Welcome, fellow hOwlers,
We hope the fall has brought you abundance and a wonderful harvest, filled with wonderful adventure and the magic of fall days. We are thankful to slow down and deepen our connection with the divine feminine that our artists are bringing to the Woolf Voices 44, A 60 for 60 Canadian League of Poets Event. We are pleased to invite you to join us on November 3rd, 7pm at Calgary Unitarian, 1703 1 St NW, Calgary, AB, T2M 4P4. This event is curated and hosted by Adrienne Adams, and sponsored by The League of Canadian Poets, The Alexandra Writers’ Center, Canada Council for the Arts and Department of Canadian Heritage, Calgary Unitarians, 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: Adrienne Adams (she/her) a writer in Treaty 7 dedicated to creating braver inter-sectional space to honour the feminine and founded Woolf’s Voices. Find her work in The Prairie Journal, fillingStation, Herizons, Antilang, FreeFall, M(O)thering (Inanna Press), FireSeason III and her chapbook Red Heads (above/ground Press). https://adrienneadamsartandpoetry.com
@adamsel.adams
Check out the Guide for the 60/60 event from LCP Link: https://poets.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/60-Events-for-60-Years-info-booklet.pd here!
Enjoy this divine pool of creative talents.
Meet our Woolf’s 44 artists!
Heidi Vanbeselaere
(she/her) lives, plays and writes on Treaty 7 territory in Calgary, AB. She is an outdoor educator and student by day, poet and improviser by night. She writes her best poems from the bathroom floor and finds inspiration in the everyday roller coaster of being human.
Instagram: @hvb.writes
Nisha Patel (Nee-Shuh) (Putt-ell)
is a Poet Laureate Emeritus of the City of Edmonton and a Canadian Poetry Slam Champion. She is a disability advocate and diabetic. Her works (Coconut, A Fate Worse Than Death, For the Record) are available where books are sold. She currently works from Edmonton and Calgary.
Website: nishapatel.ca
Instagram: @anothernisha
Threads: @anothernisha
Bluesky: @anothernisha
Facebook: www.facebook.com/anothernisha
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anothernisha
Twitter: @anothernisha
Books
For the Record (Arsenal Pulp Press)
Arsenal Pulp Press: https://arsenalpulp.com/
For the Record Order Page: https://arsenalpulp.com/Books/F/For-the-Record
Coconut (NeWest Press)
NeWest Press: https://newestpress.com/
Coconut Order Page: https://bookshop.newestpress.com/collections/poetry/products/coconut
A Fate Worse Than Death (Arsenal Pulp Press)
Arsenal Pulp Press: https://arsenalpulp.com/
A Fate Worse Than Death Order Page: https://arsenalpulp.com/Books/A/A-Fate-Worse-Than-Death
Local Bookstore (Edmonton): https://www.audreys.ca/
Loretta Biasutti
is a life-long activist, and founder along with Carolyn Pogue of the Calgary Rolling Crones, a group of engaged older women who refuse to be defined by their gender or their age. Loretta and Carolyn have written two plays performed by the Crones: Patriarchy on Trial, on the effect of patriarchal systems on women, and The Cock and the Girl who Forgot: A Cautionary Tale, about power and the cost to attain it.
Priscille Bukasa
is a Calgary-based spoken word artist, writer, and teaching artist with over 15 years of performance experience. Her work explores cultural identity, belonging, faith, and social reflection through poetry and storytelling.
Spoken word artist, Teaching artists , Freelance Marketing Consultant
Vallerie Ross
is a musician, music educator, and arranger for the Calgary Rolling Crones. She is a long-time activist, devoted yogini, and vintage feminist.
Natalie Simpson
is the author of accrete or crumble (LINEbooks) and Thrum (Talonbooks). Her poetry has appeared in several anthologies, including The Best Canadian Poetry in English, and many chapbooks, most recently post spell from Gap Riot Press.
We look forward to connecting and hOwling with you all on November 3rd!
