News and Events
Artistic Director – VERSeFest
VERSe Ottawa is hiring. We are seeking a well-organized and well-connected director to develop a rich and diverse programme for VERSeFest, Ottawa’s internal poetry festival, and to organize and oversee the festival. The position requires programme development...
Margaret Michèle Cook at Salon du livre de l’Outaouais
On Feb 29th at 6 pm, Ottawa Francophone Poet Laureate Margaret Michèle Cook will participate in the event Livres comme l'air at the Salon du livre de l'Outaouais. Margaret Michèle has been matched with a writer in prison and has written a dedication of one of her...
Poèmes de la Cité Redux
Poèmes de la Cité Redux, a project organized by the City of Ottawa’s Francophone Poet Laureate for 2019-2021 Margaret Michèle Cook, includes texts written by sixteen poets and works of art by ten visual artists inspired by the theme Ottawa: our story-history, our...
Poetry Workshop – The Underglimmer
Workshop Conductor: John Wall Barger Saturday, June 8th, 2-5 pm, MacOdrum Library 583, (Archives & Special Collection) Program Fee $40 Reduced Fee (for underemployed, students, seniors, or economically disadvantaged) $20 Workshop size: 12 Playful writing exercises and...
Deanna Young and Margaret Michèle Cook Designated Ottawa Newest Poet Laureates
Ottawa, March 19, 2019 - We are proud to announce that Deanna Young and Margaret Michèle Cook will be named City of Ottawa Poet Laureates for a two-year term. At the end of adjudication managed by VERSe Ottawa, a panel of judges chose these two writers because of...
Poèmes de la Cité 2019
Following its first edition in 2018, Ottawa Poet Laureate Andrée Lacelle's project Poèmes de la Cité 2019 - nos lieux, nos pas continues its celebration of Ottawa with the words and images of 11 poets and 10 visual artists (several of them also poets in their own...
Our Poet Laureate in Action — in Switzerland!
For three weeks this past December, Ottawa's English Poet Laureate, Jamaal Jackson Rogers was in Switzerland to conduct his 10th international spoken word residency. In this, he was accompanied by with poet and film maker, Randy Kelly. Jamaal and Randy took their...
Volunteer Appreciation Night
Vimy Brewing 145 Loretta Ave N Thurs Feb 7, 7:00pm Free drinks for volunteers Book draws Preview of the VerseFest 2019 program Poetry with Manahil Bandukwala, Chantal Havard, Rhube Knox Music with Conyer Clayton and Nathanael Larochette Special guests The...
VERSeFest’s New Poet-in-Residence
VERSeFest is thrilled to introduce our inaugural Poet-in-Residence, local poet and short fiction author Amal El-Mohtar. During her tenure, she will lead a youth workshop, journal for the festival via social media, and pen a poem for the occasion. She will also be...
Poems and Images of Ottawa — A Project Launched by Francophone Poet Laureate, Andrée Lacelle
Ottawa Poet Laureate, Andrée Lacelle, organized and presented the project Poems of the City 2018 – our waters, our spirits. Twenty-odd poets and local artists created original works to celebrate the aquatic diversity – rivers, canals, streams, ponds, marshes, lakes...