The Poetry Extension. Bringing poets and dancers from Canada, Ireland, the UK, and the US together, one face-melting gig at a time. Our third event is online-only, and FREE. Join us here from 2 p.m. Toronto time (EST) and 7 p.m. UK time (GMT) Thursday December 8th, 2016 for live streaming of the event. We welcome all the megawatt poets below. (Photo courtesy modernmechanix.com)

Founder/Curator - Natalya Anderson is a writer and former ballet dancer from Toronto, Canada. She completed an MA in Creative Writing at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, England, and a Bachelor of Journalism at Ryerson University in Toronto. She won the 2014 Bridport Prize for her poem, 'Clear Recent History', and the poem was also highly commended at the 2015 Forward Prizes. Her poetry has appeared in or is due to appear in Poetry London, The Moth, The Emma Press Anthology of the Sea, The Forward Book of Poetry 2016, the 2015 Poetry Prize Anthology by Live Canon, and other publications. Natalya founded The Poetry Extension in the hopes that poets and dancers from different countries might open their networks and be more supportive of each other's projects.

Join us here from 2 p.m. Toronto time (EST) and 7 p.m. UK time (GMT) on Thursday December 8th, 2016 for live streaming of our third event. In the interim, above is a recording of our second event.

Born in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Vahni Capildeo has lived in the UK since 1991, where she has published several poetry collections, including Undraining Sea (2009), Dark & Unaccustomed Words (2012) – longlisted for the 2013 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature – and Utter (2013). Her most recent collection is Measures of Expatriation -- shortlisted for The 2016 Forward Prize for Best Collection -- in which her poetry examines expatriate alienation and identity in contemporary Western society.

Sophie Collins grew up in Bergen, North Holland, and now lives in Edinburgh. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Poetry (Chicago), Poetry London, The Scotsman, The White Review, Ploughshares, Poetic Series # 4 (Sternberg Press), and elsewhere. She received an Eric Gregory Award in 2014. Her first collection will be published by Penguin in 2017

Born in Nigeria in 1984, Inua Ellams is an internationally touring poet, playwright and performer. He has published three pamphlets of poetry: Candy Coated Unicorns and Converse All Stars, Thirteen Fairy Negro Tales and The Wire-Headed Heathen. His first play The 14th Tale was awarded a Fringe First at the Edinburgh International Theatre Festival. He is currently working on a new play, and a poetry pamphlet called #Afterhours.

SJ Fowler is a poet, artist and curator. He has published seven collections of poetry and been commissioned by Tate Modern, The British Council, Tate Britain, and is currently in residence at Wellcome Collection. He has been translated into 16 languages and performed at venues across the world, from Mexico City to Erbil, Iraq. He is the poetry editor of 3am magazine, Lecturer at Kingston University, teaches at Tate Modern, and is the curator of the Enemies project

Luke Kennard is the author of five collections of poetry. He won an Eric Gregory award in 2005 and was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection in 2007. He lectures at the University of Birmingham. In 2014 he was selected by the Poetry Book Society as one of the Next Generation Poets. His first novel, The Transition, is due from 4th Estate in spring 2017

Ireland's Victoria Kennefick won the Munster Literature Centre Fool for Poetry Chapbook Competition and the Saboteur Award for Best Poetry Pamphlet for White Whale (Southword Editions, 2015). Her poems have appeared in Poetry (Chicago), The Stinging Fly and New Irish Writing.

Amy Key’s debut collection is Luxe (Salt Publishing, 2013). Her poems have appeared in Poetry, The Poetry Review, The Quietus, and many other publications. She coedits the online journal Poems in Which.

Hoa Nguyen is the author of As Long As Trees Last, Red Juice, and Violet Energy Ingots (Wave Books). She teaches poetics at Ryerson University’s Chang School, as well as at Miami University’s MFA program and the Milton Avery School for Fine Arts at Bard College. She runs an acclaimed private workshop.

Damian Rogers grew up in Detroit and Chicago, and now lives in Toronto. She is poetry editor at House of Anansi Press and The Walrus. Her most recent collection is Dear Leader (Coach House Books). Her first book of poems, Paper Radio, was nominated for the Pat Lowther Memorial Award.