Upcoming Events

Vertigo at CVAF

It’s time for the 2023 Vertigo Open Stage event at the Cathedral Village Arts Festival!
Our feature poet this year is the Saskatchewan Poet Laureate, Carol Rose Goldeneagle, and we have music from The Last Birds too. Come along to listen and enjoy, or bring your words and join us on stage! Please email info@vertigoseries.com to register to perform.

Monday May 22nd, 7pm at Artesian

Accessibility:

The Artesian is a fully licensed, all-ages, and wheelchair accessible facility located in the heart of Regina’s Cathedral neighbourhood. Please note, we will adhere to all Covid-19 safety regulations put in place by the Artesian venue at the time.

More information about the Cathedral Village Arts Festival can be found on their website, www.cvaf.ca

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Our Guests

 Carol Rose GoldenEagle (previously Carol Daniels) is Cree/Dene with roots in Sandy Bay, northern Saskatchewan. She is a published novelist, poet, playwright, visual artist, and musician.  She is the author of the award-winning novel Bearskin Diary (2015), Hiraeth, a book of poetry (2018), Bone Black (2019), and Narrows of Fear (2020). Her two most recent books of poetry are Essential Ingredients (2021) and Stations of the Crossed (2022). Carol has also written poems including “Qu’Appelle” (2021), “DNA” (2019) and essays including “Joy & heartbreak: Life as an Indigenous mother” (2021), “Sanctuary” (2020) and a “Personal Essay” (2016).  Her children’s storytelling include “The Ugly Little Christmas Tree” (2020), “The 7 spotted Lady Bug” (2021), and a children’s play, “Mr. Brown” (not yet published).  In June of 2021, Carol was named as the 2021 – 2023 Saskatchewan Poet Laureate!

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With haunting harmonies and intricate guitar work, Last Birds’ music is steeped in early country folk yet reflective of modern life.   Using their small Canadian prairie town as a backdrop, Mike Davis and Lindsay Arnold weave together rural legends and current day experiences to form a modern prairie gothic.  Their songs veer away from overly romanticized views of small town life to peer into in the dark corners of the local bar, peek in the windows of the abandoned house down the street and pine for something or someone beyond the veil.  Their “two voices, two guitars” approach to live performances creates a storytelling experience sure to silence the room. 

The duo was nominated for multiple awards in 2021 and 2022, including a Saskatchewan Music Award for Roots/Folk Artist of the year as well as Saskatchewan Country Music Association’s Group and Alternative Country Album of the Year.  Their debut EP, released in April 2021, was well received and reached #1 on Kansas Public Radio while spending several weeks on the Roots Music Report charts for Top Folk Album and Top Canadian Folk Album. 

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Vertigo Spring Stage at the Mackenzie

SORRY! THIS EVENT IS POSTPONED!!

This is our first Open Stage event of the year, and brought to you in partnership with the Mackenzie Art Gallery! Our feature performer is Iryn Tushabe, and music from Ryan Hicks. If you’d like to read, please email us at info@vertigoseries.com Writers of all genres and at all levels of experience are welcome. The Mackenzie Art Gallery is a fully accessible space, and as always, this event is free to attend.

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Our Guests:

Iryn Tushabe is a Ugandan-Canadian writer and journalist. Her creative nonfiction has appeared in Briarpatch Magazine, Adda, Prairies North, The Walrus, and on CBC Saskatchewan. Her short fiction has been published in Grain Magazine, the Carter V. Cooper Short Fiction Anthology Series, and been included in the Journey Prize Stories (volumes 30 and 33.) In 2021, she was shortlisted for the Caine Prize for African Writing. A 2023 winner of the Writers’ Trust McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize, she’s currently finishing her debut novel.

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Ryan Hicks is an alt-pop, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer from Regina,Saskatchewan. He has over 20 years of experience in music performance, and holds both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Music Education. Throughout his career he has released three full length albums, and is set to release his fourth record, Experience, on March 24th,2023. Hicks has been featured on SiriusXM and CBC radio, and has charted on campus radio across Canada. He has toured extensively throughout Western Canada, and has showcased at notable festivals including Breakout West and Gateway Music Festival.

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Vertigo Online

Join us for Vertigo Series online and enjoy readings from three authors and a special performance from a musician.

This program is conducted through Zoom. Please register in advance with the library to receive a reminder, the evaluation, and any other resources. https://www.reginalibrary.ca/attend/programs/8023090

Click the link to join the performance: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89820169835

This event is offered in partnership with Regina Public Library. 

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Our Guests:

Gavin Bradley is an award-winning writer, and palaeontologist, from Belfast, Northern Ireland, currently living in Edmonton, on Treaty 6 territory. His work has appeared in The Irish Times, The North, Best New British and Irish Poets, and Glass Buffalo. His debut poetry collection, Separation Anxiety, is available from your local indie bookseller or Worldwide. Instagram: @gavinbradleywrites

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S. Portico Bowman

The structured chaos of a kaleidoscope is a soothing beauty and Portico’s favourite word. She writes to puzzle and play. Infinite structures of language craft the images for characters who have unpredictable and transformative lives.

For twenty years Portico’s home was in a collage of places. She worked in Kansas as an art professor, art writer, and gallery director. Her love life was in California. Her father, family, writing community, and many friends are in Canada. In 2021 Portico completed her work at the university, and moved to California for two years. Did you know their population is almost equal to that of Canada? All those people had quite an impact. She convinced Tom and Florence to move back to Kansas City where she is teaching kindergarten and first grade. California can really change a person. However, it turns out the early lessons are the same. Play fair. Be kind. Write books with your friends.

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Dara Schindelka (she/her) is a femfolk musician with a touch of the north & the pull of the prairies. Her original music shares stories through song while her keen interest in traditional folksongs that tell the stories of women add texture and context. Dara tours as a soloist and a trio when not working with other music projects in western Canada. 

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Rita Bouvier is a Métis writer and ‘retired’ educator from Saskatchewan. Rita will be reading selections from her fourth collection, a beautiful rebellion, Thistledown Press, Spring 2023. Rita’s poetry has appeared in literary anthologies and journals—print and online—musicals, and television productions, and has been translated into Spanish, German and Cree-Michif of her home community of sakitawak—Île-à-la-Crosse, Saskatchewan, Canada situated on the historic trading and meeting grounds of Cree and Dene people.

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Seasons’s Readings!

Vertigo’s Winter Stage is here, at a brand new venue!

Join our feature poet Mike Trussler, novelist Robyn Dansereau and storyteller James Park for a cosy evening of words and wisdom. Music comes from our special guest, Karley Parovsky. Books by our performers will be available to purchase!

This venue at Wallace Street is fully accessible and stair-free! There is plenty of free parking and it is also on the main bus routes. As with every Vertigo event, the evening is free to attend so that everyone can enjoy the performances.

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Our Guests:

James Park is a local author, storyteller, and voice actor. He has also spent the last several years as a member of Regina Little Theatre as an actor and director.

He has an undying love of world folklore and fairy tales.

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Robyn Dansereau writes under her maiden name Robyn Tocker and has published three books since 2012. She has been writing for over fifteen years, mainly novels, and enjoys exploring what happens after happily-ever-after with her books. She lives on an acreage with her husband and two dogs; she runs Quill & Ink Bookstore in Qu’Appelle and is also a personal trainer.

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Michael Trussler writes poetry, short stories and creative non-fiction. His memoir concerning mental illness, The Sunday Book, was published by Palimpsest Press in 2022.

Two poetry collections have recently appeared: Rare Sighting of a Guillotine on the Savannah (Mansfield Press, 2021) and The History Forest (University of Regina Press, 2022); all of his work engages with the beauty and violence of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. He teaches English at the University of Regina.

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Karley Parovsky is a violin/fiddle player, composer and arranger. With roots in classical music, Karley has spent time traveling the world to learn from masters of the instrument in genres ranging from fiddle, to funk, to bluegrass, and beyond.

Coming from a classical background and finding passion and inspiration in the fiddle and folk world, Karley’s music blends her love for all styles.

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Vertigo is back!

Join us at The Artesian for a summer stage event, featuring Katherine Lawrence, Sheryl Doherty, Anne Lazurko and music from Val Halla.

The Artesian is a fully licensed, all-ages, and wheel-chair accessible facility located in the heart of Regina’s Cathedral Neighbourhood.

Our Guests:

Anne Lazurko is a graduate of the Humber School of Writing. Her second novel, What is Written on the Tongue, was published by ECW Press in April 2022. The story is set in 1945 Indonesia where she was fortunate to travel for research (with gratitude to both the Saskatchewan Arts Board and Canada Council).

Anne’s story, Belle’s Boys, was recently published in Grain Literary Magazine and her first novel, Dollybird, received the Willa Award for Historical Fiction and was shortlisted for the Saskatchewan fiction award. She was ecstatic to have poetry appear in Apart: a year of pandemic poetry and prose (SWG 2021), and Gush: Menstrual Manifestos For Our Time (Frontenac House, 2018).

Saskatchewan born and raised, Anne has a Political Science degree from the University of Saskatchewan, is an award- winning freelance agricultural journalist and a no-awards, but damn good, farmer. Her four grown children have flown the coop and she lives with her husband and dog near Weyburn, Saskatchewan.

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Katherine Lawrence is the author of five books: Black Umbrella, poetry (Turnstone Press, 2022); Stay, a young adult verse novel (Coteau Books, 2017; Shadowpaw Press, 2022); Never Mind, poetry (Turnstone Books: 2016), Lying to Our Mothers (Coteau Books: 2006), and Ring Finger, Left Hand (Coteau Books: 2001).

She is also the author of two chapbooks: Start with the Answer (gritlit Press: 2009) and Split-ends (Jackpine Press: 2005).

Among Katherine Lawrence’s other awards and honours, Black Umbrella was winner of the John V. Hicks Long Manuscript Award, and Stay received the Moonbeam Award (Gold) in Children’s Poetry and was nominated for two Saskatchewan Book Awards.

Katherine is a former writer-in-residence with Saskatoon Public Library. She coaches emerging and established writers, offers writing workshops, and holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Saskatchewan.

She lives in Saskatoon with her husband.

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Sheryl Doherty is Cree and Irish. She was a 60s scoop child and was raised in Penticton, BC. Sheryl is a new author and is writing the Izzy series. She loves to read Young Adult fantasy fiction and historical fiction.

She has a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Education. She also earned her Masters of English in Indigenous Literature. Her first novel Finding Izzy was short listed for the Indigenous Voices Award, and she has been nominated for Saskatchewan Book Awards. 

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Music at this event comes from Val Halla.

Val Halla is a singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Regina, Saskatchewan on Treaty 4 territory, and proud to be Metis. Val Halla has a gritty style of soulful guitar-driven roots & folk-rock. Her fans cannot get enough of her blue-collar storytelling, and honest heartland music.

She has been featured in both Guitar World Magazine and Guitar Player Magazine, and is currently an endorsing artist with Canadian companies Mack Amps and Carparelli Guitars, and Battle Creek, Michigan based GHS Strings.

Covid-19 Safety Requirements

While inside the Artesian, all patrons, volunteers, staff, and performers are required to wear a mask at all times unless actively eating or drinking or on stage to perform. For most events at the Artesian we continue to serve refreshments in our basement.

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Come share your words with us at Artesian! Join us for the first in-person Open Stage at Cathedral Village Arts Festival since 2019.

Monday May 23rd, 8pm at the Artesian.

Poet Raye Hendrickson is our feature performer, and readers can be accompanied by music from the Regina Transit Authority band!

All welcome – please email info@vertigoseries.ca to register. 

Raye Hendrickson has loved words her entire life. They have fed her, moved her to laughter and to tears, and stretched her mind. Raye writes poetry to discover who she is and what she thinks, and if her poetry can fill a space in someone’s soul, it is worth every hour of wrestling to find just the right phrase. Raye lives in the Cathedral area with her partner Elspeth. They delight in the vibrancy of this neighbourhood and the joys of owning a 100 year old home. Raye’s work has appeared in several literary magazines and anthologies, and her first book of poetry, Five Red Sentries, was a finalist for two Saskatchewan Book Awards in 2020.

Write Your Life

Monday May 23rd, 4pm at Artesian

Are you feeling an urge, an itch, to share things about your life but aren’t sure why you should, or how to start? This workshop will help you gain confidence in telling your particular story.

Through a variety of writing exercises, you will discover why it is important that you write about your life. You will identify what people need to hear from you. You will discover ways of telling your personal stories through creative writing.

Participants are encouraged to bring paper or pen or device to write with.

Funding provided by SaskLotteries (in partnership with Sask Culture), City of Regina, Canada Council for the Arts.

This workshop is in partnership with The Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild and the Cathedral Village Arts Festival.

Accessibility:

The Artesian is a fully licensed, all-ages, and wheelchair accessible facility located in the heart of Regina’s Cathedral neighbourhood.

Please note that The Artesian requires proof of double vaccination and ID, or a negative PCR test dated within 48 hours of the event, and masking at all times (unless removing it momentarily for eating or drinking) for all participants, volunteers, and staff. (See their policy here.)

Both these workshops are part of the Cathedral Village Arts Festival, taking place May 23-28, 2022 in Regina, SK. See more at https://www.cvaf.ca/

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Vertigo Series Performances

Date: Saturday December 18, 2021
Time: 4:00 – 5:00 pm
Location: The Studio at Cornwall
(2114 11th Ave. Regina, SK)

featuring
Annette Bower
dee Hobsbawn-Smith
Zachari Logan
Jay Semko

We’re thrilled to announce that The Vertigo Series is transitioning to new leadership – Annabel Townsend and Carla Harris are taking the reigns to lead Vertigo into the future! Tara Dawn Solheim is grateful to the community for the supporting the series over the past 10 years and is excited to move on to new adventures.

Join us on December 18 as we pass the torch with an event at The Studio, a new venue in the Cornwall Centre. There will be an all-day Local Book Market presented by Penny University Bookstore concluding with a festive Vertigo event at 4:00 pm.
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Annette Bower is the author of five contemporary romance novels published by Soul Mate Publishing, LLC. She lives in Regina. Her happy-ever-after stories are set in Saskatchewan, Canada because we fall in love too. Annette is a member of the Romance Writers of America, the Saskatchewan Romance Writers, SWG and TWUC. She enjoys giving readings and answering questions about life and romance. When she’s not writing, she enjoys walking and bicycling around the streets, parks, and lanes in her home city and other cities she travels to around the world, always watching. One day the way you hold hands, your kiss in a park, your expression when you meet your special someone may appear in one of her novels or short stories because writing is her passion.

More at: https://annettebower.com/

Zachari Logan is a queer Canadian poet and artist whose art is exhibited widely in both group and solo exhibitions throughout North America, Europe and Asia. In 2014, Logan received the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for emerging artists, and in 2016, Logan was long-listed for the Sobey Award. In 2010, his chapbook, A Eulogy for the Buoyant, was published by JackPine Press. Zachari Logan lives in Regina, Saskatchewan.

