International Women's Day Reading 2025: Feminist Virtues and Vices

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Come join us on Zoom for the third annual International Women’s Day reading organized by the Feminist Caucus of the League of Canadian Poets! To celebrate, ten Feminist Caucus members will share our poetry and our passion to change the world. This year’s theme, “Feminist Virtues and Vices,” is intentionally left open to interpretation. Broadly, we plan to feature work that explores the tensions inherent in being a feminist. What are the complex ways in which feminism influences our decisions, and how does feminism make us feel (good or bad) about those decisions?

Buy tickets on eventbrite today! A limited number are available at each price point: $5, $10, and $20. To request a need-based free ticket, please email feministcaucus@leaguepoets.com

FEMINIST CAUCUS MISSION STATEMENT
Adopted November, 2022

The Feminist Caucus of the League of Canadian Poets strongly and uncompromisingly champions the rights of those who identify as women and/or feminists in Canada and worldwide. Our mandate is to celebrate, promote, and support women’s creativity within the League and beyond. We oppose systemic misogyny, anti-feminist traditions, and rights-restrictive cultural relativism and commit to take action against any infringement of women's rights and their creative work. The Feminist Caucus respects and advocates for equality and freedom of expression in its practices and membership.

Poster by Gavin Barrett

Reader Bios:

ANNE BURKE was President of the Writers Guild of Alberta. A Full League Member, she was on National Council, Membership Chair, now a Senior poet, Archivist, Secretary, and Past Feminist Caucus Chair.

SONJA GRECKOL (Tkaronto/Toronto) has published four books of poetry. Her translation of Rocío Cerón’s ‘Trances’ appeared in Asymptote (Jan2024). “Monitoring Station” (UAlberta Press) is shortlisted for the Alberta Book Publishers, Robert Kroetsch Award. (2024). Greckol edits poetry for Women and Environments International and is an ongoing member and Treasurer of the Feminist Caucus.

HEIDI GRECO lives and works on Territory of the Semiahmoo First Nation in Surrey, BC. Although published in a range of genres, she bemoans the fact that she’s a pokey writer. She’s active in her community with a range of causes – from protecting habitat to promoting poetry. More at https://heidigreco.ca

MADI LENTINE JOHNSTONE (they/she) is a non-binary trans woman writer, socio-cultural anthropologist, and Co-Chair of the Feminist Caucus of the League of Canadian Poets. Madi writes about nature, spirituality, sexuality, and robots. They enjoy cooking, crocheting, whittling, and growing flowers from seed. Contact Madi @queerdisabledcyborgs on Instagram to join the Feminist Caucus’s Poetry Workshop.

Bucharest-born DIANA MANOLE immigrated in 2000 and is now proudly identifying herself as an award-winning Romanian-Canadian scholar, writer, and literary translator. The English-Romanian dual-language, “Praying to a Landed-Immigrant God / Rugându-mă la un Dumnezeu emigrant,” is her seventh collection of poems and her first book published in Canada (Grey Borders Books, 2023).

NATASHA SANDERS-KAY writes from the unceded and ancestral lands of the hən̓qəmin̓əm̓ and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh speaking peoples. Her poetry’s appeared in Arc Poetry, The New Quarterly, EVENT, and elsewhere. She received an honourable mention in the 2022 Muriel’s Journey Poetry Prize, and was longlisted for the 2023 CBC Poetry Prize.

PAX SANTOS got her start as a speechwriter, and has her MSc from the London School of Economics. Pax founded Queer Toronto Literary Magazine, and is a firm but fair plant mother.

ANNE STEWART lives in St. Albert, an upscale suburb of Edmonton, Alberta. She has always enjoyed writing fiction, non-fiction, and opinion pieces and only started writing poetry after retirement in 2009. Now she prefers poetry, partly because—unlike fiction—it doesn’t require a plausible ending.

Once homeless, PHOENIX WINTER led the Vancouver Downtown Eastside (DTES) FireWriters for 13 years and put out several group chapbooks. Part of the DTES Writers Collective, she co-edited a group book, “Continuum.” She was one of the organizers of the first DTES Writers Festival. Her work has appeared in anthologies from Vancouver to Ottawa.

BÄNOO ZAN is a poet, translator, and poetry curator, with over 300 published pieces and three books. She is the founder of Shab-e She’r, Canada’s most diverse and brave poetry series. Bänoo is the co-editor of the international poetry anthology: “Woman, Life, Freedom: Poems for the Iranian Revolution,” Guernica Editions.

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