Sudbury's Poet Laureates
Current Poet Laureate
The city of Greater Sudbury's 7th Poet Laureate, Kyla Heyming, also known as KPH and KP Heyming, is a bilingual writer with deep roots, a full heart, and a yearning to set her soul in ink and paper with the help of an old, dusty typewriter. In her writing, she displays the most fragile emotions through the exploration of an ordinary life.
Born and raised in Northern Ontario, she moved to Ottawa to pursue her studies in English Literature where she was able to find more connections to her calling. Working with established Canadian writers like Gail Anderson-Dargatz and the late Nancy Richler to fine-tune her writing, Kyla has been engaged in understanding and contributing to the community she has long supported: the Canadian literary market. Now back in the North after obtaining her Technical Writing certification, she is completing both Freelance and Creative work in French and in English. She is always looking to incorporate something new into each and every one of the projects she takes on.
Author of "For Those I Have Loved", published by HARP Publishing: The People's Press, her poetry and non-fiction have also appeared in numerous arts and literature journals. A few of her poems have even been featured in the League of Canadian Poets' Poetry Pause. Fiercely driven to ensnare all of life's little moments, she works tirelessly for her passion and her community, so that she may someday lead others to find their own meaning in her words.
Past Poet Laureates
| Vera Constantineau 2020 – 2022 |
| Poet and short fiction writer Vera Constantineau is Greater Sudbury’s sixth Poet Laureate. Beginning her freelance writing career in 1994, Constantineau has developed a reputation as an award-winning haiku/senryu poet. She is the author of Daisy Chained, a self-published collection of short fiction.
Constantineau’s poetry and short fiction has been published in journals both online and print, as well as anthologies in Canada as well as Internationally in England, Ireland, New Zealand and the United States. For many years Vera wrote humour columns for a variety of northern weekly newspapers. In 2019 her essay Options was included in the anthology Against Death—35 Essays on Living published by Anvil Press of Vancouver B.C. |
| Chloe LaDuchesse 2018 – 2020 |
| Poet and novelist, Chloé LaDuchesse is the author of Furies, a first collection of poetry published in 2017 by Mémoire d'encrier. She has also written in several cultural and student magazines, as well as in two collective short stories, To Tell Her Four (Editions David, Ottawa) and Short! (Editions du Ble, St. Boniface). His "railway fiction" text was semi-finalist for the 2016 CBC Radio Poetry Award.
For several years, Chloe has been involved in the book business, be it publishing, criticism or writing. Her interest in happenings and ephemeral works led her to frequent open microphones and poetry performance nights. She is also the author of several zines and organizes, since 2017, the annual zine fair Expozine Sudbury. |
| Kim Fahner 2016 – 2018 |
| Kim Fahner has been writing her entire life, but only seriously writing and publishing poetry since her early twenties. She has had her poems and short stories published over the past 20 years, along with three books: You Must Imagine The Cold Here (Scrivener Press, 1997), braille on water (Penumbra Press, 2001) and The Narcoleptic Madonna (Penumbra Press, 2012). Her short story Visitation was published in Along the 46th, an anthology of short fiction released by Latitude 46 Publishing in November 2015.
Kim is an English teacher who has been teaching in the Sudbury Catholic District School Board since getting her Bachelor of Education degree from Nipissing University. As a member of the League of Canadian Poets, the Writers’ Union of Canada and PEN Canada, Kim often brings visiting poets and writers into her classroom, so that her students can see how literature is alive in the world. |
| Tom Leduc 2014 – 2016* |
| Tom Leduc, a working-man's poet, was Greater Sudbury Poet Laureate from 2014-2016. Tom was announced to the community on Friday, February 21, 2014, at the Canada Reads Storytelling Festival at the South End Library. Tom works for Wajax Industrial Components by day and has been developing his writing and poetry in his spare time. In 2012 won the Vale Living with Lakes Centre poetry contest with his poem "My Northern Lake". Tom is a member of the Sudbury Writers' Guild and as a representative of the Guild, performed a collection of poems at Sudbury's very first Wordstock Festival. |
| Daniel Aubin 2012 – 2014 |
| Daniel Aubin has participated actively in the Sudbury arts scene ever since he first climbed on stage as part of Collège Notre Dame theatre troupe Les fous du Roy (1996-2000). He honed his skills while working toward a BFA in Theatre at Laurentian University (Cum Laude. 2004). Soon after, he cofounded the short-lived FFF collective and published a book of poetry, Plasticité, with les Éditions Prise de Parole (2004). He launched this same book by performing it in its entirety at the Théâtre du Nouvel-Ontario in a performance poetry show. Daniel contributed lyrics to the songs of Konflit Dramatik and lent his voice to recordings of two of the band’s songs: Words Fail and Tête de poisson. In 2005, he acted in Exits: a coproduction between the TNO and Théâtre la Catapulte.
Daniel continued performing his poetry live, notably in the Sudbury Blues show and a series of super-poetic battles organized by the Galerie du Nouvel-Ontario. After working for two years as the director of the Grand Ciel Bleu bookstore in downtown Sudbury, he took to the stage once more in a production of Les Roger at the TNO (2011). Daniel now works as a journalist for the weekly francophone newspaper Le Voyageur and continues to rework the manuscript for his second book of poetry. |
| Roger Nash 2010 – 2011* |
| Roger Nash’s most recent fiction appears in the PEN/O.Henry Prize Stories 2009 collection, published by Random House. He’s a past-President of the League of Canadian Poets, and has won a number of literary awards for poetry, including the Canadian Jewish Book Award. His seventh and most recent book of poems is Something Blue and Flying Upwards: New and Selected Poems (Your Scrivener Press, Canada, 2006). He recently published a collection of essays on the psalms, The Poetry of Prayer (Edgeways Books, U.K., 2004). He’s Professor Emeritus in the Department of Philosophy at Laurentian University. |
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