
Elee Kraljii Gardiner will read from sometimes, forest
Nicole Raziya Fong will read from SUBTEXT and
Danielle LaFrance will read from Verbal Violence!
The launch will be hosted by the author of Future Works, Jeff Derksen!
A live stream will be available on the Talonbooks YouTube page. Light snacks and drinks will be provided. Hope to see you there!
Talonbooks Spring Launch
Martha Lou Henley Rehearsal Hall
Vancouver, BC
May 1, 2026
Doors at 7 p.m., readings begin at 7:30 p.m. PDT

An Evening with Eve Joseph and Patrick Friesen
2026-05-02 19:00 - 20:30 | Upstart & Crow, 1387 Railspur Alley Vancouver, BC V6H 3R7, Vancouver, BC, V6H 3R7, Canada
Join us for a beautiful evening of poetry with local legends Eve Joseph and Patrick Friesen. The duo will be launching their latest collections and invite you to join them in readings and conversation. Tickets are free, but please RSVP for your spot here as capacity is limited.
In Eve Joseph’s latest book, Dismantling, the poet is occupied with the idea of poetic imagination and how that often elusive thing can transform the mundane into the mysterious. In a book where fish are classified as bees and rivers are legally people, things are not always as they seem. As the title suggests, sometimes the act of taking something apart and building again from scratch allows a poem to find its true form.
​​The poems in Patrick Friesen’s latest collection, Sightings, move between the visible and invisible, between the contradictions of human history and the immediacy of a complex present. Friesen examines memory and music, rivers and personalities, open to all possibilities and sceptical of wisdom. Instead, these poems rely on the kind of knowledge that comes from experience: tremors and fragments riding on the movement of thinking. The distance from Friesen’s first book, published 50 years ago, to this one, speaks to what it means to have known the world through poetry.
More about Upstart & Crow:
Upstart & Crow is a not-for-profit creative studio and literary incubator that champions writers, readers and stories, and the role they play in shaping our lives. We develop original programs, support artists and revel in creative projects focused on Literature In Translation / Climate Solutions / Poetry / Civic Dialogue / Community & Skills Building … all with the aim of elevating the role of literature and storytelling in our lives. Find us on Granville Island, Gibsons and online at upstartandcrow.com.
Accessibility:
The main studio of our shop is accessible for folks with mobility aids. There is a washroom on the main floor available for attendees.
Questions: hello[at]upstartandcrow.com.

Author Reading with Theresa Kishkan and Keiko Honda
2026-06-03 19:00 - 21:00 | Munro’s Books, 1108 Government Street, Victoria, BC, V8W 1Y2, Canada
Join Theresa Kishkan, author of The Art of Looking Back, and Keiko Honda, author of Hidden Flowers, for a reading and discussion of writing memoir.

Author reading: Theresa Kishkan in celebration of The Art of Looking Back
2026-06-12 18:30 | Upstart & Crow, 1387 Railspur Alley Vancouver, BC V6H 3R7, Vancouver, BC, V6H 3R7, Canada
Join Theresa Kishkan for a reading from her new memoir, The Art of Looking Back.
At 23, Theresa Kishkan met an artist who became obsessed with her. She was young, she was flattered, and the situation quickly overwhelmed her. He drew and painted her for a few months, after which she went away for a year. When she returned, she was determined not to resume the relationship.
But the artist made contact with her after the birth of her first child and became a family friend, bringing gifts of paintings. Those images hung in Theresa’s home, and one in particular reminded her almost daily of her younger self, in ways both positive and not so much. She avoided looking too closely at his images of her and at his long, passionate and often troubling letters.
Decades later, while sorting old correspondence, she was taken back to those early days and began, at last, to write about her relationship with the now-deceased artist. The Art of Looking Back is a meditation on the male gaze, on reclaiming one’s younger self, and on agency: how we lose it, how we find it again. This poetic memoir asks questions about older men and younger women and girls, and the persistence of that dynamic in art.
