If you love poetry, then listen up, man.
April is National Poetry Month.
Readings, workshops, parties and slams.
...
Dammit! There's nothing that rhymes with month.

Tuesday, April 1st:

Throughout the month of April, The League of Canadian Poets will be featuring several renowned poets, as part of this year's National Poetry Month. Come out for the official launch, a meet and mingle reception with poetry readings, a question and answer session moderated by Martin Levin, as well as the announcement of the shortlist for the Gerald Lampert Award and the Pat Lowther Award. Canada's Poet Laureate John Steffler, as well as other notable poets, will be reading.
Ben McNally Books. RIGHT NOW! It started at 9am. Free.

Are you ready to kick off your penny loafers and rock out to a book? Celebrated author Ibi Kaslik will perform a musical piece based on The Angel Riots, her highly anticipated new novel about the fleeting nature of indie rock stardom in Canada. Also performing is Apostle of Hustle. Senior Editor of EYE WEEKLY, Stuart Berman, hosts this TINARS event.
Gladstone Hotel Ballroom. 7pm. Free.

Celebrate the launch of Stan Dragland's newest novel, The Drowned Lands. It tells the coming-of-age story of three young friends, set in a small Ontario town in the early 1900s.
Supermarket. 7:30pm. Free.

Come out and see the winner of the 2008 Art Bar Discovery Night, Jerome Paul, as he takes his well-deserved place on stage at this month's Art Bar Poetry Reading series. He'll be joined by Johanna Skibsrud and Dave Margoshes.
Clinton's. 8pm. Free (donations accepted).

Check out the Coffeehouse Cabaret Open Stage featuring music, spoken word, and comedy, with host Shawn Sage.
Renaissance Cafe. 8:30pm. Free.

Wednesday, April 2nd:

Join John Ralston Saul, in conversation with award-winning writers Charlotte Gray, Lewis DeSoto and David Adams Richards at the Toronto launch of a new Penguin series of biographies entitled Extraordinary Canadians: Why They Mattered Then, Why They Matter Now. The authors will discuss Canadian icons Emily Carr, Nellie McClung and Lord Beaverbrook.
Royal Ontario Museum. 7pm. $18, $15 for ROM members (get yer tickets here).

Tonight marks the beginning of Influency 4: A Toronto Poetry Salon, a 10-week course by the U of T School of Continuing Studies Creative Writing Program. Join other poetry aficionados for this flow-chart series of prepared talks by Toronto poets, combined with dynamic poetry readings and discussion.
University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies. 7pm. $199, plus $100 course materials (8 books of poetry) for the full 10-week course. Register online for course number SCS 1777, or contact Margaret Christakos at 416-766-5406 or mchristakos@hotmail.com.

This month, the Rowers Pub Reading Series features Maureen Scott Harris (author of Drowning Lessons), Lawrence Hill (The Book of Negroes), and Adam Sol (Crowd of Sounds).
Harbord House (formerly Rowers Pub and Grill). 7:30pm - 10pm. Free.

Local bookseller Ben McNally hosts this season's batch of intrepid travellers: Charles Foran, Pico Iyer, and Chuck Thompson. The Travellers Series appears twice a year at the Harbourfront's International Reading Series. The next outing won't be until September, so don't miss out!
Harbourfront Centre Brigantine Room. 7:30pm. $8.

Coach House Books invites you to NicholBack, an evening celebrating bpNichol's work. The event will feature an introduction by Lori Emerson, as well as performances by poets Paul Dutton, Mark Sutherland and Nobuo Kubota, and readings by Frank Davey, Lola Lemire Tostevin, damian lopes, Gary Barwin and a.rawlings.
Supermarket. 8pm. Free.

Thursday, April 3rd:

The League of Canadian Poets invites you to experience the absence of borders at a reading event featuring Penn Kemp and Bill Bissett. They'll speak to the question, "How can poetry celebrate the diversity of cultural traditions in Canada?" and discuss this year's theme, Poetry Without Borders.
Clarke Auditorium (CAMH College Street Campus). 12pm. Free.
Malcolmson Lecture Theatre (CAMH Queen Street Campus). 1pm. Free.

Join poets Gloria Alvernaz Mulcahy, Blaine Marchand, Katerina Fretwell, Daniel Kolos and Penn Kemp at "A Feast of Authors". The five seasoned poets will be reading throughout the evening, plus there will be an open mic session. In addition, the poets will perform several translations of Penn Kemp's Poem for Peace in Many Voices (English, French, Spanish, Italian, Ojibwa, Pig Latin, Elvish, Hungarian, Ancient Egyptian, Pashtun and Latin).
St. Lawrence Market North. 6pm. Free.

Cormorant Books and Ben McNally Books are pleased to announce the launch of
Newfoundland-native turned Toronto-lawyer Beverley Stone's debut novel No Beautiful Shore.
Ben McNally Books. 6pm. Free.

Royal St. George's College presents the "Focus on the Environment Speaker Series", featuring Tim Flannery (author of #1 international bestseller The Weather Makers) and Bridget Stutchbury (whose book Silence of the Songbirds was short-listed for a Governor General's award).
Bloor Cinema. 7pm. $25 (at the door, or online here).

Friday, April 4th:

Enjoy an evening of poetry and spoken word at this month's Cryptic Chatter, featuring Boonaa Mohammed. Stick around for the open mic session and Q&A period for the featured performers after their sets. There will be a prize awarded to the Most Impressive Open Mic-er, chosen by secret ballot. To sign up for the open mic, please e-mail me before the date, or on the date arrive early. Hosted by Valentino Assenza.
Renaissance Cafe. 7:30pm. $5.

Saturday, April 5th:

Join poets Robert Priest, Duke Redbird and Sheetalina for "Buffalo Stew & Poetry Too", celebrating National Poetry Month. The theme of this event focuses on the earth, the mind and the body, and participating artists represent an established Canadian Ojibway Indian poet, an emerging East Indian poet, and a local prominent Toronto poet.
New Earth Gallery. 6pm. PWYC.

Sunday, April 6th:

Come out and meet Oliver Jeffers, bestselling children's author of How to Catch a Star and Lost and Found. Mr. Jeffers will be signing copies of his latest book, The Way Back Home.
Chapters Runnymede. 11:30pm. Free.

Join in Camille Martin's poetry workshop, "The Poetry of Borrowed Words", which examines ways that poets have incorporated "found words" into their poems. Pillage many different kinds of texts - cookbooks, advertisements, pulp fiction, dictionaries of cliches, TV guides, travel magazines, weather reports, and poems by other poets (even very famous poets) - to create your own unique poems.
This Ain't the Rosedale Library. 12-5pm. $60 (enrollment is limited to 12 participants, call 416-929-9912 to sign up!)

Monday, April 7th:

Brampton-native Alessandro Porco, author of Augustine in Carthage, and Other Poems, will be reading as part of this month's installment of the Strong Words Reading Series. Porco is a poet, critic, and scholar, currently working on a dissertation on the subject of hip-hop poetics at the State University of New York in Buffalo.
Gladstone Hotel Art Bar. 7:30pm. PWYC.