65 years of Writing. Editing & Publishing Poetry & Plays …
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,✨Celebrating Summer!✨
✨✨ UPCOMING READINGS ✨✨
Saturday, August 8, 2-3 pm 2026. Poet Penn Kemp and musician Ann Denny perform River Revery to celebrate our river: a marvellous hour of poetry and music in a gorgeous setting! Penn will sign copies of River Revery, $20. For animations of her poems, see www.riverrevery.ca. Passport to Nature, Westminster Ponds Centre, inside the Bruce Pavilion, 944 Western Counties Rd., London, N6C 5J1. Contact: (519) 858-3442 www.thamestalbotlandtrust.ca. Free. Free parking and bicycle racks are available in the lot adjacent to the baseball diamonds and Bruce Pavilion.Thames Talbot Land Trust, P.O. Box 25054 London, ON N6C 6A8. Sunday, September 20. 3pm EDT. Launch of Lives of Dead Poets and Colour Fielding, with special guest Gary Barwin. Little Wren Books, 502 Adelaide St. N, London ON. Contact: <[email protected], (519) 521-1314 Lives of Dead Poets https://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2025/02/new-from-aboveground-press-lives-of.html Colour Fielding. Out in the wild: Colour Fielding, Silver Bow Publishing. This new collection of poems celebrates art, local and far afield: https://www.silverbowpublishing.com/colour-fielding.html. Thanks to The London Free Press for featuring local artists! https://lfpress.com/entertainment/books/one-time-poet-laureate-now-81-reflects-on-londons-1960s-art-scene-in-new-book Colour Fielding video launch reading is up on: https://youtu.be/HUBpqUoWNb8. The Colour Fielding video launch with q and a is up on: https://us06web.zoom.us/rec/share/s-0n7-T0vERNYJgc7P9tXmrh_UlkLk29BmRJsfNiBKMy-cpg97XrTPLgs-K_kzWP.GGJz3JnU2apxEdID "Colour Fielding is a luminous, prismatic exploration of the emotional and metaphysical frequencies of colour. Each poem becomes a field of energy — a place where hue, memory, intuition, and spirit converge. With her signature visionary clarity, Penn Kemp transforms colour into a language of revelation, mapping the inner landscapes where light becomes emotion and emotion becomes art. In this collection, colours are not descriptors but portals. Kemp moves through the spectrum with painterly precision, inviting readers to inhabit the vibrational worlds of crimson, indigo, gold, and shadow. The poems shimmer with surreal imagery, lyrical depth, and the unmistakable cadence of a poet at the height of her powers." Colour Fielding is in London Library. Order it for yours! https://www.silverbowpublishing.com/colour-fielding.html. A collection of poems celebrating art. Colour Fielding is a collection of poems celebrating art. It is a companion volume to Ordinary/Moving, https://www.silverbowpublishing.com/ordinary-moving.html. This book enriches an existing body of ekphrastic poetry with the local explosion of art in London. The central theme of Colour Fielding is my experience of and explorations of visual art, from presenting personal anecdotes to examining the relationship between poetry and visual art. Colour Fielding comprises seven sections, focusing primarily on: my relationships with my painter father and his fellow artist friends and my experience of artistic culture in regional Ontario (“Very Local Heroes”); commentaries on works by the artists Emily Carr, Georgia O’Keefe and Frida Kahlo (“Triple Take on Carr, O’Keefe and Kahlo”); artists’ perceptions of concepts such as time, colour, form, language and past literary and visual artists (“Reflecting Interplay”); relationships with the muse and the elements (“Confronting the Muse”); responses to paintings by a range of artists (“Ekphrastics”); and explorations of light and colour (“Light Eaters”). The sections are arranged to start with the personal and anecdotal and close with more conceptual artistic explorations. Back and front covers feature paintings by icon rebel artist Greg Curnoe. Enjoy! Title: Colour Fielding Publisher: Silver Bow Publishing ISBN: 9781774033517 print 9781774033524 ebook For @NationalPoetryMonth, London Library featured Ordinary Moving on https://londp.ca.iiivega.com/ ✨✨Forthcoming Readings and Workshops ✨✨ Saturday, September 26, 2026. TREA's anniversary celebration event, Grosvesnor Lodge, 1017 Western Rd, London, ON N6G 1G5. https://www.trea.ca/programs/, (519) 645-2845 [email protected]. TREA (Thames Region Ecological Association), a London ON non profit aims to educate the community and protect the environment. Sponsored by PlayConnect. Contact: Mindy, [email protected] 416-703-0201. Contact: Diane, <[email protected]>. October 16, 6-8 PM. Open mic: 6:30 PM. Feature reading: 7:00 PM. St Thomas Public Arts Centre (STEPAC), 301 Talbot Street, St Thomas ON. Contact: Sienna