Wild Writers Poetry Salon

Two great features and 10 spots on the open mic! $5 admission includes light bites and great ambiance. This month's Wild Writers will be guest-hosted by Brenda Clews, poet and visual artist extrodinaire, and host of "Minstrels and Bards" at the Transac. Feature poets are Lea Harper and Mugabi Byenka. Bios below:

Poet, novelist, and songwriter, Lea Harper is the author of two collections of poetry All That Saves Us and Shadow Crossing (Black Moss Press) and four recordings, most recently, Lake of Many Winds, a spoken word CD with soundscapes. She is currently collaborating with the poetry/jazz ensemble, Alchemy, on performance and production. Ms. Harper's work has been widely published in notable literary journals and anthologies such as Descant, CV2, Vallum and the Literary Review of Canada. A past recipient of The LaPointe Prize and double-winner of The People’s Political Poem contest, she was also shortlisted for the international Being at Work Poetry Challenge and runner-up in the Surrey International Writers Conference Contest. Daniel Richler described her first book as "universal, transcending today's popular psychic symbols and mythologies." She has received grants from both the Canada Council and Ontario Arts Council for her writing and music. Lea lives on a lake in the Haliburton Highlands, north of Toronto where she is completing a third book of poems and her first novel.

Mugabi Byenkya is a writer, poet and occasional rapper. He was born in Nigeria, to Ugandan parents and is currently based between Kampala and Toronto. Mugabi was longlisted for the Babishai Niwe Poetry Award in 2015. His essays and poetry have been published in The Good Men Project, African Writer, Arts and Africa and The Kalahari Review, among others. He has been interviewed on Voice of America, NTV Uganda, and Brittle Paper, among other media outlets. Mugabi's writing is used to teach international high school English reading comprehension. His debut experimental epistolary novel, ‘Dear Philomena,’ was published in 2017 and he recently concluded a 42 city, 4 country North America/East Africa tour in support of this. In 2018, Mugabi was named one of 56 writers who has contributed to his native Uganda’s literary heritage since independence by Writivism. Dear Philomena, was named a Ugandan bestseller in the same year.