Refresh your mind and spirit with poetry on May 15 at the Gold Rush
By Contributor
BC Poetry Tour Coming to Rossland on May 15th
Acclaimed BC poets Kevin Spenst and Rob Taylor, authors of nine poetry books between them, are touring through the Kootenays and Okanagan this May, with an event at Rossland’s Gold Rush Bookstore (2063 Washington Street) at 6:30 pm on May 15th.
Both authors have just released new books, which they will read from at the event. Kevin Spenst’s A Bouquet Brought Back from Space (Anvil Press, 2024) explores the overlap of faith and imagination as twinned forces that sustain us through life and death, while Rob Taylor’s Weather (Gaspereau Press, 2024) records the first three years of his daughter’s life in a sequence of short poems written one per week.
Though this will be the authors’ first reading in Rossland, they both have connections to the region. The woman who inspired many of the poems in Spenst’s A Bouquet Brought Back from Space grew up in the Kootenays. “We alternate holidays between her family in the Trail/Rossland/Fruitvale area and my family in the Lower Mainland. She’s already given me a set-list of poems she wants me to read, knowing full well her family will be in the audience.”
“All my siblings grew up in Trail,” adds Taylor, “and I spent my childhood traveling back to the West Kootenays frequently, so I’m excited to finally have the chance to tour a book in the region.”
In addition to their books, Taylor and Spenst teach poetry at Simon Fraser University’s The Writer’s Studio and organize poetry events in the Lower Mainland, with Spenst running Vancouver’s Dead Poets Reading Series and Taylor coordinating Abbotsford’s Fraser Valley Writers Festival. Both are excited to share what they’ve learned about the many forms and formulations that poetry can take.
Spenst and Taylor will be reading in Nelson at Notably, a Book Lover’s Emporium (454 Ward Street) on the 14th before making their way to Rossland, and will conclude their tour on May 16th with a reading in Kelowna. All events will be free and open to all.
You can learn more about all the tour dates at: https://kevinspenst.com/