More at: https://www.radiantpress.ca/

dee hobsbawn-smith’s award-winning essays, poetry, fiction, and journalism has appeared in literary journals, newspapers, websites, magazines, and anthologies in Canada, the USA and Scotland. She is the author of eight books and one poetry chapbook, most recently Bread & Water: Essays, published by University of Regina Press in 2021. A former restaurateur and a Red Seal chef, she holds an MFA in Writing and an MA in English. Her first poetry collection, Wildness Rushing In, was a finalist for Best Poetry Collection and Book of the Year at the Saskatchewan Book Awards. Her book, Foodshed: An Edible Alberta Alphabet, won three international awards for its portrayal of small-scale sustainable food production and issues. dee’s debut novel, Dryland Diaries, will be published by Radiant Press in Fall 2022. She is a quilter, gardener, dog lover, and runner, but has not yet learned to play her guitar. Dee lives west of Saskatoon with her husband, the writer Dave Margoshes.

More at: www.deehobsbawnsmith.com

Jay Semko is a poet and songwriter from Saskatoon best known for his work as bassist/vocalist with The Northern Pikes and as an award-winning solo recording artist and music composer for film and television. He is also a recovering addict with bipolar disorder who openly shares his experiences with mental health and addiction challenges through his music, writing, and public speaking. From the hundreds of poems penned by Jay, this book is a selection of original poems and song lyrics exploring his experiences with addiction, recovery, bipolar disorder, faith, spirituality, love, relationships, and the abstract realm. Fans and followers of Jay’s work as a songwriter and composer will relate to his words and be drawn in to his world. Jay challenges the reader with a smile and a tear.

More at: https://www.wooddragonbooks.com/

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Vertigo Series
Tuesday, June 29, 2021
5:00 pm CST (SK Time)

Ariel Gordon
Rayanne Haines
Cooper Skjeie
Leona Theis

Jessica Moore

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Online via Zoom
Free

Everyone is welcome!

Register:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIqdOquqzMvGNFHRc8nl7kLJGriMVEgzLGy

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email with link to join the event.

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2021 CVAF Open Stage!
with feature performance by
Nisha Patel

Monday, May 24, 2021, 7 pm CST (SK Time)
Online via Zoom
Register to attend for free
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Presented by The Vertigo Series, Regina Word Up and Creative City Centre as part of Cathedral Village Arts Festival.
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Perform your words, poems, songs, stories, spoken word at the online Open Stage! Open to writers, musicians, listeners & lovers of all ages. Come & share or come & listen!

Register in advance using the link below. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email with a link to join.

https://us02web.zoom.us/…/tZYrfu…
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Sign up to share when registering or by emailing info@vertigoseries.com. You can also sign up at the event.

Performers will each have approx. 3 minutes to share. A second spot may be added if time allows.
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NISHA PATEL BIOGRAPHY

Nisha Patel is an award-winning queer poet & artist. She is the City of Edmonton’s Poet Laureate, and the 2019 Canadian Individual Slam Champion. She currently works as the 2021 Regional Writer in Residence. She is a recipient of the Edmonton Artists’ Trust Fund Award and the University of Alberta Alumni Award of Excellence. Her debut collection COCONUT is available now at Glass Bookshop. You can find her at nishapatel.ca.

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Instagram Takeover with Randell Adjei

Thursday, February 25th, 2021
6:00 pm CST
Online Event

Join us as artist Randell Adjei takes over the MacKenzie’s Instagram for special performances with Brad Bellegarde (InfoRed), ecoaborijanelle, and guest artists.

Presented as a partnership between Mackenzie Art Gallery and The Vertigo Series.

Photo courtesy Tourism Regina of Randell’s 2020 performance at the MacKenzie in conjunction with the exhibition “RISE” https://mackenzie.art/experience/exhibition/rise/

Randell Adjei Biography

Randell Adjei is an Author, Inspirational Speaker, Arts Educator and Community Leader who uses the spoken word to empower and transform through Edutainment. He is the founder of one of Toronto’s largest and longest running youth led initiatives; Reaching Intelligent Souls Everywhere (R.I.S.E Edutainment).

The beat of his art was found after years of being lost. He found himself by turning his struggles around to inspire others. His story is one of an Alchemist who truly transformed his life from rock to gold inspiring everyone he comes into contact to strive to unearth the pure potential within them.

Randell shares these messages on various stages as an emcee/host, performer and arts practitioner. Randell is also a MaRS DD – Studio Y Cohort 2 Fellow, 1 of 5 coaches involved in the Toronto Public Library’s (Poetry Saved Our Lives) project and a regularly sought after speaker and presenter with the Toronto District School Board and Toronto Catholic School Board.

A featured performer on TEDxUTSC and has shared stages with the likes of Jessie Reyez, Terry Crews, Paul Mooney, Maestro Fresh Wes and D’bi Young.

NEW DANCE HORIZONS’
in Partnership with
VERTIGO SERIES and QUEER CITY CINEMA
Presents
A Rare Blue Moon Halloween Howl!

Vertigo Series Open Stage!
with feature reading by Micheline Maylor
Online via Zoom @ CVAF
Monday, May 18, 2020, 7-9 pm CST (SK time)
Free to attend

Perform your words, poems, songs, stories, spoken word at the online Open Stage!

Share your work or join us to listen. Open to writers, musicians, listeners & lovers of all ages.

Feature reading by Poet Laureate Emeritus of Calgary, Micheline Maylor.

Email info@vertigoseries.com to receive a Zoom invitation and to register to perform at the event.

Performers will each have 3 minutes to share. A second spot may be added if time allows.

Open Stage presented by The Vertigo Series as part of Cathedral Village Arts Festival with support from The League of Canadian Poets, Saskatchewan Arts Board, SaskCulture and Saskatchewan Lotteries.

This event is free to attend and is a partnership between the Vertigo Series and the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild. Presented as part of the Cathedral Village Arts Festival.

Writing Workshop
Mon. May 18, 2020, 4-6 pm

Language, Lines, and Leaping: the Art and Craft in Short Forms (Poetry and Prose)

In this seminar, workshop, you will be asked to consider the art of choosing “the best words in the best order” as Coleridge said. We will consider concrete language and lines as units of craft. We will consider enjambment or the sentence as an artful structure. We will consider how lines click together to create new and exciting connections in the readers’ mind. You will be asked to write drafts and follow writing exercises.

Dr. Micheline Maylor

Dr. Micheline Maylor is the Poet Laureate Emeritus of Calgary (2016-18). She is a University of Calgary Senator, a Walrus talker, a TEDx talker, and she was the Calgary Public Library Author in Residence (2016). Micheline attained a Ph.D. at the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne in English Language and Literature with a specialization in Creative Writing and 20th Century Canadian Literature. She teaches creative writing at Mount Royal University where she won the 2015 Teaching Excellence Award, the 2018 Distinguished Faculty Award. She also teaches poetry short form at the University of Calgary. She was short-listed for the Robert Kroetsch award for experimental poetry. She serves as poetry acquisitions editor at Frontenac House Press since 2012. She is the co-founder of Freefall Literary Society and remains a consulting editor. Her most recent book Little Wildheart (U of A Press 2017) was long-listed for both the Pat Lowther and the Raymond Souster Awards. Her collection Whirr and Click was shortlisted for the Pat Lowther Award (2013). Her latest “How to be a Bad Wife” is due in 2021 with the University of Alberta Press.

How to watch:

Watch the launch from the comfort of your home or favourite wifi spot! Register and receive the Zoom link (recommended) or watch via CVAF Facebook Live, CVAF YouTube Live, or at www.cvaf.ca.

To watch via Zoom:
– Register for the event here https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/8215881124052/WN_Pj3K6GynRDG1fR7VtmE9sg
– In advance of the event, download Zoom
– At the time of the event, follow the emailed link or login to zoom and enter the meeting ID and password that were emailed to you.

To watch via Facebook Live:
– Navigate to the CVAF Facebook Page starting at 1 p.m. to find the Live video.
– On a computer, you can see the Live video on the Home tab or the Videos Tab.
– On the Facebook app, you can see the Live Video on the Home tab. (Just scroll down.)
– If you do not see a Live video it may not have started. Refresh your page to see updated posts.
– BONUS – Once the video is streaming, consider starting a “watch party” (under the share button) and invite your Facebook friends to watch with you.

To watch via YouTube Live:
– Navigate to the CVAF YouTube page from your browser or YouTube app starting at 1 p.m.
– On a computer or phone, find the Live video under “Home” or “Videos”.
– If you do not see a Live video it may not have started. Refresh your page to see updated posts.

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InfoRed & Randell Adjei
Thursday, January 30th
7 to 9 PM
Craft Services Café
MacKenzie Art Gallery
3475 Albert St. Regina, SK

Presented as partnership between MacKenzie Art Gallery and Vertigo Series, join us Thursday, January 30 from 7 to 9 PM in the MAG café programming space for spoken word performances by Toronto-based poet, Randell Adjei and Regina-based poet and rapper InfoRed! Both artists will perform their own original work and then come together for a talk back conversation, exploring topics related to youth empowerment, spoken word and grassroots education.

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Vertigo Series
Monday, October 28, 2019 7:30pm
@ Crave Kitchen + Wine Bar
1925 Victoria Ave, Regina, SK
Admission: Free
All ages. Cash bar.

Readings by:
Adam Pottle
Joanne Weber
Deaf Crows Collective members:
Mustafa Alabssi, Fatima Nafisa and Shayla Tanner

Music by:
Francois le Roux, the HA!Man from South Africa

The Vertigo Series is pleased to offer live ASL interpretation and real-time captioning for this event.

Readings From The Land

with Jan Zwicky and Randy Lundy
in conversation with Trevor Herriot

Wednesday, June 26, 2019 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm
College Ave Building, Room 112 (CB 112)
2155 College Ave. Regina, SK
Free parking available at rear of building.

Event is free and all are welcome.

Please join us for a conversation with Jan Zwicky and Randy Lundy as they discuss their work and read from their books. Hosted by Trevor Herriot, author of Islands of Grass, Towards a Prairie Atonement, and River in a Dry Land.

Presented as a partnership between the Vertigo Series and University of Regina Press.

With support from: Humanities Research Institute, Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild, U of R Faculty of Arts, U of R English Department.

Jan Zwicky is a Governor General Award-winning poet and philosopher. She is the author of The Long Walk, Forge, Songs for Relinquishing the Earth, and the co-author, with Robert Bringhurst, of Learning to Die. She lives on Quadra Island in British Columbia.

Randy Lundy is a member of the Barren Lands (Cree) First Nation. He has published three collections of poetry, Under the Night Sun, Gift of the Hawk, and Blackbird Song. He lives in Pense, Saskatchewan.

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Vertigo Series Open Stage
in partnership with
Cathedral Village Arts Festival

Monday, May 20, 2019 7:00pm
@ The Artesian on 13th, 2627 13th Ave. (Wheelchair accessible)
Admission: Free. All ages. Cash bar.

Feature Performer:
Fabrice Koffy

House Musicians:
Cynthia Wells & The Rabble

Bring your words, poems, songs, stories, spoken word to share at the Open Stage!
Set your words to music with house musicians!

E-mail info@vertigoseries.com or sign up at the door.

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Performance & Writing Workshop with Fabrice Koffy:
Slam to Animate Words / Le Slam pour Animer les Mots
Monday, May 20 3:30 – 5:30pm
The Artesian on 13th – 2627 13th Ave, Regina (Wheelchair accessible)
Cost: Free
Everyone welcome

Join the Vertigo Series and the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild for a free afternoon performance and writing workshop with Montreal-based spoken word performer Fabrice Koffy at the Cathedral Village Arts Festival.
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Description of workshop:

The workshop will be rhythmic and structured. Initially, written and oral exercises will be juxtaposed with games to use the body in space. Short oral history and poetry presentations will punctuate the session. Little by little, while integrating various techniques, the participants will be able to express themselves through the construction of a personal text within which they will have chosen a theme.

Les ateliers sont rythmés et structurés. Au départ, aux exercices à l’écrit et à l’oral sont juxtaposés des jeux permettant d’utiliser son corps dans l’espace. De courts exposés d’histoire de l’oralité et de la poésie ponctuent les séances. Petit à petit, tout en assimilant diverses techniques, les participants seront amenés à s’exprimer grâce à la construction d’un texte personnel dont ils auront choisi le thème porteur.

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Fabrice Koffy English Biography:

Originally from the Ivory Coast, Fabrice Koffy settled in Montreal in 1998 to continue his university studies. It is here that he began to express himself as an artist and joined the famous collective, Kalmunity Vibe, with which he has collaborated for several years. In 2006, he met guitarist Guillaume Soucy. A complicity set in and from this prolific union has come a series of shows and the album Poésic, published in 2009 and selected by the Festival Vue sur la Relève and the FrancoFolies de Montréal. In 2016, he received the Coup de coeur awards from Ici Musique, Diversité artistique Montréal and La Vitrine culturelle, at the 6th edition of the Vitrine des musiques locales métissées, presented by Vision Diversité. His urban poetry tells us about life through stories where the human being plays the main role.

Fabrice Koffy French biographie:

Originaire de Côte d’Ivoire, il s’établit en 1998 à Montréal afin de poursuivre ses études universitaires. C’est ici qu’il commence à s’exprimer en tant qu’artiste et rejoint le célèbre collectif Kalmunity Vibe, avec lequel il collabore pendant plusieurs années. C’est en 2006 qu’il fait la rencontre du guitariste Guillaume Soucy. Une complicité s’installe et de cette prolifique union naissent une série de spectacles et l’album Poésic, paru en 2009 et sélectionné par le Festival Vue sur la Relève et les FrancoFolies de Montréal. C’est en 2016 qu’il reçoit les Prix Coup de coeur d’Ici Musique, de Diversité artistique Montréal et de La Vitrine culturelle, lors de la 6e édition de la Vitrine des musiques locales métissées, présentée par Vision Diversité. Sa poésie urbaine nous parle de la vie, à travers des histoires où l’être humain tient le rôle principale.

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Many thanks to our funders, partners and sponsors:

Cathedral Village Arts Festival
Saskatchewan Arts Board
Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild
SaskCulture
Saskatchewan Lotteries Trust Fund for Sport Culture and Recreation

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The Vertigo Series
in partnership with Saskatchewan Book Awards

Tuesday, April 9, 2019 7:30 pm
@ Crave Kitchen + Wine Bar
1925 Victoria Ave, Regina, SK
Admission: Free
All ages. Cash bar.

Readings by 2019 SBA Shortlisted Authors:
Carol Rose GoldenEagle
gillian harding-russell
James Trettwer
&
Regina launch of Cassidy McFadzean’s new book, Drolleries

Many thanks to Saskatchewan Arts Board, SaskCulture, League of Canadian Poets & Canada Council for the Arts for support!

AUTHOR BIOS

Carol Rose GoldenEagle is Cree/Dene with roots in Sandy Bay, northern Saskatchewan. She is a published novelist, poet, playwright, visual artist, and musician. She is the author of the award-winning novel Bearskin Diary (2015). A second novel, Narrows of Fear, is forthcoming. As a visual artist, her work has been exhibited in art galleries across Saskatchewan and Northern Canada. As a musician, a CD of women’s drum songs, in which Carol is featured, was recently nominated for a Prairie Music Award. Before pursuing her art on a full-time basis, Carol worked as a journalist for more than 30 years in television and radio at APTN, CTV, and CBC. She lives in Regina Beach, Saskatchewan.

gillian harding-russell is a Regina poet who has been visiting her daughter in Yellowknife for the past four years. She has three previous poetry collections and several chapbooks published. In 2015, the sequence “Proud Men do not Listen” from In Another Air was shortlisted for Exile’s Gwendolyn MacEwen Chapbook Award.

