‘Responding to life’: 75 writers featured at poetry weekend

Five poets brought their own unique voices to the icehouse poetry event at the University of New Brunswick on Friday, October 2.

The 2026 icehouse poets Sue Sinclair, Loch Baillie, Tiana Reid, Michael Trussler, and visiting poet Kirby, hosted by Ross Leckie came together for the opening event of the 23rd annual poetry weekend. This year marks the largest weekend ever, featuring 75 poets.

The purpose of this event is to allow poets to share their voice, as it is not a hugely popular form.

Ross Leckie is a retired English professor at the University of New Brunswick and the organizer of this event. He gave his own insight onto why events like this are important: “When you think of poetry compared to fiction, fiction has its stars.”

At Poetry Weekend, it doesn’t matter how famous you are, everyone gets equal time to read. At the first event, they were only given a couple of minutes to read a selection of their poetry.

This event started by accident in many ways.

Twenty-three years ago, there was a poet touring the Maritimes that needed a location to read his poetry. Leckie told the poet they had an audience and put him in front of an audience. Around the same time, Goose Lane was bringing out two books by UNB graduates and two other UNB graduates also had books coming out with another publisher.

Through Ross, the five poets got together and each read their work. After that, Ross started getting emails flooding in of people wanting to come to this event. From then on, the event turned into a yearly celebration of poetry.

Sue Sinclair, a UNB professor of creative writing read from her book New Fangled Rose.

When asked what she hopes people take from her poems Sinclair said: “I hope my poems help people take a pause.” In a world filled with technology in our everyday busy lives, her poetry allows us a hiatus to reflect on the world around us.

Sinclair described her poetry as: “an ongoing way of responding to life.” Sinclair’s poetry looks at life in a way most people do not, paying attention to the finer details like fruit stickers, luna moths, and so much more.

Loch Baillie is a poet based in Quebec City but originally from Worcester, Massachusetts. During the event, Baillie read from his book River Running. His poetry is personal often drawing on his own life. Some of the topics discussed in his poetry included mosquitoes and the Big Dipper.

Tiana Reid is an assistant professor at York University teaching English. She read from her book Nightnursing. Listening to Reid’s poetry was like getting a glimpse into her world, from the feeling of walking in a mall to hanging out with friends.

A professor at the University of Regina, Michael Trussler teaches English. He read from his book Whoosh. His poems featured a surrealist writing style and were quite serious.

Kirby read from their newest book Fairy. When asked about the importance of poetry, they said it “gives them permission to be themselves.” Kirby’s poetry reads like a love letter to the LGBTQ+ community, urging readers to embrace themselves without fear.

This marks Kirby’s third time reading poetry with icehouse.

Books by the evening’s poets were set up and sold through Westminster Bookmark. All of the books except for Kirby’s were published by icehouse poetry, an imprint of Goose Lane.

Despite the comment made by Leckie about poetry not being a popular genre, the opening event was well attended and the poets had the audience talking for over an hour after the readings ended.

Emma Benjamin is a UNB student studying English and is originally from Nova Scotia. She is completing an Arts 3000 internship with the NB Media Co-op.