and Avi <[email protected]>, https://www.facebook.com/trestlebridgepoetry/, trestlebridgepoetry, Tuesday, October 20, PM. Feature with Jennifer Wenn for Tower Poetry Society, The Fool & Flagon Restaurant, 2255 Barton St E, Hamilton, ON L8H 7P4. Contact: Tower Poetry president Fran Figge, <[email protected]> Fall, 2026. Zoom reading for TOPS Durham Region Poetry, Station Gallery,1450 Henry Street, Whitby, ON. Contact: Lisa Reynolds. Wednesday, December 9, 2026, 7pm. Antler River Poetry is headlining Penn, celebrating her Lifetime Achievement Award. Host: James Stewart Reaney. Landon Library, Wortley Road, London ON, (519) 439-6240. Contact: [email protected] Tuesdays: February 2, 9, 16, 23, from 2:00-3:30pm EST. Penn's writing workshop. part of Creative Age online programming at London Public Library, London ON. Online and free to the public; registration preferred. The expectation is that participants would attend all four sessions. Contact: <[email protected]> ✨New Publications 2026 ✨ June 20, 2026. "A Great Illumination". Editor Theresa Smalec, https://publicreverie.com/a-great-illumination-by-penn-kemp/ from https://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2025/02/new-from-aboveground-press-lives-of.html June 20, 2026. "Trooping His Colour", p. 46-47. Souwesto Poetry Review. Editor Andreas Gripp. https://www.souwestopoetryreview.com/anthology. The photo of the fox is here: https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/tradition/a21246476/fox-trooping-the-colour-2018/ June 19, 2026. “PLACES OF THEIR OWN”, p. 33-37: my piece with poems from COLOUR FIELDING on Carr, O'Keefe, Kahlo, p. 33. Based on the grand exhibition at McMichael Gallery. Sageing #57. https://www.sage-ing.com/Sage-ing57.pdf. Here I am reading the poems: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqMQLPZgm0s&t=4s. Editor Karen Close. May 9, 2026. Two "very very very" poems; "Studied Things", https://www.centred.ca/studied-things-a-very-very-very-poem-ioana-dragomir/, Read the poem on https://www.centred.ca/studied-things-a-very-very-very-poem-ioana-dragomir/. https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-7644319201120848647 “Re:Keying”: https://www.tiktok.com/@pennkemp/video/7644329794477378834? Read the poem on https://www.centred.ca/penn-kemp-re-keying-a-very-very-very-poem/ April 21, 2026. “Five Poems from Colour Fielding”: " "Drawing In Miniature"; "First Canadian Happening"; "Suppose"; "The Greats"; "The artist will be present". Editor Theresa Smalec, https://publicreverie.com/local-lights-by-penn-kemp April, 2026. "The Spring Widow" and Pinhole Poetry Interview, https://pinholepoetry.ca/19458-2/, April, 2026. Two new poems: "Dream Song" and "Q & A" for Al Moritz, https://www.theseaboardreview.ca/p/the-seaboard-review-of-books-thursday-april-9-2026 Spring, 2026. Colour Fielding, Silver Bow Publishing. This new collection of poems celebrating art, local and far afield: https://www.silverbowpublishing.com/colour-fielding.html. Here is the video launch with q and a: https://us06web.zoom.us/rec/share/s-0n7-T0vERNYJgc7P9tXmrh_UlkLk29BmRJsfNiBKMy-cpg97XrTPLgs-K_kzWP.GGJz3JnU2apxEdID A collection of poems celebrating art. Colour Fielding is a collection of poems celebrating art. The book enriches an existing body of ekphrastic poetry with the local explosion of art in London. The central theme of Colour Fielding is my experience of and explorations of visual art, from presenting personal anecdotes to examining the relationship between poetry and visual art. Colour Fielding comprises seven sections, focusing primarily on: my relationships with my painter father and his fellow artist friends and my experience of artistic culture in regional Ontario (“Very Local Heroes”); commentaries on works by the artists Emily Carr, Georgia O’Keefe and Frida Kahlo (“Triple Take on Carr, O’Keefe and Kahlo”); artists’ perceptions of concepts such as time, colour, form, language and past literary and visual artists (“Reflecting Interplay”); relationships with the muse and the elements (“Confronting the Muse”); responses to paintings by a range of artists (“Ekphrastics”); and explorations of light and colour (“Light Eaters”). The sections are arranged to start with the personal and anecdotal and close with more conceptual artistic explorations. Back and front covers feature paintings by icon rebel artist Greg Curnoe. Enjoy! Title: Colour Fielding Publisher: Silver Bow Publishing ISBN: 9781774033517 print 9781774033524 ebook March 12, 2026. "On the Lighter side of Now: Lift to Levity", Sage-ing, #56, https://www.sageing.ca/sageing56.html. With my gratitude to Karen Close (https://www.sageing.ca/) ; publishers Jim Andrews (https://seaofpo.vispo.com); Richard Capener (https://www.hempressbooks.com/authors/penn-kemp); and rob mcclennan (https://periodicityjournal.blogspot.com)! February, 2026. "Weather's New Word", Sublime: Poems for Vanishing Ice, anthology, the third book in Yvonne Blomer’s trilogy of climate crisis/water. Caitlin Press. https://caitlinpress.com/Books/S/Sublime February 4, 2026. "Left to Levity", Periodicity Journal, https://periodicityjournal.blogspot.com/2026/02/penn-kemp-left-to-levity.html. January 20, 2026. “Sitting Vigil”. “27 November 2025”, “For You, Dear Friend and Fellow Poet”, “Endling”, “Enter, Bear”. New in Public Reverie Mag, "Penn Kemp's digital chapbook, "Poems for Barry", a series she wrote before and shortly after Barry Dempster's death." Thanksl to Theresa Smalec for this weeklong celebration of Barry Dempster! https://publicreverie.com/poems-for-barry-a-digital-chapbook/ January 12, 2026. Thanks to Antoinette Voute Roeder and The Seaboard Review of Books for this sumptuous review! Ordinary / Moving: a Memoir in Verse is so "rich, so densely packed, exuberant to the point of words tripping on one another, that "how can a mere review begin to do justice to this work? On the other hand, how could one resist?" https://www.theseaboardreview.ca/p/ordinary-moving-a-memoir-in-verse-penn-kemp January 1, 2026. Review by Jennifer Wenn, "Penn Kemp’s ‘Binding Twine’ Forty Years On": “There is a powerful resonance here, right down to the current day, that renders Binding Twine as relevant and as important as ever.” https://www.theseaboardreview.ca/p/penn-kemps-binding-twine-forty-years-on ✨On Line✨ https://pennkemp.substack.com/p/poems-to-celebrate-summer https://pennkemp.wordpress.com/2026/06/20/poems-for-solstice/ "Trooping His Colour" https://www.souwestopoetryreview.com/anthology with pic: https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/tradition/a21246476/fox-trooping-the-colour-2018/ “PLACES OF THEIR OWN”, https://www.sageing.ca/sageing57.html https://open.substack.com/pub/pennkemp/p/springings-2026?r=1p9d0c&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true https://pennkemp.wordpress.com/2026/05/25/two-very-very-very-poems/ "Studied Things". https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-7644319201120848647 Read the poem on https://www.centred.ca/studied-things-a-very-very-very-poem-ioana-dragomir/ “Re:Keying”: https://www.tiktok.com/@pennkemp/video/7644329794477378834?. Read the poem on https://www.centred.ca/penn-kemp-re-keying-a-very-very-very-poem/ https://pennkemp.substack.com/p/springings-2026 https://pennkemp.wordpress.com/2026/05/16/4945/ May 7. "One-time poet laureate reflects on London’s 1960s art scene in new book" https://lfpress.com/entertainment/books/one-time-poet-laureate-now-81-reflects-on-londons-1960s-art-scene-in-new-boo Colour Fielding video launch reading: https://youtu.be/HUBpqUoWNb8 Colour Fielding video launch with q and a: https://us06web.zoom.us/rec/share/s-0n7-T0vERNYJgc7P9tXmrh_UlkLk29BmRJsfNiBKMy-cpg97XrTPLgs-K_kzWP.GGJz3JnU2apxEdID April 8, 2026, Apposite Reading Series, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRF3PUfhc1o. Reading https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg-waqVIjAM and Sounding with Karl Jirgens. ✨https://open.substack.com/pub/bryanparkerlaveryvery/p/the-terrain-of-matriarchs-from-the?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web by Bryan Lavery: ✨https://pennkemp.substack.com/p/colour-fielding-in-the-wild ✨"A Spring Widow", https://pinholepoetry.ca/19458-2/ https://pennkemp.wordpress.com/2026/04/12/the-spring-widow-a-poem/ ✨Reading https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg-waqVIjAM and Sounding with Karl Jirgens, Apposite Reading Series, 482026, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRF3PUfhc1o "Dream Song" and "Q & A", ✨https://www.theseaboardreview.ca/p/the-seaboard-review-of-books-thursday-april-9-2026 ✨https://pennkemp.substack.com/p/colour-fielding-is-now-out ✨https://pennkemp.wordpress.com/2026/03/28/colour-fielding-is-now-out-celebrating-poetry-month/ ✨https://open.substack.com/pub/pennkemp/p/may-the-equilibrium-of-equinox-be https://pennkemp.wordpress.com/2026/03/20/may-the-equilibrium-of-equinox-be-yours/ ✨https://pennkemp.substack.com/p/on-the-lighter-side-of-now ✨https://open.substack.com/pub/pennkemp/p/poem-for-international-womans-day ✨https://pennkemp.substack.com/p/marlene-et-moi ✨https://www.hempressbooks.com/authors/penn-kemp ✨https://caitlinpress.com/Books/S/Sublime ✨https://pennkemp.wordpress.com/2026/02/03/on-to-the-fire-horse/ https://open.substack.com/pub/pennkemp/p/the-second-of-february ✨https://pennkemp.substack.com/p/poems-for-barry-a-digital-chapbook https://pennkemp.wordpress.com/2026/01/21/poems-for-barry-dempster/ ✨https://pennkemp.substack.com/p/ordinary-moving https://www.theseaboardreview.ca/p/ordinary-moving-a-memoir-in-verse-penn-kemp ✨https://pennkemp.wordpress.com/2026/01/04/lethologica/ 1/1/2026 31/12/2025: "Lethologica", https://seaofpo.vispo.com?p=pk ✨https://pennkemp.wordpress.com/2026/01/01/penn-kemps-binding-twine-forty-years-on/ ✨31/12/2025: https://pennkemp.substack.com/p/new-years-blessings 21/12/2025: https://pennkemp.wordpress.com/2025/12/21/how-and-what-i-read https://pennkemp.substack.com/p/new-years-blessings 21/12/2025: https://pennkemp.substack.com/p/reading-by-the-fire-on-this-solstice 11/11/2025: https://pennkemp.substack.com/p/first-snows ✨4/10/2025: https://pennkemp.wordpress.com/2025/10/04/the-palimpsest/ 25/9/2025: https://pennkemp.substack.com/p/poetry-as-the-seasons-change 9/9/2025:https://pennkemp.substack.com/p/septembers-new-energy 7/7/2025: https://open.substack.com/pub/pennkemp/p/art-in-action-in-response-to-peril ✨https://hempress.substack.com/p/an-interview-with-hem-press-author ✨April, 2025. https://poets.ca/nvw2025/#life ✨ The League of Canadian Poets celebrates my work with the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award! The award selection committee writes: "Penn’s contributions to community are wildly impressive and undeniable. The tendrils of her devotion to poetry and literature not only span decades, but extend across mediums, forms, and the country. Directly or indirectly, so many of us have benefited from Penn’s contributions to our literary landscape. Over a career spanning six decades, London ON poet Penn Kemp has done it all: poetry in both voice and print, editing anthologies, publishing, mentoring countless young writers, writing for theatre and sound operas, extensive collaborative and community engagements, and promoting poetry in all its forms. As important as her poetry, and integral to it, is her activism and commitment to social justice. Translated into multiple languages and performed around the world, Penn’s poetry addresses peace and justice, environmental activism, domestic violence and a range of other social and political concerns. With books and multi-media projects published as early as 1972 and as recent as, well, yesterday, Penn is more than deserving of this celebration of a lifetime very full of achievement." On winning the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award, Penn writes: "To be the inaugural winner of the League's new Lifetime Achievement Award is a profound honour, given the wealth of senior poets across Canada. Throughout sixty years of writing and publishing, poetry has been my lifeline. But there is so much more to explore! At eighty, I feel at the beginning of all that poetry can offer... I still stare daily at the blank page until words unfurl. In accepting this award, I'd also like to pay tribute to our elder poets, for whom this ongoing award is so pertinent." A deep bow to the League for supporting poetry in Canada over the decades, and on. ✨Forthcoming Publications ✨ Summer, 2026. "Fred the Breath, the Breadth" and "For George: Bow-ring". Editor Theresa Smalec, https://publicreverie.com July 7, 2026. "Life Sketches", rob mcclennan's "tuesday poem", https://dusie.blogspot.com/ 2026. “Junco: Weather Vane, Whether Vain, Whither and Thither”. “Woodpecker: Black, White and Read All Over Town.” Avian Alphabet. Edith Krause, editor. Ear Rings (1987), Penn's text with performances by Anne Anglin, Penn Kemp and David Prentice, Underwhich Audiographics. Siren Recordings, Toronto https://sirenrecordings.com/ua-archive-main Archival Director, Brandon Hocura. Akash Bansal, Operations Manager, [email protected] “Three New Year’s Haiku”. Editor Theresa Smalec, https://publicreverie.com/. ✨ Recent Reviews ✨ J, 2026. Jennifer Wenn, "COLOUF FIELDING by Penn Kemp", The Seaboard Review, May 31, 2026. Bryan Parker Lavery, "Colour Fielding: Tracing the Radical Geometries of Mid-Century London, Ontario Abstract Art through Verse" https://bryanparkerlaveryvery.substack.com/p/colour-fielding April 2026. Review of River Revery by Michael Greenstein: https://www.theseaboardreview.ca/p/river-revery-by-penn-kemp January 12, 2026. Ordinary / Moving: a Memoir in Verse. Review by Antoinette Voute Roeder: "Coming to Ordinary Moving as a reviewer seems at first a daunting task. So rich, so densely packed, exuberant to the point of words tripping on one another, how can a mere review begin to do justice to this work? On the other hand, how could one resist? The title of the book already says something about its appeal and its accessibility." https://www.theseaboardreview.ca/p/ordinary-moving-a-memoir-in-verse-penn-kemp January 1, 2026. Review by Jennifer Wenn,"Penn Kemp’s ‘Binding Twine’ Forty Years On": “There is a powerful resonance here, right down to the current day, that renders Binding Twine as relevant and as important as ever.” https://www.theseaboardreview.ca/p/penn-kemps-binding-twine-forty-years-on Jennifer Wenn's review of Lives of Dead Poets: https://miramichireader.ca/2025/05/lives-of-dead-poets-by-penn-kemp/. "this chapbook is a precious glimpse into an extraordinary time and a special group of writers. Happily for all of us, we have their works, and, as Kemp says, “As the poets fall into their tradition/our beloved dead are more intimate/now than ever they could be in flesh.” The review is also up on https://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2025/05/jennifer-wenn-reviews-penn-kemps-lives.html Karl Jirgens' timely review of Lives of Dead Poets:, "Ghost Writings", https://thetypescript.com/review-of-penn-kemps-lives-of-dead-poets/ and https://publicreverie.com/review-of-penn-kemps-lives-of-dead-poets. Karl Jirgens, From “Ghost Writings”: “Penn Kemp weaves us spells of language. Makes magic. Bewitches. Casts spells. Which wood have we entered? Witchwood?... Penn Kemp is one of Canada’s national literary treasures… Kemp has spoken these words for you and for me. Read these readings and writings. Read these pleasures of the text!” Thanks, Karl E. Jirgens, Theresa Smalec, editor of Public Revery and rob mclennan, above/ground press! Review by Gordon Phinn theseaboardreview.ca/p/new-old-and-notable-volume-1-issue-2. Lives Of Dead Poets by Penn Kemp (Above/Ground Press 2025) "Penn Kemp has been regarded as something of an iconoclastand trailblazer for fifty odd years, the composer of thirty plus books ofpoetry and prose, seven plays and several daring, and dare I say seductive, experiments in sound poetry. If you suspect that there are boundaries that yet require breaking then Penn has already been there, joyously deconstructing. In this chapbook, she fondly recalls the lives and work of contemporaries who have shifted their focus to that universe next door. Let me say: she knocks and gains entry. Gwen MacEwen, Robert Creeley, Robert Hogg, bp nichol, Jack Spicer, Phyllis Webb, John Ashbery, James Reaney, Colleen Thibaudeau, P.K.Page, Robert Kroetsch, Teva Harrison, Joe Blades & Ellen S. Jaffe: all reevoked, praised, loved and grieved. Her heart is in the right place and her aim is true." ✨Publications 2025✨✨ December 31, 2025. For your New Year's synaesthesia: "Lethologica" up now: https://seaofpo.vispo.com?p=pk with my sounding: "A word ought to exist that is the feminine or non-gendered version of "virtuoso," that could be applied to the legerdemain of "Lethologica"! I congratulate you on the text of the poem, its vocalization, and the very appropriate floating lines in different fonts and colours, forming a captivating, delightful whole." Allan Briesmaster December 21, 2025, "ON THE ABSENCE OF PRESENCE: Homage to Gavin Goodall Stairs", P. 12-15. https://www.sage-ing.com/sageing55.html December 10, 2025, "The Invocation". Editor: Theresa Smalec. https://publicreverie.com/the-invocation/ November 27, 2025, "For You, Dear Friend & Fellow Poet", Kemp honors Barry's decision to take MAID on November 27, 2025. https://periodicityjournal.blogspot.com/2025/11/penn-kemp-for-you-dear-friend-and.html. November 26, 2025, "For You, Dear Friend & Fellow Poet", Public Reverie Mag, Kemp remembers this beloved poet, https://periodicityjournal.blogspot.com/2025/11/penn-kemp-for-you-dear-friend-and.html November, 2025, "One by One, They Depart, the Great Ones" "Only their poems can transcribe mysterium tremendum – where they’ve gone. Their words embodied on the page for me. For you." Reposted on https://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2025/11/gordon-phinn-reviews-premieres-posies.html November 11, 2025, "The Poet in Charge", Public Reverie Mag, "remembers the incomparable Phyllis Webb. Kemp also honors Webb's decision to die on November 11th, 2021." https://publicreverie.com/the-poet-in-charge-by-penn-kemp November 11, 2025, "Lieder, Lead, Led", Public Reverie Mag: A Journal of Literature, Culture, and Ideas. "Kemp's tribute to Mary Oliver and to lives cut short." https://publicreverie.com/lieder-lead-led-by-penn-kemp/ “Four Poems: Alphabet for Ashberry; The Girl from Sao Paulo; Joining the Joy-Riders; Shooting the Duck ”, https://publicreverie.com/four-poems-by-penn-kemp/ “Auguries of this Inauguration”, https://publicreverie.com/auguries-of-this-inauguration-by-penn-kemp “Two Poems and Two Paintings for 2025”, https://publicreverie.com/two-poems-and-two-paintings-for-2025-by-penn-kemp “Drink Poems”, https://publicreverie.com/drink-poems-by-penn-kemp “Reading: Bob In the Light Of”, editor Theresa