2003 3rd Place, Poetry, Writer's Federation of Nova Scotia.
Feb. 2, 2002 The day I married my friend, my love, my collaborator, Eric Boutilier-Brown. You can check out the wedding revel here. The ceremony is online, as well as various digital photo albums, most contributed by wedding guests as Eric and I were a bit busy. The  foam collage to the right, First Wedding Portrait  was done by my daughter Zoë.
Feb. 23, 2001 Thanks to an observant Samaritan emailing Eric, I learned that poetry from my website had been plagiarized and was being posted on a website as the creep's own work. The website, located at www.amazonpeople.com and which is owned by a despicable thief named Erling Söderström, erlingso@worldnet.fr, who used my copy written material which he did not have permission to reproduce and which he did not attribute to me. On his website, he claims to be a photography, filmmaker and journalist, making his misappropriation of my intellectual property and violation of my moral rights even more heinous. He should know better.

The stolen material was posted (along with sexually explicit images composited from web-based pornography, which is also copy written material) at http://www.amazonpeople.com/artis/poeticpleasure.htm. Of nine poems featured on an erotic poetry page, hidden on his site, five were mine. He has a picture of himself prominently featured, with the title "author",  implying that he created the poems on the page. If you opened the pages in Netscape and looked at the page source , you could clearly see 

<!-- saved from url=(0040)http://ebb.ns.ca/myth/pandora/shower.htm -->

i.e. code indicating where he stole the poetry from. I already suspected Söderström of not being too bright as he posted my poems on his website with URLs that included my name, such as:

http://www.amazonpeople.com/artis/joy003.htm

I have lodged a formal complaint with his ISP asking that they enforce their TOS which specifically forbids unauthorized use of copy written work. The code fragment above and the design of the site make it clear that Söderström maliciously and deliberately violated my copyright and I am asking that his entire site be taken down.
Feb. 22, 2001 Received my contributor's copy of  In Our Own Words: A Generation Defining Itself Vol. 3, Marlow Peerse Weaver, Editor. They used "Homicidal Maniacs Eat My Face Off" which was first published in Jen Ross' Mentress Moon, the June, 1999 issue, a fact that did not make it into the finished volume.
Sept. 18, 2000 "Fall Daoshi", "In Praise of LSD (Laidback Sexy Dudes)" and "Rapunzel or the Rape of Poetry" appear in JACK Magazine, edited by Mary Sands.

May 1, 2000

 I have three poems published in the Wormwood Collective in the  Spring 2000 issue of the Absinthe Review (how could I resist submitting to an webzine with such a name.), "Penelope," "Medusa" and a previously unpublished poem not on this site, "Dreaming of Daniel."
April 28, 2000 Two of my Miksang photographs were part of a Miksang show held at the Shambhala Centre in Halifax.  Eventually this show featuring work by Michael Wood, the founder of Miksang, and 17 students will be traveling to Mt. Allison University near Moncton, New Brunswick and Denver, Colorado. I have a couple of my Miksang images on my bio and by clicking here you can also see work by the photographer who inspired me to start doing contemplative photography. Click here to see the images that are in the show.

March 20, 2000

 Spring arrived today and so did my contributor's copies of SnowApple! William Woolfit, the co-editor of SnowApple, also sent me a copy of Kestrel, another literature and arts journal and passed along notice that SnowApple is now reading for their next issue: Journeys in Appalachia (From Alabama to Newfoundland); they're  especially interested in receiving submissions of work by writers living in or originally from Quebec, New Brunswick and Newfoundland. SnowApple pays 2 contributor's copies and a subscription to the journal and you can email SnowApple at snowapplejournal@yahoo.com.

March 3, 2000

 Vote for the picture of me to go on the back cover of my book. Democracy worked for the cover and I am the least able person to choose as I have an allergic reaction to ALL pictures of me. Vote here.

Feb. 22, 2000

 The Erotica issue of Gravity is out! I've got a poem, a book review and a column in this one. 

Feb. 15, 2000

 Conspire's 2000 Women's Issue, edited by CK Tower, is published and I have two poems there, "Travaille" and "Projections." CK was the judge for the Gravity contest I won last fall and I bless her name every time I sit down to write at my new computer bought with the first prize money.

Feb. 14, 2000

 UK Publication date for the The Art of Haiku 2000, edited by Gerald England. In addition to a haiku of mine, this volume has articles on the writing of haiku and related genres, as well as original artwork. Purchase information can be found here.

Feb. 3, 2000

 Pat Ranzoni, a fellow Maine poet, alerted me that the inaugural issue of the literary journal,  SnowApple, has been published. I have a poem, "Aforethought" in it but am at the mercy of CanadaPost as to when I'll get my contributor's copies.

Jan. 24, 2000

 I'm one of the three featured poets of the week on the Poetry Super Highway. See below for more details.

Jan. 17, 2000

 I found out today that I have been voted, along with David Sutherland and Delree Rose as the Poetry Super Highway Favorite Featured Poet in 1999 Poetry Super Highway Awards (first time ever there was a three way tie). My favorite ezine, Gravity, received the Editor's Choice award.  I am honored to be in such company. My thanks to everyone who voted for me and to Rick Lupert for providing a wonderful forum for poetry.
Jan. 8, 2000 Incarnation 3.0 of the site goes live with two new folios,  a site map, new hero images for all nine folios and an all new design.  The entire site has been streamlined and contains many new poems not published on the old site.

The World's Smallest FAQ

The Book

 Nattering on the Sublime, my first volume of poetry with an introduction by raconteur, folk singer and labor activist Utah Phillips, will be coming out late Spring, 2001, from Newton's Baby.  This 96 page, perfect bound book with cover by Eric Boutilier-Brown is available at a special pre-release subscription price of $10 just by writing my publisher, John Carle.  Poets depend on small, independent presses to publish our work and small, independent presses depend on you buying books to stay in business. Patronize the arts; I promise not to mind and he who hesitates pays $11.95 plus 3.20 shipping. How's that for shameless self-promotion?

The Name

 I'm often asked if I'm related to Marguerite Yourcenar, the French poet, novelist, playwright, translator and first woman to be inducted into the prestigious Académie Française. The short answer is no but how did I end up with this unusual last name then?

I changed my name after getting divorced. Joy is a nickname my friends have called me for the past few years; Olivia is a variation of Olivette, my maternal grandmother's name. I spent a long time, over a year, thinking about a last name. I settled on Yourcenar in homage to a French writer I admire. It was only after I filed the name change that I learned that she too left her native land to live with  her love and that Yourcenar was an anagram of her birth name, Crayencour.  She had wanted a new name for her new life, just as I did, a serendipitous parallel that reaffirms my choice of a new surname