The 18th year of the Olive Reading Series saw us try something new. When we fist started, we were the young upstarts doing something different. We are no longer the young upstarts, we're now the middle-aged-both-hands-on-the-wheel-holding steady-starts. It was time for a change, time to recapture some of that youthful energy, time to give back a little bit so we changed our format. Instead of having just one poet read for two 15 minutes sets, we added a second reader. We also opened it up to genres other than poetry. This year in addition to poets, we had speculative fiction writers, essayist, and straight up prose writers read. We also were very deliberate in pairing an established writer with an emerging writer.
The results were amazing! If you didn't get a chance to come to a reading and get a free chapbook, here are the cover images for you to check out. I'll be posting a new one every week or so between now and September when when year 19 starts. If you're in Edmonton, you should really think about coming out to see a reading. You won't be disappointed!