Cassidy McFadzean was born in Regina, and earned an MA from the University of Regina and an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. In 2015, she published Hacker Packer (McClelland & Stewart 2015), which won two Saskatchewan Book Awards and was a finalist for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. Her new book is Drolleries (M&S 2019).

James Trettwer was a winner in the Saskatchewan Writers Guild’s John V. Hick’s Long Manuscript Award in 2016 for this short story collection. He has also won the SWG’s Short Manuscript Award. He has been most recently published in TRANSITION, Spring, and the anthology Wanderlust: Stories on the Move, (Thistledown Press, 2017). James lives in Regina, Saskatchewan.

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The Vertigo Series
Tues, Oct. 23, 2018 7:30pm
@ Crave Kitchen + Wine Bar, 1925 Victoria Ave, Regina, SK
Free Admission. All ages. Cash bar.

Readings by:
Robert Currie
Barbara Langhorst
Joanna Lilley
Kathleen Wall & Veronica Geminder

Music by:
Shannon Rae

Event presented with support from Saskatchewan Arts Board, League of Canadian Poets and the Canada Council for the Arts.

Robert Currie

Barbara Langhorst

Joanna Lilley

Kathleen Wall & Veronica Geminder

Shannon Rae

Readings by:
Tracy Hamon
Allison Kydd
Nathan Mader
Suzannah Showler

Music by:
Wanda Gronhovd

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Vertigo Series Open Stage

Thursday, Nov. 16th, 2017 7:00pm
@ MacKenzie Art Gallery, 3475 Albert Street, Regina SK

Feature Reader: FRED WAH
Poet, novelist, scholar & former Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate, Fred Wah will share a reading of his work.

Feature Musician: DAVID L. MCINTYRE
Composer and pianist, David L. McIntyre, will share an original composition and join in the fun of the open stage by responding and collaborating on piano with his playful, witty and moving music.

Calling all writers, musicians, theatre artists, visual artists & movement artists! Bring something to share — a poem, song, story, spoken word piece, dance, the story behind an image, a monologue or scene! All are welcome on this open stage!

Each artist will begin with a 5 min. spot. A second spot may be added if time allows.

E-mail info@vertigoseries.com to sign up or sign up at the door.

Presented as part of Thursday Lates programming at the MacKenzie Art Gallery.

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Join us in the afternoon for a free workshop…

Image/Text Workshop with Fred Wah
2:30-4:30 pm Thurs. Nov. 16^th, 2017
@ MacKenzie Art Gallery

Free admission with pre-registration.
Space is limited to 10 participants.
Please register for workshop by emailing info@vertigoseries.com.

Fred Wah will share insights and images from a collaborative visual art project he is involved with focused on the Columbia River. One of the outcomes of the project is a long poem, beholden: a poem as long as the river. Co-written with Vancouver poet Rita Wong, the poem is 114 feet long and typed on either side of a printout of the Columbia River. The poetic image installation is presently at Touchstones Gallery in Nelson, BC and will be at Emily Carr University in March. Along with the Columbia River project, Fred will briefly talk about a few other image/text projects he’s been involved with, mostly available in his book, Sentenced to Light.

Participants in this Image/Text Workshop are asked to bring a photograph of a nearby waterway (for ex. Wascana Creek or the South Saskatchewan River) along with a poetic text that somehow relates to the photo. During the workshop, there will be time to look at and listen to each person’s photo/poem and discuss.

Fred Wah

Fred Wah lives in Vancouver and in the West Kootenays. His poetry, fiction, and non-fiction has received numerous literary awards. He was Canada’s Parliamentary Poet Laureate 2011-2013 and made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2013. Recent books include “Sentenced to Light”, his collaborations with visual artists and “is a door”, a series of poems about hybridity. “High Muck a Muck: Playing Chinese, An Interactive Poem”, is available online (http://highmuckamuck.ca/). His current project involves the Columbia River. “Scree: The Collected Earlier Poems, 1962-1991” was published by Talonbooks in the fall of 2015.

David L. McIntyre 

Composer and pianist David L. McIntyre has lived and worked in Regina since 1976. His compositions are widely performed nationally and internationally. Former composer-in-residence with the Regina Symphony Orchestra, David also enjoys a history of collaborations with writers. From choral settings of poems by John Hicks to vocal settings of texts by Anne Szumigalski, Lois Simmie, Elizabeth Philips and Ken Vaughan to an opera libretto by Joanne Gerber, David has long found in the written and spoken word great inspiration for his playful, witty and moving music.

The summer of 2017 saw the publication of his Sonata No. 1 for Violin & Piano, Volume 7 of the Organ Notebook and a collection of Nine Nocturnes for piano. He continues to be active as a solo and chamber pianist as well organist at St. Paul’s Cathedral in Regina.

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Ramses Calderon

International artist Ramses Calderon was born in San Salvador, El Salvador. Calling Regina home for the past ten years he has lived and performed in Canada since 2000. His music career began at the age of 11, playing the marimba and then numerous other Latin American instruments, which lead to his primary instrument the classical guitar. A graduate of the Academia de Guitarra Nitsuga Mangoré Calderon spent over seven years under the teachings of five Agustin Barrios Mangore disciples (Julio Cortes Andrino, Dr. Roberto Bracamonte, Jose Candido Morales, Cecilio Orellana, and Victor Urrutia), absorbing all the knowledge they had about their Maestro, one of the most celebrated guitarist and composers in classical guitar history. As successor to the Nitsuga Mangore Academy, his long term goals include disseminating Mangore’s technique for guitar in addition to bringing Ramses’ own music compositions to audiences through local, national and international performances and publications. His latest work include “Concierto de Las Ninfas” a concert for guitar and string orchestra, that was premier on his resent tour this past august 2017, in 5 Latin American countries, as well the online publication of “The Mangoré’s guitar School”.

Grant Lawrence 

Grant Lawrence is the author of The Lonely End of the Rink (Douglas & McIntyre, 2013) and Adventures in Solitude (Harbour Publishing, 2010). He hosts the award-winning CBC Radio 3 Podcast and can also be heard on various CBC Radio One programs such as North by Northwest, All Points West and On the Coast. He is married to musician Jill Barber and they live in Vancouver, BC, with their two children.

Beth Goobie 

Beth Goobie grew up in Guelph, Ontario, where the appearance of a normal childhood hid many secrets. Beth moved to Winnipeg to attend university, became a youth residential treatment worker, and studied creative writing at the University of Alberta. She is the award-winning author of 25 books, mainly for young adults, including The Pain Eater and the CLA award-winning Before Wings. Also a published poet, Beth makes her home in Saskatoon.

Rick Hillis was born and raised in Saskatchewan. After receiving his B.Ed. from the University of Saskatchewan, he went on to attend the Iowa Writers Workshop and was a Stegner Fellow and a Jones Lecturer at Stanford University and a Chesterfield Screenwriting Fellow at Universal Studios. His previously published works include the poetry collection The Blue Machines of Night (Coteau, 1988) and the short story collection Limbo River (McClelland & Stewart, 1991), which won the Drue Heinz Literature prize. Hillis taught at Stanford, UC Hayward, Lewis & Clark, Reed College, DePauw University and the Iowa Summer Writers Festival. He died in October 2014.

Editor, Dave Margoshes and Rick Hillis’ wife, Emily Doak will talk about and read from this posthumously-published novel. (Coteau Books)

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The Vertigo Series is thrilled to kick off the 2017-18 season by partnering with Saskatchewan Writers Guild, Regina Farmers’ Market Cooperative and Regina Downtown BID for an event in the market on Sat. Sept. 30th!

Feature readings by Ven Begamudré, Cat Burns, Danica Lorer and music by Riva Farrell-Racette. Hosted by Sarah Longman.

September 30th is National Orange Shirt Day, we invite participants and readers to wear orange to honour and support residential school survivors.

Vertigo Series Season Finale

Tuesday, June 27, 2017 7:30pm

C.R. Avery

what men do with their mouths
Bio for c.r avery
By P. Smith

” … audacious & astounding ” – London Time out Magazine (Uk)

” …a cultural magpie who’s impossible to pidgin whole.”
– Net Rhythm Magazine (Scotland)

” …imagine if Neil Young was inspired by hip-hop.” – Vancouver Sun

Trevor Herriot  

Trevor Herriot is a prairie naturalist and author of several award-winning books, including Grass, Sky, Song and the national bestseller River in a Dry Land. His fifth book, Towards a Prairie Atonement, was published in October 2016 and a book of essays and photos called Islands of Grass will be released in the fall of 2017.

Herriot is a grassland activist and a skilled birder. He posts regularly on Grass Notes (trevorherriot.blogspot.ca.), his web page on grassland culture and environmental issues. He is featured regularly on CBC Radio and is a frequent guest on the call-in show Blue Sky. He and his wife, Karen, live in Regina, and spend much of their time on a piece of Aspen Parkland prairie east of the city.

“A brave, heart-breaking book in its unflinching analysis of government policy, colonial violence, and corporate greed.”
– Lorna Crozier

“Like Annie Dillard or Barry Lopez or Sharon Butala – or like Thoreau, come to that – Trevor Herriot writes, and writes beautifully, out of a passionate, almost proprietary concern for the landscape, and out of a sense of its sacredness….”
– Bill Richardson, The National Post

Del Suelo

Del Suelo is a Saskatchewan based artist that makes art combining writing and music. In 2016 he released a 10 chapter/10 song combination project titled I Am Free which received an honourable mention at the Tidewater Independent Book Awards and is also being translated into German.

Musically, he performs genre-bending, soul-driven tunes that serve as a soundtrack to the novels he writes. The music is rich in emotion, varying from fun to serious and blends rock-pop catchiness with that of jazz, flecked with improvisation and spontaneity.

Del Suelo frequently collaborates with acts such as the Andino Suns and The Dead South. He has toured all over Canada and Europe, playing notable festivals such as The Regina Folk Fest (Regina SK), Coldsnap Festival, (Prince George BC), Radio Eins Parkfest (Berlin, Germany) Festival Traditions du Monde (Sherbrooke QC), Festival du Voyageur (Winnipeg, MB), SXSW (Austin TX) and Tonder Festival (Tonder, Denmark). Del also teaches songwriting workshops and classes, and hosts a monthly “Theory Jam” for guitarists of all levels.

“I Am Free is some kind of masterpiece. I’m illumined, Del Suelo. More, please.”
– Shelley A. Leedahl, SaskBooks Review

“I really love this inspirational piece of art…A wonderful adventure.”
– Julia Juniper, Kiel, Germany

Veracity
Photo Cred Jordan Bell

Veracity is from several places at once. She got into slam poetry because she likes to try things that scare her, like skydiving, improv and eye contact. Veracity won the 2016 Saskatchewan Festival of Words Slam, represented Regina nationally on 2 CFSW teams, has been published in Oratorealis and was recently a member of first annual Saskatoon Poetic Arts Festival ensemble. When not writing odes to people, politics or pizza pops, Veracity also helps organize Regina Word Up spoken word events and performs at fundraisers for things she cares about, like mental health awareness and support for queer youth. Veracity will never have the last word because she is always trying to find a better one.

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Tim Lilburn Photo cred UVic Photo Services

Vertigo Series Open Stage

in partnership with
Cathedral Village Arts Festival
and Sage Hill Writing

Monday, May 22, 2017 7:00pm
@ The Artesian, 2627 13^th Ave.

Feature Reader:
Tim Lilburn

House Musicians:
Brian Templeton and Herb Exner

Bring your words, poems, songs, stories, and spoken word to share on the Open Stage! Set your words to music with house musicians! Feature performance by Tim Lilburn, this year’s Sage Hill Poetry Colloquium guru.

E-mail info@vertigoseries.com to sign up or sign up at the door.

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Carla Braidek

Carla Braidek lives and writes in the boreal forest near Big River, Saskatchewan. Her book Carrying the Sun (Thistledown, 2005) was shortlisted for the Saskatchewan Book Award for Poetry. Her work was also published in her chapbook Quickening, the Hagios Press anthology New Saskatchewan Poets, and various literary magazines. Her poetry was included in the full-length documentary, Unplugged — Emma 2010 Collaboration, that was filmed during that time.

Blair Stonechild

Blair Stonechild is a Cree-Saulteaux member of the Muscowpetung First Nation and professor of Indigenous Studies at First Nations University of Canada. He is the author of The New Buffalo, Loyal till Death, and Buffy Sainte-Marie.

Emily Eaton

Emily Eaton is an associate professor of geography at the University of Regina specializing in political economy and natural resource economies. She is also active in a variety of social justice struggles. Eaton’s first book was Growing Resistance: Canadian Farmers and the Politics of Genetically Modified Wheat.

Valerie Zink

Raised on a farm in the foothills of Alberta, Valerie Zink received her bachelor’s in History from Dalhousie University before studying at the International Centre of Photography in New York. Her work focuses on metabolisms between people and nature, issues of economic migration and displacement, and the intersection of landscape and memory. Through photography, she seeks to reveal the ordinary ways that people struggle to live right and defend their attachment to home. She currently lives and works in Fort Qu’Appelle, SK.

Terry Jordan

Terry Jordan is an award-winning fiction writer, musician, essayist and dramatist whose stage plays have been produced across the country, in the U.S and Ireland. His book of stories “It’s a Hard Cow” won a Saskatchewan Book Award and was nominated for the Commonwealth Book Prize. His novel, “Beneath That Starry Place” was published internationally and was nominated for multiple awards. The Toronto Globe & Mail called it “an achingly beautiful book.” Jordan taught Creative Writing at Concordia University, Montreal, and was the first Margaret Laurence Fellow at Trent University. In the past he facilitated the Fiction workshop at Sage Hill Writing Experience, served as Writer in Residence at the Saskatoon, Regina and Winnipeg Public Libraries, and Okanagan College. He currently resides in Saskatoon.

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Vertigo Series Open Stage

Terry Jordan

Terry Jordan is an award-winning fiction writer, musician, essayist and dramatist whose stage plays have been produced across the country, in the U.S and Ireland. His book of stories It’s a Hard Cow won a Saskatchewan Book Award and was nominated for the Commonwealth Book Prize. His novel, Beneath That Starry Place was published internationally and was nominated for multiple awards. The Toronto Globe & Mail called it “an achingly beautiful book.” Jordan taught Creative Writing at Concordia University, Montreal, and was the first Margaret Laurence Fellow at Trent University. In the past he facilitated the Fiction workshop at Sage Hill Writing Experience, served as Writer in Residence at the Saskatoon, Regina and Winnipeg Public Libraries, and Okanagan College. He currently resides in Saskatoon.

Jim McLean

Jim McLean had a long career with Canadian Pacific Railway and with Transport Canada, living and working in various Canadian locations. He is an original member of the Moose Jaw Movement poetry group, and his work has appeared in magazines and anthologies and on CBC Radio. He is the author of The Secret Life of Railroaders and co-author of Wildflowers Across the Prairies. His illustrations have appeared on book covers and in several literary and scientific publications. He currently lives in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.

