Writes of Spring Launch 2022

For the seventh year in a row, Writes of Spring—a National Poetry Month project of the Winnipeg International Writers Festival and the Winnipeg Free Press—will appear in the print and online editions of the newspaper.

Twelve poems by Manitoba writers will appear in the Winnipeg Free Press on April 23 and will be launched at McNally Robinson Booksellers the same day!

The launch will be hosted live in the Atrium of McNally Robinson Booksellers, Grant Park and also available as a simultaneous YouTube stream. The video will be available for viewing thereafter. Before arriving, please review details of how to attend physical events here at the store.

Hosted by editors Ariel Gordon and Duncan Mercredi, this event will feature readings on the theme of “intimacy” by the 2022 Writes of Spring poets: Katherine Bitney, Anne Claros, Roewan Crowe, Brigette DePape, Denise Duguay, Laurie Fischer, Bryanne Lamoureux, Megan Ronald, Lynnel Sinclair, Cam Scott, Jeanette Timmerman, and Shannon Joy Wazny.

Duncan Mercredi (Cree/Métis) is the Winnipeg Poet Laureate. A longtime resident of the city, he was born in Misipawistik (Grand Rapids) and grew up listening to his grandmother’s stories. His poetry collections have been published by Pemmican and WLU Press, and his work has appeared in countless anthologies and periodicals including Prairie Fire and CV2. Duncan has appeared at storytelling and literary festivals across North America, and for two decades has been conducting school workshops throughout Manitoba.

Ariel Gordon is a Winnipeg/Treaty 1 territory-based writer, editor, and enthusiast. Her most recent books are Treed: Walking in Canada’s Urban Forests (Wolsak & Wynn, 2019), a collection of essays that combines science writing and the personal essay, and TreeTalk (At Bay Press, 2020), a public poetry project where Ariel hangs poems in trees and asks passersby to add their thoughts, ideas, and secrets. She is the winter 2022 Writer-in-Residence at the Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture at the University of Manitoba.

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See the two page spread in the Winnipeg Free Press here:

Writes of Spring Page One, Writes of Spring Page Two