The July edition of the Dead Poets Reading Series will feature these amazing poets:
Lauren Peat reading Marie Uguay (1955–1981)
Shashi Bhat reading Veda Vyasa (1475 BCE – c.1525 BCE)
Nate Nate Nainers reading bpNichol (1944-1988)
Christina Shah reading Idea Vilariño (1920 - 2009)
Date/Time: July 13th, 3:00pm – 4:45pm
Location: Outsiders and Others (#100 – 938 Howe Street, Vancouver).
This is a masks-required event to keep things as safe as possible for everyone.
Reader Bios
Lauren Peat's debut poetry chapbook, Future Tense, was published by Baseline Press in 2024. Her poems, essays, and translations from French have appeared in Arc Poetry Magazine, Only Poems, The Ex-Puritan, The New Quarterly, The Malahat Review, and World Literature Today, among other places. Her many collaborations with composers are also featured in the repertoire of acclaimed vocal ensembles across North America. Translation Editor of the online poetry magazine Volume, she lives in Vancouver, Canada.
Shashi Bhat is the author of the story collection Death by a Thousand Cuts (McClelland & Stewart), and the novels The Most Precious Substance on Earth (McClelland & Stewart, Grand Central), and The Family Took Shape (Cormorant). Her fiction received the Writers’ Trust/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize and has been a finalist for the Governor General's Award for fiction, the Danuta Gleed Award, the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, the National Magazine Award for fiction, and others, and was longlisted for the Giller Prize. Shashi’s work has appeared in such publications as Hazlitt, The Fiddlehead, The Malahat Review, and Best Canadian Stories. She is the editor-in-chief of EVENT magazine and teaches creative writing at Douglas College.
Nate Nate Nainers has been an active poet, storyteller, and community organizer in the Lower Mainland since 2015. In 2024 they competed at the Vancouver Story Slam Championship at the Vogue Theatre and placed 3rd. They have performed at spaces such as Arts in the Garden, Massy Gallery, and Clown Smut Cabaretta. They have co-produced Parade of Lost Souls (2018), founded a collective of joyfully roving and CDC abiding wizards (2021), a silly hat-themed croquet league (2019), and ran many cabarets and open-mics. They live and write on the unceded territories of the Kwikwetlem and Katzie First Nations (Port Coquitlam, BC).
Christina Shah lives in New Westminster and works in heavy industry. Her work was shortlisted for 2021’s Ralph Gustafson Prize and selected for Best Canadian Poetry 2023. rig veda was her first videopoem and chapbook (Anstruther, 2023). if: prey, then: huntress (Nightwood, Fall 2025) is her first full-length collection.
Dead Poets Bios
Marie Uguay (1955–1981) was born in Montréal. Though little known outside Québec, she is considered a “shooting star” within the history of Québécois poetry.
Veda Vyasa (~1475 BCE – c.1525 BCE), also known as Krishna Dvaipayana, was a legendary Indian sage, credited with compiling the Vedas, the Mahabharata epic, and the Puranas. He is revered as a major figure in Hindu tradition, particularly for his role in organizing and preserving ancient knowledge. Vyasa was the son of a sage and a fisherwoman, and grew up in forests, living with hermits who taught him the ancient sacred literature of India.
bpNichol (1944-1988) gained international attention for his work in concrete poetry, and sound poetry - notably with the poetry group, The Four Horsemen - and co-founded Ganglia Press and gROnk in the mid 60's. In 1970 he won the Governor General's Award, and in 1972 he started his most known work, Martyrology, an open-ended, life long poem. In 1986 the bpNichol Chapbook Award was founded by the Phoenix Community Works Foundation. From 1984-1987 he wrote for the beloved CBC children's show, Fraggle Rock. He was born on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and the Tsleil-Waututh First Nations (Vancouver, BC).
Idea Vilariño Romani (1920-2009) was born in 1920 in Montevideo, Uruguay. She was a poet, essayist, professor, translator, lyricist and literary critic, and is considered to be one of the key figures in 20th century Latin American literature. Vilariño belonged to the group of intellectuals known as ‘Generación del 45’ who became prominent between 1945 and 1950. Author of twelve books of poetry, she received several literary awards. She was a celebrated translator of Shakespeare into Spanish. She died in Montevideo in 2009.