D.S. Stymeist

D.S. Stymeist’s poems have appeared in numerous magazines, including The Antigonish Review, Prairie Fire, Dalhousie Review, and The Fiddlehead. His work was featured as the Parliamentary Poet Laureate’s Poem of the Month (February 2015) and was short-listed for Vallum’s 2015 poetry prize. He teaches poetics, Renaissance drama, and aboriginal literature at Carleton University. He grew up as a resident of O-Pipon-Na-Piwin Cree Nation, is the editor and founder of the micro-press, Textualis, and is the current vice-president of VERSeFest. Frontenac House Press has just released his debut collection, The Bone Weir.

Brock Prentice

Like a photo album full of faded memories, every song from Regina’s Brock Prentice tells its own unique story. Turning the page on the conventional singer-songwriter persona, lyrical lows and falsetto highs band together honest storytelling with a gifted hand that masterfully plays the guitar. Currently the front man for Saskatchewan pop rock upstarts Desert Island Classic, Brock has seen his fair share of stages. Intimate clubs and darkly lit bars have led the way to several Summer festivals and local television appearances. An accomplished tattoo artist towering in stature – when it comes to the music of Brock Prentice, take caution because what you see is by no means what you’re going to get. “Brock Prentice channels everything from introspective, emotive folk pop to the big delivery summer metal ballads of yore, all in a raw, confessional style that tells as many stories as the sea of tattoos he is covered by. It’s stripped down acoustic stuff, but the furthest thing from downbeat — he’s clearly not afraid to belt it out from the rooftops.” ~ Craig Silliphant (Prairie Dog Magazine, Planet S Magazine, The Feedback Society)

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The Vertigo Series Season Finale
Monday, June 13, 2016, 7:30pm

Hosted by:
Crave Kitchen & Wine Bar
1925 Victoria Ave

Readings by:

Katherine Lawrence

Alison Lohans

2016 Regina Poetry Slam Team

Music by:

Val Halla

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Vertigo Series Open Stage
at the Cathedral Village Arts Festival
Monday, May 23, 2016 7:00pm
@ The Artesian, 2627 13^th Ave.

Feature Performer:
Sheri-D Wilson

House Musicians:
Brian Templeton and Andy Beisel

Bring your words, poems, songs, stories, spoken word to share at the Open Stage! Set your words to music with house musicians! Feature performance by the Mama of Dada, Sheri-D Wilson. E-mail info@vertigoseries.com to sign up.

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Workshop with Sheri-D Wilson
at the Cathedral Village Arts Festival
Monday, May 23, 2016 3:30-5:30pm
@ The Artesian,  2627 13^th Ave.
Free Admission

Join internationally known spoken word poet & educator Sheri-D Wilson for free workshop that will take you deeper into your own authentic voice and performance. This workshop is All Ages.

Sheri-D Wilson
Sheri-D Wilson is a Canadian poet, educator, producer and activist. She has 9 collections of poetry for which she has received many awards. She is the founder of the Calgary Spoken Word Festival.

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Louise Bernice Halfe

Louise Bernice Halfe was born in Two Hills, Alberta, and was raised on the Saddle Lake Reserve. Her Cree name is Sky Dancer.
Louise has three book publications to her credit. Bear Bones & Feathers was published in 1994. It received the Canadian People’s Poet Award, and was a finalist for the Spirit of Saskatchewan Award. Blue Marrow was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award for Poetry, the Pat Lowther Award, the Saskatchewan Book of the Year Award, and the Saskatchewan Poetry Award. The Crooked Good was published in 2007. She was awarded third prize in the League of Canadian Poets’ national poetry contest and was Saskatchewan’s Poet Laureate for 2005-2006.
Louise has a Bachelor of Social Work, and received an Honorary Degree of Letters (Ph. D) from Wilfred Laurier University. She currently works with Elders in an organization called Opikinawasowin (“raising our children”). She lives outside of Saskatoon with her husband.

Timothy Long

Timothy Long is Head Curator of the MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina, Saskatchewan and has been responsible for a series of landmark exhibitions of Saskatchewan art. His interests include the mimetic theory of René Girard, and interdisciplinary approaches to ceramics, film, dance and performance art.

Garry Thomas Morse

Garry Thomas Morse is the author of five poetry titles and four fiction titles, notably Governor-General’s Award poetry finalist Discovery Passages about his ancestral Kwakwaka’wakw First Nations myth, history, and fallout of the potlatch ban. Morse’s latest poetry title Prairie Harbour features a long poem set in Regina, and includes an interlude of “heritage minutes” about the commercial aspects of colonization, from the origins of the fur trade to the present day. He currently resides in Winnipeg.

Joelle Fuller

This soul/folk/rock warrior loves to deliver the goods. She fires up the audience as they witness a woman who makes no apologies for her pursuit of contentment within and the longing for a peaceful and just world.  Whether she lends her powerful voice to shed light on the environment or to represent those who need to be heard, she is driven to reveal the trials and blessings of life. She has graced festivals across the prairies, and performed on stages from Regina to Victoria, all the while refining her songwriting skills. She has opened for Quebec sweethearts, Chic Gamine (Kelowna, BC), and upon returning to her native Regina (Sept 2015) opened for John Wort Hannam (Regina, SK). Joelle will be heading into the studio this spring with Chris Notenboom producing so she can continue to share her journey.

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David Carpenter

David Carpenter was conceived in Saskatoon but born in Edmonton.  He began writing as a translator and literary critic, and he made the switch from scholarly writing to literary essays and short stories.  His early short fiction came out in Saturday Night, and his first two books of stories were published by McClelland & Stewart in the mid-to-late 1980s.  Ten books of fiction and literary nonfiction have followed, including Welcome to Canada, a collection of novellas that won an American award. Also among his literary awards are a Centennial Medal (2006) and the coveted Kloppenburg Award (2015).  He is the editor of the 3-volume Literary History of Canada.  His latest book, The Education of Augie Merasty (2015), involved piecing together a series of letters, true stories, and fragments over a period of 12 years from an old Cree trapper who survived eight brutal years in a residential school. This book is shortlisted for one writing award and two publishing awards in the 2016 Saskatchewan Book Awards.  He lives in Saskatoon.

Judith Silverthorne

Judith Silverthorne, a multiple-award winning author, has lived most of her life in Saskatchewan, exploring its culture and history, and revelling in the natural beauty of the prairie landscape, which provides inspiration for many of her books.

Gerald Hill *

Gerald Hill has published six poetry collections — two of which won Saskatchewan Book Awards for Poetry. His latest collection, Hillsdale Book, came out with NeWest Press in April, 2015, and is currently shortlisted for the Saskatchewan Book Awards Poetry Award. Two sub-sets of that book were published in 2012: Hillsdale, a Map, produced with designer Jared Carlson, and Streetpieces, a chapbook produced by David Zieroth at The Alfred Gustav Press in Vancouver. Also in 2015, Hill published A Round for Fifty Years: A History of Regina’s Globe Theatre with Coteau Books. Gerald Hill is newly retired from his career teaching English and Creative Writing at Luther College at the University of Regina.

* Timothy Long was not able to join us. Sask Poet Laureate and Sask Books Awards Nominee, Gerald Hill kindly filled in.

Rye Noble

Rye n’ the Vats is an eclectic mix of Regina musicians playing an eclectic mix of styles. Founded in the summer of 2010 by members Ryley Noble and Greg “Junior” Osmond, the ever-growing band now has seven members, including Graeme MacLeod, Charity Putman, Holly Grewall and Alex Wilson. The Vats create a unique sound by adding a blend of tuba, trumpet, slide guitar, banjo, accordion and, of course, groovy bass lines to the already interesting sounds of Junior’s djembe and Ryley’s guitar. Top it all off with wicked vocal harmonies, and you have Rye n’ the Vats.

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The Vertigo Series
Monday, Feb. 8, 2016, 7:30 pm
Hosted by:
Crave Kitchen & Wine Bar
1925 Victoria Ave

Readings by:
Shelley Banks
Catherine Fenwick
Tara Gereaux
Micheline Maylor

Music by:
Judd Stachoski

Shelley Banks

Shelley Banks is a writer, editor and photographer, with a recent poetry collection, Exile on a Grid Road (Thistledown Press). Shelley has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of B.C. and an MA in Journalism from the University of Western Ontario. She blogs at ShelleyBanks.ca, and lives and writes in Regina.

Catherine Fenwick

Cathy Fenwick lives in Regina and is widely published in magazines, academic journals, and anthologies. Currently working on a poetry manuscript, her poems have been published in Transition, the Society, and Folklore. Cathy is immensely grateful to the Sage Hill 2015 Poetry Colloquium, where she learned a great deal working with Steven Heighton (facilitator), Micheline Maylor, Tara Dawn Solheim, and other top-notch poets. At the participants reading event she was introduced as an actor who was once in a scene with Ryan Reynolds who told her, “good job Ma’am.” This is true.

Tara Gereaux

Tara Gereaux is a Métis from the Qu’Appelle Valley. She studied screenwriting at York University and Creative Writing at UBC, and has worked as a researcher, writer, and story editor in film and television. Gereaux’s writing has been published in several Canadian literary journals, and she won Event Magazine’s 14th Annual Creative Non-fiction Competition as well as other screenwriting and non-fiction awards. Her first novel (for teens), Size of a Fist, was published by Thistledown Press in October 2015. She lives in Regina.

Micheline Maylor

Micheline Maylor’s latest collection Whirr and Click with Frontenac House (2013). Her chapbook, Starfish, with Rubicon Press, sold out in 2011. She is a graduate of the May Studio at the Banff Centre in 2010. Her latest works are in Quill and Quire, Rotary Dial, and Fiddlehead. She teaches creative writing and composition at Mount Royal University in Calgary and is the poetry editor at Frontenac House Press.

Judd Stachoski

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The Vertigo Series

Monday, Jan. 18, 2016, 7:30pm

Crave Kitchen & Wine Bar
1925 Victoria Ave

Readings by:
Byrna Barclay
Méira Cook

Music by:
Shannon Rae

Byrna Barclay

Byrna Barclay is an award-winning author whose work includes The Forest Horses and Girl at the Window. She has served as president of the Saskatchewan Writers Guild and vice-chair of the Saskatchewan Arts Board, and is a recipient of the Saskatchewan Order of Merit. She lives in Regina. House of the White Elephant is her tenth publication, a story loosely based on her paternal ancestry.

Méira Cook

Méira Cook has published five poetry collections, most recently Monologue Dogs (Brick).  She won the CBC Poetry Prize in 2007 and the inaugural Walrus Poetry Prize in 2012. Her first novel, The House on Sugarbush Road (Enfield & Wizenty), won the McNally Robinson Manitoba Book of the Year Award in 2013. Her latest novel is  Nightwatching (HarperCollins).

Shannon Rae

Shannon Rae (Shannon McNabb) is a singer songwriter who resides in Regina Saskatchewan.  She began singing at the age of 4, performing for live audiences at the age of nine and performed competitively at age 14.  Shannon has been a performer with GX94 Star Search show for over 5 years. In 2014, she had the honor of being a part of the CKRM singer-songwriter series, which took place at the Casino Regina. In 2005, Shannon was a competitor for Canadian Showcase, a national talent search. Shannon has also performed in numerous events across Saskatchewan including the Hillbilly Boogie Fest and the Vertigo Series.  Recently, she had the pleasure of visiting Nashville Tennessee, where she performed at the world famous Tootsie’s orchid lounge, Douglas Corner Café and other musical venues on Broadway. Shannon continues to write music and enjoys networking with other professional singer-songwriters in the industry. Shannon is currently completing her graduate degree in education, before she makes her journey back to music city Nashville, Tennessee.

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Lorna Crozier’s latest book is The Wrong Cat. She is the award-winning author of sixteen previous books of poetry, most recently Small Mechanics, The Blue Hour of the Day: Selected Poems, and Whetstone. She is also the author of The Book of Marvels: A Compendium of Everyday Things and the memoir Small Beneath the Sky. Crozier is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Victoria and an Officer of the Order of Canada, and she has received three honorary doctorates for her contributions to Canadian literature. Born in Swift Current, she now lives in British Columbia.

Cassidy McFadzean

Cassidy McFadzean is the author of Hacker Packer (McClelland & Stewart 2015). She has been a finalist for the CBC Poetry Prize, the Walrus Poetry Prize, and won second place in the 2014 Short Grain Contest. McFadzean lives in Regina and is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

Irwin Kahan

Irwin Kahan was born in 1919 in a Jewish farming community in Saskatchewan and died in 2015 in Toronto. After serving with the RCAF during World War II, he received his social work degree from McGill University. In the 1950s he participated in the Saskatchewan government’s cutting-edge psychiatric research program. Working with the Canadian Mental Health Association (Saskatchewan Division) and as founding General Director of the Canadian Schizophrenia Foundation, Kahan was a fierce advocate for people with mental illness.

Barbara Kahan

Regina resident Barbara Kahan is the author of Healthier Children (Keats Publishing), the poetry chapbook Illuminated Tales of Romance (if press), and the novel Eve’s Garden which, after 20 years, is on its fifteenth, and hopefully final, revision. She is also publisher of Wild Sage Press (www.wildsagepress.biz). She loved listening to the stories her father told about his life, which are now included in his memoir Tending the Tree of Life.

Wild Sage Press

Wild Sage Press’s mission is to publish limited and small-run editions of exquisitely produced, extremely high quality poetry, prose and art. Founded in 2012, it is now celebrating the launch of its seventh title, Tending the Tree of Life. In addition to poetry, drama, memoir, and children’s books, Wild Sage Press has “other delights”: prints, collector cards and art cards. For more information about Wild Sage Press and its publications, visit www.wildsagepress.biz.

Flo Mounier

Drummer for the band Cryptopsy, Flo has toured Canada, Europe, Japan, Australia and the United States as a headlining act over the last 12 years, and combined record sales have reached over 300,000 copies to date. He is also an accomplished clinician and has performed extensively across North America. Wherever Flo has played, his reputation remains the same; he combines great chops with blistering speed. Add this to an open mind approach that embraces different musical genres, Flo has developed an even greater ability to enhance the creative edge within his unique phrasing. His exploration of the Latin / Jazz approach has added an originality to his style which sets him apart from the rest.

Robert Currie

Robert Currie is a poet and fiction writer. He is the author of ten books, including the short story collections Night Games and Things You Don’t Forget, and the novel Teaching Mr. Cutler. In 2009 Currie received the Saskatchewan Lieutenant Governor General’s Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts. He lives in Moose Jaw where he taught for thirty years at Central Collegiate, winning the Joseph Duffy Memorial Award for excellence in teaching language arts. His book, Living with the Hawk is nominated for the Young Adult Literature Award from the Saskatchewan Book Awards.

 

Ken Dalgarno

Ken Dalgarno is a Canadian artist and photographer from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. He received his Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from the University of Saskatchewan. Dalgarno has exhibited in group and solo shows across Western Canada, the Dakota’s, Montana and Minnesota. His paintings are in private and public collections across Canada, the United States, South Africa and Italy. Dalgarno has received support for his work both from the Canada Council of the Arts and the Saskatchewan Arts Board. “The Crooked Trees of Alticane” recently finished a successful nine venue tour which included a half page profile in the Edmonton Journal. His book Badlands: A Geography of Metaphors is nomianted for the First Book Award form the Saskatchewan Book Awards.

