Author Archive | Mary Rykov

Access my mother’s apple cake recipe by clicking on the link below. Variations of this cake, imported from Russia’s Pale of Settlement, became a staple in Toronto’s Palmerston Avenue immigrant community in the early 20th century. But disregard my poetic licence because Mother was right — do peel the apples for a better cake texture. Also substitute pears or plums for […]

Words Sing — Teen Poetry Workshop and Performance Celebrate National Poetry Month this April 2015. Join us as we play with words and make them sing. We will learn about poems and poets and build a poetry chapbook of our poems to share with the library public. No prior experience is needed. Workshop Dates: April 9 […]

I was awarded the Charlotte and Isidor Paiewonsky Prize for first-time publication in The Caribbean Writer after “Puertorriqueña” was published this fall in Volume 28. I am honoured with a double blessing — a voice in my beloved Caribbean and payment for it. January begins the traditional reading period for publishers. The prize money will offset the printing, clean paper and […]

Many thanks to Art Bar Reading Series and David Clink for the 2014 Dead Poets Society Night. In response to many questions I post the sources for my Audre Lorde readings. From Lorde’s last collection, The Marvelous Arithmetics of Distance: Poems 1987–1992, I read “Speechless” and “Change.” I synthesized versions of the following statement she repeated numerous […]

8 pm, THE BLACK SWAN TAVERN (upstairs) 154 Danforth Avenue, east of the Broadview subway station, Toronto. 12th annual Dead Poets Society Night at the Art Bar Poetry Series Tuesday, December 16th, 2014. 8 pm. No open stage. A hat will be passed. 15 readers will be reading for 5-6 minutes each from the works of dead […]

I am providing an introduction to music-evoked imagery (MEI) at the 2014 League of Canadian Poets conference. MEI is a music-centred exploration of consciousness derived from pioneering music therapy research. During MEI dyadic sessions, various imagery forms — visual, auditory, sensory, memory, movement — are experienced when listening to music in an altered state of […]

Pulp Literature recently published my poem, “a Siren’s tale” in Issue 2. I am delighted to be included in this new and unique literary journal. Pulp Literature, dedicated to good writing, deliberately blends literary genres and mixes storytelling styles. They combine the fun of a dime-store pulp paperback with quality literature “for the price of a […]

TAMT is an informal network of individual MTAs who meet to share clinical, professional, and political issues relevant for music therapy practice in the Greater Toronto Area. Geographical boundaries set May 26, 2013, include Thornhill, Richmond Hill, Vaughan, Maple, Durham Regions (Oshawa, Whitby, Ajax, Pickering), Newmarket, Aurora, Sutton, Barrie, Mississauga, Oakville, Burlington, and Brampton. Join […]

The LRC July/August issue (Vol. 21, No. 6) placed a poem of mine that was submitted to their ekphrastic poetry call. Ekphrastic poetry is inspired by or comments on another art form, such as dance, art or music. Spoiler alert: sardonic opera content. Now, back to summer….

I read from Carousel 30 in the Live Words reading to launch Carousel 31 — and celebrate National Poetry Month: Thursday, April 4, 2013, 7:30 pm The Black Swan, 2nd floor, 154 Danforth Ave., Toronto, hosted by Livewords Poetry Reading Series. Carousel 30 is on newsstands now….