There was a hum of anticipation and excitement in the room as winners of the Vancouver Poet Laureate’s City Poems Contest were announced at an afternoon ceremony today at the Vancouver Public Library! 

Back in January, I invited members of the public to submit poems that related in a significant way to a historical, cultural or ecological site within the City of Vancouver or UBC Endowment Lands, and that could provide a greater understanding of its origins or multilayered history.  252 poems in total were submitted about a wide range of sites all over the city and endowment lands, including parks, schools, streets, historic neighbourhoods and buildings, and much more.

The Vancouver Public Library staff did an amazing job preparing for the event, displaying all the shortlisted poems, and setting up tables with books about Vancouver’s history as well as collections of Vancouver-based poems.

There was a full house too—a warm and receptive audience of teachers, family, friends and writers that listened attentively to the readings of the winning poems.

Established Category (for those who have previously published a book of poetry):

• First Place: Susan Alexander, “Seńákw” for Seńákw commonly known as Vanier Park
• Second Place: Leslie Timmins, “The Modest Contribution of Babies to the Protest at the Member of Parliament’s Office” for Khatsahlano Beach, commonly known as Kitsilano Beach
• Third Place:  Kelsey Andrews, “To the Otter Who Snuck into the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Garden and Ate the Koi” for Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden

Emerging Poets Category:

• First Place: Jeremy Chu, “Entertainment” for The Marco Polo Restaurant: 90 East Pender Street
• Second Place: Theresa Rogers, “the stone artist” about Stanley Park Seawall
• Third Place: Donna Seto, “Contrasts” about Chinatown

Youth Category (high school or younger):

• First Place:  Adrian Yue (Grade 9, Eric Hamber Secondary), “ending credits for an ending of chinatown” for Chinatown
• Second Place: Isabel Hernandez-Cheng (Grade 8, York House), “Lotus Flower” for Chinatown
• Third Place: Sharon Pan (Grade 7, Tecumseh Elementary School), “Home at Vie’s” for Hogan’s Alley in Strathcona

The three judges were former Vancouver Poet Laureate Rachel Rose (Established Poets Category), local poet and editor, David Ly (Emerging Poets Category), and educator and Word Vancouver Executive Director Dr. Bonnie Nish (Youth Category).  First place winners received $300, second place winners $200, and third place winners $100.  All winners and runners up  also have the opportunity to have their poems turned into a poetry video in the second stage of the contest for student filmmakers.

Thank so much to all those who submitted poems to the City Poems Contest! I want to commend each and everyone who took the effort and made the time to submit a poem to the contest!

There were 252 poems submitted in total. Judges Rachel Rose, David Ly and Bonnie Nish carefully considered the eligible poetry submissions over the past few weeks, and compiled their shortlists. Like me, they were very impressed by the range and scope of the poems submitted! Below is the shortlist of the poems in alphabetical order by authors’ last names.

Please note: even if your poem was not shortlisted, this is not the end of the story. There may be the possibility of participating in a site-specific public reading, to record your poem for public access on the wonderful location-based PhoneMe app (which I will discuss in greater detail in the weeks to come), and of course to submit your poem to literary magazines and other contests. The judges had very specific criteria to consider in selecting the poems. Just because your poem was not shortlisted doesn’t mean your poem wasn’t interesting, engaging, or well-written.

The first, second and third place winners in each category will be announced at an Awards Ceremony on Saturday, June 11th in the Alice MacKay Room downstairs at the Vancouver Public Library, Central Branch, 2:30-4 pm, with doors opening at 2 pm. (Shortlisted authors have been contacted by email. All those who submitted eligible poems will receive a short note from me later in June.)

YOUTH CATEGORY

Patricia Chen, “Lost in Chinatown”

Katie Evans, “Revival”

Isabel Hernandez-Cheng, “Lotus Flower”

Debbie Li, “Lightless Fireflies”

Ya Xin Lu, “BBQ Meat Shops”

Nazifa Nawal, “Khupkhahpay’ay*: A Found Poem”

Sharon Pan, “Home at Vie’s”  

Crystal Peng, “In Google Maps, I explore Chinatown for the First Time”

Alice Stanciu, “The Town Where Time Stops”

Adrian Yue, “ending credits for an ending of chinatown”

EMERGING POETS CATEGORY

Christina Barber, “Victory Square Lament” 

Sandra Bruneau, “Alma”

Harper Campbell, “Near Commercial”

Jeremy Chu, “Entertainment”

James Kim, “An Existence That We Can Call Home”

Vivian (Xiao Wen) Li, “The Garden, Echoes I”

Vivian (Xiao Wen) Li, “The Garden, Echoes II”

Angela May, “single mother on hastings”

Theresa Rogers, “the stone artist”

Donna Seto, “Contrasts”

ESTABLISHED POETS CATEGORY

Susan Alexander, “Seńákw”

Kelsey Andrews, “To the Otter Who Snuck into the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Garden and Ate the Koi”

Julie Emerson, “Stanley Park Fir”

Evelyn Lau, “Atmospheric River”

Barbara Pelman, “Congregation Beth Israel”

Leslie Timmins, “The Modest Contribution of Babies to the Protest at the Member of Parliament’s Office”

Diane Tucker, “Fat Vancouver Snow”

Just 6 days left before the April 15th deadline for the City Poems Contest! But that’s still plenty of time to write and/or revise a poem about a historical, ecological, or cultural site within the City of Vancouver that relates to the city’s origins or its multifaceted history.

Poems can be as short as a haiku or a couplet, or as long as 400 words. Prose poems are welcome too, as well as concrete or visual poems. Feel free to use an epigraph or quote a headline or a line from the Vancouver Heritage Foundation’s Heritage Site Finder or Places that Matter sites, which are superb resources that are accessible with a few clicks on the keyboard.

Or perhaps write about something you’ve seen at the Museum of Vancouver, Maritime Museum, or Museum of Anthropology–an artifact, carving, weaving, canoe, photograph, the buildings themselves. How about that crab statue/fountain in front of the Museum of Vancouver? The war canoe exhibit at the Maritime Museum? Or the monumental Bill Reid sculpture, “The Raven and the First Men,” in the Museum of Anthropology? There’s also so much public art in this city that could be written about! The controversial poodle on a pedestal on Main Street? Murals from the Vancouver Mural Festival abound.

There’s an online submission form set up to facilitate your poetry submissions, but you can also print off a form to email in your poem, or just mail it in to a post office box that I’ve rented just for the contest. More information is available both on the VPL poet laureate website and on a contest webpage on my website.

Here’s a 30 minute presentation I recorded for the Vancouver Public Library (to follow up on the March 19th workshop) for those writers who couldn’t attend. I do a quick overview of some of the major elements of poetry, give a few examples of place-based poems, and suggest some approaches and strategies to write poems of your own. Hope you find it helpful!