Annual Report from the Feminist Caucus 2015-2016, , by Anne Burke, Chair On the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the League, I was invited to contribute two guest blog posts, one general post, talking about what the Caucus does today and what plans there are for the future, and one post looking back at the history of the Caucus for the League 50th anniversary celebration. I have prepared them both for publication. This has been a busy and productive year for The Feminist Caucus and the Living Archives Series of Chapbooks. There were monthly reports sent to the members with the League newsletter and posted on the League website (under programs) of "News from the Feminist Caucus"; with member news, reviews, and regular updates on various on-going initiatives. The League website archives reports, in case you missed one.

FEMINIST CAUCUS REPORTS (by Anne Burke)

Monthly reports from Anne Burke contain book reviews, project and event news, and other information pertinent to members.

2016: May | April | March | February | January

2015: December | November | October | September | August |

July | June | May | April | March | February | January

2014: December | November | October | September | August

We have three titles to launch during the Writers Summit in Toronto and hope you can join us. We also hold our Business Meeting (Caucus AGM during the Writers Summit, but it is free and you do not need to register.)

FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 7:45 a.m. to 9 a.m. come and help plan next year's programs. Feminist Caucus breakfast business meeting and open reading. Free for League members. The Feminist Caucus will launch the anthology Women & Multimedia, Poetry

Collaboration/Elaborations, edited by Penn Kemp, with authors Di Brandt, Terry Ann Carter, Penn Kemp, Moe Clark, Jude Neale, and Cathy Petch, in our Living Archives Series. This event is free to members of the League, and may be attended without registering for the Summit.

Saturday, June 18, 2016, Performing Women: Playwrights and Performance Poets, at Miss Lou’s Room, Harbourfront Centre, 235 Queens Quay W, Toronto, 4:00pm- 5:00 pm held jointly with the Playwrights Guild.

Six women writers who are playwrights/performers/poets (several are all three), will present their experience and ideas on performance. During the panel, we will also launch an anthology with essays by the panellists, published in the League of Canadian Poets’ Feminist Caucus Archive series (poets.ca/feministcaucus), edited by Penn Kemp. It will be available in print from the League of Canadian Poets and online through playwrightsguild.ca.

Participants: Kelley Jo Burke, Cornelia Hoogland, Penn Kemp (Moderator and contributor), Catherine Kidd, Susan McMaster, and Moe Clark. Miss Lou's Room is a bright and airy room with floor-to-ceiling windows along the south side overlooking the Natrel Pond/Rink and the lake. Miss Lou's Room is located on the second floor of the Bill Boyle Artport. www.harbourfrontcentre.com/venues/misslousroom/

https://pennkemp.wordpress.com/2016/05/25/at-the-canadian-writers-summit/

Panelists: Kelley Jo Burke, “Why Ducks, Anyway?”; Cornelia Hoogland, “Red Dresses Hang from the Trees and Towers: Red and Rapunzel are Missing”; Penn Kemp, “I am translated: How does multimedia give form to a poem’s alternate expression?”; Catherine Kidd, “Zoomorphic Poetics (or, Why I Write So Many Poems About Wildlife)”; Susan McMaster, “How does collaboration enhance performance poetry? The Intimate Power of Co-Creation”; Sheri-D Wilson, “Spoken Word Poetry as Political Act”.

THE LIVING ARCHIVES SERIES

The Living Archives Series documents the presentations of the panels sponsored yearly by the Caucus since its founding within the League in 1982; and includes various texts, correspondences, and other works significant to its history and the discussion of women and language in poetry

The Living Archives Series: some recent titles 2015: Women Mentors: Mentoring

Women (launching June 2016) contains original contributions from Di Brandt, Sally Ito, Liz Howard, the 2015 panel was organized by Sonja Greckol, and chaired by Kerry Ryan. (Brief bios notes follow). 2014: Cautionary Tales: Giving Voice to the Elders 2013: Dialogues, Exchanges, Conversations: Women Poets and their Male Mentors

Penn Kemp, winner of the prestigious Golden Beret Award, organized both the Multi-Media and the Performing Women events. Activist poet, performer and playwright, Penn Kemp is Creative Age London Writer-in-Residence. She is the inaugural Poet Laureate for London, Ontario (2010-12), a Life Member of the League of Canadian Poets, and a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee medal. Since her first book was published by Coach House Press in 1972, she has been pushing textual and aural boundaries, often in participatory performance work. Penn has published twenty-six books of poetry and drama, had six plays and ten CDs produced as well as several award-winning videopoems.

