Poetry for summer

then I might know like water how to balance / the weight of hope against the light of patience
— A Short Story of Falling, Alice Oswald

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Launch of VOICES/VOIX

The third issue of VOICES/VOIX is now available! Poets Angelic Goldsky and Marie-Andrée Gill have selected 25 poems out of more than one hundred submissions received. To everyone who sent us a poem—thank you and congratulations! Writing and reading nurture each other, and we firmly believe that the more poetry there is, the better. 

Each published student will receive a print copy of the journal. The PDF version is available in the WRITE section of our website.



Looking Back at the 2021 Online National Finals


On April 22, the National Finals was held online for the second consecutive year. Our nine finalists got to know each other during a friendly Meet ’n Greet, and the 42 semi-finalists and finalists were invited to participate in online poetry workshops. Adam Sol presented the workshop “Metaphor Machine: Creating New Ways of Seeing”; Chloé Savoie-Bernard presented “L’œil au fond des choses : intime et politique”, and Adriana Oniță presented “Experiments in Translating Poetry/ Une expérimentation poétique.”  
 
The first prize winners are: 
  • Sarah Hamdi of University of Toronto Schools, ON for the bilingual stream;
  • Thierney Dignadice from Lord Selkirk Regional Secondary School in Selkirk, MB for the English stream
  • Romy Magdalena Pueyo from Collège Beaubois in Pierrefonds, QC for the French stream

 
You can watch the National Finals Show in its entirety on our website, as well as each finalist’s recitations, and view the list of winners. Thank you again to all of the students who took part, adding to the excitement and magic. We hope to see you again next year!
 

People’s Choice Award

For the first time ever, we invited the public to vote for their favourite recitation directly on our website. Star Ezeano (Calgary, AB) and Marianne Arseneault (Shawinigan, QC) won the People’s Choice Award for their respective recitations of “Barbara” by Jacques Prévert and “Hanging Fire” by Audrey Lorde. 


 

Online Team Regionals


Holding the Team Regionals online allowed for competitions in both official languages across Canada. Going virtual also facilitated National Team Contests, bringing together the winning teams from each region. 
All the results of the Team Regionals are available on our website. 

 

Poet In Class Program

Poet In Class visits were successful again this year! Often online, sometimes in person, the poets, teachers and students were very creative and enjoyed the encounters. 

“Especially given the current reality of this challenging school year, it was an incredible gift to me and my students to have Nisha join our class. This was definitely a highlight of the school year for me.”—Laura Schmaltz, St. Martin De Porres High School, Airdrie, AB

The program will restart on September 7, 2021 for both in-person and online visits. If you are interested in inviting a renowned Canadian poet to your classroom, please click here.


 

Anthologies: Our Editors

The new poems for 2021–2022 have been selected by two committees. The English committee is composed of poets Lorna Crozier, Dane Swan, Phoebe Wang, and Sarah Tsiang, who will select the English poems for the junior anthology. The French committee is composed of poets Serge Alain Agnessan, Catherine Cormier-Larose, Denise Desautels and Véronique Grenier, who will work on the junior anthology in French. The new poems will be unveiled in the fall.


 

What kind of spring are you? 

New quizzes are on our site! Don’t miss the chance to find out which spring poem best reflects you! 
 


In the meantime, we wish you a great end of the year and a wonderful summer.

We hope to see you again in person and in good health,
The Poetry In Voice/Les voix de la poésie team

 

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