After two years, the Edmonton Poetry Festival is excited to celebrate Poetry Month a little like it used to. The festival returns from April 24th to May 1st, 2022 with a variety of in-person and online events, including a few favourites from the “before times.”
Poetry is a source of energy, entertainment, and joy. Like music and visual art, it can also be a means to express what matters to us and our communities. For more than a decade and a half, the Edmonton Poetry Festival has gathered people together to celebrate poetry in all its forms. It continues to be fuelled by the strength and diversity of local poets, poetry fans, and the wider arts community.
While the pandemic interrupted in-person poetry performances, the Edmonton Poetry Festival was still able to showcase—in collaboration with LitFest in 2020 and 2021—poetry and local poets in virtual events.
Now the Edmonton Poetry Festival is back and eager to get back to highlighting poetry this April under the leadership of a new artistic producer Shima Robinson, who herself is a stellar poet and spoken word artist.
The 2022 Festival will feature Titilope Sonuga, Edmonton’s poet laureate, who will be performing as well as hosting a master class. Governor General’s Literary Award winner Norma Dunning and Rayanne Haines, both writers in residence for the Metro Edmonton Federation of Libraries, will host events showcasing local poets.
Readings from established and emerging poets will include Marilyn Dumont, Alice Major, Peter Midgley, Matthew Weigel, Shazia Hafiz Ramji, Jason Purcell, Paul Pearson, and more.
Collaborative events will be held with the University of Alberta of Press, the Indigenous Poets Society, Sublime Intervention Collective, Youth Write, and Poets for Ukraine. The Edmonton Poetry Festival will also feature “Inclement Weather,” a workshop and reading that highlights how poetry can spark conversation about climate change.
Tzadeka and the Murder Hornettes will headline a poetry and music event on the final night of the festival. To close the festival, the final day will be dedicated to the pre-pandemic favourite, Cafe Readings, which invites local poets to read and share their own work.
Full event descriptions, venue locations, and ticket information can be found at edmontonpoetryfestival.com.