Poetry In Voice/Les voix de la poésie
2-15 AV LAURIER E
MONTRÉAL, QC H2T 1E4
CANADA
For general inquiries please email us at info@poetryinvoice.ca. Or find our team's email addresses below.
Tessa Griffin, Event Coordinator (she/her/elle)
Tessa stage managing the 2017 Finals in Vancouver
Tessa Griffin creates connections: She unites poets and teachers for our Poet In Class program; she assembles students, teachers, and poets for our Team Regional events in Ontario; and she collaborates with literary-event and festival organizers to create opportunities for students to recite. She also plans and stage manages our National Finals events.
Before coming to Poetry In Voice/Les voix de la poésie in 2016, Tessa worked as a public school and Montessori educator and ran an organization that provided Toronto children with books and opportunities to meet authors. When she is not in front of her computer directing poetry traffic, she enjoys making art, triathlon sports, cross-country skiing, reading, and listening to music.
Diana Hope Tegenkamp, Director of Development / Director of Indigenous Voices in Poetry (IVP) (Diana/Diana's; they/them/iel)
Diana Hope Tegenkamp (Diana/Diana's; they/them) is a queer, Métis, disabled writer and artist who lives on Treaty 6 Territory, Homeland of the Métis. Diana's first poetry book, Girl running (2021, Thistledown Press), was nominated for an Indigenous Voices Award and two Saskatchewan Book Awards and is excerpted in the Indigenous Voices Awards Anthology. Diana was longlisted for the 2020 CBC Poetry Prize and their poem, "My father as rhythm in lake water," was awarded second prize in the 2021 Banff Centre Bliss Carman Poetry Prize.
In Search of my Métis Father, Diana's in-process poetry manuscript, is supported by a Canada Council for the Arts grant and a Marian Hebb Research Grant. all the words I couldn't say, a film poem based on a poem by Nicole Brossard, was an Official Selection in the Berlin International Art Film Festival, Toronto International Women's Festival, Montreal Independent Film Festival.
David J. Smith, Executive Director (il/he/him)
David at the Winnipeg Art Gallery with 2019 National Finalists (l to r) Berry Genge, Clara Sismondo, Aksa Caleb, Nawal Semir, and Alexander Morin
David has been with Poetry In Voice/Les voix de la poésie since 2011, first as Technical Director and then as Executive Director starting in 2014. With his background in theatre, filmmaking, photography, and engineering, David has developed our website, created our videos, and orchestrated our live and online contests.
His love of poetry and performance was sparked when he photographed the first team slam at the People’s Poetry Gathering in 1999. In 2007 he spent a year in classrooms and the community filming high school students in Rochester, NY, as they formed a slam team for Brave New Voices. He is thrilled that it’s now his job to encourage students to read, recite, and write poetry. Since Gretzky retired he has been an obsessive follower of Liverpool Football Club.
Ariane Tapp, Director of Communications and French Programming (elle/she/her)
Ariane Tapp holds a bachelor's degree in literary studies, with a major in creative writing, and a master's degree in literature and stage and screen arts, with a master's thesis in screenwriting. A lover of the French language, Ariane is also a poet and a proofreader, and she has taught French as a second and foreign language in Quebec and Europe. In 2022, she led the Cercle des autrices et auteurs de la relève, in collaboration with the Institut Canadien de Québec. Ariane is happy to contribute to bringing poetry to light and make it shine with Poetry In Voice, an organisation she has admired from the very beginning. She is also passionate about cinema, music, natural landscapes and cats.
Salima Tourkmani-MacDonald, English Program Coordinator (elle/she/her)
Salima Tourkmani-MacDonald was born and raised in Riverview, New Brunswick. She received her BA in English with a Concentration in Creative Writing from St. Thomas University, and her MA in English in the Field of Creative Writing from The University of Toronto. Her work has been published in The Dalhousie Review, Echolocation, and her poem “Obituary for a Love Affair With a Girl” was shortlisted in Eavesdrop Magazine’s Queer Joy Poetry Contest. She is also a volunteer reader at The Fiddlehead. Salima is thrilled to work for an organization that recognizes the value in creative expression, and for the opportunity to inspire young Canadian poets.
Sarah Tsiang, FutureVerse Coordinator (elle/she/her)
Before joining Poetry In Voice/Les voix de la poésie in 2020, Sarah taught poetry and creative writing at UBC and Sheridan College. She is the author of 3 books of poetry and the editor of a poetry anthology. She also works as the Poetry Editor of Arc Poetry Magazine and loves nothing more than discovering and working with the rising stars of Can lit.
She’s thrilled to have the opportunity to be around both talented students from across the country as well as the supremely gifted poets who provide content for our website and anthologies.
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