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Archipel is an ongoing dialogue between poets and creatives of all kinds, celebrating the ways we connect through mentorship, community and transitions, hosted by me (Cara Waterfall).

Hi, I’m Cara, a poet, storyteller and mentor who teaches other writers how to sustain thriving, creative practices and reclaim their artistic identities.

I was born in Ottawa, a city with two official languages, which might explain my interest in the French language and Francophone culture. I also inherited my family’s history of movement. Most recently, I moved from a dairy farm in Costa Rica — inhabited by a dozen dogs, chickens and the occasional tarantula — to Côte d’Ivoire for the third time.

What you should know about me: I care deeply about demystifying poetry and helping it reach readers in every space. I want to celebrate creative mentorship and find ways of making it more accessible to underserved communities. I believe it is crucial to democratize access to the craft of poetry and publishing. I’m a mother to two boys and a girl. I’m obsessed with word etymologies, stationery and 90’s hip-hop. I hate washing cutlery. And I completed my first obstacle course race in May.

My work frequently navigates the complexities of identity, place and intergenerational memory. I have post-graduate diplomas in Poetry & Lyric Discourse and Journalism. My poetry has been featured in Best Canadian Poetry, The Ekphrastic Review, The Night Heron Barks and more. I am a two-time finalist for Radar Poetry’s The Coniston Prize and have won Room’s 2018 Short Forms and 2020 Poetry Contests, and was shortlisted for the 2019 CBC Poetry Prize. To read my poems, please visit my portfolio.

In 2011, I received a National Geographic Glimpse Correspondent grant to produce two long-form features on Côte d'Ivoire: “Rebelles: Ivoirian Women Fight for Change” and “Art as Reconciliation”. To read a selection of my journalism, please click here.

In May 2025, my first poetry collection is forthcoming from Unsolicited Press and explores my life in Abidjan after the second civil war. I recently completed my second poetry manuscript and am currently working on my third manuscript, which honours Nouchi, a hybrid language that unites crucial threads of Côte d’Ivoire's identity.

professional development

POETRY & LYRIC DISCOURSE –

POSTGRADUATE DIPLOMA,

The Writer’s Studio, Simon Fraser University.

Mentored by Vancouver’s Poet Laureate, Fiona Tinwei Lam.

JOURNALISM - POSTGRADUATE DIPLOMA,

London School of Journalism, London, U.K.

Journalism & News writing / Media Law, Subediting, Freelance & Features; Freelance & Internet.

READER @ FRONTIER POETRY

2022 - 2024

What people have to say:

“Deeply felt. Parallel visions between mother and daughter vanish and reconstitute and are braided into a clarifying argument between speaker and listener, poet and language. Here the question of inheritance is offered as both helix and dispersal. The poem’s promise is the ways it opens itself to even more by the contradictions it meets along its axis of becoming. By its end the hard work of pulling apart is rewarded in how its “suit of bones” pulls the speaker, and by extension, the reader together again.”

~ Canisia Lubrin, Poetry Judge on my 1st place poem “Heirloom”, Room’s Poetry Contest, 2020

A beautifully constructed palindrome line poem with a haunting atmosphere made possible by precise syntactical construction. The imagery and sound effects arise from strong verbs, dense with word associations that keep us returning to this lovely elegy that captures attention, subtly, and with echoes that endure.

~ Renee Sarojini Saklikar, Poetry Judge on my 1st place poem “griefbody”, The Magpie Award for Poetry, 2022

Each short line in this elegy is like a prism’s facet, reflecting the bright tones and soft sounds of tiny birdlife. But the poem also cuts like glass, balancing the fragility and terror of mourning.

~ Emily Osborne and Daniel Cowper, PULPLiterature’s Poetry Editors on my Editor’s Choice-winning poem,

“Hummingbird Elegy”, 2020