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Hereʼs Whatʼs New

October 2026 NewsletterDownload

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royalcitylit

Non-profit Society, Literary Arts.
Drawn to Words: Writing Through Art & Sound Step Drawn to Words: Writing Through Art & Sound Step into Common Chords and discover where looking and listening can lead. Through a gentle guided meditation, close encounters with the artworks, music and imaginative prompts, participants will gather words, lines and stories inspired by what they see, hear and feel—culminating in a shared celebration of voices and perspectives. Location: The Gallery at Queen's Park Date: Sunday, Sept 27 | 3:30 pm to 5:30 pm FREE registration via email to secretary@rclas.com Open to the public • Ages 18+  • Writers of all levels and experience are welcome. Common Chords Workshop Series Facilitated by Paulina Constancia A community collaboration with Royal City Literary Arts Society, and Arts New West. #writing #rclas #artsnewwest #ekphrastic #NewWest #newwestevents
🌟Announcement: Our 2026 Write on! Contest Deadlin 🌟Announcement: Our 2026 Write on! Contest Deadline is extended to October 15. https://rclas.com/2026-write-on-contest/ 3 Categories: 📌Non-Fiction (1500 words max) 📌 Fiction (1500 words max) 📌Poetry (1 page single spaced max) · Submission Fee is $10 per submission (one story or one poem) for RCLAS members, $20 per submission for non-members. Annual RCLAS Membership $35 a year. 🌟1st prize - $150 🌟2nd prize - $100 🌟3rd prize - $75 #writeoncontest #RCLAS #writingcontest and 3 honourable mentions in each category.
Take Two on the PIP slideshow! Tjisnone is better, Take Two on the PIP slideshow! Tjisnone is better, right? 🤣 THANK YOU to everyone that attended “Poetry in the Park 2026” over the summer. PIP PIP HOORAY! It was a delight to have the opportunity to celebrate our 15th year with you. 💜Your presence truly made the event special. Thank you with helping us fulfill our mission of keeping the literary arts not only alive but thriving here in our fair city.  💜Our gratitude to both the City of New Westminster and Arts New West for their funding and support. 💜We want to encourage each of our open mic readers to keep writing and sharing. The world needs your unique voice and verse. Our open mic continued to reflect a broad spectrum of poetic stylings, AND a few poets shared their work for their very first time. We appreciate each and every one of you! On behalf of the Royal City Literary Arts Society, Janet Kvammen, RCLAS President  @artsnewwest @new_westminster
REMINDER! Our 2026 Write on! Contest is open for s REMINDER! Our 2026 Write on! Contest is open for submissions. Deadline Sept 15 Three categories- 🌟POETRY 🌟NON-FICTION 🌟FICTION https://rclas.com/2026-write-on-contest/ #writeoncontest #RCLAS #writing #writingcontest #poetry #shortstories
UPDATE: Deadline extended to OCT 15 REMINDER! Ou UPDATE: Deadline extended to OCT 15 REMINDER! Our Write on! Contest Deadline is Sept 15 Submit today before the rush of September returns! Do you have a story, poem, or piece of writing you’re proud of? Something tucked away? Or maybe something new you have been working on? Head over to the Royal City Literary Arts Society website for information on the 2026 Write On! Contest. Here's the link https://rclas.com/2026-write-on-contest/ #RCLAS #writeoncontest #writingcontest
AND the Winner of our 2025 Cogswell Award is comin AND the Winner of our 2025 Cogswell Award is coming to read at Poetry in the Park this WED! Garry Gottfriedson!!! Garry Gottfriedson, winner of our 2025 Fred Cogswell Award for Excellence in Poetry, is from Kamloops, BC. He is strongly rooted in his Secwépemc (Shuswap) cultural teachings. He holds a Masters of Education Degree from Simon Fraser University. In 1987, the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado, awarded a Creative Writing Scholarship to Gottfriedson for Masters of Fine Arts Creative Writing. There, he studied under Allen Ginsberg, Marianne Faithfull and others. Gottfriedson also achieved an Honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Northern British Columbia and a Doctor of Letters from the Thompson Rivers University. Gottfriedson has thirteen published books, including Skin Like Mine, Clinging to Bone (Ronsdale Press, 2010; 2019) and, most recently, Bent Back Tongue (Caitlin Press, 2022), and has presented his work across Canada, United States, South America, New Zealand, Europe, and Asia. Gottfriedson’s work unapologetically unveils the truth of Canada’s treatment of First Nations. His work has been anthologized and published nationally and internationally, with a forthcoming book to be published in Spanish.  