Join me on Tuesday, April 25th at 5:45 pm, in the Southern Cross Lounge at the Tranzac Club in Toronto for Minstrels and Bards. Hosted by Brenda Clews, Minstrels and Bards is a quarterly Soirée celebrating writing and music. For Spring 2023, Beatriz Hausner and I will be the featured poets, along with featured musicians …
On April 15, 2023, from 2:00 to 4:00 pm, please join me at the Toronto Public Library’s Main Street Branch (137 Main Street, Toronto) for “Spring into Poetry.” The event is free and will take place in the Basement Community Room, which is wheelchair and walker accessible by elevator. This event is presented by the …
Join me at the Main Street Library for “Spring into Poetry” Read More »
Great news! I’m today’s feature on the Eh Poetry Podcast! Hosted by Jason E. Coombs, the Eh Poetry Podcast provides: A space to listen to poetry like you listen to your favourite music, on repeat! We feature poetry from poets who call Canada home with the goal of exposing it to the world, while giving …
Please join me for the second evening in an ongoing series, Lost Launches, at 7pm, April 26, 2022, at the Art Bar (Clinton’s, 693 Bloor W, Toronto). In my role as Toronto’s Poet Laureate, I am proud to help launch books of poetry whose proper entrance into the world was stymied by the Covid-19 crisis. …
In celebration of National Poetry Month, please join me for an evening of readings by Poet Laureates across Ontario! Time & location Apr 21, 7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. EDT Virtual on Zoom About the event Use the following link to join the Zoom meeting at the time of the event: Launch Zoom meeting List …
Wonderful news! As Far As You Know is among this year’s five finalists for the Trillium Book Award in English, awarded by Ontario Creates. I am proud to share the honour with Craig Davidson, Farzana Doctor, Emma Donoghue and Souvankham Thammavongsa. Congratulations, as well, to all the nominees in the poetry category and the French …
As Far As You Know is a 2021 Finalist for the Trillium Book Award Read More »
Gordon Hill Press will be publishing my next book in April. The Garden is comprised of a long-form poem, “The Garden in the Midst,” and an essay, “The Poet’s Garden.” I originally composed the work in response to the 1992 L.A. Riots and set it aside for some time. In 2020, with the police murder …
Register now for the opportunity to ZOOM in on one of the hottest tickets in ANY town: the Eden Mills Writers’ Festival virtual event: Hot Nights. Cool Poets. On August 28th, starting at 8pm, I will appear with a SCORE of talented poets on a zoom event hosted by EMWF. Details Below. EMWF Showcase: Hot Nights. …
Eden Mills Writers’ Festival: Hot Nights. Cool Poets. REGISTER NOW Read More »
My son, Blaise Moritz, and daughter-in-law, Roseanne Carrara, have a trio of paired drawings and poems entitled “‘Til Now” in the second issue of The Quarantine Review, a new magazine created by Sheeza Sarfraz and J.J. Dupuis and published by Dundurn Press. Moritz and Carrara’s collaboration appears alongside the work of Teri Vlassopoulos, Teresa Mason …
Today, my poem, Thoughts in Time of Plague, appears on the cover of the print edition of theToronto Star. The Star’s Books Editor, Deborah Dundas, also provides details of how I came to compose the poem during the pandemic. You can read both the interview and the poem and watch a video of my reading …
“Thoughts in Time of Plague” in the Toronto Star Read More »
My poem, “Faith in Hell” appeared in the November 18th, 2019 Toronto Star on the occasion of Margaret Atwood’s 80th birthday. Read it on The Star, or below. Faith in Hell for Margaret Atwood,seer of hells, earths, and heavens,on her 80th birthday They lost faith in hell, which certainlyis a myth. For there is nowherethat …
On Tuesday, October 8, I represented the City of Toronto in the Seventh Annual “Poetry at the Manor” event in Windsor. There, I had the pleasure of reading poetry at Windsor’s Willistead Manor along with fellow Poets Laureate Steven Ross Smith (Banff), Victoria Butler (Barrie), Micheline Maylor (Calgary) and Windsor’s Youth Poet Laureate Samantha Badaoa. …
On Monday, September 23rd, at 6:00pm, I will take part in a presentation and reading hosted by the Medical Staff Association Book Club at Toronto’s Hospital For Sick Children. “An Evening with Toronto’s Poet Laureate, A.F. Moritz” will take place in the Gallery of the Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning at the corner …
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Please join me at The City of Toronto’s commemoration of the Danforth Tragedy on Sunday, July 21, at 1:30 pm in Withrow Park (725 Logan Ave). This solemn ceremony acknowledges those who lost their lives and those who were injured during the July 22, 2018 shooting on Danforth Ave. The event will include the reading …
In April, I was honoured to write and read a poem for the one-year memorial (23 April 2019) of the Yonge Street tragedy. And The Toronto Star very kindly reprinted the poem. Two months from the memorial, and 14 months from the tragedy, I have included both my preparatory remarks and the full text of …
In a few short months, I became Toronto’s poet laureate and launched my Art of Surgery chapbook with Vallum. Steven Beatty documents this great change in an interview in Quill & Quire: “A.F. Moritz on being poet laureate, his new chapbook, and the ‘glory and tragedy of being human.’” Read it now online.
