Event and Archive: Remapping the Poetry Reading Series in Canada, 1957–1974

Most contemporary critical accounts of the development of the poetic avant-garde in Canada focus on a combination of monographs and little magazines, and subjective, first-person testimony. We argue that these accounts exclude event-based materials in favor of constructing a cohesive, linear narrative of tradition. This paper provides a historical overview and empirical description of the poetry reading series as a burgeoning sociocultural phenomenon during an active period in Canadian literary history: 1957–1974. It discusses three prominent series of events as case studies: the Contact Poetry Reading Series (Toronto, 1957–1963), the Vancouver 1963 Poetry Conference and surrounding events (1959–1963), and the Sir George Williams University Reading Series (Montreal, 1966–1974). It identifies and interprets trends, assumptions, and antagonisms in what we term “first wave” or “traditional” criticism about the poetic avant-garde in Canada, and introduces quantitative and materialist methodologies to reframe the standard narratives of influence and tradition. The paper traces a more nuanced network of cultural exchange that accounts for local, regional, and longitudinal currents, rather than merely latitudinal ones.