Royal City Literary Arts Society presents POETRY IN THE PARK 2026 In partnership with Arts New West and City of New Westminster Wednesday AUGUST 19 Summer Finale Night Feature Poets: Cecily Nicholson, Garry Gottfriedson, Kevin Spenst Hosts: Janet Kvammen and Jessi Gillis 📍 Where? Centennial Lodge, Queen's Park, New Westminster 📅 When? Wed evenings JULY 15-AUGUST 19 | 6:30pm | Open Mic Sign Up 6:15pm 🎉 Why? Because poetry is alive and well in New West! FREE, FAMILY FRIENDLY EVENT Everyone is welcome! See you there!!! @artsnewwest @new_westminster #PIP #PIPPIPHOORAY #RCLAS #POETRYINTHEPARK #POETRYCOMMUNITY
Our 2025 COGSWELL Judge! Cecily Nicholson will be Our 2025 COGSWELL Judge! Cecily Nicholson will be at our PIP closing night Wed Aug 19. Don't miss it! 💜 Cecily Nicholson is a past recipient of the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize, the Governor General’s Literary Award for poetry, and the inaugural Phyllis Webb Memorial Reading award. Nicholson held the 2025 Holloway Lecturer in the Practice of Poetry at UC Berkeley and teaches in the School of Creative Writing at UBC, on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ speaking Musqueam (xʷməθkʷəy̓əm) people. Her most recent work, Crowd Source, considers the daily movement of crows. Royal City Literary Arts Society presents POETRY IN THE PARK 2026 In partnership with Arts New West and City of New Westminster Wednesday AUGUST 19 Summer Finale Night Feature Poets: Cecily Nicholson, Garry Gottfriedson, Kevin Spenst Hosts: Janet Kvammen and Jessi Gillis 📍 Where? Centennial Lodge, Queen's Park, New Westminster 📅 When? Wed evenings JULY 15-AUGUST 19 | 6:30pm | Open Mic Sign Up 6:15pm 🎉 Why? Because poetry is alive and well in New West! FREE, FAMILY FRIENDLY EVENT Everyone is welcome! See you there!!! @artsnewwest @new_westminster #PIP #PIPPIPHOORAY #RCLAS #POETRYINTHEPARK #POETRYCOMMUNITY
We are so pleased to have our 2026 Cogswell Award We are so pleased to have our 2026 Cogswell Award judge featuring at Poetry in the Park, Aug 19! The remarkable @kevin_spenst Kevin Spenst (he/him) is the author of four full-length books of poetry and 19 chapbooks. An assortment of his lyric essays, interviews with neighbours, and personal accounts from others make up the collection Gathered Together in the Stanley Park Manor: a Collective History, out with Anvil Press in the fall of 2026. He is one of the organizers of the Dead Poets Reading Series, has a chapbook review column for subTerrain magazine, occasionally co-hosts Wax Poetic on Vancouver Co-op Radio, and is one of the poetry ambassadors for Vancouver’s 2025-2027 Poet Laureate Elee Kraljii Gardiner. He is one of the Poetry Mentors at The Writer’s Studio at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver on unceded xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) territory where he cohabitates with the one and only Cheryl Rossi. Royal City Literary Arts Society presents POETRY IN THE PARK 2026 In partnership with Arts New West and City of New Westminster Wednesday AUGUST 19 Summer Finale Night Feature Poets: Cecily Nicholson, Garry Gottfriedson, Kevin Spenst Hosts: Janet Kvammen and Jessi Gillis 📍 Where? Centennial Lodge, Queen's Park, New Westminster 📅 When? Wed AUGUST 19 | 6:30pm | Open Mic Sign Up 6:15pm 🎉 Why? Because poetry is alive and well in New West! FREE, FAMILY FRIENDLY EVENT Everyone is welcome! #PoetryinthePark #rclas #poetry #openmic #IheartNewWest #newwest #newwestevents
Next Wednesday at PIP! Aug 19 Royal City Literary Next Wednesday at PIP! Aug 19 Royal City Literary Arts Society presents POETRY IN THE PARK 2026 In partnership with Arts New West and City of New Westminster Wednesday AUGUST 19 Summer Finale Night Feature Poets: Cecily Nicholson, Garry Gottfriedson, Kevin Spenst Hosts: Janet Kvammen and Jessi Gillis 📍 Where? Centennial Lodge, Queen's Park, New Westminster Open Mic Sign Up 6:15pm 🎉 Why? Because poetry is alive and well in New West! FREE, FAMILY FRIENDLY EVENT Everyone is welcome! #PipPipHooray #rclas #PoetryinthePark #poetrycommunity
