Fredericton

Thursday, March 12 at 7 PM
Location: Garrison District Ale House, 426 Queen St., Fredericton.
Host: CBC's Bob Mersereau

Poets:
Vanessa Moeller
Stephanie Yorke
Nela Rio
Biff Mitchell
Shane Nielson * WINNER

Musicians: Andy Brown

About the Event

The flight conditions are excellent: clear skies, no crosswinds, and unlimited visibility. When Captain, Bob Mersereau fires up the engines and prepares for take off, we know we’re in capable hands.

“We’ll be cruising at an altitude of 50-thousand watts,” he declares, as he aims the nose of our jumbo jet skyward. As the wheels rumble down the runway, everyone talks excitedly. The flight is at capacity – we left some frustrated poetry-lovers at the gate; the flight is full.

And then, that thrilling moment arrives – the moment when gravity is defied and against what would seem to be insurmountable odds, we leave terra firma.

The cabin erupts into applause for Captain Bob – and “The Alden Nowlan,” named for New Brunswick’s best-loved poet – is airborne. The drinks come out and the lights are dimmed. A hush falls over the cabin as poet Stephanie Yorke steps onto the flight deck. She leaps into her poem – called “Diving” – and the magic begins.

Next, Shane Neilson describes, with an aching eloquence, “Touching Down at the Fredericton Airport;” Vanessa Moeller displays “Abandoned Postcards Found in Room 464;” Biff Mitchell howls his way through the dystopian “Broken Wing;” and the ethereal Nela Rio brings it all home “Between the Silence.”

The drinks are flowing; applause is so loud at times it feels as if we might break the sound barrier. Ballots are passed around and the voting begins. Our-flight entertainment is a shaggy-haired young troubadour by the name of Andy Brown. The poeticism of his acoustic guitar and heartfelt songs provide the perfect backdrop to our deliberations.

Captain Bob comes back on the loudspeaker to announce our winner. As our plane prepares to touch down at the Fredericton airport, Shane Neilson takes the prize for his haunting poem of the same name.

We glide down smoothly; gather our coats and bags, and begin to disembark. It was a spectacular flight.

Vanessa MoellerVanessa Moeller grew up on a ranch outside of Sussex, New Brunswick. She completed her MA in creative writing at the University of New Brunswick in 2007. Her first poetry collection, Sane Love’s Realm, will be published by Signature Editions in 2009. Her work has appeared in The Fiddlehead, Pottersfield Portfolio, The Antigonish Review, CV2 and was awarded the WFNS’s Poetry Prize, UNB’s Bliss Carmen Poetry Prize and the Sir Charles G.D. Roberts Memorial Prize for fiction.

Stephanie YorkeStephanie Yorke has been living and writing in Fredericton for six years. Originally from Truro, Nova Scotia, she has published poems in The Fiddlehead, Grain, Prairie Fire and PRISM International, and has had three short plays produced by New Brunswick’s NotaBle Acts Theatre Company.

Nela RioArgentinian-born, Fredericton-based Nela Rio is a retired professor from St. Thomas University. Her eight books, some published in both Spanish and English, have been finalists for 13 international literary awards, and her work has been included in major critical anthologies, as well as in university courses in Canada and USA. Her most recent book is Aquella luz, la que estremece/The Light that Makes Us Tremble.

Biff MitchellBiff Mitchell, author of The War Bug (2005) and Murder by Burger (2008) lives in a hovel at the edge of the world. He has no life. He has no friends. Neighborhood children throw stones at his hovel. At night, Biff throws stones at his hovel. Someday Biff plans to write a book about a man who lives in a hovel that is stoned daily by neighborhood children who - through some magical twist of events - turn into snowmen. When Spring arrives, the man's house melts.

Shane NeilsonShane Neilson published his first book of poems, Exterminate My Heart, with Frog Hollow Press in 2008. His first trade book of poetry, Meniscus, will be published with Biblioasis in 2009. A memoir of his experiences as a physician, much of it published in the New Brunswick Reader, was published by Pottersfield Press in 2006. He was born in Oromocto and attended the University of New Brunswick before completing medical school at Dalhousie University.