Literary arts

Edmonton Poetry Festival Celebrates 20 Years with Month-long Festival and Local Focus.

Edmonton, AB – The Edmonton Poetry Festival Society (EPFS) proudly unveils its official artwork and programming for the 2025 Festival, marking two decades of celebrating poetry in the city. This year, the theme is all about local energy, talent, and partnerships. The festival’s official image, The High Level Magpie, by Ashley Rosenow of Illustrious Interiors, embodies Edmonton’s creative spirit. Featured on the exterior of the iconic High Level Diner, the magpie symbolizes the city’s poetic vibrancy. 

The 2025 Festival Programming runs throughout April’s National Poetry Month, showcasing local poets, open mics, regionally based publishers showcase, and collaborations with local arts organizations. New initiatives include:

• Full month-long programming – Previously a week-long celebration, the festival now expands to a full month in honor of its 20th anniversary.
• Project: The Twenty – An anthology of twenty young poets, inspired by the theme "my turn of phrase."
• High Level Bridge lit with EPF colours – On Friday, April 4, the bridge will glow at night in the two shades of blue that reflect the Edmonton Poetry Festival.

The festival is bursting with unique events, including open mics, book launches, and diverse community programs like the French Twist (for the francophone community), Deaf Poetry Jam, a collaborative poetry night with Rapid Fire Theatre, and "Sage" poetry events with elderly folks.  

There are workshops, a poetry-music event with our city's current Poet Laurette, and a 20th anniversary birthday party for the festival. 

Join us in celebrating 20 years of poetry in Edmonton! Visit our website for more details. 
to edmontonpoetryfestival.com

Banff Centre’s Spring Writers Residency provides participants with the time and space for creative exploration away from the constraints of everyday life. Writers will be able to delve deep into their creative project, meet with a community of artistic peers, and take advantage of workshops and mentorship opportunities with faculty Eden Robinson, Nicole Sealey, Vidyan Ravinthiran, and professional guest Stephen Motika (Nightboat Books). 

This flexible program with optional program elements allows writers to choose the amount of support they are looking for. 

This two-week self-directed residency provides writers with individual accommodation and a small private studio for them to focus, reconnect, and re-energize their writing practice. In addition, participants will be able to engage with other writers on the program as well as specialist faculty. 

Since all program elements are optional, participants can customize the residency according to the writing support needed.

Optional elements include:

• talks from faculty Eden Robinson, Nicole Sealey, Vidyan Ravinthiran, and professional guest Stephen Motika.
• one-on-one mentoring sessions with faculty to discuss ideas, experiences, and obstacles.
• Q & A sessions.
• workshops to discuss useful techniques, devices, and aspects.
• public readings.

The program is designed to cater to emerging and established writers with a proven publication record seeking a period of dedicated time to work on a project in any genre.

Participants will benefit most if they are comfortable working autonomously in an unstructured environment. The program suits those focused on:

• working on a specific project.
• creating new works.

Participants are provided with individual accommodation and a small private studio to focus on their writing practice.

This program is run in English and only accepts projects that are being written in English. English is the language of Banff Centre correspondence.

Application Deadline: October 15, 2025
Program Dates: Mar 16, 2026 - Mar 27, 2026

For more information and to apply: https://bit.ly/41zo3vE

This 19-day self-directed residency offers the opportunity to work away from the constraints of everyday life, delve deep into a creative project and take advantage of a community of artisic peers. 

Deep Winter Writers provides opportunities for consultations with exceptional mentors Holly Pester, Divya Victor, and Nasser Hussain and professional guest Joshua Rothes (Sublunary Editions), and optional group sessions that allow writers to explore useful literary tools, aspects, and devices. 

Faculty are on-campus for the first two weeks of the residency. The third week allows residents to dive deeper into their writing and apply the learning from the first two weeks.

This three-week residency has a flexible format that allows participants to choose the amount of programming and support they are looking for. 

Optional elements include:

• thematic talks from specialist faculty and guests.
• one-on-one mentoring sessions with faculty to discuss ideas, experiences and obstacles they may be encountering in their writing across genres.
• Q & A sessions.
• workshops to explore techniques, aspects, and devices writers may find useful in their practice.
• public reading opportunities.

Participants are provided with individual accommodation and a small private studio to focus on their writing practice.

The program is designed to cater to writers in all creative genres. The program is designed for emerging and established writers with a proven publication record seeking a period of dedicated time to work on a project.

Participants will benefit most if they are comfortable working autonomously in an unstructured environment. The program suits those focused on:

• working on a specific project.
• creating new works.

This program is run in English and only accepts projects that are being written in English. English is the language of Banff Centre correspondence.

Application Deadline: August 20, 2025
Program Dates: Jan 12, 2026 - Jan 30, 2026

For more information and to apply: https://bit.ly/43hwfSx

Mountain Writers Intensive is a three-week residency for eight writers working on mountain narratives, environmental journalism, stories of adventure, or projects with an environmental theme. Writers can work in any genre (fiction, nonfiction, journalism, or poetry), and will enjoy dedicated, uninterrupted writing time in a spectacular mountain setting, the communality of a small group of artistic peers and support from renowned faculty.

This program overlaps with the Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival where visiting authors, editors, and publishers will offer inspiration.

In the niche genre of mountain literature, the journey of self-exploration and the psychology of extreme endeavours is as much a focus as the physical accomplishments involved. This program will emphasize literary quality and the development of narrative. Writers will be encouraged to meet regularly with faculty and other writing participants to share work and projects for review.

During this program writers will take part in scheduled workshops with faculty and guests to:

• explore and learn the elements of a strong narrative.
• hear topics related to mountain and wilderness writing.
• receive feedback on unfinished work from faculty.
• share best practices and ideas with other participants.

Writers will have access to uninterrupted writing time and a personal studio space.

The program is designed to cater to emerging and established writers in all genres— fiction, nonfiction, poetry, essay, history, biography, and memoir—working on mountain narratives, environmental journalism, stories of adventure, or projects with an environmental theme. 

Participants will benefit most if they are comfortable working autonomously in an unstructured environment. The program suits those focused on:

• working on a specific project.
• creating new works.

This program is run in English and only accepts projects that are being written in English. English is the language of Banff Centre correspondence.

Application Deadline: May 28, 2025
Program Dates: Oct 29, 2025 - Nov 18, 2025

For more information and to apply: bit.ly/4h1Yw2P