Calgary Herald Books: YYC POP Portraits of People

Calgary Herald Arts - feat. Poet Sheri-d Wilson
Photo credit: Calgary Herald

Sheri-D Wilson reflects on community-building as Calgary's outgoing poet laureate

Eric Volmers of the Calgary Herald recently caught up Sheri-D Wilson, reflecting on her as the Poet Laureate of Calgary and her upcoming legacy project book, YYC POP: Portraits of People.

The book YYC Pop: Portraits of People has been described as “extraordinary stories of ordinary people; ordinary stories of extraordinary people” and will be made up of the work of 77 poets, some firmly established while others are offering their first published works.

“I asked the community to write a portrait of somebody that they know, someone who without that person the city just wouldn’t be the same,” Wilson says. “I got some beautiful pieces in and that is going to be in a book by Frontenac House. There is also an online exhibit for people who didn’t make it into the book. Because there was such amazing poetry I thought we had to show this. So there’s an online exhibit on my website as well that has about 80 poets there and you can go there and see those poems.”


As the world self-isolates and, perhaps, begins to ask fundamental questions about our nature and society, the role of a poet will continue to be valuable and essential, she says.

“It makes me dig deeper and reach higher,” Wilson says. “I think poetry is often written about the extremes in life and that’s what makes us feel those wider feelings. I think it’s time to really look inside and to observe how we live and what we’re doing. That goes for personal and universal.”

To read the review, visit Sheri-D Wilson reflects on community-building as Calgary's outgoing poet laureate.

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