The last Poetry@Red Tree for the season will feature Cascadia Poetry Festival in Cumberland founder Nicola MacWilliam on Monday, Nov. 27 at 7 p.m.
As always, there will be an open mic for the second half of the night.
Nicola grew up in all the places the Navy goes in Canada as well as Hawaii (the other place the Navy sends people sometimes). She currently divides her time between Victoria and Cumberland.
At one time she was a high school teacher in the Comox Valley and has especially fond memories of Vanier, her all-time favourite high school.
She has been writing since she was a child, but has only recently decided to get her writing out in the world. She was lucky enough to get into UVic’s Master’s program in the writing department where she has been working with Tim Lilburn, one of Canada’s leading poets.
Nicola MacWilliam has spent the last two years at UVic working on her master’s in creative writing. Her manuscript, which she plans to turn into a book, began with an impulse to write about her family property on Salt Spring. What emerged instead was a dialogue with a woman who died over two thousand years ago and a transformation in the way she views her own family history and the history of the west coast.
As well, she had the good fortune to be able to collaborate with Dan Kirk and Ed Varney on a very successful poetry festival that recently took place in Cumberland. Poetry waits for you. Who knew?
This monthly event, Poetry @ Red Tree, and the venue are casual and welcoming. Arrive around 6:45 to sign up for the open mic.
Red Tree Specialty Coffee is the old Freakin’ Café/Rewind Coffee shop in TinTown at 2546 Rosewall Crescent. It is developing a reputation for coffee that is second to none. A reputation as a mecca for local arts- visual, musical and spoken word – is also developing and a salon-style art show is currently showing. You will be able to enjoy the poetry along with a hot or cold drink and a treat.
Bring a poem (or three), a friend (or two), or just come along on an artist’s date with yourself and meet those folks like you, that like to be stirred by words and the music they make.