Smalec. https://publicreverie.com/page/2/?s=Penn+Kemp October, 2025. "The palimpsest (in DREAM SEQUINS), P. 38-42. Version 9 Magazine, https://version9magazine.com/edition-1-volume-8-autumn-2025-2/ September 21, 2025. "Encountering the Other", P. 4-6. I’m grateful to SAGEING for the opportunity to engage in questions such as the editor quarterly asks. These queries on the nature of creativity go to source and provoke response. They lead me into unknown ground I am delighted to explore. Creativity for me has its source in encounters with the Other. https://www.sageing.ca/, #54. https://www.sage-ing.com/Sage-ing54.pdf August 18, 2025. "War Stories" and "Weather's New Word", Speculum: poems of the last milieu. Editor, Andreas Gripp, blackmallardpoetry.wixsite.com/home ✨June 20, 2025. "Art in Action: In Response", essay and poems, Sage-ing With Creative Spirit, Grace and Gratitude, #53, P. 17-20, https://www.sage-ing.com/Sage-ing53.pdf. From editor Karen Close: “Penn Kemp has been once again moved to activism by recent political events. ART IN ACTION: IN RESPONSE presents an important chronology of her activism through poetry.” ✨June, 2025. "Four Poems" by Penn Kemp. "Alphabet for Ashberry", "Girl from Sao Paolo", "Joining the Joyriders" and "Shooting the Duck", from ORDINARY / MOVING. https://thetypescript.com/four-poems-by-penn-kemp/. Editor Theresa Smalec ✨May, 2025. "On Greeting the Recently Departed" with Jim Kemp's "Three Ghouls" https://vernacularjournal.com/On-Greeting-the-Recently-Departed "Drawing Conclusions, Grade Nine" https://vernacularjournal.com/Drawing-Conclusions-Grade-Nine with "Still Life with Fish" by Jim Kemp, VERNACULAR JOURNAL ✨May, 2025. "Breast Stroke", p. 18, issue 102 of WEI, Women & Environments International Magazine: Identities And Knowledge of Care. https://www.yorku.ca/weimag/ ✨"Barbaric Cultural Practice by Penn Kemp reviewed by Linda Lucas", https://www.theseaboardreview.ca/p/barbaric-cultural-practice-penn-kemp. “Such a surprise and special pleasure to see the excellent review of Barbaric Cultural Practice by Linda Lucas! It's so extremely rare for a decade-old book to be revisited in this way, and the charm and value of this particular one certainly hasn't diminished.” Allan Briesmaster ✨ Karl Jirgens' timely review of LIVES OF DEAD POETS, "Ghorst Writings", https://thetypescript.com/review-of-penn-kemps-lives-of-dead-poets/! Thanks, Karl E. Jirgens; Theresa Smalec, editor, The Typescript; and rob mclennan above/ground press! ✨Book, Ordinary / Moving. Silver Bow Press, print and ebook, https://www.silverbowpublishing.com/ordinary-moving. html https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/229111007-ordinary-moving. Kindle: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/229081887-ordinary-moving. Paperback: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/229111007-ordinary-moving https://pennkemp.substack.com/p/zoom-launch-of-new-poetry-june-18. Link to Zoom launch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4X8uu0PNhwM ✨April, 2025. "Drawing Conclusions", p.33, issue #2, "Lines", https://penstricken.com/lines/ ✨April, 2025. "Saturday Morning Art Class with Greg Curnoe" and "Suppose". Editor, Andreas Gripp, Sola Poēta, issue 3, p. 5-6. https://silverstarlingpress.wixsite.com/home/solapoeta ✨April 5, 2025. "Auguries of This Inauguration Are Not Innocent". How appropriate that my poem "Auguries of This Inauguration Are Not Innocent", comes out in The Typescript on this day of #PROTEST! Editor, Theresa Smalec. https://thetypescript.com/auguries-of-this-inauguration-by-penn-kemp/ ✨March 21, 2025. “Co-creation in Motion: Equinox in the Garden", Issue 52, p. 9-13, Sage-ing: The Journal of Creative Aging, Editor, Karen Close, age-ing.com/sageing52.html. ✨March, 2025. Images of my poem "Lethologica" are in these public slideshows: https://vispo.com/seaofpo/public/slidvids/Penn_Kemp/index.html and https://vispo.com/seaofpo/public/slidvids/Penn_Kemp_2/index.html ✨March, 2025. "Two Poems and Two Paintings for 2025." The Typescript, Editor, Theresa Smalec. https://thetypescript.com/two-poems-and-two-paintings.../ ✨March, 2025. “When Ideal Meets a Bar”; “When Rules Change, Roles Follow”, “One Concession to Go”. Editor, Andreas Gripp, Sola Poēta, issue 2, p. 46-51.These poems will be published in a new collection, ORDINARY/MOVING, from https://www.silverbowpublishing.com/home.html. https://silverstarlingpress.wixsite.com/home/solapoeta ✨ March 2, 2025. “One by One, They Depart, the Great Ones”, periodicities! https://periodicityjournal.blogspot.com/2025/03/penn-kemp-one-by-one-they-depart-great.html ✨ February 2025. "Lives of Dead Poets", chapbook, https://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2025/02/new-from-aboveground-press-lives-of.html ✨ February 2025. "The World According to Penn Kemp, The Prairie Journal, https://mailchi.mp/magazinescanada/cover-lines-february2025 ✨ February 2025. "A Short History of Epiphany", Issue "A Place to Call Home", uproar literary blog, https://lawrencehouse.ca/a-short-history-of-epiphany/ ✨February 2025. "The Race" (parts 1 and 2), "Copper Penny", from a manuscript in progress, Ordinary/Moving; and "New Year’s, 2025", p. 5-8. Issue One of Sola Poeta. https://silverstarlingpress.wixsite.com/home/solapoeta" ✨January, 2025. "What Matters", my poem with "Red Blue Splash", a painting by my father, Jim Kemp, is up on https://vernacularjournal.com/What-Matterst. The Vernacular Journal, https://vernacularjournal.com/ "The garden's breath so long it is immeasurable. But I wait... May the earth find her stability." ✨"All Things Considered" with "Spinning Sun" by Jim Kemp. https://vernacularjournal.com/All-Things-Considered ✨"Lethologica", https://seaofpo.vispo.com?p=pk for animation ✨ Past Readings and Workshops ✨ June 9, 2026. Launch, Sublime: Poems for Vanishing Ice. Laurie Graham, Tanis MacDonald, and Geoff Martin. Waterloo Public Library, Waterloo ON. Contact: [email protected]. June 6, 2026,. "Summer Soiree" Feature for The Ontario Poetry Society reading, Stratford Perth Museum, 4275 Huron Road, Line 34. Stratford, ON N5A 6S6. I read from LIVES of DEAD POETS and COLOUR FIELDING. Contact: David Stones, [email protected] June 4, 2026. Senior Poets Caucus of the League of Canadian Poets. https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6472843447. Contact: [email protected] May 17, 2026, 3-4:30 p.m EDT. Spoken INK Reading Series on Zoom. with Penn Kemp & Lesley Hebert: I read first, 20-minute reading and 10-minute Q & A. Burnaby Writers' Society. Contact: Lara [email protected] April 24, 2026, 8-9 p.m. EDT. Silver Bow Publishing Virtual Launch for Colour Fielding by Penn Kemp. Colour Fielding video launch reading is up on: https://youtu.be/HUBpqUoWNb8. The Colour Fielding video launch with q and a is up on: https://us06web.zoom.us/rec/share/s-0n7-T0vERNYJgc7P9tXmrh_UlkLk29BmRJsfNiBKMy-cpg97XrTPLgs-K_kzWP.GGJz3JnU2apxEdID April 22, 7:45 pm. Earth Day OPEN MIC, Senior Poets Caucus. . Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6472843447. April 19, 5 pm EDT. Crowdcast Online Launch of Sublime: Poems for Vanishing Ice, edited by Yvonne Blomer. I'll read "Weather's New Word". Contact [email protected]. See https://caitlinpress.com/Books/S/Sublime. April 9, 2026. In honor of Vimy Oaks & Sir Arhur Currie, I read this poem for National Poetry Month. The Vimy Foundation, The Vimy Flute: 100 Years in the Making https://pennkemp.wordpress.com/2017/03/28/a-poem-for-vimy/. April 8, 2026. Windsor poet Karl Jirgens and Penn Kemp read from new work plus "All in All", their collaboration of participatory sound poetry. My reading https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg-waqVIjAM and Sounding with Karl Jirgens, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRF3PUfhc1o. Apposite Reading Series, Mykonos Restaurant, 572 Adelaide St. N., London ON. https://www.facebook.com/groups/6284385151607133. Our readings will be followed by poems from some fave London poets: Joan Clayton, Pujita Verma, John Tyndall, David Stones. David White. Jennifer Wenn, Steve Elkerton, Halogen, Brenda Martin and Jeff Orchard. Penn and Karl gratefully acknowledge the support of the League of Canadian Poets and the Canada Council for the Arts and the Department of Canadian Heritage. March 24, 2026. Pujita Verma launches precedence (Brick Books) at XUUX Artists Studio (455 Horton St. E., London: guest readings from a few of forest city’s poets. I perform poems for Equinox. March 2!, 2026. Zoom reading of Jennifer Wenn's play, Empress. I play the wicked Lady Maisa. https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/sx5w2s8x824hsxhtynycg/AJiX9EswGicP8Jw2aVy8Qgg?rlkey=k7k2vavygazfckzcwmmoegrq4&st=dp5rr39f&dl=0 March 16, 2006, 7:45. Poem for Equinox. Senior Caucus reading, League of Canadian Poets February 2, 2026. League of Poets Senior Caucus Zoom tribute to Barry Dempster. Contact: [email protected] December 22, 2025, 7:3-–8:30pm. League of Poets Senior Caucus Zoom reading. December 3, 2025, 7–8:30pm. Colleening: Colleen Thibaudeau: An Evening of Poetry and Memories. I read her "Inwhich I Decide To Look Once More at the Letter in CV 11... to Penn(y) Kemp", from FOUR WOMEN, Red Kite Press, and my poem for Colleen in LIVES OF DEAD POETS and Local Heroes. Antler River Poetry, Landon Library, London. https://youtu.be/FKmuXikViDU (Words Festival) September 18, 2025, 7-8:30 pm. Reading and discussion with London poets Penn Kemp and Jennifer Wenn. Ann