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 Calgary Unitarians for having us for this event and creating such a welcoming space for our hOwls, a place where we can come together and honour the feminine in all its forms.
IN OTHER NEWS
Our Woolf’s’ Voices alumni are brewing all kinds of magical, intriguing creations. Here’s what is growing in our glowing creative community and how we’re celebrating and supporting their magic.
Come see our very own amazing Nisha Patel with Single Onion!
Single Onion #224
Thursday Nov 12th, 2026
7:00 PM
Single Onion #224
The Single Onion for November 2026 features: Josephine LoRe, Nisha Patel, Kathryn Lennon, and Miranda Krogstad.
WHEN: Thursday, November 12, 7pm
WHERE: Shelf Life Books, 1302 4 St SW
Streaming: https://www.youtube.com/@SingleOnionPoetry
Join our wonderful Ashley-Rae Carter-Wells, darling Ashely Frerichs, and magical Sheri-D Wilson with the Writers Guild of Alberta!
- Tickets still available!
An atmospheric evening of poetry, storytelling and live cello, arriving just in time for Halloween!
October 28, 2026
Doors: 6:30 PM MT
Show: 7:00 PM MT
cSpace Marda Loop Theatre (First Floor)
1721 29 Ave SW
Calgary
Tickets: Entry by donation (suggested donation $20)
Six distinctive writers and artists gather at the Witches’ Well, where words and music explore nature, memory, transformation, witchcraft and the strange magic hidden in everyday life. Lyrical, surprising and just a little spellbinding. Read more about our features: Ashley Rae Carter-Wells, Morag Northey, Eugene Stickland, Mary Vlooswyk, and Sheri-D Wilson. Hosted by the WGA’s Ashley Frerichs.
This event is presented by the Writers’ Guild of Alberta and the Calgary Spoken Word Society.
Tickets: calgaryspokenwordfestival.com/festival-archive/witches-well-cello-spells/
Join the lovely MelVee and fierce Oma at Speak Up YYC!
Come see the champ on Oct 29, @oma_is_loud
We are so excited to feature Oma is Loud!!! She is a powerhouse and a national slam champion. Sneak a peak at her incredible bio:
Oma is Loud is the 2026 Canadian Poetry Slam Nationals Champ and winner of the 2026 Evaristo Prize for Poetry. She is a Poetry Translation Centre (UK) Undertow Fellow. Her poetry-theatre production, Pretty Dangerous: Four Acts on Womanhood, premiered at the Calgary Central Library in March 2026. A stark raving mad poet, she stays wild in her musings until 9 pm or so
Hosted by MelVee X @melveex
Speak Up is made possible through the generosity of our friends at the Writers’ Guild of Alberta @writersguildab and San<K>tjuri Buks @sanktjuri
Did we mention we’re live!? We’ll be streamlining live to our YouTube channel for those who cannot join us in person. Link to our livestream in our bio
Head over to the Canadian League of Poets and get creative!
We invite both League members and non-members to submit a poem to be part of the 2027 Poem in Your Pocket collection! The poem must be previously unpublished, under 40 lines long, and appropriate for all ages. Selected poems will be published in the 2027 Poem in Your Pocket Day collection and poets will receive a $300 prize.
Held in the last two weeks of National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day is an international movement that encourages people to centre poetry within their daily interactions. On PIYP Day, select a poem, carry it with you, and share it with others at schools, bookstores, libraries, parks, workplaces, coffee shops, street corners, and on social media using the hashtag #PocketPoem.
League members submit for free and non-members may submit for $5.
This 2027 National Poetry Month theme is HOME so we especially welcome poems that centre the theme! However, all poems that meet the submissions guidelines above, regardless of theme, are eligible.
Deadline: Monday December 14, 2026
Submit and view the full guidelines on poets.ca, through the link in bio
We hope you had a fantastical fall and we’re so excited to see what warmth is brewing 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 November 3rd at Calgary Unitarians and to share space, stories, and conversation together. We’re truly looking forward to seeing you there.
Warmly,
The Woolf’s Voices Collective
