Geeking out at WORD Vancouver

I had an amazing time at WORD Vancouver on Sunday, September 28! It would have been hard not to, though, because we couldn’t have asked for better weather. What an incredibly gorgeous, sunshiny autumn day!

The first things that I did when I got there was sign-in and collect my nametag. I was excited to discover that I am a Very Important Person.

After I got my nametag, I spent a happy hour catching bits and bites of other performances, and gawking at all the amazing word-loving organizations with their books and magazines proudly displayed under tents and on tables. I stopped by to visit my friends at PRISM international and got a silly picture taken.

After that, it was time to meet up with the editors of Room Magazine and to get ready to share some words.

The reading was so wonderful. Taryn Hubbard and Meghan Bell were lovely, warm-spirited hosts, and I was so pleased to meet my fellow Room contributor, Lucas Crawford, whose self-deprecating humour, and his obvious love and empathy for others, brightened the performance of his poetry. Check out “Expanding the Voice,” Room 37.2, the issue that features his work.

Of course, I am still most excited about Room 37.3, “Geek Girls,” the issue I had the honour and pleasure of representing at WORD Vancouver. I performed my two fairy tale-inspired poems from “Geek Girls,” which you should hurry up and read already! Then I shared a couple of my dramatic monologues of women from fairy tales. It was a lot of fun to read most of that work to an audience for the first time. I’m so grateful to Room and WORD Vancouver for giving me the opportunity to do so!

Do you still need extra incentive to grab your copy of “Geek Girls“? Don’t take my word for it–take the word of my friend Natalie Morrill. She recently got shortlisted for the second annual HarperCollins Canada/UBC Prize for Best New Fiction, so you know she’s amazing and her opinion has weight. Plus, she drinks tea from a Mason jar that’s decked out in an adorable knit cozy:

That’s the update for now! I’ll be posting again soon, though, because my fellow Swooner and dear friend, Jeffrey Ricker, has tagged me in the Writer Tag and Blog Hop. He says some nice things about me in his post, and some really wonderful things about his writing process. Soon I’ll do another update letting you in on some of my own writing secrets! (Update: now here!)

Thanks again to everyone who came out to WORD Vancouver to see me and hear my poems. It was lovely to see you! I hope October is off to a magical start for you all.

I just noticed that I’m posting this on National Poetry Day in the UK! Happy poetry-reading, friends! (Also: happy 60th wedding anniversary to my grandparents!)