The Raving Poets

Special Guests on the Radar

The new Raving Poets series, Born to Write kicked off this last Wednesday. The Kasbar welcomed back the poets with open arms and super-sized tins of Stella, which, according to pianoist Thomas Trofimuk, were calculated to inebriate the band and incite a media-worthy spectacle in the green room involving “old man flood pants and gherkin” impressions of John McCain and other minor-league lunacy. Neither the police nor the media were called and thankfully, Michael Appleby was still willing to read, though he’d dressed down for the occasion.

Next week, the Raving Poets host two touring artists from Montreal, so the open stage portion of the evening will see only eight poets perform, instead of the usual sixteen. Here’s a little info on our illustrious guests.

Katia Grubisic is a Montreal-based writer, editor, and translator. She’s touring around this great country in support of her latest collection of verse, What if Red Ran Out, published in the spring of 2008 by Goose Lane.

Oana Avasilichioaei is touring in support of her latest book, Feria: A Poempark. Her poetry is garnering significant national and international attention. A Spanish translation of her book Abandon will be published later this year. Her writing has appeared in the Chicago Review, Jacket Magazine in Australia, nypoesi in Norway, as well as in many Canadian literary journals. She has given readings and talks across Canada and in the USA, Mexico, Spain, and Slovenia. Her translation of a poetry collection by Nobel Prize nominee Nichita Stanescu has been published under the title Occupational Sickness. Avasilichioaei lives in Montreal where she teaches and coordinates the Atwater Poetry Project reading series. Here’s a super-cool PDF flyer about the book, and you can also snag the dead trees at Amazon.ca.

Hope to see all you cool cats down at the Kasbar.

“You must get drunk. On wine,
poetry, virtue, what you will.”
— Beaudelaire

Gord McRae

← Prev     Next →