KPU creative writing instructors read poems at SFU event
Lunch Poems provides a space for those interested in poetry to gather and connect during lunchtime
Aislinn Hunter (left) and Billeh Nickerson (right) will read some of their latest poetry at the event. (Submitted/Aislinn Hunter/Billeh Nickerson)
Two Kwantlen Polytechnic University creative writing instructors will share their poetry on Dec. 18 at Lunch Poems, a monthly event at the Simon Fraser University Harbour Centre’s Teck Gallery in downtown Vancouver.
Bringing poetry enthusiasts together, the event, which is from noon to 1:00 pm, will feature award-winning novelist and poet Aislinn Hunter and author and editor Billeh Nickerson as they unveil some of their latest poems that have yet to be published.
“People literally bring their lunch bags and are there on their lunch breaks,” Nickerson says. “It’s nice to connect with those folks as opposed to [being in] a loud bar or a place where [they’re] making lattes and all you can hear is the frothing of the milk.”
Lunch Poems gives writers and poets an opportunity to read work for an audience before it’s ready to be published and reach the broader public.
The event also encourages the audience to slow down and join the collective experience of listening to live poetry. Nickerson says people have the chance to quench their “hunger for connection” instead of joining a virtual meeting, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic.
“With poetry readings, I love hearing those little weird noises that people make [when] they respond to something,” Nickerson says.
“As a writer, hearing an audience react to stuff, I learn about my poems and I learn how to hold a word a bit longer or how I would edit. Sometimes, the audience does the editing for you, which is a great little gift.”
It is important for communities to get together and uphold art, Hunter says, adding that poetry readings serve as a means of understanding, communication, and solidarity.
Hunter is currently working on a series of poems referred to as form poems, where each work references a piece of art and addresses gaps in experience and thinking.
“We’re living in very urgent times [when], globally, different countries are going through large-scale cataclysmic events, and I believe that poetry meets urgency in its own way,” Hunter says.
Her most recent book of poetry is Linger, Still, which won the Fred Cogswell Prize for Excellence in Poetry in 2018.
The book captures different subjects such as philosophy, being in the natural world, a writer’s community in Scotland, as well as poems about looking at taxidermied animals, among other areas.
“I was working as a poet in residence at a museum,” Hunter says. “I was taking different dead animals and working with them for a full day, finding out about their biography and about the species.”
Nickerson’s book Duct-Taped Roses, which came out in 2021, features elegies reflecting on community, life, and other experiences with elements of nostalgia and humour, he says.
With a strong community within KPU’s creative writing department, Hunter says she would like to see similar lunch readings taking place at the university’s campuses.
“We are both teaching creative writing, and [it’s] such an important part for us to advocate for folks studying creative writing,” Nickerson says.
Those interested in attending Lunch Poems can visit www.bit.ly/3VeSfc4.