Paul Hanley

Paul Hanley has published 1500 articles on the environment, sustainable development, agriculture, and other topics. He is editor and co-author of Earthcare: Ecological Agriculture in Saskatchewan (Earthcare, 1980) and The Spirit of Agriculture (George Ronald, 2005). Paul is a recipient of the Canadian Environment Award. He has been an environment columnist with the Saskatoon StarPhoenix since 1989. His book, Eleven is nominated for the Saskatoon Book Award and the Non-Fiction Award from the Saskatchewan Book Awards.

 

Quarter Tones Flute Ensemble

The Quarter Tones Flute Ensemble was founded over twelve years ago by Tara Semple and Linda Lucyk. They perform a wide variety of music: sacred, jazz, classical, ethnic, baroque and modern. Together, they bring knowledge about the flute from their diverse background in Irish, baroque, and classical for a rich musical experience.  The Quarter Tones Flute Ensemble is known for its unique and beautiful sonority because members of the group utilize bass flute, alto flute, C flute and piccolo. They are continually looking for exciting new arrangements and composers for their flute ensemble.  In the past few years the Quarter Tones Flute Ensemble has commissioned much needed works for the flute quartet repertoire.

Performers of the ensemble, Tara Semple, Linda Lucyk, Marie-Véronique Bourque and David Popoff are all currently members of the Regina Symphony Orchestra.

Métis multidisciplinary artist Moe Clark is a nomadic songbird with wings woven from circle singing and spoken word.  Her poetic songs resonate with the power to heal, to celebrate spirit and to connect with authentic purpose. As an educator, Clark facilitates writing, vocal improvisation and looping pedal workshops in high schools, communities and with Aboriginal youth. Her work takes  her as far north as Iqaluit to offer intergenerational storytelling exchanges and as far south as Brazil to collaborate inter-culturally with the Tembe people. Her approach to group facilitation aims to build bridges through empathetic listening and sharing. Clark has two albums of words and music: Circle of She: Story & Song (2008) and Within (September 2014). Her bilingual book of poetryFire & Sage / De sauge et de feu was published through Maelström Press in 2013. She has performed and collaborated on numerous national and international stages including Maelström ReÉvolution Poétique Fiéstival in Belgium (2013 & 2009), IDEA World Congress: Art for Social Change in Brazil (2010), and her more recent “Poet of Honour” performance at the 2014 Canadian Festival of Spoken Word. As artistic producer she directed the 10^th Annual Canadian Festival of Spoken Word in Montreal (2013), the first bilingual edition which also highlighted Indigenous languages. Other collaborations include Bird Messengers indigenous theatre performance and Back to Where My Heart Belongs Cree language songwriting project. She has given feature talks at TedXMontreal (May 2012) and the Olympic Summer Games in London, U.K. (July 2012).

Barbara Kahan

Regina resident Barbara Kahan is an award-winning poet and publisher of Wild Sage Press (www.wildsagepress.biz). She loves children’s literature, including the stories her mother used to tell her.

Bruce Rice

Poet and editor, Bruce Rice, lives in Regina. Bruce has published four award-winning poetry collections for adults and a new children’s book, Dorothy McMoogle With Kumquat and Bugle, from Wild Sage Press. His first collection, Daniel, received the prestigious Canadian Author’s Association Award for Poetry. His book, Life in the Canopy (Hagios Press 2009) was shortlisted for Saskatchewan Book of the Year. Rice’s fifth poetry collection, The Trouble With Beauty, is forthcoming from Coteau Books in 2014.

Garry Thomas Morse 

Garry Thomas Morse is the author of four books of poetry, including Discovery Passages, the first book of poetry about his ancestral Kwakwaka’wakw First Nation, and finalist for the 2011 Governor General’s Award and the 2012 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. Along with his first collection of stories Death in Vancouver, his highly unstable speculative fiction series The Chaos! Quincunx includes 2013 ReLit Award finalist Minor Episodes / Major Ruckus, Rogue Cells / Carbon Harbour, and the forthcoming Minor Expectations (2014), all available from Talonbooks. Morse is a recent arrival in Saskatchewan and now (literally) haunts Regina.

Anna Ray

Anna Ray is new resident to Saskatchewan. Originally from Armenia and Israel, she is a musician and visual artist. Anna lived in Toronto for a few years before moving to Regina. Her music is a combination of rock, folk, blues and funk. Inspired by many different artists and genres such as Portishead, The Doors and Erykah Badu, Anna’s performance includes soulful acoustic covers along with original material. At the moment Anna Ray is working on her debut album to be released in 2015.

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Susan Andrews Grace

Susan Andrews Grace is the author of five books of poetry and essays about visual art. She is also a visual artist. Her mixed media works conceptually echo and honour textile traditions. Andrews Grace’s writing reflects feminine consciousness and mucks around in the beautiful dark. She teaches creative writing in Nelson and area where she has lived since 2001.

Anne Campbell

Anne Campbell, a life long arts and heritage advocate, is the author of five books of poetry, her most recent collection, Soul to Touch, was short listed for a Saskatchewan Book Award.   Her poetry and prose have been published in anthologies across Canada, and Anne has read her work and taught writing from the 1980s to the present — across Canada, in the USA and England. With music composer Tom Schudel, Anne’s work has been performed, recorded and published internationally. While writing, Anne has worked in museum and library administration, and for three of those years, while at the RPL, she was Acting Director of the Dunlop Art Gallery.

She was an early recipient of the City of Regina Writing Award, in 1982, and many other awards since. She has served on the Boards of the Saskatchewan Writers Guild, the Writers Union of Canada, The League of Canadian Poets, the Writers development Trust, and other arts and heritage community Boards.

Gerald Hill

Gerald Hill has published five poetry collections — two of which won Saskatchewan Book Awards for Poetry. His next book, poetry called Hillsdale Book, with NeWest Press, comes out in 2014. Two sub-sets of that book were published in 2012: Hillsdale, a Map, produced with designer Jared Carlson, and Streetpieces, a chapbook produced by David Zieroth at The Alfred Gustav Press in Vancouver. Gerald Hill has been active as both leader of and participant in workshops, courses, residencies, editing, and conferences and Europe. He teaches English and Creative Writing at Luther College at the University of Regina.

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Vertigo Series Writing Session
@ MacKenzie Art Gallery (Free admission!)
Sunday, October 20, 2013, 2:00pm

Join writer and visual artist Susan Andrews Grace for an afternoon of writing and response at the MacKenzie Art Gallery.

Participants will explore the cross fertilization between written and visual forms and have the opportunity to create new work in response to the exhibition, 7: Professional Native Indian Artists Incorporated.

Any new work inspired by this session can be presented at the Open Stage on November 21, 2013 at the MacKenzie Art Gallery.

Please register in advance for this free writing session by calling (306) 584-4250 ext. 4292.

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The Vertigo Series will collaborate with community organizations for events during Culture Days 2013:

The power of collaboration brings performance artist, C. R. Avery, to Regina! This beat-box poet, punk piano player and outlaw harmonica player will offer a writing and performance workshop on Friday afternoon. Join us Friday evening to experience his work as the featured artist of the 2013 CVAF Culture Days Poetry Slam. These events are made possible through a partnership between The Vertigo Series, The Saskatchewan Writers Guild, the Cathedral Village Arts Festival and Word Up Wednesday (Creative City Centre). Thanks to Culture Days, Saskatchewan Lotteries and SaskCulture for their support.

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The Vertigo Series Season Finale 

Monday, June 24, 7:30 pm

Cassidy McFadzean

Cassidy McFazean has been published in The Fiddlehead, CV2, Arc, and Vallum. Her chapbook, Farwell, was published by JackPine Press in 2012. This fall, she is starting her MFA at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

Pearl Pirie

Pearl Pirie has published two collections of poetry: been shed bore (Chaudiere, 2010) and Thirsts (Snare, 2011) which won the Robert Kroetch Award for Innovative Poetry. She has had chapbooks published by Corrupt Press, Angel House Press, above/ground, and obvious epiphanies press. She has coordinated the Tree Seed Workshop Series in Ottawa twice a month since 2009. She runs phafours press, and has served as an editor for Tree Press. Her author site is http://www.pearlpirie.com. She’s working on the next couple manuscripts. Or, more accurately, they are working on her.

 

Evie Ruddy 

Evie Ruddy is a freelance journalist based in Regina, Saskatchewan. Her short documentaries have been broadcast nationally on CBC Radio. Her print work has appeared in Reader’s Digest, The Toronto Star, Xtra and Prairie Dog. Evie teaches Sociology, Political Science and Women’s & Gender Studies at the University of Regina and Luther College. She recently participated in the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild mentorship program and is a runner up for the 2013 City of Regina Writing Award.

2013 Regina Poetry Slam Champion

Winner of the Word Up Wednesday Slam Finals to be determined on June 19^th, 2013 during the Regina slam poetry championship competition at the Creative City Centre. For more info, join the Word Up Wednesday group on Facebook or visit the Creative City Centre’s website at http://www.creativecitycentre.ca

 

Tyler Gilbert

Tyler Gilbert is a singer/songwriter who has released 3 distributed albums on Farmageddon Sound since 2008 and has made multiple demos since 2003 based from Regina, SK. Gilbert has toured across Canada and a few states in the U.S. playing shows and festivals which include: Canadian Country Music Week and the Winnipeg Fringe Festival. Tyler receives airplay, weekly rotation and has performed live on many campus, online radio, commercial  stations as well as regular airplay on CBC. His latest album “OK Murphy” due out in May was funded by Rawlco Radio. He was recently nominated for a 2013 Regina Mayor Arts & Business Award. http://www.tylergilbert.ca

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The Vertigo Series Open Stage

In partnership with the Cathedral Village Arts Festival

Monday, May 20, 7:30 pm

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The Vertigo Series

Monday, May 13, 7:30 pm

Matthew Hall

Matthew Hall is a doctoral candidate at the University of Western Australia writing on violence in the work of J.H. Prynne. At present he is a Visiting Academic Fellow at the Interdisciplinary Center for Creativity and Culture at the University of Saskatchewan. He is the Feature Editor at Cordite Poetry Review and one of the founders of The Forward Slash Project, a collection of Australian and Canadian innovation in poetics. His latest collections are Royal Jelly (Black Rider Press, 2011), Distant Songs (Sea Pressed Meta, 2012) and Hyaline, a book of radical-pastoral poems (BRP, 2013).

Danny Kresnyak

Danny Kresnyak was born to walk a nomad’s path.  An artist, journalist and fearless adventure seeker his unique multi-platform content has been featured by mainstream and alternative media outlets across the globe. Whether marching for pensions alongside Parisian sex workers, ringing bells in a bullet tempered Tijuana cathedral or braving currents with the fishing boys of coastal West Africa, the voices he gathers speak of struggle and their stories echo up from the streets.

(Photo: Dave Stobbes, courtesy of the U of S)

Andréa Ledding

Andréa Ledding is a Saskatoon-based writer, reader, mother, and photo-journalist. Recent awards include 2012 John V. Hicks Long Manuscript for poetry, 2011 John V. Hicks Long Manuscript for CNF, and subTerrain’s 2010 Lush Triumphant for poetry, along with inclusion in the 2011 “Best Canadian Poetry” anthology (Tightrope Press). Her play “Dominion” opened up the 25th annual Weesageechak Festival in Toronto this past November, and she is currently working on her master’s thesis.

Christine McNair

Christine McNair’s work has appeared in sundry literary journals including CV2, The Antigonish Review, Prairie Fire, Arc, Descant, and Poetry is Dead. Her first full collection of poetry, Conflict, was published by BookThug in 2012. She was shortlisted for the 2011 Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry. She is one of the hosts of CKCU’s Literary Landscapes program and works as a book conservator in Ottawa.

Sandra Ridley

A finalist for the 2012 ReLit and Archibald Lampman Awards for poetry, Sandra Ridley’s second collection, Post-Apothecary, was published in fall 2011 with Pedlar Press. One of ten poet-participants for U of T’s 2012 Influency Salon, Sandra can be found, from time to time, facilitating poetry workshops at Carleton University, the Tree Reading Series, the Ottawa Public Library, and the City of Ottawa. Her third collection, The Counting House, is forthcoming with BookThug in 2013.

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The Vertigo Series

Monday, Apr. 22, 7:30 pm

Jenna Butler

Jenna Butler was born in Norwich, England in 1980. She is the author of three trade books of poetry, Seldom Seen Road (NeWest Press, 2013), Wells (University of Alberta Press, 2012), and Aphelion (NeWest Press, 2010), in addition to ten short collections with small presses in Canada, the United States, and Europe. Butler teaches Literature and Creative Writing at Grant MacEwan University in Edmonton during the school year. In the summer, she and her husband live with three resident moose and a den of coyotes on a small organic farm in Alberta’s north country.

Duckens Charitable

Duccha / Duckens Charitable, originally from Haiti, has published two books of poetry in France and USA as well as a few poems in Canadian, Haitian and European anthologies. Besides he is an occasional street comedian, Duccha is also an award-winning playwright. His first play, An Absolute Act of Citizenship, (Acte de citoyenneté absolu) is a monologue in which a dead man narrates his death in the streets of Port-Au-Prince and reclaims the life of an “ordinary citizen.” Duccha’s play was short listed as one of the best plays of the Caribbean by ETC in 2009 and then was translated into English by Philippa Wehle. In March 2010, Duckens Charitable was invited by City University of New York to collaborate and see the English adaptation of his play be produced at the Martin E. Segal Theatre Centre in New York. In 2010, Duccha also traveled to show his work in Belgium, Northern France; was invited to chair conferences and writing workshops in Paris. Duccha first came to Canada in 2010 as a guest featured playwright by the Centre des auteurs dramatiques, Montréal.

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Version française

Né en Haiti, Duccha/Duckens Charitable est comédien d’occasion et poète. Ses textes ont paru dans des journaux haïtiens, des revues françaises et italiennes et dans des anthologies. Son premier texte de théâtre, Acte de citoyenneté absolue (monologue), a été finaliste du concours d’écriture théâtrale de ETC Caraïbe et a été représentée en 2010 (dans une traduction en anglais par Philippa Wehle) au Martin E. Segal Theatre Centre à New York. Selon ses amis écrivains, Duccha est le « poète des douleurs chaudes » ou « un poète discret et charmant ». Après plusieurs résidences d’écriture et de voyages littéraires en Europe, il s’est installé récemment à Montréal au Canada. Depuis, il a collaboré à plusieurs numéros de la revue Brèves et à certains évènements de la Société littéraire de Laval.

Publications/Books:

La vie en marelle (2005)
L’amour du monde (2010)

Nancy R Lange

Nancy R Lange has written five poetry books published at Ecrits des Forges, Quebec and Mantis editores, Mexico and two art books resulting from collaboration with visual artists. She was finalist for the Felix-Antoine Savard poetry prize and for a prize of Conseil de la Culture for her involvment in the field of litterature.  She collaborates often with diverse artists: photographers, painters, sculptors, jewelers, choreographers, singers and musicians, performs her poetry on stage and hosts poetry readings.  Her work has been published in several magazines in Canada, in France, in United States and in Mexico.  She also wrote for the radio and read on Radio-Canada’s waves.

