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Cascadia Poetry Festival coming to Cumberland

Cascadia Poetics Lab Society will present the Cascadia Poetry Festival in Cumberland at the Masonic Hall, 2687 Dunsmuir from September 8 to 10.
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Poet Matt Rader

Cascadia Poetics Lab Society will present the Cascadia Poetry Festival in Cumberland at the Masonic Hall, 2687 Dunsmuir from September 8 to 10.

This latest incarnation of a poetry festival for the bioregion that started five years ago in Seattle will include two nights of headliner poets, after parties at The Waverly and 4 Quarters, a panel of poets and more.

There will also be a small press fair featuring the books of attendees, headliners and other poets.

The headliner poets include the Comox Valley’s Matt Rader (now of Kelowna), Comox Valley’s poet laureate Natalie Nickerson, spoken word artist Lucia Misch of Vancouver, Paul Nelson of Seattle (Cascadia’s founder), Prince George’s Sara Deleeuw, the incomparable Jan Zwicky of Quadra, Philip Kevin Paul of the WSÁ,NEC Nation in Saanich and Stephen Collis of Vancouver with roots in historic Cumberland.

A writing workshop called Tween Sleeps and Other Practical Writing Experiments will be led by acclaimed poet Danika Dinsmore (danikadinsmore.com) of the Sunshine Coast on Sunday, Sept 10. Registration for that can be done on the Brown Paper Tickets site noted below or by contacting Dan Kirk at dan.kirk9@gmail.com

Tickets that include access to all events (except for the workshop which is $25 extra) are $20 and can be purchased at Rarebird Bookshop in Cumberland, Laughing Oyster Books and Bop City Records in Courtenay, Blue Heron Books in Comox and at Brown Paper Tickets on-line (http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3054895). Tickets can also be purchased at the door, starting at 6:30 p.m. at the Masonic Hall.

See the Facebook event site or cascadiapoeticslab.ca for updates and postings on the poets bios and to see some of their poetry.