Victoria 
Events Description
Join Victoria authors Kayla Czaga, Katherine DeCoste, and Allegra Kaplan to celebrate the launch of visiting poet Loch Baillie’s debut collection RIVER RUNNING. This poetry reading — Loch’s very first in BC — will be followed by a book signing and mingling.
Come and enjoy an afternoon of fantastic poetry, conversation, and community. This event is free and open to the public.
Saturday, July 11
3:00 pm
Critical Humanities Commons, UVic Clearihue Building
ABOUT THE BOOK:
In his highly anticipated, breathtakingly intimate debut, Loch Baillie pens an unfiltered queer Bildungsroman that traces both a geographical and emotional journey from his birthplace in New England to where he comes to settle in Quebec. Raw and confessional, River Running dives gracefully into the intangible concept of home, be it person or place. “No more metaphors tonight,” writes Baillie, “I come to tell you nothing / but the truth.” This collection probes at memory and love, identity and grief, with achingly gentle hands, sifting through the fragments one both leaves behind and becomes.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Originally from Worcester, Massachusetts, Loch Baillie (he/il) is a queer writer and editor now based in Quebec City. He is the author of two poetry chapbooks, ice, dove, parachute (Cactus Press) and Citronella (Anstruther Press), as well as the collection River Running (icehouse poetry/Goose Lane Editions, 2026). Loch’s writing has appeared in magazines such as Maclean’s, yolk literary, and Ahoy. He is an associate poetry editor at Plenitude Magazine and a board director for the Quebec Writers’ Federation. An alumnus of Bishop’s University, Loch is currently continuing his English literature studies at the graduate level at Université Laval. Find him everywhere @lochbaillie.
Katherine DeCoste is a poet currently living on the unceded land of the Lək̓ʷəŋən (Songhees and Xʷsepsəm) peoples, colonially known as Victoria, BC, with their wife and cat. Their writing has appeared internationally in publications including SICK Magazine, Grain Magazine, Action Spectacle, Contemporary Verse 2, The New Quarterly, PRISM International, and elsewhere.
Kayla Czaga is the author of the poetry collections Midway (House of Anansi, 2024), which was a finalist for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize and the DC Reid Poetry Prize; Dunk Tank (House of Anansi, 2019), also a finalist for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize; and For Your Safety Please Hold On (Nightwood Editions, 2014), which won the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award and was nominated for a Governor General’s literary award. Her poems have been included eight times in The Best Canadian Poetry series.
Allegra Kaplan is a queer writer living on unceded lək̓ʷəŋən territory. Her poetry is published and forthcoming in Grain, Room, Beaver Magazine, LBRNTH, Eavesdrop Magazine, Ahoy Literary, The Fieldstone Review, and elsewhere. She holds a BA (Hons) in English from the University of Victoria and an MA in English Literature from the University of British Columbia, where her SSHRC-funded research engaged critically with contemporary Canadian poetry and poetics. Allegra serves as an Assistant Poetry Editor at yolk and is currently developing her first full collection of poetry.
Who is it for?
All ages
HOW MUCH
Tickets : Free!
Free and open to the public. RSVP on the Facebook page!
How to get tickets?
WHEN & WHERE
Date:
Saturday, July 11, 2026. 3:00PM – 4:30PM
Venue & Address
Clearihue Building UVic, 3800 Finnerty Road, Victoria BC
Wheelchair accessible