Éliz Robert

Éliz Robert writes and performs in various languages. She published six collections of poetry in translation from English or Spanish into French. Her texts have appeared in Canadian anthologies and literary magazines as well as on the compilation CD Une chance qu’on SLAMME. As founder of Noches de poesía multilingual reading series, she co-produced various poetry tours in Europe, Canada, USA and Argentina, namely Troc-paroles/Troc de paraules at the World Book Fair in Barcelona, Spain and Semana del libro quebecense in Buenos Aires, Argentina during BACML 2011. Éliz produced POESÍA LIBRE – El camino más corto de corazón a corazón, a Spanish language radioshow where she interviewed poets and literary translators. Podcasts were rebroadcasted in Florida, Mexico, Patagonia, Barcelona, Morocco, Lebanon and Galicia. Éliz acted as editor of YoungPoets.ca, the youth section of the League of Canadian Poets and took part in Random Acts of Poetry national campaigns. She is a full member of The League of Canadian Poets, the Société littéraire de Laval, the Quebec Writers Federation and the Literary Translators Association of Canada (LTAC). She has featured at various reading series and festivals in Canada, Europe and USA.

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Version française

Éliz Robert écrit et performe en différentes langues. Elle a publié six recueils de poésie en traduction de l’anglais ou l’espagnol au français. Ses textes sont parus dans des anthologies canadiennes et revues littéraires, ainsi que sur la compilation CD Une chance qu’on SLAMME. À titre de fondatrice de la série littéraire multilingue Noches de poesía, elle a coproduit diverses tournées poétiques au Canada, en Europe, aux États-Unis et en Argentine; notamment,  Troc-paroles/Troc de paraules lors de la Foire mondiale du livre à Barcelone, ainsi que Semana del libro quebecense à Buenos Aires, en Argentine durant BACML 2011. Éliz a réalisé POESÍA LIBRE – El camino más corto de corazón a corazón, une émission radiophonique de langue castillane dans le cadre de laquelle elle a interviewé des poètes et traducteurs littéraires. Les épisodes ont été rediffusés sur les ondes de radio affiliées en Floride, au Mexique, en Patagonie, à Barcelone, au Maroc, au Liban et en Galice. Éliz a occupé le poste d’éditrice nationale de YoungPoets.ca, la section jeunesse de la Ligue des poètes canadiens et pris part aux campagnes nationales de Randonnées aléatoires de poésie. Elle est membre titulaire de la Ligue des poètes canadiens, de la Société littéraire de Laval, la Quebec Writers Federation ainsi que l’Association des traductrices et traducteurs littéraires du Canada (ATTLC). Éliz a été invitée comme artiste dans le cadre de diverses séries littéraires et festivals au Canada, en Europe et aux Etats-Unis.

Sean Treble & Brian Templeton
(with recorded music by Rob Doherty)

Sean Treble was scheduled to perform with Rob Doherty at The Vertigo Series last June. Rob passed away unexpectedly before they had the chance. In this performance, Sean and Brian will pay tribute to the late great Rob Doherty by improvising over recorded instrumental music originally created by Rob and Sean.

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The Vertigo Series

Monday, Mar. 25, 7:30 pm

Kimmy Beach

Kimmy Beach’s fifth book is The Last Temptation of Bond (The University of Alberta Press, 2013). Her work has appeared in journals across Canada and in the U.K., and is forthcoming in Newspaper Taxis: poetry after the Beatles (Seren Press, Wales). She has mentored writers across Alberta and Saskatchewan and has served as Writer in Residence for the Writers Guild of Alberta, the Saskatchewan Writers Guild, and the Parkland Regional Library. She lives in Red Deer with her husband, Stu.

Sheila Bautz

In 2011, Sheila Bautz’s manuscript When Companies Kill received a positive review from the prestigious KIRKUS who have a longstanding reputation for being “The World’s Toughest Book Critics.” The manuscript will soon be published as Walking The Cutline.

In June, 2012, Sheila returned to top New York editor and agent, Michael Neff. Currently, she is working on Fantasy novels at his request for possible representation. Her other projects include compiling a Fantasy short story collection, along with a collection of humorous stories entitled, Big City Mama.

As a freelance writer, Sheila enjoys regular writing assignments with The Leader-Post. Visit www.writeinklings.com.

Susan Harris

Susan Harris is a speaker, previous teacher, and the author of Golden Apples in Silver Settings. Her recently released, Little Copper Pennies and Little Copper Pennies for Kids, aim to keep the memories of the historic penny alive. She holds a Diploma in Writing, B.Sc. in Management Studies, and is a Certified Human Resource Professional in Saskatchewan and Canada. Susan was born in the idyllic island Trinidad, but now makes her home on the lush prairies of Melville, Saskatchewan with her husband, daughter, and Smokey, the gregarious cat.

Danilo Vallalta

Danilo Vallalta is an emerging multidisciplinary ceramic artist, musician, and independent researcher of Aztec Pipil ancestry who resides in San Salvador, El Salvador. His work and experimentation is based on the internalizations of the traditions of his people – Aztec Pipil, the Nahuat of the ancient nation KUZKATAN or also called Cuzcatlan or Republic of San Salvador. He creates paintings, ceramic installations, wind instruments such as ceramic ocarinas, along with drums and other instruments originating in Meso America. Villalta holds a degree in Visual Art and Ceramics from the National University of San Salvador. He recently performed Codice Remix, his second collaboration with Curtain Razors in Regina.

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The Vertigo Series

Monday, Feb. 25, 7:30 pm

Tracy Hamon

Tracy Hamon was born in Regina, SK and grew up traveling between Regina and her parents’ farm near Edenwold, Saskatchewan. She holds a BA Hon and an MA in English. Her first book of poetry This Is Not Eden was released in April 2005 and was a finalist for two Saskatchewan Book Awards. Portions of her lastest Interruptions in Glass won the 2005 City of Regina Writing Award, and was also shortlisted for two book awards in the 2010 Saskatchewan Book Awards. Most recently she was longlisted for the CBC Poetry Award and her manuscript about painter Egon Schiele Red Curls is forthcoming in 2014.

Kevin MacKenzie

Kevin has left a trail of stories at festivals, conferences, residencies, retreats, in libraries, schools, prisons, colleges,and countless events across Canada and in Brazil, Great Britain, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico and the USA. As an experienced teacher of storytelling, Kevin served as the storyteller in residence for the Regina Public Library, the Saskatchewan Writers Guild and the Regina Board of Education. For the five years, Kevin shared his stories on a weekly basis with vulnerable youth for the Ranch Ehrlo Society. His experience with teens is matched by his expertise with younger children, as Kevin is an early childhood educator, and the author of a DVD of 23 original fingerplays called Fingersplay: Fingerplays and Action Rhymes for Children. This unique collection garnered a place on the Canadian Children’s Book Centre’s “Our Choice” list in 2003. As a dedicated listener Kevin has volunteered since 1998 planning and organizing dozens of concerts, tours, festivals, and literacy events in Vancouver and Saskatchewan.

Robert Betteridge

Robert Betteridge retired in 1985 after 28 years and a lifetime attempting to teach art. It was then that he suddenly realized that, “that part of art that is art is that part that can’t be taught”

Since that time he has been diligently working at procrastinating which reserves time for reflective daydreaming. It is from out that fertile mileau that his poems arise.

Robert is now hoping in what are his latter years to earn an Honorary Doctorate – (a PhD in B.S.)

He has read his poems on a number of occasions at as many as five different venues; as well, his poems have often been featured on Naval Aviation in Audio, Regina Community Radio; CJTR 91.3 FM, where they were once deemed to be mystic and cosmic.

Deana Driver

Deana Driver has been a journalist for 35 years and has had more than 2,000 articles published in newspapers and magazines across Canada. Since 2008, her focus has been on writing, editing and publishing books about fascinating Prairie people. She is the founding partner of DriverWorks Ink publishing in Regina and is the author of five non-fiction books including The Sailor and the Christmas Trees and Never Leave Your Wingman: Dionne and Graham Warner’s Story of Hope.

Rob Young

Rob has been an entertainer since his teens. In those 27 years, he entertained full-time for 17 years in Saskatchewan, Alberta, Manitoba, and Ontario. He was one of the twelve finalists at the CKRM Talent Contest at The Pump in 2011.

He has played in a number of classic rock bands over the years and also sang with seven piece blues band in Calgary, Alberta for two years. He has been writing and singing songs since he was 13 years old.

He can be contacted at (306) 530-6318 or by e-mail at starlighthottub@mobility.blackberry.net.

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Barbara Kahan

Barbara Kahan is the author of many publications, ranging from the non-fiction book Healthier Children (Keats Publishing) to the poetry chapbook Illustrated Tales of Romance (if press). Two of her pieces were performed by the Regina Globe Theatre for its On the Line series. A collection of several of the poems in this chapbook received second place in the poetry category for the 2010 Saskatchewan Writers Guild Short Manuscript Awards. She is publisher of Wild Sage Press (www.wildsagepress.biz).

Marie Powell

Marie Powell (http://mepowell.com/blog/) is a Regina-based professional writer with an MFA in Creative Writing from UBC. Her award-winning short fiction and poetry appear in literary magazines and anthologies, including Room, Transition, and Pandora’s Collective. Most recently her short story “Grid Lines” won first runner-up in subTerrain’s Lush Triumphant awards, and will be published this spring. Scholastic Canada published her book Dragonflies are Amazing.

Jessica Eissfeldt

Jessica Eissfeldt holds a degree in English literature and news-editorial journalism from Oklahoma State University. She currently lives and writes in Saskatchewan. She takes inspiration for her writing from every aspect of her life and believes that in order to have a fulfilling artistic life, it’s best to lead a full life. She enjoys reading many genres and enjoys writing about history, mystery and romance. She will be reading from her soon-to-be published short story, “Dialing Dreams.”

Rachel MacDonald

Rachel MacDonald is a Regina-based emerging singer-songwriter, artist and ESL teacher, who loves to share strong, hope-filled messages and hummable melodies in her original folk songs.  She believes in the power of music for healing and social change, and is excited to be a part of the synergy of the Vertigo Reading Series!

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Anne McDonald

Anne McDonald’s novel To the Edge of the Sea, published by Thistledown Press, won the Saskatchewan Book Award for First Book in April. Anne has an MA in Psychology, has studied improv at Second City in Toronto, and has attended the Sage Hill Poetry Colloquium and the Sage Hill Fiction Workshop. She also completed the Humber School for Writers Program with Olive Senior. Anne facilitates creative writing and theatre workshops across the prairies and teaches for the Gabriel Dumont Institute in Regina. Anne ‘s work has been produced by CBC radio and published in various literary journals. She also works with teams in Organizational Development training through her company ‘Collaboration Works’.

David Sealy

David Sealy is the winner of the 2012 City of Regina Writing Award for his play Stuck with the Queen. His play The Bob Shivery Show completed a successful run in the fall of 2012 at Calgary’s Lunchbox Theatre. He is currently working on the musical No Ordinary Tulip with Lynn Marie Calder. David also writes non-fiction and fiction and has been published in magazines, literary journals, and anthologies. A portion of his play I Married a Dishrag (renamed Runaway Barbies) won Grain Magazine’s Short Grain Dramatic Monolog in 2002.

Coby Stephenson

Coby Stephenson was born in New Westminster, BC but has lived throughout Canada. In her spare time she enjoys frequenting literary events, playing soccer, and learning the art of Muay Thai. She currently reside in Regina, SK, with her daughter, Virginia, and their dog, Bea Arthur. She received a BA Hons from the University of Regina in 2009 where she is now a student advisor. Violet Quesnel (Thistledown Press, 2012) is Coby’s first collection of short stories.

Peggy Worrell

Peggy Worrell is in love with short stories. Experiences during her life as a social worker have become fodder for her writing. It is no surprise then that shame, loss, aging, and wishful thinking bubble up to the surface. Dreary? Perhaps. Depressing? No. Peggy has enjoyed some modest success in the world of contests and publication. She is grateful to the SK Writers Guild, the SK Arts Board for two literary grants, St. Peter’s College, and The Banff Centre. Peggy has one foot in Swift Current and the other in a cabin at a northern lake.

Shandee Noble

Shandee Noble is a musician from a small town in Manitoba. Her style is very unique with an indie-folk vibe and a touch of jazz. She has been writing songs since she was 15 but has just recently started becoming involved in the music scene in Regina. Her unique voice always draws the audience in.

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Open Stage @ the MacKenzie!

Thursday, Nov. 8, 7:30 pm

Vertigo Series Performances and Open Stage
@ MacKenzie’s Thursday Night Live

Join hip-hop artist InfoRed, singer/spoken word artist Tara Dawn Solheim, and musicians from the Local Onlyz with special guests for a night of performance inspired by the exhibition Carl Beam at the MacKenzie Art Gallery. Audience members are invited to bring their own art-inspired writing to the stage for an open-mic portion of the evening. Cash bar. The reduced $5 admission fee is supported by The Vertigo Series.

Thursday Night Live is presented in partnership with the MacKenzie Art Gallery.

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Brenda Niskala

Brenda Niskala’s new book, How to Be a River, launched on October 17 2012, is a full length handbound collection of poetry from Regina’s newest publisher, Wild Sage Press. Brenda’snovella Of All the Ways to Die (Quattro, 2009) and the linked short stories, For the Love of Strangers (Coteau Books 2010), (nominated for the City of Regina Book Award) were her first forays into fiction. For the Love of Strangers received top votes in the CBC Canadian Bookshelf Summer Reading program. She has read to audiences across Canada, in Finland, and in England. Brenda presented at the 2011Festival of Words in Moose Jaw.

Born and raised in west central Saskatchewan, in the Coteau Hills near Outlook, she currently makes her home in Regina where she is working with co-writer Barbara Kahan on a film script featuring a nuclear power advocate, a nature loving activist, and a macaw, and on her next (well, first) novel, which will introduce the pirating adventures of a particular Viking ship in about 1065.

Nora Gould

Nora Gould writes from east central Alberta where she ranches with her family and volunteers in wildlife rehabilitation with the Medicine River Wildlife Centre. She graduated from the University of Guelph with a degree in veterinary medicine. I see my love more clearly from a distance is her first poetry collection. In 2009 Nora Gould won the Banff Centre Bliss Carman Poetry Award.

Barbara Langhorst

Barbara Langhorst was born and educated in Edmonton, Alberta. She holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Alberta and works at St. Peter’s College, SK, where she teaches introductory Canadian literature and has had the pleasure of meeting many of Canada’s finest writers. Barbara has studied poetry for more than twenty years. Her love of the medium and her particular interest in experimental and avant-garde poetry encouraged her to become a writer. In Restless White Fields, Barbara revisits the past and her parents’ murder-suicide with startling, unforgettable imagery that rends even as it heals. Her work is unexpected and impossible to ignore.

Yana

Yana (Yanina Bilyk) is a musician/singer/songwriter from Netishyn, Ukraine, who moved to Regina, Canada in 2010 after a successful modeling contract in China. Yana’s music consists of Ukrainian traditional songs as well as nu-jazz, pop, and lounge styles. She plays piano, guitar, and cello.

In 2011, Yana has generously shared her talents at several cultural and social events in southern Saskatchewan (Canada) such as: the Regina Ukrainian Fall Fest’s fundraising gala, “A Taste of Ukraine”, the Kyiv Pavilion at Regina Multicultural Council’s Mosaic festival, a featured performing artist at the Moose Jaw Museum and Art Gallery, an opening musician for “Vertigo Reading Series”, a solo performer at a tribute show to The Beatles and Regina Ukrainian Fall Fest.

