Recently, VERSe Ottawa announced David O’Meara and Véronique Sylvain as the two English and French, respectively, poets for Ottawa for a two-year period. It is part of the Ottawa Poet Laureate Program, which the City of Ottawa is a proud sponsor.
The poet laureates speak at various events – including those with the City of Ottawa. You can take in their inaugural reading engagement at this year’s John Newlove Awards and Ottawa Poets Laureate event, which is part of the Ottawa International Writers Festival. The event will be held a Club Saw, located at 87 Nicholas Street, on October 1 at 6:30 pm. Admission is free.
Both David and Véronique are accomplished literary talents. Here are some highlights of their accomplishments and works.
David O’Meara – English Poet Laureate
- Author of five collections of poetry, most recently Masses on Radar (Coach House Books, 2021).
- His play, Disaster, was nominated for four Rideau Awards.
- Past 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.
- Jurist for the 2012 Griffin International Poetry Prize.
- Awarded the Ottawa Arts Council Mid-Career Artist Award in 2016.
- His novel, Chandelier, is released in September 2024.
Véronique Sylvain – French Poet Laureate
- 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 the Prix de poésie Trillium, the Ottawa Book Prize, in 2020, and the Prix Champlain and Prix littéraire émergence AAOF awards in 2021.
- She offers workshops for those aged 8 to 98.
- Her upcoming collection, En terrain miné, will be released in September 2024.
The Poet Laureate Program is part of VERSe Ottawa – a non-profit organization that unites poetic arts groups, organizations, and individuals to help promote poetry in Ottawa and the entire National Capital Region. City Council approved funding to the program in 2017. Two Ottawa poets laureate – one English and one French – are appointed every two years to serve a two-year term. Previous poets laureate include English poets Albert Dumont, Deanna Young and Jamaal Jackson Rogers, and French poets Gilles Latour, Margaret Michèle Cook and Andrée Lacelle.