The Olive Reading Series

Founded in 2000, The Olive Reading Series events are held on Treaty 6 territory which is a traditional meeting ground, travelling route and home for many Indigenous Peoples, including the Cree, Saulteaux, Blackfoot, Métis, Dene and Nakoda Sioux.

The Olive is the longest running, off-campus, out-of-bookstore, poetry series in Edmonton. From its start at Martini’s Bar and Grill, to Hulbert’s Cafe, Leva Cappuccino Bar, The Empress Ale House, The Almanac, and now The Rooster, The Olive Reading Series is recognized as a unique and stimulating venue by both emerging and established poets.

Readings happen on the second Wednesday of every month from January to April and September to December. These well-attended evening readings feature a well-established local, Albertan, or Canadian writers reading from recent work. One month out of our year we feature readings from students of Creative Writing classes at Edmonton’s post-secondary institutions, offering a venue to showcase up-and-coming Edmonton talent.

A short open mic session follows the two main readings (which may be a poet, fiction writer, or non-fiction writer). The session is open to all attendees and provides a valuable, safe and non-judgmental reading environment for new writers.

A key feature of the Olive is the publication of an eight-page chapbook highlights the featured reader/writer’s new work. This chapbook serves not only as a record and a keepsake of each reading, it is also a vital part of the experience. We believe that a truly complete poetry, and prose, experience happens when you take the words in through both the ears and through the eyes.

Through these elements, the Olive Collective’s focus over the years has been to conduct a reading series that unites writers and readers from the community in an atmosphere of artistic expression and community-building. All of the members of the collective are writers living in Edmonton, and the majority of our readers tend to be Edmonton- or Alberta-based (such as former Edmonton Poet Laureate Nisha Patel, Jordan Abel, former Poet Laureate Alice Major, Jumoke Verissimo, Janet Marie Rogers, current Poet Laureate Dwennimmen, and Marilyn Dumont.) However, we have featured exceptional readers from other parts of Canada, including the former Poet Laureate of Canada George Bowering, Sharon Thesen, Louis Cabris, Rachel Zolf, Dennis Cooley, and the late Robert Kroetsch among others. We believe that creating a dialogue with excellent and diverse writers from around Canada is a way of enriching our local literary scene.

All organization of our series is done for free by our volunteer Olive Collective members: Paul Pearson, Thea Bowering, Luciana Erregue-Sacchi, Chris Hutchinson, Wendy McGrath, Paul Pearson, and Colby Clair Stolson.

All collective members The Olive Reading Series stand by the importance of the reading, publication and promotion of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction as something essential to the vitality of our city. The Olive Reading Series serves as a venue for the sharing of ideas and the discussion of writing in relation to pertinent cultural topics.