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 occasionally 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 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 board of directors.

Stephen Brockwell started writing poetry in the eighties in Montreal. After moving to Ottawa to pursue graduate studies in Math and English, he edited The Rideau Review and poetics.ca (with rob mclennan, Anita Dolman, and Roland Prevost). He's written six books of poetry. Fruitfly Geographic (ECW, 2004) and All of Us Reticent, Here, Together (Mansfield, 2016) won the Archibald Lampman Award.

Avonlea Fotheringham is an Ottawa poet, publisher, organizer, and former co-editor of In/Words Magazine and Press. She competed with Capital Slam to place in semi-finals at the 2014 Canadian Festival of Spoken Word, and has performed in Ottawa, Toronto, Guelph, and Victoria. Her work has been published by (parenthetical), Ottawater, Bad Dog, phafours press and others. In 2015, she joined Verse Ottawa as Festival Administrator of VerseFest, and founded her poetry micropress, Hussy.

Joshua Heymans

Ben Ladouceur (Artistic Director) is the author of two poetry collections, Otter (2015) and Mad Long Emotion (2019), both published by Coach House Books. He has received several awards for his writing, most recently the 2018 Writers’ Trust of Canada Dayne Ogilvie Award for Emerging LGBT Writers. He has served as an editorial board member for In/Words Magazine and Arc Poetry Magazine, and as a columnist for Open Book. He has read at Tree’s open mike many times since first doing so in 2009 and is thrilled to be a member of the team today.

Scott Lemoine (Treasurer) is a writer and performer. He has appeared on Ottawa stages with Zucchini Productions’ Confidential Musical Theatre Project (Big Jule in Guys and Dolls) and Capital Cabarets: Bring on the Men, and in indie women’s production of A Man of No Importance. Scott was a regional semifinalist in CBC’s 2014 Searchlight competition with a song from his EP adolescence. He holds a Bachelor of Humanities degree and an MA (International Affairs) from Carleton University and works for the administration of the House of Commons.

Jennifer Pederson is an Ottawa poet, musician, and grandmother. Formerly the director of the Sawdust Reading Series, her poetry has appeared in the anthology the bird philomela (battleaxe press), in in/words magazine, and in a variety of other publications as well as online at newpoetry.com and bywords.ca. Her work as a session vocalist and commercial composer has been featured internationally from Ottawa to Dubai. Her first solo album White Chalk was released in August, 2018.

Helen Robertson (Secretary)