First Line has published many fine Chinese poets. Thanks editors’ all wonderful work, #6 is available to order online. This issue includes Anna Yin’s two new Chinese poems and two new translations, one for Dr. Ruffo.

The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experiences. –Emily Dickinson
First Line has published many fine Chinese poets. Thanks editors’ all wonderful work, #6 is available to order online. This issue includes Anna Yin’s two new Chinese poems and two new translations, one for Dr. Ruffo.
I was glad to write poems for Canada Day and read them at Celebration Square when I was Mississauga’s Inaugural Poet Laureate (2015-2017). Here are the poems and video.
I was so happy to have Poetry Alive workshops again at St. Francis Xavier Secondary School on June 21, 2022. Thank all the teachers and students for making this great and fond memory. Thank them for sending the google slides, please take a moment to view With Thanks From FX. I also saved them here! See you soon for more poetry!
We had a great time for haiku walking tour. The participants enjoyed their experience and each wrote nice work. We will continue our other activities, July 9 will be online haiku workshop, you all are welcome to join! Cheers! more photos.
Here is my project poster and details. Our Haiku workshops will combine in-person walks and virtual writing workshops focusing on building creative and resilient communities. The first nature walk starts June 25, 2022 and the workshops run throughout the summer. Thank all our sponsors! See you all.
I was happy to be a guest speaker and a judge for Kimball Electronics’ Take a Haiku Hike Challenge. Here are the winners with Communications Director Scott Saalman’s announcement. Thank you, Scott and all the participants, for bringing about such an amazing event where new talents were discovered. I hope to see you at our online haiku workshops in the summer (open to all). Your contributions will be considered for inclusion in our eBook in Oct. —Anna Yin
Life is an adventure with many surprises. In 2019, a Chinese TV cultural program producer Ms. Luo emailed me to invite me be her next program consultant. She wanted to bring her team to Canada to make a series of films about poets in Canada. Then pandemic happened, so everything’s canceled. Last year I took a free film making course and glad to learn something useful and worked with team to make a short film. Last month, a fine Chinese writer ZhouJun found me and asked me to translate her poetry collection including an award-winning poetic drama from Chinese into English… I now have translated one third. It is good. So glad that everything comes out well together!
So glad to translate poems by fine poets: Luofu and Yan Li. Also joined an online event to read the poems.
To celebrate National Poetry Month & Asian Heritage Month, Anna Yin wrote 24 haiku that were inspired by Neville G. Poy & Vivienne Poy’s beautiful photography book: Precious Moments. Please check the video to find more about Poys’ wonderful book! Some of them will be used at Anna Yin’s school and community haiku workshop programs. Thanks Dr. Vivienne’s permission!
Today is Poem in Your Pocket Day! Celebrate by carrying a poem & sharing it with others throughout the day!
This year’s Poem In Your Pocket Collection features poetry by: Ashley Elizabeth Best, Jaclyn Piudik, Keith Inman, Maureen Hynes, Bänoo Zan, Angela Cen, Callista Markotich, Harry Posner, Mark Kim, Annick MacAskill, Amy LeBlanc, Frances Boyle, Anna Yin and Marlene Grand Maitre.
These poems are also available as audio recordings and a printable booklet. To print and share from your home, check out the 2022 Poem In Your Pocket Day Booklet from LCP. (Thanks for including my poem: The Hollow Tree)
Readings by Poet Laureates across Ontario in celebration of National Poetry Month.
Apr 21, 7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. EDT Virtual on Zoom, Register to attend the event.
Al Moritz – Toronto
Randell Adjei – Province of Ontario
Jessica Outram – Cobourg
Anna Yin – First Poet Laureate of Mississauga
Richard M. Grove – Brighton
Jason Heroux – Kingston
Richard-Yves Sitoski – Owen Sound
Victoria Butler – Barrie
Thomas Leduc – Sudbury
Albert Dumont – Ottawa (Anglophone)
Gilles Latour – Ottawa (Francophone)
Sarah Lewis – Peterborough
Alex-Andrei Ungurenasu – Windsor
Ayomide Bayowa/Current Poet Laureate of Mississauga
Former Poet Laureate Paul Edward Costa – Mississauga
Poem in Your Pocket Day at Atwater Poetry Project
To celebrate Poem in Your Pocket Day/ La Journée du poème à porter, readings by poets Andrée Levesque Sioui, Anna Yin, and Bänoo Zan, with guest host Marcela Huerta.
In partnership with La poésie partout and the League of Canadian Poets.
George Elliott Clarke Presenting a night of poetry, music and song by 5 fine poets and 2 wondrous musicians. Thanks Aurora Public Library, Ontario and The League of Canadian Poets
George Elliott Clarke l Poet Laureate (Toronto)
Giovanna Riccio l Poet, Co-Host (Toronto)
Louise Bernice Halfe l Parliamentary Poet Laureate (Regina)
Anna Yin l Chinese l Poet (Mississauga)
Boyd Warren Chubbs l Poet (St. John’s)
Astrid Brunner l Poet (Halifax)
Andrea Thompson l Poet (Toronto)
Juliet Palmer l Pianist (Toronto)
James Rolfe l Composer (Toronto)
Thanks James Morehead selecting my poem for City of Dublin Poetry Walk 2022 for their national poetry month celebration!