Denny sang several of my poems from Ordinary / Moving with me! The evening at London Public Library was so special. See and hear: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVZZjTTbcBQ&t=271s. Q & A: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsVki63L-rI Central Library, 3rd floor, 251 Dundas Street, London ON N6A 6H9. https://www.lpl.ca/events/poetry-reading-discussion-penn-kemp-and-jennifer-wenn. Our books were sold by beloved Mandala Books. M.C. Libby Harding https://www.silverbowpublishing.com/ordinary-moving ✨LIVES OF DEAD POETS https://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2025/02/new-from-aboveground-press-lives-of.html and my essay on the collection’s origins in the A Space reading series I curated: https://periodicityjournal.blogspot.com/2025/03/penn-kemp-one-by-one-they-depart-great.html. "As if the word that springs to mind is devotion, as if, despite the mess, life's unholy business forever left unfinished." August 13, 2 pm. For The League of Canadian Poets' townhall zoom, the Senior Poets Caucus asked me to read poetry. The poetry I read is from Lives of Dead Poets, https://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/.../new-from.... and Barbaric Cultural Practice, Quattro Books. June 28, 2025. 11:30 a.m.-1 pm. Sounds of the Forest: Cello and Poetry Reading with Luc Julian and Penn Kemp at Meadowlily. Contact: Avery [email protected], https://www.thamestalbotlandtrust.ca/passport_to_nature [email protected]. Thames Talbot Land Trust P.O. Box 25054 London, ON N6C 6A8. I was delighted to perform with my favorite cellist, Luc Julian. Such a collaboration at Meadowlily is a joy, since my poetry explores environmental concerns, delighting in multimedia. My reading is supported by the League of Canadian Poets and the Canada Council for the Arts June 18, 2025. Zoom Launch of Ordinary / Moving: "enormously readable and inviting, full of warmth and insight, humour and humility, story and song.” Susan McMaster https://www.silverbowpublishing.com/ordinary-moving. https://pennkemp.substack.com/p/zoom-launch-of-new-poetry-june-18. Link to Zoom launch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4X8uu0PNhwM April 12, 4-5:30pm. Open Mic, Senior Poets Caucus zoom, [email protected]. April 9, 7 pm. Feature, Apposite Poetry Series, celebrating National Poetry Month! Launching LIVES OF DEAD POETS, https://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2025/02/new-from-aboveground-press-lives-of.html and https://periodicityjournal.blogspot.com/2025/03/penn-kemp-one-by-one-they-depart-great.html. Mykonos Restaurant, 572 Adelaide St. N. |
May poetry see us through!
Such deep gratitude for the ongoing support and love we have experienced over the last years of turmoil. In the midst of challenges and change, I feel warmly embraced. Much love returned to the community of family, friends and all those generous people whom I haven’t yet met. Thank you for your kindness on so many levels! https://leagueofcanadianpoets.wildapricot.org/Sys/PublicProfile/41483365%20 https://playwrightsguild.ca/paupress/profile/penn-kemp/view/ ✨Poet, performer and playwright Penn Kemp has been celebrated as a trailblazer since her first publication of poetry by Coach House (1972). Penn has long been a keen participant/activist in Canada’s cultural life, with thirty+ books of poetry, prose and drama; seven plays and ten CDs produced as well as award-winning videopoems. Penn has performed in arts festivals around the world, giving readings and workshops in various writer-in-residencies from the Yukon to Labrador and throughout India and Brazil, Britain and Germany. Her work has been translated often: “poem for peace in many voices”, for instance, is out in 136 languages. Recent publications are COLOUR FIELDING (2026) and ORDINARY/MOVING (2025), Silver Bow Publishing; "Lives of Dead Poets", above/ground press, https://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2025/02/new-from-aboveground-press-lives-of.html (2025); and POEMS IN RESPONSE TO PERIL: an anthology for Ukraine. Penn’s 2024 collection, INCREMENTALLY, is up as e-book and album on https://www.hempressbooks.com/authors/penn-kemp. Delighting in multimedia, Penn is active across the web. See https://seaofpo.vispo.com?p=pk for animation. Updates are on www.pennkemp.weebly.com, www.pennkemp.wordpress.com and www.pennkemp.substack.com. As every writer, every artist knows, this is a time of diminishing monetary returns....so please buy our work! My books are available from [email protected] or from https://www.amazon.ca/s?k=Penn+Kemp&ref=nb_sb_noss. I'd rather you buy from me than Amazon! See https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/126379.Books_by_Penn_Kemp. |
