We all know and love deadlines, don’t we? Sure, but deep down we hate and/or depend on them. If it weren’t for deadlines, nobody would get published, nothing would be built, there would be no civilization, and the planet would be a mound of lazy humans, all lamenting the time they could have made something happen, if only they’d had more time.

As a breed, writers are all too familiar with deadlines. As a sub-breed of writers, poets are notoriously indifferent to deadlines and enjoy watching them slip by, often excusing themselves with abstract cop-outs like “muses” and “inspiration”.

Of course, that’s not you. Not at all. You’re on top of it, as you should be. And by “on top of it”, I mean “struggling”.

In any case, fair E-Ville poets/poetesses, regard the following Edmonton Poetry festival deadlines:

  1. April 8, 2012 – This is the deadline for event signup. You have your choice of three events: The ever-riotous Blinks in the Heart, the quiet hermitage of Breathe, and of course the populist Cafe Readings. You should sign up, as proof that you have vanquished the dreaded deadline.
  2. April 10, 2012 – This is the deadline for applications for the Master Class with John Steffler. One must apply to be a part of this exclusive workshop. See the event page for details.

I leave you with the following passage from the late Adrienne Rich:

And To say: no person, trying to take responsibility for her or his identity, should have to be so alone. There must be those among whom we can sit down and weep, and still be counted as warriors. (I make up this strange, angry packet for you, threaded with love.)
I think you thought there was no such place for you, and perhaps there was none then, and perhaps there is none now; but we will have to make it, we who want an end to suffering, who want to change the laws of history, if we are not to give ourselves away.

― Adrienne Rich