Twisted Poets Literary Salon is back in person every other month, with three features and open mic. September will feature Christine Lowther’s début collection, Hazard, Home (Caitlin Press), Rob Taylor’s latest collection, Weather (Gaspereau Press), and Derek Webster with his latest poetry collection National Animal (Véhicule Press). Sign up for open mic begins at 6:00 pm, readings begin at 6:15 pm. Accessible venue. Open to all.
Location: Britannia Library
Type: Poetry, Reading
Daniela Elza | Natasha Boskic
Readers: Christine Lowther, Hazard, Home (Caitlin Press) | Rob Taylor, Weather (Gaspereau Press)| Derek Webster, National Animal (Véhicule Press)
About The Moderators
Daniela Elza
Daniela Elza lived on three continents before immigrating to Canada in 1999. Her latest poetry collections are the broken boat (2020) & slow erosions (2020)—a chapbook written in collaboration with poet Arlene Ang. Daniela’s work on preserving and growing affordable homes in her community translated into her forthcoming poetry collection SCAR/CITY (McGill-Queen’s University Press, Spring, 2025). Daniela is the recipient of the 2024 Colleen Thibaudeau Award for Outstanding Contribution to Poetry. She lives on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, also known as Vancouver. When she is not writing she works as an editor, mentor, and creative writing instructor.
Natasha Boškić
Natasha Boškić has been hosting Twisted Poets event with Daniela Elza since 2023. She is a Director of Pandora’s Collective, Literary Outreach Society. Natasha’s work has been published in a number of literary journals and magazines in Canada, Europe and US. anthologies and special publications. She plays with media, bringing poetry in everyday life by combining digital and analog technologies. Her latest combination of printed poetry on fabric, weaving it into tapestry, and accessing words through audio or video files was exhibited on Bowen Island in July and in Newton Cultural Centre in August 2024. Her poetry film On the Margin of History, collaboration with Serian poet Mohamad Kebbewar and media artist, Mary McDonald has been screening on Kingsway and West Broadway till April 2025. More about her work, exhibitions and presentations at onlywords.ca. Natasha works at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. She obtained a Ph.D. at UBC, with a focus on ethics and narratives in gameworlds. She lives in Vancouver.
About The Readers
Christine Lowther
Christine Lowther resides in ƛaʔuukwiiʔath (Tla-o-qui-aht) ha’huulthii in Nuučaańuł (Nuu-Chah-Nulth) territory on Vancouver Island’s west coast. She is the editor of Worth More Standing: Poets and Activists Pay Homage to Trees and its youth companion volume, Worth More Growing. She is the author of four poetry collections. In 2014 the Pacific Rim Arts Society presented Christine with their inaugural Rainy Coast Award for Significant Accomplishment. Her memoir Born Out of This was shortlisted for the 2015 Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize. She won the Federation of British Columbia Writers’ 2015 Nonfiction Prize and was shortlisted for the 2023 CBC Nonfiction Prize. Christine served as Tofino’s Poet Laureate 2020-2022.
Rob Taylor
Rob Taylor is the author of five poetry collections, including Strangers and The News, which was a finalist for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. His new collection is Weather, published this May from Gaspereau Press. Rob is also the editor of What the Poets Are Doing: Canadian Poets in Conversation and Best Canadian Poetry 2019. He teaches creative writing at the University of the Fraser Valley, and lives with his family in Port Moody, BC, on the unceded territories of the kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem) people.
Derek Webster
Derek Webster’s second collection of poems National Animal (Vehicule) appeared in Spring 2024. His first, Mockingbird (2015), was a finalist for the Gerald Lampert Award for best poetry debut in Canada. He received an MFA from Washington University in St. Louis, where he studied with Carl Phillips, and is the founding editor of Maisonneuve magazine. Recent work appears in Blackbox Manifold (Sheffield), The Honest Ulsterman (Ireland), Maisonneuve, The Walrus, Freefall, Grain, The Dalhousie Review and Stand (UK). He lives in Montreal and Toronto. derekwebsterwriter.com
