Jill Battson is an internationally published poet and poetry activist, and the Poet Laureate Emeritus of Cobourg, Ontario. She was responsible for creating and running the successful poetry reading series The Poets' Refuge and has initiated and produced many exciting poetry events. Jill is widely published across North America and the UK. Her first book, Hard Candy, was received to great acclaim and nominated for the Gerald Lampert Award. She has written plays and solo works, opera librettos, and electro acoustic sound projects. Dark Star Requiem, an oratorio for which Jill wrote the libretto, opened the 2010 Luminato Festival, and was recently published in book form.