April is Poetry Month in Canada, a time to celebrate local poets and connect with the literary community through readings, workshops, open mics, community meet-ups, and the quiet, personal experience of reading a poem. Across British Columbia, festivals, libraries, and arts centres, both in big cities and small communities, host intimate events that foreground local voices and make poetry feel rooted in place. These gatherings are vital for keeping literary communities connected, bringing writers and readers together, and creating opportunities for emerging poets to be heard, often for the very first time.
Read on to discover where to find poetry in British Columbia, whether in an event, a book collection or magazine, or on your daily bus ride to work.
30 Years of Poetry in Transit
For many people, their introduction to contemporary B.C. poetry can happen mid‑commute.
One of the most visible reminders that poetry belongs to everyday life is Poetry in Transit. A longstanding collaboration between Books BC and Translink, Poetry in Transit has been connecting B.C. riders with poetry since 1996. Inspired by the New York Poetry in Motion project, the program became the first of its kind in Canada and has since become a model for other cities.
The campaign features 10 new poems each year authored by B.C. poets and published by Canadian publishers, carefully selected from a pool of 200 annual submissions by a jury of poets and a TransLink representative. The poems are displayed on TransLink buses in Vancouver for one year and on B.C. Transit buses throughout the province indefinitely from the following year. 500 bus cards are printed and circulated throughout the regional transit system, enabling millions of transit rides to discover the poems, and creating a direct line between local poets and public space. It’s a reminder that poetry doesn’t have to be precious or distant. It belongs in the real life that it’s inspired by.
The 2026/27 edition of Poetry in Transit is closing submissions on April 16. Riders can participate in the Poetry In Transit Contest, which will open again in September 2026. Read more about how to get involved on their website.
B.C. Magazines That Publish Poetry
British Columbia’s magazine publishing industry champions local voices, including poetry, offering essential platforms for both emerging and established authors. From longstanding-publications that helped shape the local contemporary poetry landscape, to magazines that push the boundary between poetry, essay, and cultural criticism, to launching pads for genre-bending and cross-cultural work, these magazines form a vital ecosystem that keeps poetry visible, relevant, and connected. Discover local magazines that publish poetry:
- EVENT
- Geist
- subTerrain
- The Malahat Review
- Room
- The Capilano Review
- PRISM international
- Rungh
- PULP Literature
- Comox Valley Collective
- Ricepaper Magazine
- BAZOOF! (children’s poetry)
B.C. Poetry Collections
Whether published by small presses or larger houses, local authors’ poetry collections capture the range of voices working in the province today, from experimental and visual poetry to deeply narrative work grounded in landscape and lived experience. For those unfamiliar with local poetry, here are a few select picks of recent publications. Spanning themes of identity, voice, and transformation, these books reflect how inner and outer landscapes evolve over time.
hiking beyond by bronwyn preece, Caitlin Press
A collection of poetry written wearing muddy boots, in wet tents and with frozen fingers, bronwyn preece’s hiking beyond is a collection steeped in the messiness of being alive. With reverence for geology, ornithology, botany, history and all that resists easy categorization, preece captures the soundbites, questions and quiet revelations of solo backcountry travel.
if: prey, then: huntress: poems by Christina Shah, Nightwood Editions
From a poet working in heavy industry comes an eclectic collection of observations and experiences as a woman on the road and out in the field in traditionally male-dominated environments. This collection is an exploration of vulnerability, agency, and existential homelessness, replete with portraits of beer drinkers and hellraisers and urban landscapes. These poems illuminate the beauty and truth amid the concrete, the twisted metal, and the scraped knuckles.
Buzzkill Clamshell by Amber Dawn, Arsenal Pulp Press
As a novelist, memoirist, and poet, Amber Dawn regularly lays her heart bare in work that is fiery, raw, and intensely personal. In Buzzkill Clamshell, her third poetry collection, Amber Dawn circumvents the expectations of so-called confessional poetry, offering twisted mythmaking, extreme hyperbole, and lyrical gutter-mouthing that explore themes of sick and disabled queerness, aging, and desire.
The Idea of An Entire Life by Billy-Ray Belcourt, Penguin Random House Canada
In his latest poetry collection, Belcourt delivers an intimate examination of twenty-first-century anguish, love, queerness, and political possibility. Through lyric verse, sonnets, fieldnotes, and fragments, the poems, sometimes heart-breaking, sometimes slyly humorous, are always finely crafted, putting to use the autobiographical and philosophical style that has come to define Belcourt’s body of work. By its close, the collection makes the urgent argument that we are each our own little statues of grief and awe.
Check out ReadLocalBC to discover even more poetry by local authors.
Poetry Events in British Columbia
Poetry may belong to every day in British Columbia, but April always brings a surge of poetry events to communities across the province. From libraries and bookstores to arts spaces and virtual stages, here are just a few of the events you can attend this month and beyond:
- Poetry as Play: Cultivating Joy and Spaciousness with Ellie Sawatzky | Vancouver Public Library, April 20
- Empties by Neil Surkan Book Launch | Enabling Arts, April 22
- Famous Last Words Comedy Show | Death Rides a Unicorn Events, April 22
- Spring Poetry Party with Leesa Dean, Jamella Hagen and Lisa Richter | Upstart & Crow, April 23
- Oral Traditions 2026: International Indigenous Poetry Slam | Vancouver Poetry House, April 27
- Vancouver Poetry House’s Verses Festival of Words | April 27 to May 2
- An Evening with Eve Joseph and Patrick Friesen | Upstart & Crow, May 2
- Postcards from the Edge: Addressing Compassion Fatigue in Note Form | Upstart & Crow, May 5
- Twisted Poets Literary Salon | Pandora’s Collective, May 13
- Collective Words | Vancouver Poetry Collective, every third Wednesday of the month
- Lunch Poems | SFU Continuing Studies, every third Wednesday of the month
As April unfolds, it’s worth slowing down for a poem wherever you find it: on the bus, in a bookstore, inside a magazine, or at a local reading.
