April marks both National Poetry Month and Young Poets Week in Canada, and throughout the month, events and readings will be held across the country in celebration. This year the League of Canadian Poets (LCP) has partnered with PLR to celebrate and support the rights of authors to receive payment for free public use of their works in libraries. Poetry readings will take place in over 50 libraries from coast to coast. Cultivate Canadian poetry in your community. Nurture creators and free access to their work. Foster the love of poetry at your local library!

During Young Poets Week, the LCP celebrates the work of young poets in Canada. From April 10 – 16, 2011, exciting youth poetry projects and initiatives will take place across the country and online. The LCP’s youth website, www.youngpoets.ca, will be offering tips to teachers and educators throughout Young Poets’ Week to help them get their students enthused about poetry and the spoken word. Youth will also have a chance to have their poetry critiqued by established mentors online. Throughout April, the LCP will also offer the opportunity for students to meet, listen and converse with renowned poets who will visit Ontario classrooms.

The 2011 winners of the Jessamy Stursberg Poetry Contest for Youth will be announced during Young Poets’ Week. Look for an announcement on the www.youngpoets.ca website, and for the winning poems to appear in the April issue of Re:Verse, the LCP’s bilingual online e-zine.

This year’s entries were truly remarkable, and the LCP would like to thank the judges for both the Senior Category: Cheryl Antao-Xavier, Jennifer Boire and James Dewar and the Junior Category: Vivian Hansen and Maxianne Berger for their hard work on the juries.

For more information, please contact:

Ingel Madrus | readings@poets.ca