Twisted Poets literary salon is an in-person event which takes place every other month, with three features and open mic. September will feature Daniela Elza with her hot-off-the-press poetry collection, SCAR/CITY; Evelyn Lau, the UBC Library Writer-in-Resident, with her latest poetry collection, Parade of Storms; and Rahat Kurd with her most recent work of poetry, The Book of Z.
Location: Britannia Library, 1661 Napier St, Vancouver
Sponsored by: Pandora’s Collective · Vancouver Public Library · UBC Library sponsors the Writer-in-Residence program
Moderators: Natasha Boskic · Mary Duffy
Readers: Evelyn Lau, Parade of Storms (Anvil Press) | Rahat Kurd, The Book of Z (Talonbooks) | Daniela Elza, SCAR/CITY (McGill-Queen’s University Press)
About The Moderators
Natasha Boskic
Natasha Boškić is a poet, writer and multimedia artist. She likes playing with words and discovering their meaning over and over again, in order to tell a story. She sees poetry and words as part of her artistic expression and she likes combining them with other media, like textile or fabric, or experimenting with them in digital spaces. Her work has been published in magazines, anthologies, special collections and exhibited in galleries and festivals. Her poetry film On the Margin of History, collaboration with Serian poet Mohamad Kebbewar and media artist, Mary McDonald was screened on Kingsway and West Broadway in 2024/25. Her poetry film Legacy was part of official selection 10 film festivals in 2022/23. The “I see you”, poetry film is the latest project, completed in spring 2025. Choreography and dance was done by Lorraine White-Wilkinson and media production by Eduardo Rebagliati. Natasha works at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. She obtained a Ph.D. at UBC, with a focus on ethics and narratives in gameworlds. She lives in Vancouver. More about her work, exhibitions and presentations at onlywords.ca.
Mary Duffy
Mary Duffy is a Vancouver children's and YA librarian. She is a longtime member of Pandora's Collective.
About The Readers
Daniela Elza
Daniela Elza’s debut essay collection Is This an Illness or an Accident? (Caitlin Press, 2025) delves into the conflicts and contradictions of what it means to belong, to work, and to find home. Poems from her collection SCAR/CITY (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2025) were longlisted for the 2024 CBC Poetry Prize. Daniela is the recipient of the 2024 Colleen Thibaudeau Award for Outstanding Contribution to Poetry. When she is not writing or volunteering in her community Daniela works as a creative writing instructor, editor, and mentor.
Evelyn Lau
Evelyn Lau is the Vancouver author of fifteen books, including ten volumes of poetry. Her first book, Runaway: Diary of a Street Kid (HarperCollins, 1989) was published when she was eighteen; it was made into a CBC movie starring Sandra Oh in her first major role. Evelyn’s short stories, essays, and novel have been translated into a dozen languages. Her poetry has received the Milton Acorn Award, the Pat Lowther Award, a National Magazine Award, and nominations for the BC Book Prize and the Governor General’s Award. Her poems have been chosen for inclusion in both the Best Canadian Poetry and Best American Poetry anthologies. From 2011-2014, Evelyn served as Poet Laureate for the City of Vancouver. Her previous collection is Cactus Gardens (Anvil, 2022), which was included in CBC’s Top 20 Poetry Books of 2022, shortlisted for the City of Vancouver Book Award, and received the Fred Cogswell Award. Parade of Storms is her tenth collection of poetry.
Rahat Kurd
Rahat Kurd is a writer, editor, and poet of Kashmiri origin, based in Vancouver. The Book Of Z, published by Talonbooks this fall 2025, is her second book-length work of poetry. Her previous literary titles with Talonbooks are The City That Is Leaving Forever: Kashmiri Letters, co-authored with Kashmiri poet Sumayya Syed in 2021, and Cosmophilia, her first book of poems in 2015.
