Come to Me: warm up with poetry

Kate Cayley, whose novel Property has just been published by Coach House Press to general acclaim. She’s also written three collections of poetry, two short story collections, and her plays have been produced in Canada, the US and the UK. Winner of the Trillium Book Award, an O. Henry Prize, and the Mitchell Prize for Poetry, she has also been a finalist for the Governor General's Award for Fiction. Her work has appeared in Best Canadian Poetry and Best Canadian Stories, and she is a frequent writing collaborator with immersive company Zuppa Theatre. Website

Adam Sol, whose latest collection is Broken Dawn Blessings (ECW 2021), which won the Vine Award and the Canadian Jewish Literary Award for Poetry. He has published four other books of poetry and one collection of essays, How a Poem Moves: A Field Guide for Readers of Poetry. He is the Blake Goldring Professor at Victoria College, University of Toronto, where he is the Launch Director for the Centre for Creativity. Website

Paul Vermeersch is a poet, multimedia artist, professor, and editor. His eighth collection of poetry, NMLCT, was published in September 2025 by ECW Press. Paul holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Guelph for which he received the Governor General's Gold Medal. He is currently a professor at Sheridan College where he serves as the editor-in-chief of The Ampersand Review of Writing & Publishing. He is also the senior editor of Wolsak and Wynn Publishers where he created the poetry and fiction imprint Buckrider Books. Website / Instagram

Kārlis Vērdiņš is one of the most popular poets in Latvia, where he has published six poetry collections and four children's books. His works have been translated into nine languages, including Come to Me in English (Arc Publication, 2015). In 2014, the title poem of this collection was included in the list of 50 best contemporary love poems by the Southbank Center in London. His poem "Slugs,”was selected for the anthology 100 Queer Poems (Vintage, 2022). Vērdiņš is a significant voice in the academic exploration and promotion of queer visibility in the Baltics. Together with his partner Jānis Ozoliņš he co-edited the book Queer Stories of Europe, which focuses on queer culture in the region over more than a century. This is the first time he is reading in Toronto. Website