In spite of the cold weather, people journeyed out to Dundas, Ontario for the book launch of the winter edition 2014-2015 of Tower Poetry. Tower has been in operation since 1951 and is one of the oldest poetry groups in North America from what I understand.
It was again held in the lovely venue of Carnegie Gallery in down town Dundas. The gallery had set up the chairs and podium in a way which just emphasized the cosiness and intimate setting. We are so fortunate to be allowed to have our winter book launch there surrounded by the beauty of paintings, pottery, hand crafted jewellery, just to name a few of art works available there for purchase.
The Master of Ceremony, George Down, Editor in Chief of Tower Poetry welcomed everybody to the event and introduced each poet with a short bio. Our President, Fran Figge also spoke words of welcome.
George Down explained the process of how the poems are chosen from the more than 200 entries sent in from all over the world. It was very interesting. It is quite an honour to get a poem into the book as only forty poems are included.
We were especially touched to see our friends from Sarnia, Ontario join us for this occasion.
The readings started a little after 2 p.m. with a short bio for each poet read by George Down and then the poet read their poem which was included in the book.
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| Fran Figge - President of Tower Poetry |
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| Susan Davis - designer of the front cover and poet |
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| Joanna Lawson |
Our Master of Ceremonies was George Down who is the Editor in Chief. He gave the assembled audience a run down on how the poetry is judged by the committee of judges. He has the final say. Tower gets poetry from all over the world.
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| Debbie Okum Hill - Sarnia group |
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| Jeff Seffinga - former Editor-in-Chief |
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| Valarie Nielsen - former president |
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| Norma West Linder - Sarnia group |
It was truly wonderful to see our friends from Sarnia drive all the way here to join us in this lovely book launch. We were all able to catch up on each other's news after the readings while we were enjoying the refreshments.
The Sarnia group were invited to read several poems as they had travelled so far to come and join us.
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| Wilma Seville |
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| Janet Turpin Myers |
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| James Dheal - Sarnia group |
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| Jennifer Tan |
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| Jim Tompkin |
Two other poets read their work but unfortunately, no pictures are available at this time.
All in all, a lovely event and well attended. Carnegie Gallery is a beautiful spot to hold a book launch.
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