Literary Stars Guide the Way in December at Lit Live

On Sunday, December 6th at 7:30 p.m. you're invited to a stellar line-up of poetry, history, and a powerhouse performance duo.

Anne Compton reads from her newest book of poems Asking questions indoors and out (Fitzhenry and Whiteside).

James Elliott takes us into battle during the War of 1812, with his latest book Strange Fatality: The Battle of Stoney Creek, recently published by Robin Brass Studio.

Allan Briesmaster brings the poetry of his new collection Confluences to Hamilton, released this month by Seraphim Editions.

The well-anthologized Shane Neilson brings his book Meniscus (Biblioasis) and his latest poetry to the Lit Live stage.

Liisa Ladouceur and Liz Worth (of Pack Animal) will read poetry in a special collaborative performance created exclusively for Lit Live.

Rocco de Gaicomo premieres his Quattro Books poetry collection Ten Thousand Miles Between Us.

Lit Live is a monthly reading series hosted by The Bread and Roses Cafe, in the Skydragon Centre, 27 King William Street, Hamilton, Ontario.

Anne Compton

Anne Compton's first poetry collection, Opening the Island, was nominated for the Margaret and John Savage First Book Award and won the Atlantic Poetry Prize in 2002. Thereafter, she won the Governor General's Award in 2005 for her collection Processional. Compton has also published criticism, including a book of interviews, Meetings with Maritime Poets (2006).

Her latest poetry book is Asking Questions Inside and Out (2008). She is an assistant professor at the University of New Brunswick. She is also the Director of the Lorenzo Reading Series at UNB, and serves on the New Brunswick Arts Board. She was a featured writer at the 2007 Maritime Writers' Workshop & Literary Festival in Fredericton. In 2008, she was awarded the Alden Nowlan Award for excellence in English language literary arts.

James Elliott

James Elliott is a Canadian journalist and author with a keen and abiding interest in early North American history. With the Hamilton Spectator he wrote widely on the War of 1812 on subjects ranging from the Bloody Assizes to the Burlington Races. He worked on several episodes of the CBC’s Gemini Award-winning Canada: A People’s History both as a consultant and a special skills extra. He is also the author of the critically acclaimed book If Ponies Rode Men. Elliott lives in Hamilton, Ontario, with his wife, Irene, four miles from the Stoney Creek battlefield.

Allan Briesmaster

Allan Briesmaster is a poet, freelance editor, and publisher, who lives in Thornhill, Ontario. He was the main organizer of the weekly Art Bar Poetry Reading Series in Toronto from 1993 to 2002, and has organized and hosted a variety of other literary events in the GTA over the past twenty years. He is the co-editor of the anthology Crossing Lines: Poets Who Came to Canada in the Vietnam War Era (Seraphim Editions, 2008). As an editor, he has been instrumental in the production of more than 70 books of poetry and non-fiction since 1998. Allan’s new book Confluences (Seraphim Editions (2009) represents his most wide-ranging and adventurous work to date. Its four parts have overlapping themes: reflections on what has come down to us from antiquity, encounters with the Canadian landscape, homages to eminent and writers and musicians, and explorations of such subjects as friendship, desire, and aging.

Shane Neilson

Shane Neilson published his first trade book of poems with Biblioasis this year, titled Meniscus. He has been anthologized in Braid and Shreve's In Fine Form and Carmine Starnino's The New Canon. He has been nominated for a National Magazine Award for poetry. He won the New Brunswick leg of the most recent CBC Poetry Face Off.

Liisa Ladouceur and Liz Worth

Liisa Ladouceur is a poet and arts reporter from Toronto. She is a member of the gothically-inclined Royal Sarcophagus Society collective, for which she has edited the anthology Nuit Blanche: Poems for Late Nights and curated literary/art special events. She likes to read aloud and has performed across North American on the Perpetual Motion Roadshow tour and in many Toronto venues from Harbourfront to the Bloor Cinema. A former zine editor, her culture reporting has has been widely published, she has been a regular contributor to MuchMoreMusic, CBC Radio and the like and she can be heard weekly on the all-horror podcast Rue Morgue Radio. Her first poetry collection, On Tenterhooks, a collection of verse about wanderlust, real-life monsters and dead relatives was published by Burning Effigy Press in 2008. She is currently completing a manuscript of pop music-inspired glosas.
www.therss.com/liisa

Liz Worth is a Toronto-based writer who has written surreal punk fiction about death and debauchery, an example of which is her new book Eleven: Eleven (Trainwreck Press). Worth is also the author of Treat Me Like Dirt: An Oral History of Punk in Toronto and Beyond, released in September 2009 (Bongo Beat). Her poetry can be found on the website ditch,. Worth has worked as a freelance writer and music journalist for numerous publications. She is one-half of the spoken word/experimental electronic music project Pack Animal. http://www.myspace.com/packanimal

Rocco de Giacomo

Rocco de Giacomo is a widely published poet whose work has most recently been accepted in the literary journals Vallum and The Carolina Quarterly and was recently published in The Antigonish Review and the Tower Poetry journal. In October 2009, his first full poetry collection, Ten Thousand Miles Between Us came out from Quattro Books. Also, Catching Dawn’s Breath (LyricalMyrical Press, Toronto) was launched in March of 2008. Rocco has also been a regular contributor of personal essays to Toro magazine. He is a member of the council for the Art Bar Poetry Series and a member of the bpNichol Coordinating Committee.