News & Events

Ronna Bloom with John Giorno


Ronna Bloom interviewed John Giorno about his life, his work, and his commitment to challenging stereotypes and pushing boundaries on November 6, 2011, on stage at the Words Aloud Festival, Durham, Ontario

To watch the interview WordsAloud

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Special Announcement: Ronna Bloom, Poet in Residence

“I am delighted to announce that Ronna Bloom has agreed to be Poet in Residence for the Health, Arts and Humanities Program here at the University of Toronto. Ronna will be an important advocate for bringing scholars from the clinical world with those from humanities disciplines.

Ronna Bloom is a poet, teacher and psychotherapist. She has published four books of poetry, most recently Permiso (Pedlar Press, 2009) shortlisted for the Pat Lowther Award. Ronna has hosted workshops across Canada and abroad. She has designed and led writing workshops for health care professionals at UHN, students at the Medical School of U of T, Occupational Therapists’ and Social Workers’ professional development retreats, and front-line hospital workers at Sunnybrook who were affected by SARS. She is currently Poet in Community at the University of Toronto and is pleased to join faculty in the Health, Arts and Humanities Program to create new learning initiatives.”

-Allan Peterkin MD

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Words Aloud

Last fall I read at the Words Aloud Festival in Durham Ontario.
You can see the performance here: WordsAloud

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Influency Salon features PERMISO in its third issue

Influency Salon is an online Canadian poetics magazine dedicated to in depth readings of contemporary poetry.

Titled ‘From/Of/To,’ Issue 3 features a focus on the poetics of transition enacted in the work of Ronna Bloom, Kate Eichhorn and Trish Salah.

—from the Coach House Press website

Read, see, listen here Influencysalon

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Poetry Is Public

Poetry Is Public

On August 26, 2010 a new Poet Laureate initiative, “Poetry is Public is Poetry”, creatively showcases and celebrates the work of Canadian poets. On a series of six panels located in front of the Toronto Reference Library (789 Yonge Street), passages from 34 prominent writers artistically intertwine with the panel’s visual backgrounds, which were created by internationally known graphic designer and illustrator Frank Viva.

This ambitious public art and written word project features verses by; Lillian Allen, Margaret Atwood, Ronna Bloom, Roo Borson, Dionne Brand, Jason Camlot, Leonard Cohen, Lorna Crozier, Daniel David Moses, Don Domanksi, Stan Dragland, George Elliott Clarke, Catherine Graham, Phil Hall, Angela Hibbs, Eve Joseph, Ehab Lotayef, David W. McFadden, Don McKay, Steve McOrmond, Anne Michaels, Jacob McArthur Mooney, Motion, Michelle Muir, Michael Ondaatje, Joanne Page, Alison Pick, Maureen Scott Harris, Anne Simpson, Sue Sinclair, John Steffler, Souvankham Thammavongsa, Paul Vermeersch and Jan Zwicky.

Dionne Brand proposed, and is developing this idea in the belief that poets have contributed enormously to the city’s sense of itself but that their contribution is not always apparent in the public sphere. Recognizing that poetry is essentially a private act – conceived, written and often read alone – makes expanding poetry into the public realm an exciting challenge. The physicality of the text provides a reflective dialogue that can serve as a catalyst for providing a sense of well being, identity and even happiness.

— from, voxpopulism

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PERMISO was short-listed for the Pat Lowther Memorial Award!

2010 Pat Lowther Jury Statement

This year’s jury had to consider seventy-five titles by women from over forty presses. Our experience reading gave us confidence as well as faith in Canadian literature, Canadian poetry, and writing by women. It was an overwhelming project which evidenced for us the richness and maturity of contemporary poetry by women, and the strength of support for their writing within the literary community. And it was a truly agonizing experience to select the long and short lists, because we have been offered such an array of riches from which to choose. Many excellent books, by established poets and those whose first books were among
the seventy-five, have been left off our short list. To those whose compelling books are not on this list, know that we read them with care and conscience, and that we could easily have extended this list to include many more remarkable titles. In terms of the quality of this short list, we truly feel that each book on it would make a worthy selection as winner; each represents an extraordinary accomplishment. Congratulations to all the short list authors on the excellence of their work.

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12 or 20 questions: with Ronna Bloom


To read the responses to the questions posed by Rob McLennan, visit:
robmclennan.blogspot.com
There are interviews with a bevy of Canadian authors. Ronna Bloom appears on July 30th and will be archived there, in perpetuity.

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