Zane, a poet and translator living in Guelph, was born and raised in the East Kootenays, British Columbia, and earned his Ph.D. from New York University, with a focus on transnational literary circulation in North America. He read his book Country Music, in which he “stakes his claim to a poetry of common life,” in its entirely at the Elora Poetry Centre & Gallery in August 2025.

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.

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.

Born in Montreal, Max Layton now lives in Cheltenham, Ontario. He is the singer-songwriter son of Irving Layton and Betty Sutherland. He has worked at jobs ranging from a BC lumber camp to laying track in Saskatchewan, picking tobacco to apprentice car mechanic. Later, he owned a bookstore, managed a subsidiary of McClelland & Steward and ran his own publishing house. He earned an MA in English Literature from the University of Toronto and worked as a high school English teacher until retirement. He is also a published novelist and short story writer. Max went legally blind more than a decade ago; it was during that difficult period that he recorded his first CD, Heartbeat Of Time. However, his eyesight was recently restored thanks to modern science. Max has authored four collections of poetry.

photo by Danielle Marr

“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.