Richard-Yves Sitoski
Richard-Yves Sitoski is a songwriter, performance poet, and the 2019-2023 Poet Laureate of Owen Sound, Ontario. He is also the Artistic Director of the Words Aloud festival. He is part of the performance poetry duo O P E N Sound with croc E moses, makes politically charged sound poetry with the Noises ON Collective, and explores the history of Grey County in story, song, and verse with the Métissage Collective. He regularly collaborates with Grey Bruce Pride, SHEATRE and the M'Wikwedong Indigenous Friendship Centre.
Most recently, with Penn Kemp he co-edited Poems in Response to Peril, an anthology of poems in support of Ukraine. Proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to PEN Ukraine. See this site for details. His latest book, No Sleep ‘til Eden (Ginger Press) is an augmented reality multimedia collection of poems on the environment. His poems have appeared, or are forthcoming, in many journals, including The Fiddlehead, Prairie Fire, The Maynard, Barren Magazine, Bywords.ca, in the League of Canadian Poets' Poetry Pause, and as part of Brick Books' Brickyard spoken word video series. In 2018 he was a finalist in the International Songwriting Competition. He is a 2021 Best of the Net nominee for his poem, "The Limping Fox" and won the 2021 John Newlove award for his poem "Air Kiss". His chapbook, How to Be Human, is forthcoming from Bywords.ca.
He has given performances in industrial ruins. has read poems to earth worms, and has written verse on snow with biodegradable dye. As a side hustle he is a translator for an aerospace firm. He came within 8 years of a PhD in Classical Studies. As Owen Sound Poet Laureate he runs the monthly Oh!Sound Reading Series and Open Mic featuring A-list headline performers, conducts workshops, and works with community groups and the Owen Sound and North Grey Union Public Library. With his wife Mary he is part of the folk duo Deep Blue Honey, where he makes sounds on guitars that haven’t been heard since the Cretaceous. His cat is thoroughly impossible.
Related Events
