Despite receiving word earlier this year that its transit partner in Vancouver would be unable to secure funding for the Poetry in Transit program moving forward, BooksBC announced this week that the 30-year-old program will be continuing in the city after all.

The annual project from BooksBC in partnership with TransLink and BC Transit marked its 30th anniversary last month. Each September, poems by 10 local poets are featured in the campaign, with bus cards featuring the poems mounted in transit vehicles across the province and on transit shelter ads in Vancouver. The project is the longest-running poetry-on-transit program in Canada.

On Oct. 21, BooksBC announced that TransLink, the transportation network in Metro Vancouver, had informed the publishers association earlier this year that it would not be able to secure funding for the program beyond the current 2026-27 year.

In response, local poets and community organizers launched a petition that quickly gathered more than 2,000 signatures, but only days after BooksBC’s initial announcement, TransLink announced that it would not be cancelling the program after all. The transit provider reviewed advertising space across its system and found a way to continue participating in the Poetry in Transit program, BooksBC said this week.

“We are over the moon about this development,” BooksBC program manager Asna Shaikh said in a press release. “For the last three decades, Books BC has worked hard to bring homegrown poetry to transit riders in Vancouver and the rest of the province. Poetry in Transit showcases BC poets, published by Canadian publishers, truly highlighting the Canadian cultural sovereignty we need to celebrate at this crucial time. And we are grateful that TransLink agrees.”