In my role as Poet Laureate, I received a commission to write a poem for the 60th anniversary of Redpath Sugar’s residency on Toronto’s waterfront, to be read at Doors Open Toronto. While my poem, “The Current of the Sugar,” was dropped from the roster of the event, the poem will be considered for inclusion …
Come for the words and the wine! Common Readings is a reading series hosted and curated by Toronto poet Daniel Kincade Renton with support from the Common Readings Collective. Join me on Monday, July 23rd as I read from The Sparrow and from new work along with friends and fellow poets Nyla Matuk and Jeff Latosik. …
Come for the Words and the Wine! July 23rd Common Reading Series! Read More »
And yet it was this sense of poetry as a type of thinking that drew me to A Houseboat on the Styx and solidified my decision to devote the bulk of my literary activities to poetry. It seemed necessary to disavow all that my early life had been built on, but I had an awareness that doing …
On Sunday, May 24, from 6:00 – 8:00pm, I will be reading with Catherine Graham and Ian Burgham at the Windup Bird Café [382 College Street, Toronto]. At this celebration of all things Scottish, all three poets will be reading work inspired by Scotland or written by Scottish poets. Preceding the readings, the café will …
An Evening of All Things Scottish at the Windup Bird Café Read More »
Along with fellow Anansi poets Erin Mouré and Karen Solie, I took part in a special Poetry Month Q&A for Open Book Toronto. You can find that interview here: Poetry Month Special: Talking with Anansi Poets A.F. Moritz, Erin Mouré and Karen Solie.
I’ll be reading with Patrick Friesen and Stan Rogal at the Art Bar Poetry Series next Tuesday, April 28, 8pm, at the Black Swan Tavern, 154 Danforth in Toronto. Come one, come all!
As part of their celebration of National Poetry Month, CBC Books hosted a “Quickie Couplet Contest” on April 7th. Followers on Twitter and Facebook were invited to complete couplets whose first lines were provided by eleven Canadian poets. I was lucky enough to be one of those eleven poets. Here’s my couplet! How would you …
To celebrate National Poetry Month and the launch of my collection, Sequence, I took part in the CBC’s Magic 8 series of interviews. I had the pleasure of responding to questions posed by the following writers: Lynn Coady, J.B. McKinnon, David McGimpsey, Johanna Skibsrud, Kim Thùy, Alan Bradley, Charlotte Gray, and Shani Mootoo. Read the full article, …
My new book of poems, Sequence, is now in print! Order the Book from Anansi now! Or, join me at the Toronto and Ottawa launches and purchase your copy in person! Sequence Anansi, April 9, 2015 from the publisher In Sequence, the reader accompanies the poet step after step and breath after breath through a haunting and …
I’ll be launching my new book, Sequence, at the Anansi Poetry Bash in Toronto on April 15 and in Ottawa/Quebec on April 16. These are free events. Please come out and celebrate!!! TORONTO April 15, 2015, 7pm, free Tranzac, 292 Brunswick, Toronto, ON Readings by Shane Book, A.F. Moritz, Erin Moure, Karen Solie, and David …
Anansi Poetry Bash 2015: Toronto and Ottawa Dates Read More »
Quill & Quire has given Sequence, my forthcoming book from Anansi, a starred review. Of the book, Candace Fertile writes: The contemporary long poem as conceived by Moritz includes several aspects: epic, lyric, collage, montage, narrative, and meditation. The title suggests movement, and the poem is all about movement, both physical and emotional, although the overall …
On March 25, I will be reading with my student, Nicole Grimaldi, at this year’s Creative Writing Gala, showcasing students and mentors in the University of Toronto’s MA in the Field of Creative Writing. We will be joined by Charles Foran and his student Liz Windhorst Harmer. The Department of English will also announce the winner of the …
Welcome to the site. Please be sure to check out the Books Page and its three subsections: Forthcoming, In Print, and Out of Print/Special Order. Over the next few months, I’ll be adding more content to this and other sections of the site. Look for archival reviews, audio and video recordings, an extended bibliography and a …
Sequence has been featured on CBC’s Canlit 2015: 15 poetry collections to look for in 2015! Here’s what the CBC had to say about Sequence: The 19th poetry title by the former Griffin Poetry Prize winner and one of the country’s most revered living poets, Sequence offers a haunting world of intense observation. Built as one long poem, …
My next book of poems, Sequence, will be published by Anansi on April 9, 2015. The Anansi Bash nights will take place in Toronto and Ottawa during the following week, on April 15 and 16, respectively. Exact times and venues are to follow. Please keep checking the Events Page for more details about these launches and about …
The Tradition has been chosen one of the first group of books to be offered in a print-on-demand edition in Princeton University Press‘s new Princeton Legacy Series, a group of titles republished as print-on-demand from the press’s history back to 1906. Here’s a look at the original cover, from 1986: And here’s a link to the …