The printing costs of the Living Archives Series have been donated in kind over the years. For this year it was over $1,000 in printing for one chapbook and two anthologies. In preparing my financial report I came across this discrepancy between the amount(s) cited for 2013 which has been transposed in 2015 as 2014. See below for the actual amounts in 2014. The amount for 2014 was $4,049 and $3,669 for 2013.However the amount for 2014was not carried forward. Instead, the 2013 amount was transposed as the 2014. First, see the 2014 statements. Then compare them with the 2015 statements. We hope this can be corrected in 2016. 2014 Financial Statements

2015 Financial Statements: Note 8 Living Archives 2015 2014 Total revenues $6,520 $ 6, 330 Total expenses 2,661 2, 661 $3,859 $3,669 X

2016 Financial Statements: Note 8 Living Archives 2016 2015 Total revenues 6,590 6,520 Total expenses 2,661 2,661 3,929 3,859 Open to Canadian women, the Pat Lowther Memorial Award has been awarded annually since 1981 for a book of poetry published in the preceding year. This prize is in memory of the late Pat Lowther, whose career was cut short by her untimely death by spousal homicide in 1975. The award carries a $1,000 prize. It is presented each year at the LCP Annual Conference in June, with the shortlist announced in April.

Annual Deadline: November 1.

Awards will open for new submissions in August 2016.

Congratulations to the Pat Lowther Memorial Award Finalists. Thank you to all the poets and their publishers for supporting poetry and the memory of Pat Lowther, a past League Chair (President). The winners of all the awards will be announced on Saturday, June 18 at a special awards luncheon at the Canadian Writers’ Summit. the Awards Luncheon and 50th Anniversary Celebration taking place on Saturday, June 18 from 12:30 to 2:30 pm (attendance of this event requires summit registration). Visit poets.ca/conference for more details! Visit our Community page to find interviews with and more information about all the shortlisted authors. Thank you to our hardworking 2016 Jurors: Judith Neale, Vanessa Shields, Joan Shillington, and alternate Sherri D Wilson.

2016 Lowther Submissions

Book Title First Name Last Name PUBLISHER

My Shoes Are Killing Me Robyn Sarah Biblioasis

Decline of the Animal Kingdom Laura Clarke ECW Press

The Pemmican Eaters Marilyn Dumont ECW Press

Dancing on a Pin Katerina Vaughan Fretwell Inanna Publications

Terra Incognita Adebe DeRango-Adem Inanna Publications

A Revision of Forward Wendy McGrath NeWest Press

The Poison Colour Maureen Hynes Pedlar Press

Barren the Fury Brenda Leifso Pedlar Press

A Housecoat Remains Tina Biello Guernica Editions

Verge Lynda Monahan Guernica Editions

Ardour Nicole Brossard Coach House Books

Dear Leader Damian Rogers Coach House Books

Leaving the Island Talya Rubin Vehicule Press

The Exiles' Gallery Elise Partridge House of Anansi Press

The Road In is Not the Same Road

Out Karen Solie House of Anansi Press

Kapusta Erin Moure House of Anansi Press

Stone Soup Kate Marshall Flaherty Quattro Books

Running on the March Wind Lenore Keeshig Quattro Books

Delirium for Solo Harp Nadine McInnis Buschek Books

Niche Basma Kavanagh Frontenac House

Changelings Cassy Welburn Frontenac House

Still No Word Shannon Webb-Campbell Breakwater Books Ltd

Endangered Hydrocarbons Lesley Battler BookThug

The pet radish, shrunken Pearl Pirie BookThug

No Work Finished Here: Rewriting

Andy Warhol Liz Worth BookThug

A Spectacular Influence Chantal Neveu BookThug

Myrmurs: An Exploded Sestina Shannon Maguire BookThug

nakamowin'sa for the seasons Rita Bouvier Thistledown Press

Love is not Anonymous Jan Wood Thistledown Press

Exile on a Grid Road Shelley Banks Thistledown Press

Questions for Wolf Shannon Quinn Thistledown Press

Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac Anna Yin Black Moss Press

