The Fat Oyster Reading Series returns to Fanny Bay Hall on Thursday, May 12.
Join an enthusiastic, live crowd for a tripartite poetry feature—three Island poets published by Island presses; three new poetry collections; and three distinct voices bursting with unflinching courage.
Kelly Madden is a beloved Comox Valley poet whose work has appeared in CV2, Reckoning, and Island Writer’s Magazine. She will be reading from her first collection of poetry, If I’d Known, published in 2021 by Red Tuque Books in Duncan.
Acclaimed Canadian Poet John Donlan says, “Kelly Madden’s poems are survivors. Out of heartbreak and loss, and the struggle with despair, they bring us the small moments, vividly portrayed, that make life worth living.”
Arleen Paré, a Governor General award-winner for her collection, Lake of Two Mountains, and author of seven collections of poetry, will be reading her 2022 collection, Time Out of Time, a tribute to the Lebanese poet and visual artist Etel Adnan and published by Caitlin Press in Qualicum Beach.
Poet, editor, and educator, Maureen Hynes says, “Paré takes us to a corner where she faces the small and huge scales of death on our planet, and celebrates the ingenuity of women’s impossible lives, the way we continue to thrive.”
Rhona McAdam is a poet, food writer and holistic nutritionist whose poems have appeared in literary journals and anthologies in Canada, the U.S., Ireland and the UK since the 1980s. Her 10 poetry collections include the award-winning Hour of the Pearl, and her newest collection is entitled Larder. (Also published by Caitlin Press.)
Lorri Neilsen Glenn, a former Halifax Poet Laurette and award-winning teacher and essayist says, “McAdam’s perceptive poems dig in the earth to celebrate its creatures and its harvest, offering vibrant and memorable takes on the marvels around us.”
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. First reader at 7. Admission by donation. Fanny Bay Hall, 7793 Island Hwy. For more information visit: https://www.facebook.com/fatoysterreading