Poetry, Prose and Podcasts
LIVE POETRY READING BY LOCAL SOOKE AUTHOR CLARE WINSTANLEY
Where? Art Gallery by Sooke Arts Council, 6596 Sooke Road, Sooke, BC
When? 6 – 8pm Friday, 27th August, 2021
What? Professional performance of poems from newly published anthology
Gallery capacity maximum 25 seated guests (BC Covid regulations)
Cost? Free event
This is where Dida and I will spend the day this weekend, drinking in the peace and quiet.
With my upcoming solo live poetry reading from BITS OF STRING & THREAD at the Sooke Arts Council Gallery on Friday 27th August, followed by another as a participant at Sooke’s inaugural Festival of Authors and Readers on Saturday and Sunday 28th/ 29th August, I will use the solitude and serenity of the Salish shoreline to restore my energy after such a wonderfully hectic time at Sooke Region Museum Night Market meeting crowds of enthusiastic marketgoers.
Photo (c) 2021 AMGray Studios
Sales of “ BITS OF STRING & THREAD – a tapestry of poems” were brisk during my two enjoyable summer evenings as a stall holder at Sooke Region Museum’s Night Market in their grounds under the shadow of the lighthouse.
Huge thanks to fellow member authors from Sooke Writers’ Collective for their assistance in making these stall events such a resounding success.
Thank you to journalist Zoe Ducklow for the thought-provoking interview questions and excellent coverage.
TODAY – WEDNESDAY 7TH JULY, 2021 – IS A MILESTONE!
PUBLICATION DAY FOR MY FIRST ANTHOLOGY!
Here, for first time published in print, you can find my poem “Last Stand at Fairy Creek” which you will have heard me performing for the “Stories-Less-Spoken” Podcast series.
“That poem has so much weight to it!” Cole Kelly, Director and Co-Host, The Little Stories Series: The Spoken Word.
“I was very moved by it.” Christine Lowther, Poet Laureate, Tofino, British Columbia
Of the remaining poems, all but one (“Beside the Seaside – a cycle of sea poems”) were written over the past two years and appear together for the first time in this anthology. Many of them will take you on journeys: physical or spiritual. All use common words to express uncommon thoughts, feelings and ideas.
To purchase your own copy in person, visit The Gallery (Sooke Arts Council) (open Wednesday to Sundays). Alternatively, order one directly from me, here on my contact page or visit http://www.sookewriters.com and place an order.
Here I am in the tranquility of Ella Beach on the shoreline of the Salish Sea, Sooke (featured in my poem “The White Night”) in the cool of an early summer’s morning, with my companion lurcher, Perdida.
ALL THE ELEMENTS – Seven Poets from Sooke
Thank you for the coverage and lovely write up @sookenewsmirror
I am seated here on an antique wheelback at the desk which inspired my poem “The Walnut Bureau” which you can hear me reading in my Blog of 10th May 2021.
Author photo (c) 2021 AMGray Studios
I am excited to announce that the collaborative chapbook anthology is now published and already for sale at The Gallery (Sooke Arts Council) and copies can be obtained either here through the contact page on my website, or by email gallery@sookearts.com
a chapbook anthology of poems
nature weather love resilience pets plague people
To celebrate this exciting day, here is a brand new recording of one of my poems from this new publication:
The Walnut Bureau
COMING IN JUNE 2021
“PIECES OF EIGHT“, the eighth annual anthology from Sooke Writers’ Collective will be available shortly. I have a brand new poem which will be published in this anthology and will post as soon as the books are printed and available.
COMING IN JULY 2021
“BITS OF STRING & THREAD”
BITS OF STRING & THREAD, my debut solo anthology of poems combines more of my original line drawings – some of which were first published in ALL THE ELEMENTS – with a collection of longer narrative poems which have all been written over the past two years.
6th April 2021
Welcome to my first Blog!
Thank you for joining me on my brand new website.
I begin and end each day to the sound of the waves on the Syo-sen shoreline on the edge of the Salish Sea. Syo-sen in Sencoten means “place of sound of rock against rock.” I live on the territory of the T’Sou-Ke Nation of the Coast Salish People. The layered landscape, the ocean waters, the skyscapes and the distant Olympic mountain range influence my writing.
Today marks the arrival of some exciting news. My live performance of my latest poem, “Last Stand at Fairy Creek”, has been selected to be published in the Stories-Less-Spoken Podcast series which highlights the work of authors throughout British Columbia. I am obviously thrilled to have been selected!
Here are the links for you to enjoy:
www.instagram.com/storieslessspoken
www.facebook.com/storieslessspoken
This poem is a tribute to all those who have the courage to stand up, to act when it is not a popular thing to do. Not cool. My cousin, Paul Winstanley, is one such person. He and other activists — such as Christine Lowther, the Poet Laureate of Tofino, Vancouver Island — have protested over many years on behalf of us all, to protect and preserve the unique forested wildernesses of Vancouver Island. This poem is my tribute to the other environmentalists I have been lucky enough to have known: the late Douglas S. Johnstone of Friends of the Earth; Beatrix M. Miller OBE and Stuart Johnstone, former directors of the World Wildlife Fund, now known as The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Thank you: your legacies live on.
C. E. M. Winstanley
Author photo (c) 2021 AMGray Studios
In My Own Words 
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