The Al Purdy A-frame Residency

PLEASE CONSIDER MONTHLY SUPPORT FOR THE AL PURDY A-FRAME WRITERS-IN-RESIDENCE PROGRAM It’s been a long and challenging three years in the shadow of COVID, but thanks to the continued support of many we’ve kept the lights on and the doors open to the writers-in-residence program at the Al Purdy A-frame. A residency at the legendary…

Posted on the Al Purdy A-frame page today by David Fraser. Thank you, David. Making friends with Al Purdy Scraping sideways through factory door frames, Vancouver to St. Johns Ass in a sling peregrinations of an afflicted writer with his bride, the binding spine and glue that bound the Purdy book holding the pages together,…

Here’s a really exciting and unique opportunity: Our current writer-in-residence, Felicity Williams, along with the A-frame residency ensemble, is giving a community concert on Thursday, October 6. Some of you will know Felicity’s work from the Al Purdy Was Here Songbook. The concert – Listening to the House Dream of Trees – will be a…

Last month, we invited you to visit the Al Purdy A-frame on Saturday, Sept 24 and Sunday, Sept. 25. But the Ameliasburgh Fall Fair has reduced its events to one day – Saturday, September 24 – and so the A-frame Association has decided to follow suit. In the past, we have always opened to the…

After a three-year hiatus because of the pandemic, the Al Purdy A-frame Association is pleased and excited to announce an A-frame open house for Saturday, September 24, and Sunday, September 25, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The house, built by Al and his wife Eurithe, has been restored as a retreat for Canadian writers…

The Al Purdy A-frame Association is now accepting applications for residencies beginning in July 2023 and ending in June 2024. To apply, please go to the “The A-frame Residency” in the drop-down (About) menu. Applications must be submitted by October 21, 2022.

Festival Players of Prince Edward County this summer will stage The Shape of Home, a theatrical concert that investigates the life and work of Al Purdy, Canada’s unofficial poet laureate. Purdy’s quest to find beauty in unexpected places produced a body of work full of adventure, audacity and humanity. Created by award-winning artists Frank Cox-O’Connell,…

D.A. Lockhart, a resident this spring at the Al Purdy A-frame, has been shortlisted for the Raymond Souster Award, sponsored by the League of Canadian Poets (LCP). Lockhart’s Bearmen Descend Upon Gimli (Frontenac House, 2021) is a contemporary myth told in lyric form. From the jurors: D.A. Lockhart’s cinematic novel-in-verse, Bearmen Descend Upon Gimli, features…

Many of you will have already learned the sad, sad news that poet, novelist and musician Steven Heighton has died at 60 from cancer. The accolades are well deserved. I’m not sure how old Steven was when he started visiting Al and Eurithe at the A-frame. Maybe in his twenties. The photos show his long…