Up next at Poetry in the Park Feature poet Jordan Up next at Poetry in the Park Feature poet Jordan Redekop-Jones Jordan Redekop-Jones is a mixed Indigenous/ Anglo Indian writer from Vancouver BC. She is the winner of several awards including the 2025 CBC Poetry Prize, the 2024 Austin Clarke prize in Literary Excellence for poetry and was a recipient of a 2024 Indigenous Voices Award in the unpublished poetry category. Her work has appeared in publications including Prism International, Arc Poetry, the Ex-Puritan, Rungh, SAD Mag and more. Her debut chapbook Hybridity as a Phantom Body was just recently published by Anstruther Press. She is a graduate of SFU’s the Writer’s Studio and is a current MA English Literature student at Simon Fraser University. You can follow her writing journey on her Instagram page: @j.r.jones__ Royal City Literary Arts Society presents POETRY IN THE PARK 2026 In partnership with Arts New West and City of New Westminster Every Wednesday night from July 15 – August 19 from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM. Each weekly session will feature 2 poets and an Open Mic. Wednesday AUGUST 5 SAPP Zine Night Feature Poets: Jordan Redekop-Jones & KJ Brydle Host: Jessica Lee McMillan 📍 Where? Centennial Lodge, Queen's Park, New Westminster 📅 When? Wed evenings JULY 15-AUGUST 19 | 6:30pm | Open Mic Sign Up 6:15pm 🎉 Why? Because poetry is alive and well in New West! FREE, FAMILY FRIENDLY EVENT Everyone is welcome! @artsnewwest @new_westminster @royalcitylit @sappzine
We are delighted to feature KJ Brydle at PIP next We are delighted to feature KJ Brydle at PIP next WED! KJ Brydle (she/they) is a BFA student in UBC’s Creative Writing program. They are drawn to writing about the summoning echo of estrangement and moments that sparkle, shimmer, or make one shake. They are Red River Métis and Ukrainian settler blessed to be living on Coast Salish land. Royal City Literary Arts Society presents POETRY IN THE PARK 2026 In partnership with Arts New West and City of New Westminster Every Wednesday night from July 15 – August 19 from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM. Each weekly session will feature 2 poets and an Open Mic. 💜Wednesday AUGUST 5 💜SAPP Zine Night 💜Feature Poets: Jordan Redekop-Jones & KJ Brydle 💜Host: Jessica Lee McMillan 📍 Where? Centennial Lodge, Queen's Park, New Westminster 📅 When? Wed evenings JULY 15-AUGUST 19 | 6:30pm | Open Mic Sign Up 6:15pm 🎉 Why? Because poetry is alive and well in New West! FREE, FAMILY FRIENDLY EVENT Everyone is welcome! @artsnewwest @new_westminster @royalcitylit @sappzine
NEXT WED!!! AUG 5 💜 Royal City Literary Arts Socie NEXT WED!!! AUG 5 💜 Royal City Literary Arts Society presents POETRY IN THE PARK 2026 In partnership with Arts New West and City of New Westminster Every Wednesday night from July 15 – August 19 from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM. Each weekly session will feature 2 poets and an Open Mic. Wednesday AUGUST 5 SAPP Zine Night Feature Poets: Jordan Redekop-Jones & KJ Brydle @kj.brydle @j.r.jones__ Host: Jessica Lee McMillan 📍 Where? Centennial Lodge, Queen's Park, New Westminster 📅 When? Wed evenings JULY 15-AUGUST 19 | 6:30pm | Open Mic Sign Up 6:15pm 🎉 Why? Because poetry is alive and well in New West! FREE, FAMILY FRIENDLY EVENT Everyone is welcome! @artsnewwest @new_westminster @royalcitylit @sappzine
We also have the extraordinary @joninakirton featu We also have the extraordinary @joninakirton featuring this Wednesday eve at Poetry in the Park!!! AND with a newly released book to launch at PIP!Save Your Prayers – Send Money @talonbooks Jónína Kirton, an Icelandic and Red River Métis poet was born in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, Treaty 1, the traditional lands of the Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota, Dene peoples and the homeland of the Métis. She graduated from the SFU Writers Studio in 2007 and was sixty-one when she received the 2016 Vancouver’s Mayor’s Arts Award for an Emerging Artist in the Literary Arts category. Her second collection of poetry, An Honest Woman, was a finalist in the 2018 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. She currently lives in subsidized seniors housing in New Westminster BC, the unceded territory of the Hul’qumi’num speaking peoples. A chronic pain