Island Reading Series

Island Studies Press presents a coast-to-coast reading featuring visiting writers Jenna Butler and Karen Loucks from the West Coast, alongside local poets Brent MacLaine and Bren Simmers. The event takes place on May 15 at 7 pm in Schurman Market Square, McDougall Hall, UPEI.

Dr. Jenna Butler’s essays about beekeeping, climate grief, and trauma recovery, Revery: A Year of Bees, was a finalist for the 2021 Governor General’s Literary Award and a longlisted title for CBC Canada Reads. A retired professor of creative and environmental writing, Butler works on the land between a collaborative off-grid organic farm in northern Treaty 6 and the unceded traditional territories of the lək̓wəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ peoples of Vancouver Island.

Karen Loucks is the winner of the High Marsh Press Deborah Wills Chapbook Contest (2024) and was longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize (2023). Her poetry appears in the anthologies Worth More Standing, Sweet Water: Poems for the Watersheds, and Rocksalt: An Anthology of Contemporary BC Poetry. She lives and writes in Victoria, BC, the unceded traditional territory of the lək̓wəŋən speaking peoples. 

Dr. Brent MacLaine is a Professor Emeritus at the Department of English at UPEI and the author of six volumes of poetry, most recently, A Skeptic in Springtime. He is the recipient of the PEI Book Award and the Atlantic Poetry Award. He grew up in the rural community of Rice Point, PEI. 

Bren Simmers is the author of five books including The Work, which was a finalist for the 2024 Governor General’s Literary Award and the J.M. Abraham Atlantic Poetry Award. Born and raised in Vancouver, she now calls Epekwitk home.

The event is free and all are welcome. Thanks to Bookmark, books will be available for purchase. For more information, contact Bren Simmers at Island Studies Press, 902-566-0386 or ispstaff@upei.ca.