The Snow Kimono Alona Martonfi Inanna Publications

The Banquet of Donny & Ari: Scenes

from the Opera Naomi Guttman Brick Books

Careen Carolyn Smart Brick Books

This World We Invented Carolyn Marie Souaid Brick Books

Monologue Dogs Meira Cook Brick Books

Karyotype Kim Trainor Brick Books

Bedlam Cowslip: The John Clare

Poems Jeanette Lynes Wolsak & Wynn Publishers

We Can't Ever Do This Again Amber McMillan Wolsak & Wynn Publishers

The Wrong Cat Lorna Crozier McClelland & Stewart

Infinite Citizen of the Shaking Tent Liz Howard McClelland & Stewart

A New Index for Predicting

Catastrophes Madhur Anand McClelland & Stewart

Hacker Packer Cassidy McFadzean McClelland & Stewart

Trio Sarah Tolmie McGill-Queen's University Press

All the Lovely Broken People Marsha Barber Borealis Press

hook nancy viva davis halifax McGill-Queen's University Press

Kingdom Elizabeth Ross Palimpsest Press

Realignment Ruth Pierson (Roach) Palimpsest Press

Earth Day in Leith Churchyard Bernadette Rule Seraphim Editions

Hocus Pocus The Women Self Published

Ghost Sick Emily Pohl-Weary Tightrope Books Inc.

The Year of Our Beautiful Exile Monica Kidd Gaspereau Press Ltd.

Field Notes for the Alpine Tundra Elena Johnson Gaspereau Press Ltd.

The Brief Reincarnation of a Girl Sue Goyette Gaspereau Press Ltd.

Talking to the Diaspora Lee Maracle ARP Books

Into This Holy Estate Mia Anderson Wipfand Stock Publishers

Calling Down the Sky Rosanna Deerchild BookLand Press

Ex-Ville Rhona McAdam Oolichan Books

Strange Labyrinth Kat Cameron Oolichan Books

Waiting for the Albatross Sandy Shreve Oolichan Books

The Fire Extinguisher Miranda Pearson Oolichan Books

A Jar of Fireflies Josie

Di Sciascio-

Andrews Mosaic Press

Rue Melissa Bull Anvil Press

Average Height of Flight Beth Kope Caitlin Press

He Leaves His Face in the Funeral Car Arleen Pare Caitlin Press

Skeena Sarah de Leeuw Caitlin Press

For Your Own Good Leah Horlick Caitlin Press

Marry & Burn Rachel Rose Harbour Publishing

undercurrent Rita Wong Nightwood Editions

Floating is Everything Sheryda Warrener Nightwood Editions

Hastings-Sunrise Brenda Simmers Nightwood Editions

Eigenheim Joanne Epp Turnstone Press

The Significance of Moths Shirley Camia Turnstone Press

Exquisite Monsters K.I. Press Turnstone Press

Tell: Poems for Girlhood Soraya Peerbaye Pedlar Press

Now Comes the Lightning Sarah Bernstein Pedlar Press

Standard Candles Alice Major University of Alberta Press

Rotten Perfect Mouth Eva H.D. Mansfield Press

The Purpose Pitch Katherine Mockler Mansfield Press

Last Stop, Lonesome Town Tara Azzopardi Mansfield Press

de book of Mary Pamela Mordecai Mawenzi House

Threshold Marilyn Bowering Leaf Press

Sword Dance Veronica Gaylie Exile Editions