sufferer, she has walked with her husband as he has faced life threatening health issues. This journey is documented in her fourth book. Save Your Prayers – Send Money, released in April 2026 with Talonbooks. Royal City Literary Arts Society presents POETRY IN THE PARK 2026 In partnership with Arts New West and City of New Westminster Every Wednesday night from July 15 – August 19 from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM. Each weekly session will feature 2 poets and an Open Mic 📍 Where? Centennial Lodge, Queen's Park, New Westminster 📅 When? Wed evenings JULY 15-AUGUST 19 | 6:30pm | Open Mic Sign Up 6:15pm 🎉 Why? Because poetry is alive and well in New West! FREE, FAMILY FRIENDLY EVENT Everyone is welcome! @artsnewwest @new_westminster @royalcitylit
Thrilled to have Russell Thornton featuring at Poe Thrilled to have Russell Thornton featuring at Poetry in the Park tomorrow! All the planets aligned just perfectly aka the timing was right! Russell Thornton's Two Songs: Selected Poems 2000-2025 was brought out by Harbour Publishing this spring and is his tenth book of poetry. Among his earlier collections, The Hundred Lives was shortlisted for the 2015 Griffin Prize and Birds, Metals, Stones & Rain was shortlisted for the 2014 Governor General's Award for Poetry. His book of creative non-fiction, The Tree of My Only Address, is due out in spring 2027 from Caitlin Press. He lives in North Vancouver. Russell's book The White Light of Tomorrow was longlisted for our 2024 Cogswell Award for Excellence in Poetry. #PipPipHooray, It's POETRY in the PARK WEDNESDAY NIGHT WED July 29 Royal City Literary Arts Society presents POETRY IN THE PARK 2026 In partnership with Arts New West and City of New Westminster Every Wednesday night from July 15 – August 19 from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM. Each weekly session will feature 2 poets and an Open Mic. 📍 Where? Centennial Lodge, Queen's Park, New Westminster 📅 When? Wed evenings JULY 15-AUGUST 19 | 6:30pm | Open Mic Sign Up 6:15pm 🎉 Why? Because poetry is alive and well in New West! FREE, FAMILY FRIENDLY EVENT Everyone is welcome! @artsnewwest @new_westminster
#PipPipHooray, It's POETRY in the PARK WEDNESDAY N #PipPipHooray, It's POETRY in the PARK WEDNESDAY NIGHT Hope to see you there July 22. 💙Our host will be Marlo Browne! @theyoungandgifted24 💙It is Marlo's first time hosting PIP. 💙Come on out to cheer him on! 😎 Marlo Browne is an award-winning Barbadian multi-hyphenate artist who has published 5 poetry books and currently lives in Langley. Marlo has performed and featured at many events and has converted some of his poetry into short films. To date, he has released three short films- ‘I'm Sorry’ in 2023 and ‘Dear Single Mom’ and ‘Invisible’ in 2025. The first film ‘I'm Sorry’ was the runner up in the Short Film category of the Langley City Film festival in 2023. The second short film, ‘Dear Single Mom’ won a Bronze Award at the National Independence Festival of Creative Arts in Barbados in 2025. His fourth and fifth poetry collections, entitled ‘The Life and Times of a Poet’ and ‘Journal of a Black Man’, both earned Gold Book Awards from Literary Titan in May and September 2025 respectively. @artsnewwest @new_westminster @royalcitylit #PoetryinthePark #poetrycommunity #RCLAS #poetry #openmic #iheartnewwest #newwest #newwestevents #ArtsNewWest #NWPoetLaureate #poetryandart
#PipPipHooray, It's POETRY in the PARK WEDNESDAY N #PipPipHooray, It's POETRY in the PARK WEDNESDAY NIGHT Christina Shah Featuring this week! PIP Debut on WED July 22 Christina Shah lives in New Westminster and works in heavy industry, where she drinks from the firehose of knowledge. Her poetry has appeared in numerous Canadian literary journals. Her work has been shortlisted for the Fiddlehead’s 2021 Ralph Gustafson Poetry Prize and has appeared in Best Canadian Poetry 2023. She is one-fifth of the Harbour Centre 5 poetry collective, whose chapbook, Brine, was released in 2022. Her first video poem, “rig veda” (in collaboration with videographer Mark Mushet), was translated into Spanish and screened internationally. rig rig veda, her first solo chapbook (Anstruther Press), received an honourable mention for the bpNichol Chapbook Award in 2024. if: prey, then: huntress is her first full-length poetry collection. @artsnewwest @new_westminster @royalcitylit #PoetryinthePark #rclas #poetry #openmic #IheartNewWest #newwest
