Spring Poetry Party with Leesa Dean, Jamella Hagen and Lisa Richter

Join us at Upstart & Crow as we celebrate three new spring releases from acclaimed poets Jamella Hagen (Whitehorse, YT), Lisa Richter (Toronto, ON) and Leesa Dean (Krestova, BC). The evening will feature author readings and a discussion with host Abby Wener Herlin. This event is free but capacity is limited, so please reserve your spot here.

The poems in Interstitial probe the porous nature of existence, examining the ways in which the world, the body and the self are all liminal spaces. Writing in the interstitial time between the deaths of her parents, and using an array of forms and registers, author Leesa Dean turns a clear eye on the difficulties of family secrets, grief that is solitary and grief that is shared, lost languages, violence, recovery and resilience. These poems move from injury to reconciliation, demonstrating that we are strongest when we allow our shared narratives to weave us into a greater constellation than our individual lives afford.

Perfect Weather by Jamella Hagen is a collection of poems about many things — the destabilizing force of climate change, the particularity of living in the Yukon, the tender intensity of becoming a parent — but mostly it’s about relationships, the fraught and sustaining nature of building connections with other people. The book opens in a space of high conflict as a wildfire marks out a pattern of relationship breakdown. Later, a fictional series about northern jobs and an interlude about the liminal days of early parenthood lead toward a space of cautious gratitude and peace in the final section. The poems are free verse but fall into various modes and patterns, including work with couplets as well as odes and loose sonnets.

In , Lisa Richter explores what it’s like to live “under the moon” in a world that is simultaneously a heartbreak and a total wonder. Sweetmeats and ocelots rain from the sky. Pets are shadow puppets. A kitten impersonates a teacup. A grieving daughter travels back in time to be at her father’s side in the final hours of his life. Newlyweds soar over the rooftops of west-end Toronto, passing a violin-playing goat along the way. From Atlantis to Mount Olympus to Christie Pits, these poems interweave moments of absurdity and awe, creating a nuanced portrait of what “a reckless intimacy with the world” might look like — for better or worse. Sublunary is a book of elegy, play, and rupture that advocates for an ethics of care, solidarity, and compassion for our perfectly imperfect selves and each other: a mode of survival that is full-throated and, at times, even joyous.

Hope to see you there!

About the authors:

Lisa Richter is an award-winning poet, writer and educator. She is the author of two full-length poetry collections, Closer to Where We Began and Nautilus and Bone, winner of the Canadian Jewish Literary Award for Poetry, the National Jewish Book Award for Poetry, and the Robert Kroetsch Award, among other honours. Her work has been longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize, named a finalist for a National Magazine Award, and has been published widely in literary journals and anthologies, including Best Canadian Poetry 2024, Plenitude, The Fiddlehead, and The Malahat Review. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph and makes her home in Tkaronto/Toronto, where she is currently working on a hybrid-genre memoir.

Jamella Hagen is the author of Perfect Weather (Gaspereau Press, 2026) and Kerosene (Nightwood Editions, 2011). Her poetry has won The Fiddlehead’s Ralph Gustafson Poetry Prize and has appeared in Best Canadian Poetry. She lives with her son, Rowan, on the traditional territory of the Kwanlin Dün First Nation and the Ta’an Kwäch’än Council in Whitehorse, Yukon, where she is an assistant professor of English and Creative Writing at Yukon University, and an affiliate poetry editor with the Alaska Quarterly Review. Recent work has appeared in Ploughshares, The Malahat Review and The Globe and Mail.

Leesa Dean is an award-winning multi-genre writer, editor and educator living in rural B.C. on unceded Sinixt Territory in the Slocan Valley. Waiting for the Cyclone, her acclaimed short story collection about misbehaving women (Brindle & Glass) was nominated for the 2017 Trillium and Relit Awards. Her novella in verse, The Filling Station, was published in 2022 by Gaspereau Press, and she is the author of two poetry chapbooks. Her third book, Interstitial, includes poems that were shortlisted for the Diagram Chapbook Contest, the Nick Blatchford Occasional Verse Contest, and she was runner-up for the Pacific Spirit Poetry Prize in 2022.

More about Upstart & Crow:

Upstart & Crow is a not-for-profit creative studio and literary incubator that champions writers, readers and stories, and the role they play in shaping our lives. We develop original programs, support artists and revel in creative projects focused on Literature In Translation / Climate Solutions / Poetry / Civic Dialogue / Community & Skills Building … all with the aim of elevating the role of literature and storytelling in our lives. Find us on Granville Island, Gibsons and online at upstartandcrow.com.

Accessibility:

The main studio of our shop is accessible for folks with mobility aids. There is a washroom on the main floor available for attendees.

Questions: hello[at]upstartandcrow.com.

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