Sunday, January 4th, 2009

The New Year begins on the Fourth of January at 7:30 p.m. at Lit Live. Poetry calls and we've answered!

Jeramy Dodds brings us Crabwise to the Hounds, his breakout collection from Coach House Books.

Linda Frank guides our audience into Kahlo: The World Split Open, her second book from Buschek Books.

Ross Belot reads from his first book Swimming In the Dark, new poetry from Black Moss Press.

Valerie Nielsen takes us into Green Light, her latest collection of poetry from Potlatch Publications.

Jeramy Dodds

Jeramy Dodds lives in Orono, Ontario. His poems have been translated into Finnish, French, Latvian, Swedish, German and Icelandic. In 2007 he held a residency at the Baltic Centre for Writers and Translators on the island of Götland, Sweden. He is the winner of the 2006 Bronwen Wallace Memorial Award and the 2007 CBC Literary Award in poetry. He works as a research archaeologist and co-edits for littlefishcartpress. His first collection of poetry Crabwise to the Hounds was published by Coach House Books in 2008.

Linda Frank

Linda Frank grew up in Montreal but has lived in Hamilton since 1977. She holds a BA from McGill and an MA in Sociology from McMaster. She is an executive member of the Hamilton Poetry Centre and is presently the Coordinator of the General Arts and Science Program at Mohawk College in Hamilton where she also teaches social science. She attended the Sage Hill Poetry Colloquium in 1998 and the Banff Writing Studio in 2008. Linda has won several poetry contests and a Hamilton and Region Arts Council Award. She has published three chapbooks: Taste the Silence; ...It Takes A Train To Cry; and Orpheus Descending. Her first full collection of poetry, Cobalt Moon Embrace came out in 2002. Her most recent book Kahlo: The World Split Open (from Buschek Books) is a poetic reflection on the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo who broke ground for women painters in much the way Sylvia Plath or Anne Sexton broke ground for female poets.

Ross Belot

Ross Belot lives in Hamilton. His poetry has been published in local literary journals such as Hammered Out and The Tower. He started writing seven years ago by taking classes at McMaster's Creative Writing Program and credits teachers there such as Bob Neilsen and Marilyn Gear Pilling with encouraging his writing. In 2006 he was accepted into the Banff Centre's Wired Writing Studio. The result was his first poetry collection, Swimming in the Dark, published in 2008 by Black Moss Press.

Valerie Nielsen

Born in England, Valerie Nielsen immigrated to Canada with her family in 1951. She has a background in teaching, counseling and ministry, and for many years has led workshops on personal growth, creativity and spirituality. She currently facilitates a writing circle group at The First Unitarian Church of Hamilton. Her most recent book of poetry is Green Light from Potlatch Publications.

Sunday December 7, 2008

Before Christmas completely obliterates Canadian brain cells, Lit Live gives you five more brushes with literary grandeur on December 7th. Please click on the links to the right for more info on each writer. (Or scroll down this page.) And remember, 7:30 p.m. is show time!

Wesley Bates gives us the inside story with his memoir In Black and White from Gaspereau Press.

Sally Cooper reads excerpts of her new novel Tell Everything, from Dundurn Press.

Elaine Kalman Naves presents her biography Robert Weaver: Godfather of Canadian Literature, published by Vehicule Press.

Margaret Christakos reads from her latest poetry collection What Stirs, from Coach House Books.

Kyle Buckley delves into The Laundromat Essays, published by Coach House Books.

Wesley Bates

Wesley Bates was born in the Yukon and raised in Saskatchewan. He now lives in Clifford, Ontario, where he runs West Meadow Press. Known primarily as a wood engraver, Bates’ work has been commissioned by numerous publishers, including Penguin, Random House, McClelland & Stewart, The Porcupine’s Quill and Gaspereau Press.

