Poets & Pints
Celebrating National Poetry Month
“A poet’s work is to name the unnameable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world, and stop it going to sleep.”
—Salman Rushdie
April is National Poetry Month. Bookmark, Charlottetown’s locally owned, independent bookstore is celebrating with their annual Poets & Pints event featuring local poets on April 29 at 7 pm in the Provinces Room of the Rodd Charlottetown. Admission is free and all are welcome.
This year’s event features PEI poets Chris Bailey, Rose Henbest, and Jessi MacEachern reading from their new poetry collections, followed by a conversation between the poets moderated by Richard Lemm, and an audience Q&A. The event will conclude with an open mic for other local poets and aspiring poets to share their poetry with the audience. Register for the open mic by emailing charlottetown@bookmarkreads.ca.
Chris Bailey is a graphic designer and commercial fisherman from PEI. He holds a MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph. Chris’ writing has appeared in Grain, Brick, The Fiddlehead, Best Canadian Stories 2021, Best Canadian Stories 2025, and elsewhere. His debut poetry collection, What Your Hands Have Done, is available from Nightwood Editions. His piece “Fisherman’s Repose” was a winner of the 2022 BMO 1st Art! Award. Forecast: Pretty Bleak is his second poetry collection.
Jessi MacEachern, was born in Epekwitk/PEI, but currently lives in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal, where she teaches English literature. As a poet, professor, and scholar of contemporary feminist poetics, her critical and creative writing has appeared in journals and anthologies across Canada and around the world. Her debut poetry collection A Number of Stunning Attacks was published by Invisible Publishing in 2021. Cut Side Down is her second poetry collection.
Rose Henbest lives in rural PEI where she sees the sunrise every morning, writes to understand her world, and works with her local church. She has an MA in English and Creative Writing from the University of New Brunswick. Her chapbook You Look Like Someone I Love will be published by Emergency Flash Mob Press this spring.