For Adults
Settle in for an evening of conversation and poetry with authors Susan Wismer and Melinda Burns. The poets will discuss their newest collections - Hag Dances and Homecoming - and share selected readings, offering insight into their creative processes and themes. The discussion will be moderated by author Tanis MacDonald and will leave space for reflection and audience connection. Books will be available for purchase, and a signing with the authors will take place following the event.
Presented in partnership with Words Worth Books.
To change and heal takes great courage. To reconcile is to truly face yourself and ask the questions: Why am I angry, shameful, hateful and prejudiced? Why does fear have control of me so profoundly? Why is it so easy to move to prejudice, to be manipulative, to think of myself as better than? Susan Wismer’s new collection of astounding poetry reconciles identity and truth, if truth can even be found.
Susan Wismer is a queer poet, a mother, grandmother, gardener, dancer, hiker, singer and activist. Her poetry explores identity, truth, and relationships with the land that supports us; and reflects on her activism in projects inspired by the importance of community and artistic expression during challenging times. Hag Dances, was published by At Bay Press in 2025. Hand Shadows, a chapbook documenting a collaborative project started during the pandemic, was published by Wintergreen Press in 2024. Recent poems have been published in Prism International, Pinhole Poetry and Filling Station. Susan lives in Collingwood.
The poems in Homecoming are grouped according to the directions of the Medicine Wheel: East for Beginnings, South for Innocence, West for Going Within, North for Elder / Wisdom, and the Centre for the Creator and the Great Mystery. Each section reflects both the universal human journey of growth and learning, and the author’s personal experiences—spanning childhood, marriage, divorce, parenthood, and her parents’ aging. The poems also explore her journey to reclaim and celebrate her Native heritage.
Melinda Burns is a status member of the Lower Mohawk First Nation. She is the daughter of a Mohawk mother and an English father. Her short stories have placed first in the 2001 Toronto Star Short Story contest and in the 2006 Elora Writers’ Festival contest. Her essay, Legacy, was a finalist in the 2023 Prism International Creative Non-fiction contest. Her stories, essays, and poems have appeared in the New Quarterly, Grain, The Fiddlehead, Canadian Notes and Queries, Native Skin, and One Art.
Melinda lives in Guelph, Ontario. She writes to try to understand this life without destroying the mystery; to excavate, untangle, set free.
Tanis MacDonald is the author of eight books and editor of many others. Her fifth book of poetry, Tall, Grass, Girl, in forthcoming in October with Book*hug Press. She has taught and mentored a generation of poets from across the country.
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Staff: Nancy
Located at the RIM Park Manulife Sportsplex, the Eastside Branch boasts specialized creative spaces, quiet study areas, a nature education space and lots of natural light.
