“It is with deep sadness that we inform you of the passing of a remarkable poet within the Armenian literary community on January 9, 2024. Arpine Konyalian Grenier, a poet and scholar, hailed from Beirut, Lebanon, where she was born and raised. Throughout her academic and corporate endeavors, she dedicated herself to diverse fields such as cardiovascular research, human resources development, regulatory finance, and the arts. Her literary works transcended boundaries, resonating on a global and cosmic scale, emphasizing the human experience over ethnic distinctions. Her writing graced numerous esteemed publications, often earning accolades or finalist nominations. Additionally, she engaged in multidisciplinary collaborations, served as a guest editor, and presented at conferences. Most importantly, she authored five poetry collections: St. Gregory’s Daughter (1992), Whores from Samarkand (1993), Part, Part Euphrates (2007), The Confession Stand: Exaptation at the Margins (2011), and The Silent G (2019).” –International Armenian Literary Alliance
Arpine was one of the first poets to read at the Elora Poetry Centre, shortly after its founding in 2011. She gave a memorable performance. RIP
Carl Skoggard was trained as a musicologist and for many years served as an editor for the music bibliography Repértoire International de la Littérature Musicale (RILM), New York, where he was responsible for German materials. More recently, he was also the staff writer for Nest: A Quarterly of Interiors, an award-winning magazine created by his partner Joseph Holtzman. Over the last decade Skoggard has prepared translations with extensive commentary for the three major autobiographically-oriented writings of the German-Jewish philosopher and cultural theorist Walter Benjamin. His bilingual edition of Benjamin’s Sonnets has made this little-known but important body of poetry available to readers of English for the first time.
Irene Gregorio enjoys a diverse and active musical life as a pianist, educator, and music director. As a pianist and chamber musician, she has collaborated with members of the LA Phil and San Francisco Symphonies. She has served as pianist for the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus, LA Opera Education and Outreach, and the University of Southern California Chamber Singers, among others. Her performances as a collaborative pianist have taken her throughout North America, Europe, Cuba, and the Philippines, and she has also appeared on PBS, CBC Radio 2, and on film soundtracks in the LA area.
Dr. Gregorio has over 15 years of experience in the university setting, serving as staff/faculty in collaborative piano at the campuses of the California State University, East Bay and Los Angeles. She earned her DMA at the University of Southern California and recently returned home to Canada, where she serves as the Director of Music Ministry at Dublin St. United Church, and Sessional Instructor of Piano at the University of Guelph.
Irene Gregorio was named as the TMC Collaborative Pianist in August 2021 and was the pianist of the National Youth Choir of Canada in 2022.
Michael Basinski, who for many years served as the distinguished curator of The Poetry Collection at the University of Buffalo, is a Western New York-based text, visual, and sound poet whose work has been heavily influenced by Fluxus, the innovative interdisciplinary international art movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Michael performs his work as a solo poet and in ensemble with BuffFluxus and the Don Metz Experience.
Peter Skoggard is a composer, artist, dancer, actor, and poet living in Elora, Ontario. He has written chamber works, chamber operas, one musical, works for voice and piano, and choir, works performed in Elora, at the Guelph Spring Festival and River Run Centre, in Toronto at the Glenn Gould Studio, Cleveland, and New York.
His song cycles have set words and poetry, of John Donne, William Blake, Guillaume Apollinaire Maragaret Atwood, Thomas King, kateri akiwense-damm, R.A.D. Ford, Billy Collins, Jerry Prager, and Asa Boxer. He has set the Latin Mass for soloists, choir, and organ. One opera is based on a 14th Century Japanese Noh Drama. The other is based on the life of Teresa Stratas. He has written Roma: a piano quintet in seven movements.
Performers of his works include Bridget Hogan, Marion Samuel-Stevens, Kathy Domeny, Robert Missen, Tilly Kooyman, Cecile Denis, Christopher Burton, Irene Gregorio, Alexander Sevastian, Tony Quarington, Mino Ode Kwewak N’gamowak, David Earle, the Guelph Youth Singers, Via Salzburg, and the Penderecki String Quartet.
Fish Quill Poetry Boat was founded in 2010 by Canadian poets Linda Besner and Leigh Kotsilidis.
On several occasions the Fish Quill Poetry Boat came to the Elora Poetry Centre so that we were able to hear fine work from Canadian poets and superb music by singer-songwriters–all thanks to the country’s oldest communication system: the river.
We are Indigenous and non-Indigenous women following the drum circle teachings of Community Elder Jean Becker, who began this group in 2003
We have been taught to follow the teachings of the Seven Grandfathers. These are the values of: wisdom, truth, humility, courage, honesty, respect, love.
These teachings guide us in our relationships with ourselves and each other and they help guide us towards living our lives in a balanced way.
