Join us for a Free event celebrating House of Anansi‘s poetry, hosted by MOCA!
Enjoy access to exhibitions on Floor 1 and listen to five incredible poets read from their new collections:
- Ultra Blue written by Graeme Bezanson
- Pitiful written by Brandi Bird
- The Wren written by A. F. Moritz
- procession written by katherena vermette
- Nightmare Jones written by Shannon Bramer and illustrated by Cindy Derby (published by Groundwood Books)
This event is recommended for ages 19+. Drinks will be available for purchase.
About the Poets
Graeme Bezanson is a Nova Scotian writer who spent the past eleven years living in rural France. A graduate of Mount Allison University, he later earned an MFA in poetry from The New School in New York City. His work has appeared widely in Canada, the US, and Europe, in places like BOMB, Sixth Finch, CV2, PRISM International, The Ex-Puritan, Metatron, The Malahat Review, Washington Square, and The Harvard Advocate. This is his first full-length collection of poems.
Brandi Bird is an Indigiqueer Saulteaux, Cree, and Métis writer and editor from Treaty 1 territory. They currently live and learn on the land of the Squamish, the Tsleil-Waututh, and the Musqueam peoples (Surrey, B.C). Their debut poetry collection, The All + Flesh (Anansi, 2023), won an Indigenous Voices Award and was a finalist for both the Gerald Lampert and the Governor General’s awards. Brandi Bird is currently completing an MFA at the University of British Columbia.
A.F. Moritz’s most recent books from House of Anansi Press are Great Silent Ballad (2024), As Far as You Know (2020) and The Sparrow: Selected Poems (2018). Three of his books have been finalists for the Governor General’s Award; The Sentinel won the Griffin Poetry Prize. His work overall has received the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Award in Literature of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and other recognitions. A.F. Moritz was Poet Laureate of Toronto from 2019 to 2023.
katherena vermette (she/her/hers) is a Michif (Red River Métis) writer from Treaty 1 territory, the heart of the Métis Nation, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
In 2013, her first book, North End Love Songs (Muses’ Company) won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Poetry. Since then, her work has garnered awards and critical accolades across genres. Her latest is the poetry collection, procession (House of Anansi). Vermette lives with her family in a cranky old house within skipping distance of the temperamental Red River.
Shannon Bramer is an author of poems, plays and short fiction. She has published Climbing Shadows: Poems for Children, illustrated by Cindy Derby; Robot, Unicorn, Queen: poems for you and me, illustrated by Irene Luxbacher (David Booth Children’s and Youth Poetry Award); and several poetry collections for adults, including Precious Energy and suitcases and other poems (Hamilton and Region Arts Council Book Award). She lives with her family in Toronto, Ontario.
Cindy Derby is an author, illustrator and puppeteer. Her illustrations for Outside In by Deborah Underwood received a Caldecott Honor and a Golden Kite Honor. She has written and illustrated the highly acclaimed picture books Blurp’s Book of Manners, Two Many Birds (Bank Street College of Education Best Children’s Books of the Year) and How to Walk an Ant. Her work has received international recognition from France, Brazil and Japan. Derby lives with her family in San Francisco.
About House of Anansi Press
House of Anansi Press is Canada’s leading independent publisher. They continue to break new ground with award-winning and bestselling books that reflect the changing nature of the country and the world. They help to shape the national conversation with the publication of the annual CBC Massey Lectures (in conjunction with University of Toronto’s Massey College and CBC Ideas) with contributors like Martin Luther King, Jr., Tanya Talaga, Esi Edugyan, and Tomson Highway. Anansi also continues to publish poetry, fiction, nonfiction, drama, French-Canadian writers in translation and lifestyle, as well as authors from around the world. They take pride in finding and developing talent, publishing Indigenous, Black, and other deserving writers, and firing up the imagination with Very Good Books.
