Tuesday, April 22, 2014

May the 4th: Aaron Giovannone, Catherine Owen, Don McKay, Lisa Moore, Susan McCaslin

The writing at May 4th's LitLive is money-back guaranteed to be better than this. 

May the fourth be with you (that's the 'force that drives the green fuse' according to Dylan Thomas) as these five fantastic writers read at LitLive. We have winners or finalists for the Griffin Prize, Governor-Generals, the Man Book Prize, the Giller Prize as well as heavy metal musicians, loneliness machine creators and fiction, poetry, and memoir writers. And the entire shindig is hosted by the ever-engaging, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable, writer/broadcaster/journalist, Jeanie Macfarlane. 

Among Aaron Giovannone's publications is the poetry chapbook Castelliri (No Press, 2007). He is currently translating into English the poetry of twentieth-century Italian writer Sandro Penna. Originally from St. CatharinesOntario, Aaron has worked at the Università di Siena and lived in CastelliriItaly. He now lives in Calgary where he is completing a Ph.D. 

Catherine Owen is a Vancouver poet and writer, the author of nine collections of poetry. A book of essays and memoirs, Catalysts: Confrontations with the Muse, was published earlier this year. Catherine’s work has appeared in periodicals throughout CanadaAustria, NewZealand, and Australia. Her books and poems have been nominated for numerous awards, including the Gerald Lampert Award, the BC Book Prize, the ReLit Award, the George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature, Short Grain, and The Earle Birney Prize. Her last book of poetry, Frenzy (Anvil), won the Alberta Literary Award in 2009. She has a Masters degree in English and played bass in the metal bands Inhuman and Helgrind. Her current metal project is Medea.

Don McKay has published nuerous books of poetry and several books of essays. The poetry has been recognized with a number of awards, including two Governor-Generals' Awards and the Griffin Poetry Prize. His most recent book of essays,The Shell of the Tortoise, received the Winterset Prize for Excellence in Newfoundland and Labrador Writing for 2011. Paradoxides, his most recent book of poems, includes meditations on geology and deep time, while pursuing ongoing obsessions with birds and tools. He lives in St. John’sNewfoundland.

Lisa Moore is the bestselling author of the novels February, longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and Alligator, a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. Her third novel,Caught, will be published by House of Anansi Press in June 2013. She lives in St. John'sNewfoundland.

Susan McCaslin is a poet and Instructor of English at Douglas College inCoquitlamBC. She has published six volumes of poetry and edited the anthologies A Matter of Spirit: Recovery of the Sacred in Contemporary Canadian Poetry (Ekstasis, 1998) and Poetry and Spiritual Practice (St. Thomas Poetry Series, 2002). Three years ago she read at Lit Live from her 2011 book of poetry, Demeter Goes Skydiving. Two new books are coming out in 2014, The Disarmed Heart (poetry) and Into the Mystic (memoir). Susan lives in Port Moody, BC, with her husband and daughter.