Poetry in Communication with Daniel Cabena, Cori Martin, Richard Sanger, and Karen Schindler. Moderated by Amanda Jernigan.

Countertenor Daniel Cabena is highly regarded in both Canada and Europe for prize-winning performances ranging from baroque to contemporary repertoire. This season he has appeared with Edmonton Opera, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra, and next season will include performances with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, the Vancouver Chamber Choir, and Turning Point Ensemble. Daniel holds an Honours Bachelor of Music from Wilfrid Laurier University, a Doctorate of Music from l’Université de Montréal and a Masters in Specialized Early Music Performance from the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis.

Cori Martin is a Canadian poet, librettist, playwright, and formerly Lecturer in English at The Ohio State University.  Often cross-disciplinary in nature, her poetry once took the form of a verse play, and regularly takes inspiration from the visual arts.  Musical settings of her work have been premiered by New Music Now and the Wilfrid Laurier University Faculty of Music, Waterloo (Babel: A Choral Symphony), the Grand Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra, Kitchener (“Christmas Cattle”), Ex Cathedra in London and Birmingham, U.K. (“The Portinari Nativity”), among other performances, and recorded on the CD Winter Nights by the Pax Christi Chorale and Orchestra, Toronto.

Richard Sanger’s new collection, Dark Wood, was published this year. His previous collections are Shadow Cabinet and Calling Home; his poems have appeared in many publications in Canada, the US and Britain, including the London Review of Books and Poetry Review. His plays include Not Spain, Two Words for Snow, Hannah’s Turn and Dive as well as translations of Calderon, Lope de Vega and Lorca. He has also published essays, reviews and journalism. He lives in Toronto.

Karen Schindler is the publisher of Baseline Press in London, ON—a micro-press producing hand-sewn poetry chapbooks since 2011. Karen’s own poetry and book reviews have appeared in journals such as The Malahat Review and The Fiddlehead, and her writing has been short-listed for the CBC Literary Awards and Descant‘s Winston Collins Prize. In 2017 Karen stepped down after serving over ten years as Managing Director of the Poetry London Reading Series. She has also worked as a chemical engineer, a systems analyst, and a high-school mathematics teacher.

Amanda Jernigan is the author of three collections of poetry—Groundwork (Biblioasis, 2011), All the Daylight Hours (Cormorant, 2013), and Years, Months, and Days (Biblioasis, 2018)—and of the chapbook The Temple (Baseline Press, 2018). Her poems have appeared in journals in Canada and abroad, including Poetry, PN Review, The Walrus and The Nation; they have also been set to music, most recently by American composer Zachary Wadsworth. She is the editor of The Essential Richard Outram (Porcupine’s Quill, 2011) and, with Evan Jones, of Earth and Heaven: An Anthology of Myth Poetry (Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2015). She is an essayist as well as a poet, and has written for the stage. Photo by John Haney.