Ajar Presents: Halloween
Schedule
Fri, 31 Oct, 2025 at 07:00 pm
UTC-04:00Location
Happy Goat Coffee Co. (35 Laurel Street, Ottawa, ON, Canada) | Ottawa, ON
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Q: What is a “fraid” of ghosts? A: A group of ghosts!
This Halloween, join the fraid.
At Happy Goat on Laurel in Ottawa, let's gather to celebrate October 31 in costume. Jason Purcell (crohnic), Nicola Vulpe (On the News that Sagittarius A* Grows Hungrier), and Margo LaPierre (Ajar) will be reading from their new collections, and the fabulous Ellen Chang-Richardson will be hosting.
Yes, this is a costume party and you’re invited to bring your spookiest self. Each attendee can pose for a photo when arriving at the venue, to be judged by a silent coven during the event, and at 9:30 p.m., the ghostliest ghost will be crowned as the winner. The prize for best ghost is a manuscript assessment (of a poetry collection, novel, short story collection, or memoir) by editor Margo LaPierre, which can be used by the winner or gifted to another writer.
Come right at 7 p.m. to sign up for the poetry open mic!
Snacks, alcoholic drinks, and non-alcoholic drinks will be available.
Conyer Clayton of Perfect Books will be selling books at Happy Goat.
Doors at 7 | Event 7:30 | Afterparty at Manahil Bandukwala and Liam Burke’s home a short walk nearby
Accessibility: Happy Goat is on the ground floor with a wheelchair-accessible washroom and plenty of space. Manahil and Liam’s apartment is walking distance from Happy Goat, up a flight of stairs.
Costumes are encouraged, but not mandatory. Come wearing what will make you happiest. Ghost or no ghost.
RSVP on Facebook or using this Google forms link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeWW4WkWT4I4FBX0gC0HG9OyJ4i8ott4No71RIYAs_SnCVAvQ/viewform?usp=header.
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Crohnic is a brilliant and moving collection of poems that asks, what is the landscape of a medicated life? From their convalescence in a room that overlooks the North Saskatchewan River, author Jason Purcell thinks ecologically with medical records, prescriptions, and dosages, staying attuned to place and to what it might mean to live a life relying on something—in this case, an interminable course of medication—that hurts you in some ways to help you in others. How does the terrain of life change?
Jason Purcell (they/them) is a writer and musician from amiskwaciwaskahikan, Treaty 6 (Edmonton, Alberta). They are the author of the poetry collections Swollening (Arsenal Pulp Press) and A Place More Hospitable (Anstruther Press). They are a PhD student in the Department of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta.
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In late 2019 astronomers discovered that Sagittarius A*, a supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy was getting hungrier, consuming nearby matter at a rate never before seen. We humans now dominate every inch of this planet, every ecological niche. We have enslaved every human and every species we find useful, exterminating those we do not—and yet we grow hungrier. We have written our tragedy, and we are playing out the final scene. On the News that Sagittarius A* Grows Hungrier (Guernica Editions) is a celebration of what makes us human: love, laughter, desire, thought and sorrow, and it is a lament for this world we have consumed.
Nicola Vulpe’s poems and translations have appeared in The Antigonish Review, Carousel, The Ex-Puritan, The Madrid Review, The Manhattan Review, Montréal Serai, Slush Pile Magazine, and Stand Magazine. His books include a novella, The Extraordinary Event of Pia H., and five poetry collections, of which Insult to the Brain and Through the Waspmouth I Drew You both received Fred Cogswell Awards for Excellence in Poetry.
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Ajar celebrates radical recovery from violence and psychotic paradigm shifts, approaching madness through prismatic inquiry, and navigating the monstrous physical and psychological dangers of womanhood. As time converges within us, we find new ways to heal and grow. From the emergency room to the pharmacy to the fertility clinic to the dis/comfort of home and memory, this collection humanizes bipolar disorder, emphasizing the auspicious outcomes of neurodiverse cognition.
Margo LaPierre (she/her) is a writer and freelance literary editor. With multi-genre work published in The Ex-Puritan, CV2, Room, and PRISM, among others, she has won national awards for her poetry, fiction, and editing. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from UBC. Ajar, forthcoming October 31, is her second poetry collection.
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Ellen Chang-Richardson is an award-winning poet, hybrid genre writer, judicial assistant, and editor of Taiwanese and Chinese Cambodian descent. They are the author of Blood Belies (Wolsak & Wynn), shortlisted for the 2025 Gerald Lampert Memorial Award, the author of five poetry chapbooks including the moleskin coat (above/ground press), and the co-author of two with their creative poetry collective VII. Their second collection of poetry, Through the Eyes of Another: A Collection of Ekphrasis, is forthcoming in spring 2027.
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Where is it happening?
Happy Goat Coffee Co. (35 Laurel Street, Ottawa, ON, Canada), CanadaEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
