Welcome, fellow hOwlers,
We hope you had a luminous summer, filed with wonderful adventure and sunny days. We are excited to shift with the seasons and bask in the magical harvest that our artists are bringing to the Woolf’s Voices 43 event. We are pleased to invite you to join us on September 16th, 7pm at Shelf Life Books, 1302 4 St SW #100, Calgary, AB, T2R 0X8. This event is curated and hosted by Tyler the Merchant of Poetry, and sponsored by The Alexandra Writers’ Center and The Writer’s Guild of Alberta.
Register Here!
This is a free event; donations are warmly appreciated. We kindly ask that you register through our Eventbrite Link. Your care and support help us continue creating gatherings like this, and we’re so grateful you’re part of this community.
Hosted by: The Merchant of Poetry (Tyler Merchant) is a spoken word artist and fiction writer from Calgary, Alberta. She began her poetry career in 2018, when her close friend bullied her into joining her high school slam team. She began competing in the Alberta youth slam, Can You Hear Me Now, continued on to be a regular at The Calgary Poetry Slam, and was a finalist at the 2023 and 2025 Canadian Individual Poetry Slam. She’s received a Bachelor’s degree in English with a Certificate in Creative Writing from the University of Calgary. Most of her work is epistolary, exploring themes of feminism, queerness, and spite.
Enjoy this juicy harvest of creative talents.
Meet our Woolf’s 43 artists!
Aleah Luciw
Bio: Aleah Luciw is a Calgary poet whose reflective style works to create connection through storytelling that invokes conversation. Through her writing, she has had the wonderful opportunity to be a part of Poems in Passage Season 3, competed in the Canadian Individual Poetry Slam, and is excited to get to share her work with you today.
Socials:
Instagram: aleah_writing
Oma is Loud
Bio: Oma is Loud is winner of the 2026 Canadian Poetry Slam Nationals. Her Poetry-Theatre production, Pretty Dangerous, premiered at the Calgary Central Library in March 2026.
website: iheomauzomba.com
IG:
https://www.instagram.com/oma_is_loud
Nikki 9
Bio: Nikki 9 has been writing poetry from the womb till’ the tomb
socials
Irene Poole
Bio: Irene Poole is a Banff-born, Calgary-based actor and singer-songwriter whose hopeful indie-folk songs have garnered her a YYC Music Award for Emerging Artist of the Year. With her nature-inspired lyrics and angelic melodies, Irene aims to be a storyteller in everything she does.
Website, Instagram, Bandcamp, Spotify
Kimberlee Jones
When Kimberlee Jones isn’t writing poetry, she takes photographs she can paint much later and battles with the Creeping Bell Flower in her garden. She’s a PR pro and former Journalism instructor happily serving her grumpy grey cat in Calgary, AB, on Treaty 7 land.
Her work appears in the AWCS 40th Anniversary Anthology, in Uncommon Grounds (EPCPress2021) and in the Guest 25 Anthology (above/ground press). She is one of four Fates recently published in “The Fates” (2024) and “Leylines and Landmines” (2025).
https://espressopoetrycollective.ca/
https://www.facebook.com/espressopoetrycollective
Chabella Fernandez
Chabella is a singer-songwriter, who has performed regularly at open mics and also sang in Okotoks Got Talent last spring. She is currently working on her album, which should soon be released on Spotify and Apple Music.
https://www.facebook.com/share/18d9pKi8Qg/?mibextid=wwXIfr
We look forward to connecting and hOwling with you all on September 16th!
Please take a moment to register for the event Here! We’re so grateful for your support.
Thank you so much to our generous sponsors and supporters, League of Canadian Poets, Writers Guild of Alberta, and Alexandria Writers Center, whose kindness and commitment make it possible for Woolf’s Voices and its artists to bring these gatherings to life.
We are especially grateful to Shelf Life Books and Alcove Center for the Arts for opening their doors to us and creating such a welcoming home for our hOwls, a place where we can come together and honour the feminine in all its forms. It is a true privilege to collaborate with these spaces and the wonderful people who run them, and we appreciate your ongoing support more than words can say.
IN OTHER NEWS
Our Woolf’s’ Voices alumni are gathering and harvesting with all kinds of fun, imaginative creations. Here’s what’s what abundant in our glowing creative community and how we’re celebrating and supporting their fall magic.
Join our lovely Adrienne Adams and Single Onion for a night of spoken arts!
SINGLE ONION presents OPEN MIC NIGHT!
WHEN: Thursday Sept 3, 2026
TIME: 7 – 9 pm
WHERE: Stonyslope Brewery Company
9620 Elbow Dr SW, Unit 20
Calgary, AB
FEATURED HEADLINER: Adrienne Adams
Adrienne Adams (she/her) is a bisexual artist, poet, writer, curator, herb nerd and gardener living and breathing in Treaty 7, dedicated to creating braver inter-sectional space to honour the feminine. She founded the reading series Woolf’s Voices in 2013. www.woolfsvoices.com @woolfsvoices . Her publications include The Prairie Journal, filling Station, Herizons, Antilang, FreeFall, NewForum, NōD, Polyglot, Fire Season III anthology, (M)othering anthology (Inanna Press), YYC POP and her chapbook Red Heads by above/ground Press https://adrienneadamsartandpoetry.com @adamsel.adams
Come out for an enticing evening at the Stonyslope Brewing Company. Sample the beers and partake of the enticing menu! Sit back and enjoy the poetry, and sign up to share your work on the Open Mic.