Celebrate the Cherry Blossom Festival with a fun and interactive poetry appreciation event hosted by Anna Yin for Vancouver Public Library has received wonderful feedback. Here is one:
Congratulations on another excellent session tonight, grateful for the opportunity to learn from you. Thank you for sharing your time, expertise and love for poetry. Wonderful to see you again -Maria
This National Poetry Month, thank Mississauga Library and Art and Culture inviting me for Author Talks on April 6, 2022. (Thanks The League of Canadian Poets and Canada Council for the Arts)
Here are some feedback:
On behalf of Mississauga Library, and our program participants, Thank YOU for a great Author Talk session on Wednesday evening. It was a very engaging talk and we received very positive feedback for the program. I’ve shared a customer comment below:· Anna was very engaging and the conversation with her flowed nicely.Thank you again for your time for this program. It was a pleasure working with you, and I hope we get a chance to host you again in person! —Elizabeth Caione
Dear Anna, I greatly enjoyed your Mississauga Library interview last night. I thought the questions were good, and your answers were engaging and illuminating. —Allan Briesmaster
Grace Lau and Anna Yin read on Wednesday, March 23rd on Zoom. Open mic starts at 6:30 p.m. central time (bring your work!); stay for the reading at 7:00 p.m. Register in advance for this Zoom poetry reading. Thanks Mark Allen Everett Poetry Series at the University of Oklahoma (USA)
Poetry X Hunger: Raspberries by Anna Yin.
Several of these poems will be showcased in the coming weeks by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the Capital Area Food Bank. Thanks!
This Feb I was so glad to be invited by schools for Virtual Class Visit for Poetry Alive at KINGSWAY COLLEGE SCHOOL and Francis Libermann school. Thanks teachers who love poetry! Thank students who want poetry! Thanks Writers’ Union of Canada, Poetry In Voice! Also thank The League of Canadian Poets for my upcoming Poetry Alive workshops.
Click to read the interview on Open Book! |
Open Book:With English renderings of acclaimed modern Chinese poets and translations of English poems from Canada, the US, and the UK, Mirrors and Windows is a tapestry of contemporary poetry that blurs origin and language and constructs a universal celebration of poetic energy. This is such an interesting and ambitious project and it was wonderful to get to read you speaking about it so passionately. We’re thrilled to have you on the site and to share this with our readers. —Grace O’Connell (Open Book) |
Thanks Brooklin Poetry Society and judge, KV Skene! Congrats to all winners:Anna Yin, Bänoo Zan and Marsha Barber, and our honourable mentions, Andrea Rachel, Mansour Noorbakhsh and Lynn Tait!!
Thank Live Encounters publishing George Elliott Clarke – Review Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac by Anna Yin
Anna Yin is a startling dreamer. Poems that seem Romantic veer into Surrealism or Symbolism. Tutored in Sylvia Plath and William Carlos Williams, among many other poets (mainly American and Canadian), Yin issues poems that are nightmare dreams or dreamy nightmares: Here’s a world where the natural becomes unnatural, the unnatural natural: “the police-monkey escorts a well-suited rat / followed by his cloned brothers…” Some poems are parables, such as the story of a man- a father-who refuses to leave his home, even while it and others are being reduced to rubble: “I received a copy of the photo in the local newspaper. / My father looked so small on the top of the ruins. / It was titled, ‘The Last Temple.’”
In another poem, the speaker says, “You are tired of his / molding, over and over, / thrashing, nailing / into you.” There’s a fierce feminism here, reinforced by readings of Dot Livesay and Dame Atwood. Though it’s tricky following Yin’s wicked, impressionistic juxtapositions, her painterly imagery is deliciously lustrous.
Yin is endlessly perspicacious, endlessly compelling: “The autumn gusts feel warm / as if it’s spring…. / last night by accident I cut my finger… / slowly, on the rice paper, red roses grew.” She brings to Canadian poetry a sense of classicism and aestheticism and minimalism, all nicely mixed up with sensuality.
Yin’s bravura poems – so exquisite and extraordinary – merit bravo upon bravo.
The 4th Poet Laureate of Toronto (2012-15) and the 7th Parliamentary/Canadian Poet Laureate (2016-17), George Elliott Clarke is a revered artist in song, drama, fiction, screenplay, essays, and poetry. Born in Windsor, Nova Scotia, in 1960, Clarke was educated at the University of Waterloo, Dalhousie University, and Queen’s University. Clarke is also a pioneering scholar of African-Canadian literature. A professor of English at the University of Toronto, Clarke has taught at Duke, McGill, the University of British Columbia, and Harvard. He holds eight honorary doctorates, plus appointments to the Order of Nova Scotia and the Order of Canada at the rank of Officer. His recognitions include the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Fellows Prize, the Governor-General’s Award for Poetry, the National Magazine Gold Award for Poetry, the Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction, the Eric Hoffer Book Award for Poetry (US), and the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Achievement Award. Photo Credit of George Elliott Clarke : Harvard University.
Live Encounters _ George Elliott Clarke – Review_br_Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac by Anna Yin
Anna Yin was Mississauga’s Inaugural Poet Laureate (2015-2017) and has authored five collections of poetry. Her poems/translations have appeared at ARC Poetry, New York Times, China Daily, CBC Radio, World Journal etc. Anna won the 2005 Ted Plantos Memorial Award, two MARTYs, two scholarships from West Chester University Poetry Conference, three grants from OAC and 2013 Professional Achievement Award from CPAC. She performed her poetry on Parliament Hill and has been featured at 2015 Austin International Poetry Festival and 2017 National poetry month project etc. She teaches Poetry Alive at schools, colleges and libraries. Her website: https://www.annapoetry.com/