Our drum group reflects a sweetgrass teaching. One blade of sweetgrass by itself is not very strong. It can break easily. When several blades of sweetgrass are braided together, the sweetgrass is strong and cannot easily be broken. The singing and drumming helps us to find the strength to keep going. A woman may feel reluctant and not have the confidence to lead a song, but she gives it a try because she knows that the others will be there to pick up the song if she falters. That song will be carried on, just as we all must carry on with our lives, no matter what. Just as the braided sweetgrass is strong, our “knowing” that we have the strength and support of one another helps us to carry on.
Christopher Dewdney was born in London, Ontario, in 1951. His father was the renowned archeologist, author and historian Selwyn Dewdney. ” Because of my father’s concerns, I grew up with a prodigious amount of national history, natural history, and there was as much art around the house as there was science”.
Dewdney’s reading was part of San Francisco poet, editor, and environmental activist Michael Rothenberg’s world-wide 100 Thousand Poets for Change. Over 400 events took place on that day.
Among the poems Chris read was The Elora Gorge Suite, from Radiant Inventory, which was nominated for a Governor General’s Award.
Morvern McNie writes short fiction and poetry. As a performance poet she has appeared at Hillside Festival, Eden Mill’s Fringe, Wordfest Elora, The Guelph Arts Festival and The Festival of Coffeehouse Poets. She co-authored a chapter for a University of Toronto publication, Classroom Action.
Human Rights, Critical Activism, and Community-Based Learning. Her first chapbook was published by Vocamus in 2020.
On 15 June 2025, Peter Bottéas and the Elora Poetry Centre organized an event featuring contemporary poetry of the Greek diaspora. Peter focused on his translation from Greek into English of recent poems by the Boston-based poet Vassiliki Rapti, collected in Bathed in Moonlight (2023). He also read poems by Despina Kaitatzi-Choulioumi and George Kalogeris, as well as a few of his own, spellbinding the audience. Prior to his reading, Georgia Perdikoulias beautifully sang a musical setting of Peter’s poem “Refuge,” as well as other verse set to music by the composer Kostas Rekleitis, with texts by Vassiliki Rapti. These were followed by 19th-century Greek art songs and some moving traditional Greek songs. Georgia was masterfully accompanied on piano by a familiar and distinguished friend of the Elora Poetry Centre, Irene Gregorio.
Peter Bottéas
A native of Toronto, Peter holds a Master’s degree in Translation from the Université de Montreal. After a twenty-year detour as a psychotherapist in Boston, he has returned to one of his first loves: literary translation. He is co-host, with Vassiliki, of the podcast series Borders Unbound: Hellenic Poetry of the Diaspora and Beyond, as well as being an occasional voice-over artist, poet, and aficionado of French and Greek poetry set to music.
Georgia Perdikoulias
Canadian-Greek soprano and librettist Georgia Perdikoulias is an artist with a passion for storytelling through the creation and performance of new works. A graduate of the Graduate Vocal Arts Program at the Bard College Conservatory of Music, Georgia has found equal joy and passion in performing and debuting operatic and art song repertoire. Her performances at Bard included the premiering of art songs, one of which was Peter’s “Refuge” (composed by Kostas Rekleitis), and a new opera, My Wife is a Ghost. Georgia combines her love of writing and the written word with her passion for performing, employing a text-centric approach to new and canonical works alike. Georgia is also a published poet, having co-authored the poetry collection Mythopoesis (2022). In addition to her classical music training, Georgia is a traditional Greek folk singer and dancer with a love for performing and sharing her culture.
Irene Gregorio
Collaborative Pianist and Musical Assistant
Irene Gregorio enjoys a diverse and active musical life as a pianist, educator, and music director. As a pianist and chamber musician, she has collaborated with members of the LA Phil and San Francisco Symphonies. She has served as pianist for the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus, LA Opera Education and Outreach, and the University of Southern California Chamber Singers, among others. Her performances as a collaborative pianist have taken her throughout North America, Europe, Cuba, and the Philippines, and she has also appeared on PBS, CBC Radio 2, and on film soundtracks in the LA area.
Dr. Gregorio has over 15 years of experience in the university setting, serving as staff/faculty in collaborative piano at the campuses of the California State University, East Bay and Los Angeles. She earned her DMA at the University of Southern California and recently returned home to Canada, where she serves as the Director of Music Ministry at Dublin St. United Church, and Sessional Instructor of Piano at the University of Guelph. Irene was named as the TMC Collaborative Pianist in August 2021 and was the pianist of the National Youth Choir of Canada in 2022.
The programme was presented in two parts with a short intermission, after which there was a Q & A session prior to breaking for the usual finger food and drinks.
The Elora Poetry Centre & Gallery 