Sign-up starts at 7 pm (10 spots). Our hosts for the evening are Paul Marshall and Shafraz Ladak.
We gratefully acknowledge the support of The Canada Council for the Arts, the League of Canadian Poets, Calgary Arts Development, Shelf Life Books, the Writers’ Guild of Alberta, the Calgary Foundation, and the fine folks at Stonyslope Brewing Company.
Join magical Rishi Midha and our lovely Kirti Bhadresa for the launch of Rishi Midha’s new book!
Book Launch: We Are Busy Being Alive
Thursday Sep 3rd, 2026
7:00 PM
A reading by Rishi Midha to celebrate the release of his new book, We Are Busy Being Alive, joined by Kirti Bhadresa.
Get out and connect in the community with the Writer’s Guild of Alberta and the Alexandra Writer’s Center!
Connections Brewing Pub Night (Calgary)
September 8, 2026
6:00 PM – 9:00 PM MT
Last Best Brewing & Distilling
(Upstairs in the dining room)
607 – 11th Ave SW
Calgary
This is a Free event.
Calgary, we hope to see you at Connections Brewing for another pub night. We will now be featuring another literary trivia night with Precious de Leon!
This event is a partnership between the Writers’ Guild of Alberta and the Alexandra Writers’ Centre.
Street parking is free from 6:00 PM onwards. It is a 7-minute walk from 4th Street C-Train station.
Spend some quality time gathering and enjoy some treats with Ashley Frerichs and meet some other YYC writers!
Coffee & Chat at Memorial Park Library (Calgary)
September 12, 2026
10:00 AM – 11:30 AM MT
Memorial Park Library
Meeting Room 2
1221 2 St SW
Calgary
This is a Free event
Please join host Ashley Frerichs for the next Calgary Coffee & Chat, a place for YYC writers to get together and gab about all things writing! Come enjoy some coffee (and Timbits!) and share your recent successes, struggles, and/or bounce ideas and questions off other writers in the community.
Join us from Thursday night to Sunday evening in Calgary’s Inglewood neighbourhood for the Stroll of Poets Festival 2026 with the Calgary Spoken Word Society’s Wise Women: Magic Words (and special Youth Programming at Little Red Reading House)! Over the course of four days, we will have open mics, curated readings, special showcases, and more. As always, there will be a mix of free & ticketed events for everyone to enjoy.
Join our lovely Ashley Frerichs and Ashley-Rae Carter-Wells at The Collectors’ Gallery of Art!
Curated Reading: Festival Kick-Off!
by Ashley Frerichs
Thursday, September 17, 2026
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM MT
The Collectors’ Gallery of Art
1332 9th Ave SE
Featuring: Ashley-Rae Carter-Wells, Bertrand Bickersteth, Cobra Collins, Dan Poitras, Francis Willey, and Mary Vlooswyk
…and musical guests PoëThree!
Join our very own Adrienne Adams at Rosso Coffee Rosters!
Open Mic at Rosso Coffee Roasters
hosted by Adrienne Adams
September 19, 2026
5:30 PM – 6:45 PM MT
Rosso Coffee Roasters
1402 9th Ave SE
Join our lovely alumni Skylar Kay, Ashley Frerichs Dr. Micheline Maylor, Shone Thistle, and Sheri-D Wilson for a celebration of the divine feminine!
The Stroll of Poets Festival is excited to partner with the Calgary Spoken Word Society’s Wise Women: Magic Words events this year!
From the Calgary Spoken Word Society:
Wise Women: Magic Words is a celebration of the feminine divine – a gathering of fierce and luminous voices, each one held in high spirit. Come join these remarkable humans who have helped shape new worlds of poetry, story, song, and light dancing.
Featuring: Ashley Frerichs, Louise Bernice Halfe – Sky Dancer, Clara A. B. Joseph, Alystyre Julian, Skylar Kay, Dr. Micheline Maylor, Susan Musgrave, Sandi Somers, Shone Thistle, Anne Waldman, and Sheri-D Wilson. This year’s band will be the Wandering V’s.
All events are presented with the Writers’ Guild of Alberta. This will be 4 days of non-stop magic. Please get your tix ahead of time. Tickets are all by donation, at the Event links below.
Check out the whole festival line up Here! We hope to see you there!
Make sure to check out Shelf Life Books upcoming events Here! They have lots of fantastic events!
We hope you had a wonderful summer and we’re so excited to see what is gathered and harvested in our community this fall!
We hope you enjoyed this newsletter! Let us know what else you’d love to see in future issues—your ideas help shape what we create.
We can’t wait to hOwl with you on September 16th at Shelf Life Books and to share space, stories, and conversation together. We’re truly looking forward to seeing you there.
Warmly,
The Woolf’s Voices Collective