#PipPipHooray, It's POETRY in the PARK WEDNESDAY N #PipPipHooray, It's POETRY in the PARK WEDNESDAY NIGHT Aidan Chafe Featuring this WED July 22 Aidan Chafe is the author of the poetry collections Gospel Drunk (University of Alberta Press) and Short Histories of Light (McGill-Queen's University Press), that was longlisted for the 2019 Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. He has also published two chapbooks Right Hand Hymns (Frog Hollow Press) and Sharpest Tooth (Anstruther Press). He is the recipient of the ONLY POEMS’ 2025 “Poet ofthe Year” prize. He lives and works on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples (Vancouver, BC). --- @artsnewwest @new_westminster @royalcitylit
Royal City Literary Arts Society presents POETRY I Royal City Literary Arts Society presents POETRY IN THE PARK 2026 In partnership with Arts New West and City of New Westminster @artsnewwest Every Wednesday night from July 15 – August 19 from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM. Each weekly session will feature 2 poets and an Open Mic. Wednesday JULY 22 Featuring Aidan Chafe and Christina Shah Host: Marlo Browne 📍 Where? Centennial Lodge, Queen's Park, New Westminster 📅 When? Wed evenings JULY 15-AUGUST 19 | 6:30pm | Open Mic Sign Up 6:15pm 🎉 Why? Because poetry is alive and well in New West! FREE, FAMILY FRIENDLY EVENT Everyone is welcome! Aidan Chafe is the author of the poetry collections Gospel Drunk (University of Alberta Press) and Short Histories of Light (McGill-Queen's University Press), that was longlisted for the 2019 Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. He has also published two chapbooks Right Hand Hymns (Frog Hollow Press) and Sharpest Tooth (Anstruther Press). He is the recipient of the ONLY POEMS’ 2025 “Poet ofthe Year” prize. He lives and works on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples (Vancouver, BC). Christina Shah lives in New Westminster and works in heavy industry, where she drinks from the firehose of knowledge. Her poetry has appeared in numerous Canadian literary journals. Her work has been shortlisted for the Fiddlehead’s 2021 Ralph Gustafson Poetry Prize and has appeared in Best Canadian Poetry 2023. She is one-fifth of the Harbour Centre 5 poetry collective, whose chapbook, Brine, was released in 2022. Her first video poem, “rig veda” (in collaboration with videographer Mark Mushet), was translated into Spanish and screened internationally. rig rig veda, her first solo chapbook (Anstruther Press), received an honourable mention for the bpNichol Chapbook Award in 2024. if: prey, then: huntress is her first full-length poetry collection. -- Marlo Browne is an award-winning Barbadian multi-hyphenate artist who has published 5 poetry books and currently lives in Langley. Marlo has performed and featured at many events and has converted some of his poetry into short films. #PipPipHooray #rclas #PoetryinthePark
Thank you all SOOOO much for making this such a sp Thank you all SOOOO much for making this such a special night! It was such a fantastic session of Poetry in the Park! We are back, baby! #pippiphooray #rclas #artsnewwest #IheartNewWest #nwpoetlaureate
#PipPipHooray, It's POETRY in the PARK WEDNESDAY N #PipPipHooray, It's POETRY in the PARK WEDNESDAY NIGHT Jude Neale Featuring tonight on our opening night! WED July 15 Jude Neale is the inaugural Poet Laureate of Bowen Island, a Canadian poet, vocalist, spoken word performer, and occasional disturber of the literary peace. She has published fourteen books, with more waiting in the wings, and her work has been recognized across Canada and beyond, including nominations for the Pat Lowther Memorial Award and the National Magazine Awards. Her poems travel through grief, wonder, memory, family, the body, the natural world, and the strange little miracles that keep us alive despite ourselves. A lifelong performer, Jude brings music, humour, and a certain unruly tenderness to the page and the stage. As Poet Laureate, she believes poetry belongs everywhere: in libraries and theatres, yes, but also at kitchen tables, on ferries, in grocery lines, at celebrations, in sorrow, and wherever human beings are trying to say what matters. @artsnewwest @new_westminster @royalcitylit
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