In Black & White is Bates’ account of his career as a freelance illustrator. Beginning with his earliest inspirations in the pages of books browsed in childhood, Bates recalls his first set of wood-engraving tools, his first and subsequent commissions, becoming established in the Hamilton arts scene, and his collaboration with friends and acquaintances in the private press and publishing communities. He tells the stories behind several book projects and commissioned works, including illustrating W.O. Mitchell’s The Black Bonspiel of Willie McCrimmon for McClelland & Stewart, George Elliott Clarke’s award-winning Execution Poems for Gaspereau Press and the lasting friendship that developed in the process of illustrating the work of American poet and essayist Wendell Berry.

Sally Cooper

Sally Cooper grew up in Inglewood, Ontario, population 400. She has an M.A. in English Literature from the University of Guelph, and has published widely in such places as Shift, Blood & Aphorisms, Carousel, The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star and eye weekly. Her first novel, Love Object, came out in 2002 to critical acclaim. She wrote her second novel, Tell Everything, with the support of The Canada Council for the Arts and The Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico. She lives and writes in Hamilton, Ontario.

Elaine Kalman Naves

Elaine Kalman Naves was born in Budapest, Hungary, and immigrated to Canada in 1959 as a child. She attended McGill and Bishop’s Universities, and worked as an editor and researcher at the Centre d’Etude de Québec during the 1970s. She now writes a book column and literary features for the Montreal Gazette and also freelances widely. Naves is the author of a work of narrative non-fiction entitled Journey to Vaja: Reconstructing the World of a Hungarian-Jewish Family and a collection of biographical sketches of prominent Montreal authors called The Writers of Montreal. She is also the editor of two scholarly works in Canadian history. Her latest book is Robert Weaver: Godfather of Canadian Literature. This book is about the noted Canadian literary critic who died in early 2008. Naves created a two-part series for CBC Radio One last February on Weaver’s life and work.

Margaret Christakos

Margaret Christakos is a poet and fiction writer living in Toronto whose work has shown consistent interest in recombinant poetics, process writing and seriality. She has published six collections of poetry and one novel, and has given readings and seminars from her work since 1989. Her book Excessive Love Prostheses was awarded the 2003 ReLit Award for Poetry. ARC Magazine wrote of her 2005 collection Sooner: “So much to praise here: the writing is rich with fresh, startling urban imagery; the shifts of register and tone keep the reader on his or her toes; the handling of the disjunctive narrative/lyric line keep the poems kinetic yet filled with tension, restless, questing.”

Christakos has worked as a literary educator in various contexts over many years: Presently, she is part of the U. of T. School of Continuing Studies Creative Writing Program, where she teaches creative writing and facilitates the lecture/reading series “Influency: A Toronto Poetry Salon.”

Kyle Buckley

Kyle Buckley lives and writes in Toronto. He studied at York and the University of Calgary, and has taught creative writing at Ryerson University. He currently works at Type Books in Toronto and is a member of the Scream Literary Festival executive. He is a past winner of the now-defunct Queen Street Quarterly poetry contest. The Laundromat Essay is his first book.

Sunday November 2nd, 2008

Lit Live shakes up the mix with fiction and poetry in November! Please click on the links to the right for more info on each writer! (Or scroll down this page.)

Katherine Lawrence reads from her second poetry collection Lying to Our Mothers from Coteau Books.

Betsy Struthers shows us Where the Night Comes Closest, her latest poetry book from Black Moss Press.

Andrew Steinmetz presents his first novel Eva's Threepenny Theatre, published by Gaspereau Press in October 2008.

Kate Story performs selections from her first novel Blasted from Killick Press.

Nitin Deckha reads from his collection of short stories, Shopping for Sabzi, recently released by TSAR Publications.

Rocco de Giacomo reveals the secret to Catching Dawn's Breath, his recent poetry collection from LyricalMiracle Press.

