Hagios Press launched Gary Hyland’s new poetry collection Hands Reaching in Water at the Moose Jaw Cultural Centre on May 3. More than 150 people attended and the Oak & Rose Book Shoppe sold more than 70 copies of the book. (Photo by Dolores Reimer)

Hyland has been the volunteer artistic director of the Festival of Words for more than a decade and is a founder of Coteau Books and the Sage Hills Writing Experience. For the launch Hyland enlisted five other poets from writing groups he’s worked with. Left to right: Robert Currie, Jim McLean, Byrna Barclay, Paul Wilson, and Gary Hyland.