Who We Are

Featured Readers

Featured readers at Tree are mostly Canadian poets whose work has been published in book form, although short story writers, playwrights and novelists sometimes appear at Tree. These writers help expose new and aspiring local writers, as well as the wider literary community and general public, to current themes and trends in Canadian literature. This fosters an appreciation and understanding of the works of modern Canadian writers while establishing a high artistic standard to which developing writers can aspire.

Who’s Who at Tree

The Tree Reading Series is run by a volunteer executive of three artistic directors, and is overseen by an advisory board.

Co-Artistic Directors

Carol A. Stephen

Also Tree’s treasurer, Carol A. Stephen holds a Credit Professional designation, bringing 35 years’ experience in credit and accounting at TD Bank and Mitel to the series. She’s on the boards of CAA-NCR and Arts Carleton Place, is Ottawa Branch Manager for The Ontario Poetry Society, a selector for Bywords, and a member of the League of Canadian Poets. In August, 2012, Carol was one of Tree’s Hot Ottawa Voices. Her poetry appears in a number of anthologies and collaborative chapbooks, and she has two chapbooks of her own, Above the Hum of Yellow Jackets (2011) and Architectural Variations (2012). She won 3rd Prize in the CAA 2012 National Capital Writing Contest and was a finalist in the VERSeFest, Poetry for the End of the World contest. 

Deanna Young

Deanna Young is the author of two books of poetry, The Still Before a Storm (Moonstone Press, 1984) and Drunkard’s Path (Gaspereau Press, 2001). A new collection will be published by Brick Books in 2014. Deanna has worked as a high school English teacher and creative writing instructor, and, most recently, as Web Editor of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. From 2007 to 2009 she served on the editorial board of Arc Poetry Magazine.

Margaret Zielinski 

Born in Scotland and educated there as well as in England and Canada, Margaret Malloch Zielinski now lives in Ottawa. She was a teacher for many years before retiring to write.  She has received grants from the Banff School of Fine Arts, the Sagehill Writing Workshop and the City of Ottawa. Her work has been widely published in literary journals and anthologies including Soundings (Buschek Books), The Antigonish Review, Bywords, Contemporary Verse 2, The Dalhousie Review, Geist, Ojo del Lago, Quills and Room.  She has published a chapbook, Driftwood, and, together with five other poets, Whistle for Jellyfish (Bookland Press, 2011).

Administrative Assistant

David Currie provides administrative assistance to Tree. He also runs Ottawa’s In/Words reading series.