The Poet Laureate of Castlegar, B.C.

How an unemployed man tried to become the official poet of a small Canadian town.

Two years ago, I began my journey to become the Poet Laureate of my hometown of Castlegar, British Columbia.

Not only did it go surprisingly well, but I also made a short film about it.

The inspiration

In May of 2021, after over a year without full-time work, I watched the Ken Burns and Lynn Novick documentary about Ernest Hemingway.

When I finished the doc, I had a very profound thought — “I’m kind of like the Ernest Hemingway of Castlegar.”

But, there’s no way to quantify or know that for sure.

My mind then turned to the role of “poet laureate,” the only literary position that would give me an indisputable title.

From that moment on, my goal was in front of me.

I was to become the Poet Laureate of Castlegar, B.C.

How did I do it?

Up until that point, I was only a writer with experience in journalism and a few published humour pieces.

This is what I call “demonstrably not a poet.”

The last poems I could remember writing were for high school English class and, before that, for my Grade 6 Remembrance Day assembly — where my poem made a woman cry.

But that does not a poet make. I needed to have a book.

I needed my Leaves of Grass, Lunch Poems, or Ariel.

So, I got writing.

In about a month, I wrote over 60 poems and compiled them into a collection which I eventually titled Convergence.

I sent Convergence to writers, professional poets and my former English professor and only got rave reviews back.

Along with this, I began to garner public and administrative momemtum.

I applied to appear as a delegation before Castlegar City Council and crafted a slideshow presentation pleading my case, drawing on my personal connection to Castlegar, my critically lauded book of poems and the fact that I’d do it for free.

It soon became clear that I couldn’t get true public support from Castlegar if I was nearly 4,000 KM away, even with a highly successful online petition.

After all, how can you become the poet laureate of a town you aren’t even in?

So, I bought a one-way flight from Toronto to Castlegar.

And when I touched down in my hometown, I realized a germ of an idea could have the power to change an entire city of 9,000.

What happened?

A lot.

Matter of fact, so much happened that I shot the entire process and made it into a short film.

This means if you want to know how this went down, you’ll have to watch it.

Sorry, but you just got advertised to!

The film

Entitled Poet Laureate, my short about this whole experience will be playing in Toronto at The Pilot (22 Cumberland St) on April 27 at 8 p.m. as part of the Bleeding Edge film collective.

Bleeding Edge plays a lot of great movies (I was a patron before they decided to show my film) and this night is no exception. There will be five other short films playing and all are guaranteed to entertain, titillate and engage the mind.

It’s ‘pay what you can’ so if you’re in Toronto and free that night. you have zero excuses not to go.

An added bonus is that I’ll be there so you can finally beat my ass for wasting your time with this newsletter.

That being said, if you can’t make it for some bullshit reason like “April 27 is the night that I will be prosecuting a murder trial” — don’t worry.

Poet Laureate will soon be available online.

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