Join us Tuesday, April 23 at 7:00 pm Pacific for a special National Poetry Month Regional Spotlight featuring the Soup Group poets from Kelowna with host Meaghan Hackinen and readers Carrie Mitchell, Michele Rule, Jaki Sawyer, Robin Broderick, and Sally Quon. Register here (bcwriters.ca/events-for-writers) and a link will be sent to you. When it's time for the event, click on the link to join the live Zoom event. We look forward to seeing you there!
Digital Doors Open at 6:55 pm!
Carrie Mitchell gratefully lives on unceded Syilx Okanagan land, Lake Country BC. Born with a longing to create, she began interpreting her rich inner world at an early age by writing poems, drawing and collecting nature’s ephemera. A mother, sister, daughter, witch; Mitchell spends her time dismantling paradigms that kept her from authenticity by making art and walking near the geese of Wood Lake. In 2022 she returned to her lifelong dream of studying for a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the age of 56 at The University of British Columbia.
Jaki Sawyer has always loved poetry and has been writing for many years. After living in northern Alberta until she was 39, Jaki moved to New Hampshire, USA, took a number of writing classes, and joined a writing group that met for ten years. In 2014 she and her husband Geoff retired to Kelowna, British Columbia. Jaki has continued to write poetry, and is a member of several writing groups in the Kelowna area.
Michele Rule is a disabled writer from Kelowna BC. She is especially interested in the topic of chronic illness. Michele is recently published in Five Minute Lit, Spillwords, Okay Donkey, and Chicken Soup for the Soul, among others. Michele’s first chapbook is Around the World in Fifteen Haiku. Michele lives in a beautiful garden surrounded by people who love her just the way she is.
With a lifelong commitment to writing, Robin Broderick has explored a variety of formats including short story, poetry, prose, and the screenplay. Her education spans a diverse range, with credentials from college programs in photography and creative writing, a BFA in sculpture, and an International MBA. Robin continually seeks to refine and expand her skills, actively participating in classes, workshops, and writing groups wherever she resides. For nearly two decades, she has contributed to the academic world as a term teacher at both college and university levels. Residing in a serene small town in British Columbia by a lake for most of the year, Robin's surroundings provide endless inspiration for her creative expression in both words and images.
Sally Quon is a dirt-road diva and teller of tales, living in British Columbia, Canada. In addition to being an associate member of the League of Canadian Poets, she is a member of the Federation of BC Writers and Haiku Canada. Her first book of poetry, Beauty, Born of Pain, was followed up by her first children’s book, Billy and the Dragon. Both are available from Okanagan Publishing House. Sally co-edits a twice monthly haiku newsletter, The Solitary Daisy, with her haiku cohort, Michele Rule. She also writes a monthly blog found at https://featherstone-creative.com. In her spare time, Sally enjoys teaching writing workshops and looking for bears.
Meaghan Hackinen (FBCW host): is a bike-obsessed bookworm on a lifelonghunt for exceptional cycling routes, both on and off the pavement. Her cross-continental bike race memoir, Shifting Gears, was released by NeWest Press in 2023. This year, Meaghan is gearing up to compete in the Tour Divide: a self-supported 4,400-kilometre mountain bike race down the Continental Divide from Banff, Alberta to Antelope Wells, New Mexico.
*This event will be recorded.
