Almonte readers, writers celebrate poetry with award-winning poets

ALMONTE – It was poetry in motion April 11, as Almonte Readers and Writers celebrated National Poetry Month in the most fitting location – at the coffee shop.

“Last Thursday evening, April 11, Almonte Readers and Writers hosted an enthusiastic audience of poetry lovers at Equator Coffee in celebration of National Poetry Month,” the volunteer club released in a statement yesterday (April 14). “In a warm and cozy atmosphere, award winning Ottawa based poets Conyer Clayton and Jean Van Loon presented readings from their recently published works. Van Loon’s latest book Nuclear Family won the 2023 Ottawa Book Award and Clayton’s But the sun, and the ships, and the fish, and the waves won the Archibald Lampman Award in 2022.

Moderated by Jessie Carson, Almonte resident and Readers and Writers co-founder, Clayton and Jean Van Loon discussed how looking inward and exploring personal history provides inspiration for their work.

“They explained how distancing painful personal events in poetry allowed them to both connect with their experiences and soften painful memories,” the club said. Jean who, in Nuclear Family, wrote poems inspired by her father’s suicide, said when she advised her brothers of her work, she was anxious about their reaction. They told her they were happy she had written down the experience and it opened up relationships that had suffered under the weight of this tragic event. She did say, though, she presents this particular work as purely a work of fiction.”

Clayton spoke about her Kentucky childhood and related although she and her sisters were close, she had a contentious relationship with her father, but he read and liked her work.

The poets fielded questions from an engaged audience about their work and how they were motivated to begin writing poetry.

“The conversation was laced with interesting tales and funny anecdotes,” organizers said.

This is the second in the Delve series presented by Almonte Readers and Writers. Delve presents writers in close conversation with the audience. The evening, which was a pay-what- you-can event, “felt intimate and quite special to those attending.”

The evening was presented with the community support of Equator Coffee, in partnership with Mill Street Books, and funded in part by the Municipality of Mississippi Mills.

For more on Almonte Readers and Writers click here.

The publications of Jean Van Loon and Conyer Clayton are available from Mill Street Books.