In Support of Turkish Resistance
Nine Canadian Poets Unite
Not Just Another Poetry Reading:

FREEDOM
An Anthology of Canadian Poets for Turkish resistance

Published by Editorial Poetas Antiimperialistas de America
poetas.com

Saturday, October 14, 2006

8 PM
O’Hara’s Pub
1197 University
(between Ste- Catherine & René Levesque)

Admission $10.00
includes a free copy of the anthology

www.freedom-anthology.com

Nine Canadian poets will come together in defense of Nermin Þükriye Akar Özordulu, Talat Musa Asoðlu and Kaya Saz who are currently in jails, in isolation, for having a conscience and acting upon it. Their crime—the translation and dissemination of information about abuses in Turkish “F” type isolation cells. These jailed activists are only a few of the many around the world whom governments wish to silence.

FREEDOM includes Canada’s poet laureate Pauline Michel, former laureate George Bowering, Carolyn Marie Souaid, Endre Farkas, Elias Letelier, Geoffrey Cook, Jorge Etcheverry, Katherine Beeman, and Caesar Castillo.

This special evening will feature readings by Pauline Michel, Carolyn Marie Souaid, Endre Farkas, Geoffrey Cook, Elias Letelier, Katherine Beeman, Caesar Castillo and musical guest Swift Years.

None of the poets appearing in the anthology is Turkish; they have taken up the cause because the jailed activists are human beings fighting for the rights and freedoms of their people. And these Canadian poets believe that this is reason enough.
 

George Bowering
was Canada’s first Parliamentary Poet Laureate, but now he is just a poet writing a series of chapbooks. His last book of poems, Changing on the Fly (Polestar) was a finalist for the 2005 Griffin Prize. His new book of poems is Vermeer’s Light: poems 1996-2006 (Talonbooks). His other recent books are Baseball Love (Talonbooks), a memoir, and Left Hook (Raincoast), a book of essays.

Cesar Castillo
is a Chilean-born Canadian poet who belongs to the virtual generation of Chile. His poetry, Eriales del Corazón, is an important and obligatory point of reference for scholars wanting to stay current of the latest literary developments in the Castilian language in Montreal. He has toured throughout Europe and the Americas, and has been published in many languages and anthologies (in print and on-line). He holds a doctorate in the science of energy, and teaches physics at the collegial level in Montreal.

Katharine Beeman
is a Montreal poet involved in international solidarity and with writers and artists encouraging cultural creation as indispensable to understanding and changing the world. In Our America, a dreamer passing, her role is to be a visionary, a realist dreaming the impossible. Direct and Devious Ways: Montreal: The Muses’ Company/La compagnie des Muses, 1993.

Elias Letelier
Chilean expatriate, co-founded FEWQ (Federation of English Language Writers of Quebec) and the Network of Friends and Family of Chilean Political Prisoners. His books include Canciones del Gato, Symphony, Silence, Histoire de la Nuit and Mural. His work has been translated into several languages, and he has given readings in many countries.

Carolyn Marie Souaid
is the author of four collections of poetry, most recently Satie’s Sad Piano, which was short-listed for the 2006 Pat Lowther Award. Her work has been produced for CBC-Radio, and has been published nationally and internationally. She has appeared at many literary festivals across Canada, and was part of a Canadian delegation of poets invited to Paris in 2005 to participate in the 4th International Symposium Against Isolation, a four-day forum on the inhumane treatment of prisoners of conscience in Turkey.

Endre Farkas
poet and playwright, has published nine books of poetry, most recently In The Worshipful Company of Skinners. His work has been translated into French, Spanish, Italian, Hungarian, Slovenian and Turkish. He has edited anthologies, produced records, and has worked with artists to create the theatre of poetry. He has given readings and performances across Canada, Europe and in Chile.

Jorge Etcheverry
is a Chilean born Canadian writer who has been living in Canada since 1975. A translator with a Ph.D. literature, he has published Vitral con pájaros, 2002 and Reflexión hacia el Sur, 2004, among others. He has been published in anthologies like Los poetas y el general, 2002 and Anaconda, Antología di Poeti Americani, 2003.

Geoffrey Cook
from Nova Scotia, currently lives in Montreal and teaches in the English Department of John Abbott College. He holds an M.A. from Carleton University (Comparative Literature) and a B.A. from the University of Toronto (Literary Studies and English Literature). His poems have appeared widely in Canadian journals and anthologies, including The New Canon (Véhicule Press: 2005). His first book is Postscript (Véhicule Press: 2004).

Pauline Michel
was appointed for a two-year term to the position of Parliamentary Poet Laureate in November 2004 following a Canada-wide search. Among her book publications are L’oeil sauvage (poetry) and works of fiction: Mirage (novel), Frissons d’enfants / Haunted childhoods (short stories translated by Nigel Spencer), Les yeux d’eau (novel translated by Jonathan Kaplansky), Le papillon de Vénus (novel translated by Jonathan Kaplansky; to be published by Broken Jaw Press in 2007).