In 2011 Yana, together with Regina singer Tara Dawn and the accordionist player Dennis Ficor made it to the top 6 finalists in the Regina Folk Festival’s “SaskSampler” competition. Yana’s talent is not only known locally. Prior to coming to Canada, Yana wrote and recorded the song “Endless” with the German lounge/nu-jazz band “Venus International”. The song has been released on the CD “SYLT: Finest Lounge Music, No.8” and has been recently picked up on CBC Radio 2.

She is currently recording a CD with the violinist/bassist Natalia Espinosa (Canada/Mexico), composer/producer Alfa Kay (Germany) and DJ Noor. Also Yana is singing at The University of Regina Choir.

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Writing Workshop @ the MacKenzie!

Saturday, Oct. 20, 2:00pm

Vertigo Writing Workshop @ MacKenzie Art Gallery

Join spoken word artist, poet, singer, and songwriter Tara Dawn Solheim for an afternoon of writing and response at The Gallery. Participants will explore writing tools and styles while experiencing the exhibition Carl Beam. Any new work inspired by this workshop can be presented at the Thursday Night Live Open Stage on November 8. Registration is required. Call 584-4292 to register for this FREE workshop.

This workshop is presented in partnership with the MacKenzie Art Gallery.

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The Vertigo Series

Mon. Sept. 24th, 2012

8:00pm

Glen Sorestad

Author of over 20 books of poetry, Glen Sorestad became Canadaʼs first provincial poet laureate as Poet Laureate of Saskatchewan from 2000-2004. Sorestad has received both the Queenʼs Golden Jubilee Medal and the 2012 Queenʼs Diamond Jubilee Medal; he is a Member of the Order of Canada. His latest volume of poems, A Thief of Impeccable Taste, is a bilingual, English/Spanish edition published in 2011 by Sand Crab Books. His poems have appeared in over 50 anthologies and textbooks and translated into a half-dozen languages, most recently into Afrikaans and into Spanish. Sorestad and his wife Sonia helped create and run Thistledown Press in Saskatoon for its first until their retirement from publishing in 2000. Sorestad has given well over 400 public readings all over North America, as well as in Europe.

Melanie Schnell

Melanie Schnell grew up on a farm in southeastern Saskatchewan and has lived in Regina, Vancouver, Toronto, Boston, Colombia, Thailand, Kenya and Sudan. She has a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia and has written for television, magazines and journals across Canada. While The Sun Is Above Us is her first novel.

Riley Noble

Riley Noble is a musician from Winnipeg MB. He plays blues, country, jazz, and reggae music. Riley Noble founded Rye n’ the Vats in the summer of 2010 with Greg “Junior” Osmond. The ever-growing band now has seven members. The Regina musicians play an eclectic mix of styles. The Vats create a unique sound by adding a blend of tuba, trumpet, slide guitar, banjo, accordion and, of course, groovy bass lines to the interesting sounds of Junior’s djembe and Riley’s guitar.

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Change of Venue!!!

Now at the Cathedral Freehouse!!!

2062 Albert St.

Adam Pottle 

Adam Pottle is a Saskatoon writer who writes in a variety of forms. His first book, a volume of poetry called Beautiful Mutants, was published in April 2011 and shortlisted for two 2012 Saskatchewan Book Awards. His first novel, a Nazi Germany-era narrative called Smoke, will be published in fall 2012, and he is currently editing a play entitled Ultrasound. Pottle’s work focuses on the dynamic and philosophical aspects of disability.

Shelley A. Leedahl

Multi-genre writer Shelley A. Leedahl returns to her home province with two new titles:  Wretched Beast (poetry, Buschek Books) and Listen, Honey (short stories, DC Books). Her ten critically well-received publications include The House of the Easily Amused, Orchestra of the Lost Steps, Talking Down the Northern Lights, the multi-award-winning children’s book The Bone Talker. Leedahl frequently presents her work and leads writing workshops across Canada. She also freelances, edits, and works as a radio advertising copywriter for two Edmonton radio stations. Her poetry, essays and short stories are often anthologized, most recently in Slice Me Some Truth: An Anthology of Canadian Creative Nonfiction (Wolsak &Wynn). Leedahl currently lives in Sechelt, BC. Next month, she could be anywhere.

Winter Fedyk

Winter Fedyk is the 2010 recipient of the John Newlove Award for Poetry. After living in Ottawa for many years, she recently moved back to Regina, where she grew up. “Beneath Black Surface” is her first chapbook of poetry, published by Bywords.

Murray Logan

I was born in Saskatoon in 1948, but I grew up in a close neighbourhood of North Calgary that very much resembled the Regina of today. I didn’t really develop a serious interest in poetry until my mid-teen years when the onslaught of The Beatles and the British Rock Invasion changed the contemporary society.  I figured it was time my friends and I formed a band and composed our own songs. I would write songs like the poetry of John Lennon and Paul McCartney or The Doors. We played around the North Calgary area and even acquired a seedy night club gig that saw us playing 10 minute songs, usually featuring my esoteric lyrics.  I attended university at the same time; but overcome with the wanderlust of the day and the breakup of the band, I went travelling.  I lived in England; and then sojourned through Western Europe and to Morocco in an old Bedford Van, writing poetry all the way.  I then lived in Ottawa and Vancouver and eventually moved to Saskatoon to finish off my long-running Bachelor of Arts and to attend seminary.  There I met my wife Dolores. We currently live in Regina, have 5 children and are grandparents.

For many years I have written and collated poetry, penned short stories, journalled, taken English courses and attended numerous writers’ festivals.  I didn’t accept the fact that I was a writer/artist until 2005.  Finally, on a great push past my own inertia, I collected a number of poems.  I had them minimally edited and collated, then cobbled together some money, overcame denial and published a short collection of poetry in 2009 entitled God Is Remerseth.  Recently I’ve been going through the process of collating and editing a second collection of poetry hopefully to be ready by August of 2012, followed by a third collection sometime in 2013.

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Open Mic for Writers

Hosted by Vertigo Series and the Cathedral Village Arts Fest

Mon. May 21, 2012

Literary Open Mic with Vertigo Series and CVAF Join the rain of words – bring your writing – share your work! The Vertigo Series and the CVAF Literary Committee team up for an open mic session at the Fainting Goat. More info in CVAF Guide.

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The Vertigo  Series

Presented by Brown Communications Group

Mon. May 14th, 2012, 7:30pm

Hosted by:

Crave Kitchen + Wine Bar

1925 Victoria Ave

Jamella Hagen

Jamella Hagen’s first collection of poetry, Kerosene, was published by Nightwood Editions in fall 2011. Her poems have appeared in journals including Arc, Event and The Malahat Review as well as in the anthologies Unfurled, Ice Floe and The Best Canadian Poetry in English, 2010. Her work has won the Ralph Gustafson Poetry Prize and been shortlisted for a CBC Literary Award. She has a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from UBC and is a former executive editor of PRISM international. She currently lives in Whitehorse, Yukon, and is an instructor at Yukon College.

Claire Tacon

Claire Tacon is the winner of the 2010 Metcalf-Rooke award for her first novel, In the Field. Her fiction has been short-listed for the Bronwen Wallace Award and the CBC Literary Awards and has appeared in journals such as The New Quarterly and sub-TERRAIN. Several of her works are anthologised in the current editions of Coming Attractions and Best Canadian Short Stories. She is a past fiction editor of PRISM international and is a lecturer at St. Jerome’s University.

Jen Kunlire

Jen Kunlire is a spoken word artist, singer and teller of stories. She has been known for her innovative lens in which she presents her work- ever refreshing, Jen is dynamic in everything she does. For the past five years, Jen Kunlire has been involved in the Slam & Spoken Word Community across CanadaPast festivals include, 2-time member of the Calgary Slam Team competing in the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word & SLAM, Calgary/08 & Victoria /09, a three time feature in the Calgary International Spoken Word Festival, High Performance Rodeo’s 10 Minute Play Festival (ETC), OFF-Fil festival in Montreal and was also the winner of the 2009 CBC Poetry Face-OFF in Calgary.

She has served on the board of directors for Writer’s Guild of Alberta as the Youth Representative and the Calgary Rep for Spoken Word Canada (SpoCan). She attended the Spoken Word Residency at the Banff Centre, is a current member of the Ink Spot Collective, who organizes monthly poetry slams in Calgary and is also the newly appointed Director of Communications for Ellipsis Tree Collective Theatre Company.

A vibrant presence in the community, Jen is currently facilitating Spoken Word workshops with Unity Charity’s afterschool programs in Calgary.

When she’s not touring about the country or cooking up a great invention; Jen can be found sitting in the corner at the coffee shop – writing poems.

Keith Foster

Keith Foster retired in 2008 after nearly 27 years as a transcriber and editor with the Hansard office of the Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly Service. Keith has always had a keen interest in writing and Saskatchewan history, and earned a master’s degree in history from the University of Regina in 1978. He has won several awards for his non-fiction. He is Vice-president of the Wascana Writers Group and a former President of the Saskatchewan Poetry Society. He is also a member of the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild. In the spring of 2011, Regina Little Theatre produced the world premiere of Keith’s one-act comedy, “Domestic Bliss,” which he also directed. Keith has had material published in Folklore, Western People, Freelance, Saskatchewan History, Early Canadian Life, Skyview, Expressions, Prairie Messenger, The Nova, Regina Women’s Guide,and Gray Matters. Keith also has had stories, articles, and poems published in more than 30 anthologies, including Short Grass, From Roots to Wings, Prairie TaleWinds, The Saskatchewan Poetry Book, Wide Horizons, Prairie Bounty, Interlude, Between the Leaves, When the Wind Speaks, and Ensemble in Black Ink.

Friendly Folk

Friendly Folk is a brand new group featuring strings in a new setting, accompanied by brass and woodwinds no less. A diverse and culturally expansive repertoire is our hallmark. This “little” big band is home to a mixture of influences within the music and the people. We are sure you will enjoy the new blend!

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The Vertigo Series

Presented by Brown Communications Group

Mon. April 2, 2012, 7:30pm

Hosted by:
Crave Kitchen + Wine Bar
1925 Victoria Ave

Annette Bower

Annette Bower explores women in families, women in communities and women at the beginning and end of love and their quest for love. Her stories are published in magazines and anthologies in Canada, United States and in the UK. She pursues the writing craft in workshops through the SWG conferences, Writing with Style, Banff Centre for the Arts, Sage Hill Writing Experience, Surrey International Writers Conference, Romance Writers of America Conferences. Her first contemporary romance novel, Moving On: A Prairie Romance is published electronically by XoXo Publishers™. She is now on a steep learning curve to promote a virtual book.

Kelsey Mills

Kelsey Mills is an aspiring writer living in Regina. While she is fairly young, she already has 3 publications under her belt. Kelsey is currently taking psychology at the University of Regina. Kelsey loves animals and reading, and writes poetry and science fiction. If you want to see some of Kelsey’s work, please visit: www.castleshallott.weebly.com.

Norm Sacuta

Norm Sacuta had his first poetry collection, Garments of the Known, published by Nightwood Editions in 2001.  His work has appeared in various magazines including Grain, Matrix, and New Quarterly.  In 2005 his feature “The Gleaners” in Alberta Views Magazine won a Western Magazine Award for best article.  He is currently completing his first novel ONE LAST THING ABOUT THE TITANIC, sits on the Board of CJTR radio, and works in Communications for the Petroleum Technology Research Centre.

Colby Nargang

Colby is a Regina, Saskatchewan based entertainer whose music pays tribute to Elvis Presley and Roy Orbison. He has been singing since he was a child, however it was his performance of Roy Orbison’s “Running Scared” at Telemiracle 27 in 2003 that opened doors to many opportunities.

Colby is a well-known representative for people with disabilities as he was born with a rare disorder, Williams Syndrome. Unique to some individuals with this syndrome is an exceptional aptitude for music and the ability to mimic, which he was fortunate to be gifted with (for more information on Williams Syndrome please visit http://caws-can.org).

Colby decided on the title of this album, “If I Can Dream” because it has always been his dream to be an entertainer and songwriter. Though he has had some rough times in his life with his disability and bullying, he still has followed his dreams. Colby feels that if he can overcome the obstacles in his life to achieve his dreams, there is nothing that can stop anyone from achieving theirs.

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Vertigo Celebrates Irving Layton’s 100th Birthday!
Presented by Brown Communications Group
Mon. Mar. 12th, 2012, 7:30pm

Hosted by:
Crave Kitchen + Wine Bar
1925 Victoria Ave

Christian Drake

Three time National Poetry Slam Finalist Christian Drake is a contradiction: a professional naturalist and science teacher with a rockabilly flair and a penchant for both subtle writing and bombastic performance. Originally from New England, Christian has won an ardent fanship from coast to coast for his raunchy sense of humor, his bold confrontation of taboos, his finely-crafted writing and his unique poetic perspective on everything from the natural world to war, sex, cooking, music and American politics.

Gillian harding-russell

Gillian harding-russell was raised in St Jean Que., attended McGill (B.A. and M. A.) and completed her Ph.D at the University of Saskatchewan (her dissertation was on post-modern Canadian poetry, focussing on MacEwen’s and Ondaatje’s poetry). Between 1986 and 2005, she was poetry editor for Event. At present, she reviews books for Prairie Fire Review of Books, freelances and edits manuscripts.

I forgot to tell you (Thistledown, 2007) was her third full-length poetry collection. Maya: Poems for the Summer Solstice  and “Stories of Snow” are chapbook or holm collections recently come out. Poems are forthcoming in two anthologies this spring: Poets on Poets (Guernica Press) and The Not Forgotten North (Hidden Brook Press).

Allison Kydd

Though she began her life as a southeast Saskatchewan farm girl,Allison Kydd had spent her adult life in cities in other parts of Canada until she returned to Saskatchewan and country living four years ago. From her office in Indian Head, Allison is currently working on a historical novel set in Cannington Manor and awaiting the release of a novella this fall, part of Thistledown’s New Leaf series. Allison also works as an English instructor/tutor for Athabasca University, is on the board of the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild and has an extensive publications list of fiction, personal essays, journalism and magazine articles.

Shayna Stock

Shayna Stock is a writer, journalist and emerging performance poet based in Regina. Inspired by the interconnectedness of life on this planet, the content of her work ranges from heartache to social justice.

InfoRed and Thomas Roussin

InfoRed and Thomas Roussin are members of The Local Onlyz, a 4-piece hip-hop group from Regina combining members of the Nancy Ray-Guns with InfoRed (Brad Bellegarde) and hip-hop producer Merky Waters (Chris Merk). The group forges a fresh path for hip-hop with the song writing arrangements and powerhouse vocal hooks of Thomas Roussin (the Nancy Ray-Guns), the hip-hop savvy of Merky Waters, and the rich, deep voice and thought-provoking lyrical passages of InfoRed to create tracks ripe for rippin! The group is dedicated to using original instrumentation as much as possible – creating sounds with guitar, mandolin, bass, Rhodes piano and live drums with the recent addition of Nathaniel Bowen (the Nancy Ray-Guns). Their upcoming album, Kings Among Klowns will surely leave its mark on the Canadian music scene with its array of addicting, triumphant anthems.

