The Seventeen Syllable Slam is a literary comedy poetry competition where poets attempt to win over judges with their short poems. Each poem needs to have seventeen syllables or less (sort of like a haiku) and there will be sixteen poets in the competition, with the top four taking home cash prizes. The poems do not have to be funny, but the event certainly will be. Please expect a unicorn, bubbles, flags, and fur.
Location: HSBC Hall, UBC Robson Square
Type: Poetry, Competition
Moderator: Sean McGarragle
Readers: Amanda Eagleson | Catherine Lewis | Catie Frost | Chahat Gakhar | David Geary | Duncan Shields | Jenny Garcha | Kayla Price | Kyle Hawke | Leslie Stark | Mo the Poet | Nate Nate Nainers | Samantha Kennedy | Spillious the Ridiculous One | Steve Miller | Warren Dean Fulton
About The Host
Sean McGarragle
Sean is a poet, activist, academic and storyteller based out of Vancouver’s downtown eastside. He has organized over 500 literary and spoken word events across Canada and the US and has performed across North America and in Europe. He is the founder of the Vancouver International Poetry Festival (now entitled Verses) and the Vancouver Storytelling Slam. He has been lead organizer of the Bolts of Fiction literary series and the Vancouver Poetry Slam, Co-Chair of Spoken Word Canada (SpoCan), tournament director for the Individual World Poetry Slam in Charlotte North Carolina and the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word in various cities. He teaches first and second year communications and he is far sillier than he appears.
About The Readers
Amanda Eagleson
Amanda Eagleson’s poetry and creative nonfiction has appeared in Inside the Bell Jar, Plum Tree Tavern, and The Shanghai Literary Review.
Catherine Lewis
Catherine Lewis is a Chinese Canadian writer and poet. Her debut poetry chapbook Zipless (845 Press) is a finalist for two Bisexual Book Awards, including Bi Writer of the Year. Her work has been longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize, nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and published in PRISM international, The Fiddlehead, The Humber Literary Review, Pulp Literature, and Plenitude Magazine. A graduate of SFU's Writer's Studio, she is a two-time Banff Centre Literary Arts alumna and a 2025 Tin House Winter Online Workshop alumna.
David Geary
David teaches Indigenous film, documentary, and playwriting at Capilano University. He also leads playwrighting and dramaturgy workshops for the PTC Playwrights Theatre Centre. David loves haiku / and Shakespeare's "Brevity is / the soul of wit" and -
Duncan Shields
Vancouver, British Columbia’s Duncan Shields is an Individual World Poetry Slam Haiku Champion, two-time Vancouver Haiku Champion, two-time Vancouver Nerd Slam Champion, two-time Vancouver Poetry Slam team member, two-time Ghost Story Slam Champion, two-time Vancouver Poetry Slam Master, one-time Vancouver Poetry House President, the originator of the popular Vancouver Poetry Slam YouTube channel, and the only poet in the world to officially complete the Century Challenge twice. He’s happy to be here.
Jenny Garcha
Jenny Garcha is a spoken word artist, poet, and writer based in British Columbia whose work moves between poetry, personal narrative, and short fiction. Drawn to live literary performance and community-based writing spaces, she regularly performs with Tri Cities Poetry and Death Rides A Unicorn Society. Her work has appeared in chapbooks, magazines, and local publications, and she has participated in the TD Emerging Writers Mentorship Program through the Federation of British Columbia Writers. Through both performance and community arts involvement, Jenny aims to create work that feels honest, human, and open to connection.
Kyle Hawke
Since the 1980s, Kyle Hawke has been working with words as an editor, copywriter, and ghostwriter for newspapers, magazines, radio, and books, as well as performing and publishing as a poet. He is currently the Chair for Communications and Social Media for Editors BC and on the executive of the Federation of BC Writers.
Leslie Stark
Leslie Stark is a teacher, mom, poet, playwright, dancer, singer, hula hoop maker, excellent baker, expert catnapper, and champion of the arts who resides on the unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil Waututh peoples in a place known a Vancouver. She has been published in Geist, Kiss Machine, Many Gendered Mothers, Fugue, Oratorialis, Quills, THIS Magazine, and Blank Spaces.
Nate Nate Nainers
Nate Nate Nainers (they/she) is a white settler who grew up on Katzie and Kwantlen unceded territories (Maple Ridge, BC), and currently lives on Kwikwetlem unceded territory (Port Coquitlam, BC). Nainers’ full-length collection of poems, Smokin’ Holy Spirits (Galleon Books, Fall 2026), explores themes on neurodivergence, queerness, and recovery from leaving the evangelical church. Inspired by the emotionally dynamic art of clown, this book is surreal and absurd, oscillating between poignancy and transgression. The collection follows six simple steps to quit smoking. In 2025 they coordinated a house show series throughout the Lower Mainland with local opening acts for Nainers’ long-form storytelling show, "Jerald the Space Bear." The 40 minute act includes Nate Nate’s ambient guitar, as well as visual and atmospheric elements, which was showcased in North Vancouver’s Arts in the Garden, 2025. That year they also wrote and produced a 40 minute spoken word show, "Berry Stained Teeth," which featured jawharp, overtone singing, hand puppets, and drone kazoo.
Warren Dean Fulton
From the 1990's onwards Warren has been writing "poems" and stringing words, phrases together. A poetry organizer, host, publisher, poet and poetry fanboy, he has met and performed his words on stages large and small, bookstores, cafes, on street corners, and in parks across Canada, as well as in New York, San Francisco. His own poetry has largely been self published via pooka press, his micro press empire begun in 1994 in Ottawa. Occasionally Warren has sent his poems out to others for consideration, possible publication, by small press magazines, zines and chapbook publishers. But rarely. Perhaps his most known work is "scrap paper poems" self published in 2001 in an edition of 2001.
