Pivot continues on unafraid into the meat of winter. We bring three diverse poets to the microphone for what should be a highlight in the middle of Natures Worst Month. Local favourite Ken Babstock is joined by another experimental sonneteer, David B. Goldstein, and Sufi-inspired performer Sheniz Janmohamed breaks through Pivots long-standing Spoken Word barrier. There are no rules in 2015.

Cast List:

Ken Babstock was born in Burin, Newfoundland, i and grew up in the Ottawa Valley. His first collection, Mean, won the Milton Acorn Award and the Atlantic Poetry Prize. In 2006, he published Airstream Land Yacht, which was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize and the Governor Generals Literary Award for Poetry, and won the Trillium Book Award. Babstock received the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2012 for his fourth poetry collection, Methodist Hatchet. His fifth collection of poetry, On Malice, was published by Coach House Books last year and was named a Globe and Mail Best Book for 2014. Babstock was previously the poetry editor for the House of Anansi Press and currently sits on the poetry board for McClelland & Stewart.

David B. Goldsteins poetry has appeared in journals and anthologies throughout North America, including The Paris Review, The Malahat Review, filling Station, CV2, and Octopus. As a literary critic, food writer, and translator, he has published on a wide range of subjects, including Shakespeare, contemporary poetry, translation, cannibalism, philosophies of food, and the politics of Martha Stewart. Goldstein lives with his family in Toronto, where he is Associate Professor of English at York University. His first full-length collection Laws of Rest was published in 2013 by BookThug.

Sheniz Janmohamed has performed nationally and internationally for 10 years, including features at the TedXYouth Conference, the Indian Summer Festival, and the Jaipur Literature Festival Her work has been published in various print and online journals and anthologies including South Asian Ensemble, The Hart House Review, West Coast Line Vancouver, SUFI Journal UK and Catamaran Literary Reader California. Her first book, Bleeding Light TSAR was published in 2010 and her follow-up Firesmoke TSAR came out last year. Sheniz is also the founder of Ignite Poets, a spoken word initiative with an emphasis on collaboration, innovation and social awareness.

Pivot Readings at the Press Club

Featuring Ken Babstock, David B. Goldstein, & Sheniz Janmohamed

Wednesday, February 11th

8 PM

850 Dundas Street West

PWYC Suggested: $5

Hosted by Jacob McArthur Mooney