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Vertigo Reading Series
Presented by Brown Communications Group

Mon. Feb. 13th, 2012, 7:30pm

Hosted by: Crave Kitchen + Wine Bar
1925 Victoria Ave
Suggested Donation – $5

Readers:

Ken Fox

Fionncara MacEoin

Caitlin Ward

Bernadette Wagner

Music:

Ryan Anderson

Vertigo Reading Series
Presented by Brown Communications Group

Mon. Jan. 23rd, 2012, 7:30pm

Hosted by:
Crave Kitchen + Wine Bar
1925 Victoria Ave
Free admission

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Vertigo Reading Series
Presented by Brown Communications Group

Tuesday, Nov. 8th, 2011, 7:30 pm
Crave Kitchen + Wine Bar
1925 Victoria Ave

Britt Holmström

Britt Holmström was born in Malmö, Sweden, and came to Canada in 1970. She completed a visual arts degree at Sheridan College in Ontario, and has a B. Sc and M Sc in Microbiology from University of Regina. She published her first novel in Sweden in her teens and has since published three acclaimed novels in Canada: The Man Next Door (1998) which won a Saskatchewan Book Award, The Wrong Madonna (2002), and Claudia (2008) both shortlisted for the Saskatchewan Book Awards. She lives in Regina.

Sue Sorensen

A Large Harmonium is Sue Sorensen’s first novel. As an Associate Professor of English literature, Sue’s research interests extend from 19th and 20th century British literature – her core area of specialization – to film adaptations of literature and the examination of popular song lyrics as poetry. She is the editor of West of Eden, a collection of essays on western Canadian literature. Sue was born in Imperial, Saskatchewan, and attended the Universities of Regina and of British Columbia. She lives in Winnipeg.

Ian Ferrier

Ian Ferrier is one of the core writer/performers in the North American performance literature scene. His work is well-known across Canada, New York and Europe. Rooted in poetry, his live performances are a haunting blend of acoustic guitar, choir; whispered voice, and the trancelike music of a band called Pharmakon. His signature is the quiet, compelling voice at the centre of every piece.

His first CD/book, Exploding Head Man, received national acclaim. Rooted in the spellbound winters of his childhood, it took a passionate look at love, sex and death against a background of the falling snow; representing the best of three years of collaborations with musicians from Montreal and New York. Canada’s National Post called it “an insistence on the music of words that acknowledges the unique possibilities of language.” Said the Montreal Gazette: “Even without instrumentation, the poetry of Exploding Head Man-heady, impassioned, sometimes hallucinogenic stuff that regularly makes nods to the Beat work he grew up on-has sonic power. Dreamy words soothe, lusty sentences steam, and with a delivery that’s often more gentle that the imagery it yields (even at its most volatile, Ferrier’s vocalizations, with their warm, cushiony and almost child-like diction, scream pseudo-innocence) his spoken word is a complex song in and of itself.”

What is this Place? features two collaborations with the trance/improv band PHARMAKON, two solo works, and nine collaborations between Ferrier and a star-studded list of top Quebec musicians. Recently his work featured on Australia’s Going Down Slow CD and literature anthology, in Canadian Theatre Review and in the Review of the Americas special issue on Canadian Literature. Stories of his can be found in Telling Stories and the anthology You and Your Bright Ideas (both Vehicule Press). Impure-Reinventing the Word is a book from Conundrum Press that documents the literary scene of which he is a part, and you can find his poems and music in the Short Fuse anthology from Rattapallax Press and the Poetry Nation anthology from Vehicule. He currently collaborates with sax player Bryan Highbloom, voice artist Kathy Kennedy, singer/ poet Valerie Khayat, and the musicians of Pharmakon.

Ian Ferrier also co-founded the poetry/music label Wired on Words-which won public radio’s Standard Broadcasting Award in its first year. Pieces by Mr. Ferrier can be heard on CBC-Canada’s national radio station, as well as on public radio stations in the USA and Canada. He resides in Montreal, where he hosts the city’s monthly Words & Music literature series, and remains on the board of the Quebec Writers’ Federation as their past president.

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Vertigo Reading Series
Presented by Brown Communications Group

Monday, Oct. 3rd, 2011, 7:30 pm
Crave Kitchen + Wine Bar
1925 Victoria Ave

Wes Funk

The success of his chapbook Humble Beginnings inspired Wes to keep plugging away at his sort-of-memoir Dead Rock Stars. Shortly after being released, his novel was a subject on numerous radio and TV shows. It was short-listed in the Readers’ Choice category of the Saskatchewan Book Awards and received an Honourable Mention in Writers’ Digest’s International Self- Published Book Competition. Currently in its third printing, the book has now sold over a thousand copies and has also had success in e-book and audio book form.

Wes’s second novel Baggage, a tale of a group of Saskatoon misfits, has also become a Saskatchewan Bestseller and a pick-of-the-month of several book clubs around the world.

Besides participating in author readings and signings in many parts of Canada, Wes has conducted numerous independent publishing workshops in and around the prairies. A love of Saskatchewan, a strong belief in diversity, and a passion for rock ‘n’ roll, are all strong themes in Wes’ books. Currently, he is the host of the Saskatoon Shaw weekly TV Program, Lit’ Hap- pens. Cherry Blossoms, his most powerful novel yet, is set for release in 2012.

 Jacqueline Moore

Jacqueline Moore is a freelance writer who grew up in Regina, went on to live in Vancouver and Montreal, and these days calls Saskatoon home. The Saskatchewan Secret: Folk Healers, Diviners, and Mystics of the Prairies is Jacqueline’s first book. In it, she takes us out into the prairies, the villages, the forests and the suburbs to introduce us to thirteen of the province’s folk medicine practitioners. These are rare and gifted individuals; each of them utilizing their unique form of organic chemistry or subtle energies, each of them quietly making a remarkable difference in the lives of others. For the author, the quest becomes a personal one which candidly explores life, death, and most everything in between. This book is an homage to these healers, and an offering to share in the wisdom they have gathered about the natural world and our place in it.

Chris Triffo

Chris Triffo has developed original television programs for Discovery Channel, History Television, National Geographic, HBO, A&E and many more broadcasters around the world. His shows are enjoyed in over 160 countries. Chris’s work has received dozens of awards including an Emmy® Award two Gemini’s awards and a New York Film Festival Award.

Chris founded Partners in Motion in 1993. Partners quickly became one of the top non-fiction production companies in Western Canada. Chris also manages Gyro Productions, which produces TV commercials with offices in Saskatoon, Regina and Vancouver.

He has a wife of 24 years, four wonderful children and a cat Bella.

C.R. Avery

Outlaw Hip-Hop Harmonica Player
Beatbox Poet
Punk Piano Player
String Quartet Raconteur
Rock & Roll Matador
Playwright

Whether performing to thousands at the Royal Albert Hall or the lucky few who made it inside the packed past capacity speakeasy, C.R. Avery is a unique, raw and dynamic performer. His genius lies in many genres – blues, hip-hop, spoken word and rock & roll. He is a one-man band, but one for this generation; with the rare ability to sing poetic verse while beatboxing simultaneously while pounding the piano and adding harmonica like a plot twist. A multi-talented front man for his Legal Tender String Quartet; a crazed lead singer/harp player for his rock & roll band The Special Interest Group; a lyrical dynamo & the musical backbone of the spoken word trio Tons of Fun University.

From musical beginnings in his late teens, C.R. Avery has recorded over fifteen albums as well as writing & directing six hip-hop operas, which were mounted and performed from New York’s Bowery to L.A.’s South Central.  He has toured throughout Canada (including almost every major folk festival) the USA and Europe (headlining or opening for Billy Bragg, Buck 65, and Sage Francis) and garnered the attention of music peers the likes of Tom Waits (“…he’s blowin’ my mind”); blues harp trail blazer Charlie Musselwhite (“…no one plays harmonica like him… no one…”); and folk legend Utah Phillips (“…raw talent”).

His incredible live performances have been described as Bob Dylan in the body of Iggy Pop; colliding with Little Walter, the Beastie Boys and Allen Ginsberg.  Every show is all or nothing and his fearless approach to all genres of music both on stage and in the studio proves the longevity of this talented, astonishing creator has so much more to come.

For more information – http://www.cravery.com

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Vertigo Reading Series
Presented by Brown Communications Group

Monday, Sept. 12th, 2011, 7:30 pm
Crave Kitchen + Wine Bar
1925 Victoria Ave

Anne Campbell (Sept. 2011)

Anne Campbell was born in northern Saskatchewan in a Red Cross Outpost Hospital, the first in the British Empire. She is an award winning writer of five collections of poetry – she was one of the first to receive the City of Regina Writing Award. Her poetry and prose are included in magazines, journals and anthologies published internationally and her most recent poetry collection, Soul to Touch, was short listed for a Saskatchewan Book Award in 2009. Her music, with composer Tom Schudel, has been performed world wide.

As a Research Fellow a the Uof R’s Canadian Plains Research Centre, Anne co-edited, with Jeannie Mah and Lorne Beug, the award winning Regina’s Secret Spaces: love and lore of local geography. And with Jeannie Mah and Susan Birley, she is presently working on a near completed history of the Regina Public Library. After that she’ll return to her “life work,” a biography of beloved Regina Five visual artist, Arthur McKay. She loves seeing movies, even after she learned to call them films, and she always writes poetry.

Jim Aho (Sept. 2011)

Jim Aho is Executive Vice-President and a partner with Brown Communications Group in Regina. Born and raised in rural Manitoba, Jim has been drawn to writing since he could hold a pencil. Trained at one of the great advertising schools in western Canada, Jim how has over 30 years of experience as a professional writer, marketer and senior communicator.  He is recognized as one of the most successful creative directors in the west. With a broad base of experience in television, radio, print and internet marketing, Jim has amassed an impressive collection of industry awards for his clients.

InfoRed (Sept. 2011)

Brad Bellegarde, aka InfoRed, started writing rhymes in 1992 and began doing live performances around 1998. He has been recording music since 2000 and has worked with artists from across Canada and the United States, collaborating on and off stage. In 2009 InfoRed was a guest artist in Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics as part of the Cultural Olympiad which featured hundreds of artists from across Canada.

Andre Prefontaine (Sept. 2011)

Andre Prefontaine is a Spoken Word artist from Calgary, Alberta. He was on the 2011 Calgary SLAM team and competed on a national level. He represented Calgary at the Individual slam last April. He attended the Banff Centre two week Spoken Word Workshop in April 2011. Andre was invited to Montreal in June to perform at the Montreal Fringe Festival.

Yanina Bilyk
(Sept. 2011 – Musician)

Yanina is a musician/singer/songwriter from Netishyn, Ukraine, who moved to Regina in 2010. Yanina’s music consists of Ukrainian traditional songs as well as nu-jazz, pop, and lounge styles. She plays piano, guitar, and cello. Yanina has generously performed at several regional cultural events. Most recently, a group project involving Tara Dawn Solheim, Dennis Ficor and Yanina Bilyk made it to the top 6 finalists in the 2011 Regina Folk Festival’s “SaskSampler” competition!

Yanina’s talent is not only known locally. Prior to coming to Canada, Yanina wrote and recorded the song “Endless” with the German lounge/nu-jazz band “Venus International”. The song has been released on the cd “SYLT: Finest Lounge Music, No.8” and has been recently picked up on CBC Radio 2. She is currently recording a CD with the same band. Her music can be enjoyed at http://www.myspace.com/yaninabilyk.

JARRETT RUSNAK

Photo Credit: Amber Slonski

Alison has given hundreds of readings and writing workshops across Canada. She has taught writing off and on over the years, and served as Writer-in-Residence at Regina Public Library in 2002-2003. Three more books will be out in 2011: Crossings (Bundoran Press, sequel to Collapse of the Veil); Dog Alert (Pearson Education New Zealand); and Picturing Alyssa (Dundurn).

MELISSA RICHARDSON

Photo Credit:  Ryan Wilker

Melissa was born in Alberta, spent her childhood in BC, and her adolescence in Georgia.  She has been writing since she could hold a pen and has recently embarked on compiling an anthology called ‘Oh, Canada’, a collection of her poems showcasing the sights, sounds and people of the great white north.  An abstract free-verse poet, Melissa focuses on using powerful and contrasting imagery to engage her readers and stir the imagination.  Her poetry is published on Storm-Artists and deviantART and she recently recieved a ‘Daily Deviation’ for her poem dedicated to her grandparents.

http://onyxabrasion.deviantart.com
http://sweetened.storm-artists.net
http://apoetgardener.blogspot.com

ROLLI

Photo Credit:  Kathleen Nameth

Cover Art:  Rolli

Hailing from Southey, Saskatchewan, Rolli writes – and draws a little – for adults (Rattle, Antigonish Review, The New Quarterly, subTerrain) and children (Ladybug, Spider, Highlights). He’s the author/illustrator of the tasty poetry/art book Plum Stuff (Montreal: 8^th House Publishing), and the forthcoming collections God’s Autobio (short stories), and Mavor’s Bones (poems). Visit his blog (www.rolliwrites.wordpress.com), and follow his epic tweets @rolliwrites.

April 24, 2011

STEVEN ROSS SMITH

Photo Credit:  James Tworow

Steven Ross Smith, writer and sound poet, has published eleven books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, and has appeared on more than ten recordings in group and solo contexts. He has been creating and performing sound poetry for three decades in collaborative and solo contexts. His poetry book fluttertongue book 3: disarray, won the 2005 Saskatchewan Books Awards Book of the Year Award. The chapbook Pliny’s Knickers, a collaboration between Smith, poet Hilary Clark and artist Betsy Rosenwald, won the 2006 bpNichol Chapbook Award. His new work – fluttertongue 5: everything appears to shine with mossy splendour – will be published in 2011. Smith has performed his work and/or been published in England, Holland, Russia, Portugal, USA, and Canada. He is currently the Director of Literary Arts at The Banff Centre.

BETTY JANE HEGERAT

Betty Jane Hegerat is the author of two novels, and a collection of short stories. Delivery, the novel from which Betty Jane was delighted to read with Vertigo in fall 2009, was shortlisted for the George Bugnet Fiction Prize in the Alberta Book Awards.
Betty Jane is coming back to Vertigo with a new book, The Boy, which fuses memoir, fiction, journal writing and investigative journalism around the infamous slaying of an Alberta family in 1959.

RHONA MCADAM

Photo Credit:  Alexis Yobbagy

Rhona McAdam is a poet and food writer who currently lives, writes and cooks in Victoria. Her fifth full-length poetry collection, Cartography, was published by Oolichan in 2006, and she launched Sunday Dinners, a JackPine chapbook, with Calgary artist Colleen Philippi last June. This spring another delectable chapbook of her food poems, The Earth’s Kitchen, is published by Leaf Press.

KEITH FOSTER

Keith Foster retired from the Saskatchewan Hansard office in 2008. He has a keen interest in Saskatchewan history, with a Master’s degree in history from the University of Regina, 1978. A member of the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild, Saskatchewan Poetry Society, and Wascana Writers Group, he has won several awards for non-fiction. Keith had material published in Folklore, Western People, Freelance, Early Canadian Life, The Saskatchewan Poetry Book, and six anthologies by Wascana Writers. He has lived in Regina since 1948.

May 23, 2011 Cathedral Village Arts Festival

Tara Dawn Solheim performing to open the event.

Please note that this is a literary open mic and Queen Victoria Costume contest!

Prizes for best costume, so donne a crown and a frilly dress and bring some original written work to perform!

Queen Victoria Images from assorted websites.