VERSe Ottawa, in conjunction with the City of Ottawa, is pleased to announce the incoming 2024-2026 City of Ottawa Poets Laureate:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: VERSe Ottawa, in conjunction with the City of Ottawa, is pleased to announce the incoming2024-2026 City of Ottawa Poets Laureate

David O’Meara (English)                                         Véronique Sylvain (French)

David O’Meara is the author of five collections of poetry, most recently Masses On Radar (Coach House Books, 2021). His play, Disaster, was nominated for four Rideau Awards. He is a winner of the Ottawa Book Award and the Archibald Lampman Prize, is the director of The Plan 99 Reading Series, was the founding Artistic Director for VERSeFest (Canada’s International Poetry Festival), and was a jurist for the 2012 Griffin International Poetry Prize. In 2016 he was awarded the Ottawa Arts Council Mid-Career Artist Award. His debut novel, Chandelier, appears in September 2024.

 

 

 

Véronique Sylvain [photo credit: Richard Tardif] lives in Ottawa, where she holds the position of promotion and communications agent with Éditions David. Her poems have been published in À ciel ouvert, Ancrages, Femmes de parole, Zinc, and in the anthologies Poèmes de la résistance (Prise de parole, 2019) and Projet TERRE (David, 2021). Her first collection, Premier quart (Prise de parole, 2019), won her the Prix de poésie Trillium, the Ottawa Book Prize, in 2020, the Prix Champlain, and the Prix littéraire émergence AAOF 2021. A proud Franco-Ontarian with a passion for words, music, nature, and travel, Véronique also offers writing workshops for those aged 8 to 98. Her upcoming collection, En terrain miné, appears in September 2024.

The laureates willbe giving their first official reading as Poets Laureate as part of the John Newlove Awards and Ottawa Poets Laureate event through the Ottawa International Writers Festival, Club Saw, 67 Nicholas Street, Ottawa on Tuesday, October 1, 2024 at 6:30pm. This event will be free to the public.

The City of Ottawa’s Poet Laureate program is designed to promote the literary arts in Ottawa and to advance Ottawa’s unique voice in the world. Poets laureate serve a two-year term beginning in September.

ABOUT THE CITY OF OTTAWA’S POET LAUREATE PROGRAM

In 2017, City Council approved funding for the renewal of a Poet Laureate Program for the City of Ottawa. There are two current Ottawa poet laureates – one English, one French – each appointed to serve a two year term. Their mandate is to act as Ottawa’s artistic ambassador, to promote the literary arts, and to advance Ottawa’s unique voice in the world.

Each Poet Laureate receives an annual honorarium of $5,000, as well as another $5,000 to fund various poetry-related programs and events.

HISTORY OF OTTAWA’S POET LAUREATE PROGRAM

Before the present incarnation of a bilingual Poet laureate program, Ottawa had an unilingual poet laureate program between 1982 and 1990. The city’s third and final poet laureate under this program was Patrick White, who succeeded Cyril Dabydeen. The city’s first poet laureate was Catherine Ahearn, a position which also made her the first municipal poet laureate in Canada. After an almost 30-year hiatus, City Council in consultation with VERSe Ottawa resurrected and augmented the Poet Laureate program.

Previous Poets Laureate
2021/2022

Albert Dumont (Anglophone Poet Laureate)
Gilles Latour (Francophone Poet Laureate)

2019/2020

Deanna Young (Anglophone Poet Laureate)
Margaret Michèle Cook (Francophone Poet Laureate)

2017/2018

Andrée Lacelle (Francophone Poet Laureate)
Jamaal Jackson Rogers (Anglophone Poet Laureate)

For media requests for David O’Meara, VERSe Ottawa or questions about the Poet Laureate program, contact rob mclennan: rob_mclennan@hotmail.com

For media requests for Véronique Sylvain, contact Christine McNair: christine_mcnair@hotmail.com