Poetry
Events
Postcards from the Edge: Addressing Compassion Fatigue in Note Form
Perhaps you’re too overwhelmed to read this. That’s okay — this workshop was designed with you in mind. Together, we’ll address the impacts on you as someone who witnesses human and planetary suffering. You might be a front-line worker, healthcare professional, caregiver, activists, writer, or anyone experiencing fatigue. In this gentle, guided 1.5-hour session, we’ll ...read more
Tuesday, May 5 Upstart & Crow Studio
Spring Poetry Party with Leesa Dean, Jamella Hagen and Lisa Richter
Join us at Upstart & Crow as we celebrate three new spring releases from acclaimed poets Jamella Hagen (Whitehorse, YT), Lisa Richter (Toronto, ON) and Leesa Dean (Krestova, BC). The evening will feature author readings and a discussion with host Abby Wener Herlin. This event is free but capacity is limited, so please reserve your ...read more
Thursday, Apr 23 Upstart & Crow Studio
Every Poem is a Love Poem: A Poetry Workshop with Kyla Jamieson
According to the poet Chen Chen, “poetry matters because it nourishes the heart.” Likewise, the heart nourishes poetry. In this workshop, we’ll look at poets and authors who engage with love as their subject matter or as a guiding principle for their writing. Participants will learn about poetic forms and tools, reflect on who and ...read more
Thursday, Feb 12 Upstart & Crow Studio
Poetry as Research Method: “don’t panic! and don’t write nature poems!”
In this workshop, we’ll consider poetry as a kind of research method that can help us think through crucial questions — in a time of climate crisis, on stolen and unceded Indigenous lands: Where are we? How did we get here? What do we know, and what do we still need to know, about how ...read more
Tuesday, Nov 25 Upstart & Crow Studio
Sounding Out: Exploring, Creating & Performing Text Scores with Elee Kraljii Gardiner
A text score is, “a collection of verbally notated meditations that may be enjoyed by anyone in a variety of ways: read as poetry, performed alone or performed for an audience.” Pauline Oliveros, Sonic Meditations I – XXV (1971) Join us on Friday, November 21 at 6pm for a mini-intensive workshop with Vancouver Poet Laureate, Elee Kraljii ...read more
Friday, Nov 21 Upstart & Crow Studio
Praise and the Practice of Naming: A Generative Writing Workshop for a Complex World
In this 90-minute online session, Preeti Kaur Dhaliwal—our 2025 resident poet—will guide you through an exploration of praise poems as a radical, expansive form—not just for gratitude and joy, but for holding the contradictions of being alive. Together, we’ll explore how praise can be a practice of witnessing the full complexity of our lives: the beauty and ...read more
Tuesday, Sep 9 Online via Zoom
Writing Toward Borderless Solidarities: A Workshop with Poet in Residence, Preeti Kaur Dhaliwal
Presented in collaboration with Indian Summer Festival, this generative workshop with Preeti Kaur Dhaliwal, Upstart & Crow’s 2025 Poet in Residence, invites participants to explore the theme of borderless solidarities through creative writing, connection, and shared reflection. We’ll begin with a series of freewriting exercises that invite you to explore the idea of borders — between people, places, identities, and within ourselves. ...read more
Wednesday, Jun 25 Upstart & Crow Studio
Spontaneous Particulars: Collage as Poetic Practice
How does tactile, sensory play enliven a poem-making practice? In this experimental workshop with poet, editor and teacher, Sheryda Warrener, you’ll layer, collide, disrupt, and juxtapose visual fragments as a way to prime the mind for poem-making. To inspire your practice, Sheryda will share examples of contemporary collage, as well as strategies to promote spontaneity, ...read more
Thursday, May 1 Upstart & Crow Studio
Letterpress Poetry: A Two-Day How To with New Leaf Editions
We’re partnering with New Leaf Editions for a fascinating, hands-on, two-day workshop in which attendees can transform a short poem into print form. You’ll learn the essentials of letterpress, including inking and printing techniques, how to set your own type, and how to operate the press yourselves. The end result will be a broadsheet with your ...read more
Saturday, Apr 26 New Leaf Studio
Strips and Remnants: A Short Poem Workshop with Vancouver’s Poet Laureate Elee Kraljii Gardiner
Join Vancouver’s Poet Laureate—award-winning poet, editor, and artist—Elee Kraljii Gardiner, for a short poem workshop on Tuesday, April 22 at 6:30pm. Using the idea of fragments (visual, sonic, or otherwise) this poetry workshop explores how small pieces become part of a whole. We will experiment with physical materials on site, perhaps generating new materials in ...read more
Tuesday, Apr 22 Upstart & Crow Studio