Poetry builds bridges – it connects cultures, landscapes, islands in the stream. Join our bridge-builders as the festival currents begin to flow on Sunday, April 21.

We launch Trisia Eddy Woods’ brand-new collection into the stream. A Road Map for Finding Wild Horses is a lyric journey through Alberta’s landscape, to discover how an encounter with a quiet doe or a wild stallion offers us a bridge between worlds. In Leilei Chen’s new book, I Have Forsaken Heaven & Earth, But Never Forsaken You, she translates the poetry of Tsangyang Gyatso—Tibet’s unconventional sixth Dalai Lama who was well known for his love poems. Chen’s translations bridge 17th-century China and today’s China, and that country with the West. Tim Bowling launches In the Capital City of Autumn where he bridges autumnal themes such as the loss of his mother and the demolition of his childhood home, his children growing and the inevitable passage of time. Add in the vibrant voices of the Edmonton Spoken Word Youth Choir, an exuberant ensemble that leaps across currents.