Katherine Lawrence

Katherine Lawrence published her first collection of poetry in 2001 with Coteau Books - Ring Finger, Left Hand and won a Saskatchewan Book Award that same year. Her second book, Lying to Our Mothers, was published in 2006 by Coteau Books. This book was a Saskatchewan Book Award finalist. Katherine's poetry has been published in numerous literary journals across Canada, and has been broadcast on CBC Radio. Originally from Hamilton, Katherine has lived in Saskatoon since 1982. She works at the Royal University Hospital Foundation in Saskatoon as a fundraiser and communications advisor.

Betsy Struthers

Betsy Struthers has published eight books of poetry and three novels as well as co-editing an anthology of essays about teaching poetry. In 2004 she won the Pat Lowther Memorial Award for the best book of poetry by a Canadian woman. In 1994 she received the Silver Medal in the Milton Acorn People’s Poetry Award. She was short-listed for the Arthur Ellis Best First Novel Award in 1993. A past president of the League of Canadian Poets, she has read her work across Canada as well as in Australia and the USA. Her poems and fiction have been published in many anthologies (most recently, In Fine Form: The Canadian Book of Form Poetry and Going Top Shelf: An Anthology of Canadian Hockey Poetry). She teaches writing to students of all ages from kindergarten to adults. A resident of Peterborough since 1977, Struthers works for Broadview Press as a freelance editor. Her latest book is Where the Night Comes Closest from Black Moss Press.

Andrew Steinmetz

Andrew Steinmetz is the author of a memoir, Wardlife: The Apprenticeship of a Young Writer as a Hospital Clerk and two collections of poetry, Histories and Hurt Thyself. Steinmetz’s work has been shortlisted for the Edna Staebler Award, the Quebec Writers Federation (QWF) First Book Award, the Mavis Gallant Prize for non-fiction, and the A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry. Presently Steinmetz is the editor of Esplanade Books, the fiction imprint at Véhicule Press. He lives in Ottawa.

Kate Story

Originally from Newfoundland, Kate Story is a writer, performer, and choreographer. She creates works characterized by elements of dance, theatre and performance art, often in collaboration with artists from other disciplines. She has been twice nominated for the Ontario Arts Council’s K.M. Hunter Artists Award. Her short stories have been published in Broken Pencil, Kiss Machine, Takeout, and are forthcoming in Broken Pencil’s Best Fiction Anthology from ECW Press. Her first novel Blasted came out with Killick Press in the fall of 2008.

Nitin Deckha

Nitin Deckha was born in London, England, and raised in Toronto. His stories have appeared in the York University journal Existere, in Anokhi magazine, and at www.sulekha.com. Deckha holds a PhD in Anthropology from Rice University, Houston and teaches social sciences in Toronto. His journalism occasionally appears in Desi Life, a Toronto Star magazine. His first collection of stories, Shopping for Sabzi was published by TSAR publications in 2008.

Rocco de Giacomo

Rocco de Giacomo’s work has appeared most recently in ARC Poetry Magazine, CV2, and Magma Poetry (UK). His fifth and latest collection of poems, Catching Dawn's Breath (LyricalMyrical Press, Toronto) was launched in March of 2008. Rocco is a member of the council for the Art Bar Poetry Series and a member of the bpNichol Committee. He lives with his wife Lisa in Toronto.
You can contact him at www.roccodg.com.

Sunday, October 5th at the Lit Live Reading Series

October's Lit Live presents the winners of our Creative Keyboards short fiction contest. Congratulations to Judith Millar and Erin Aspenlieder! We look forward to hearing a story by each of our winning writers on October 5th. This month's show also includes:

Randall Maggs reading from Night Work: the Sawchuk Poems, published by Brick Books.

Adam Getty presenting poetry from his latest book Repose, published by Nightwood Editions.

Catherine Graham bringing us the poetry of The Red Element, published in 2008 by Insomniac Press.

Andrew Hood debuting his first collection of short fiction Pardon Our Monsters, from Esplanade Books.

Don't miss this one!

Randall Maggs

Born in Vancouver, Randall Maggs grew up on the move in an Air Force family. After joining up himself for a brief period as a flyer, he left the service to travel through Europe and North Africa and to return to university to do graduate work at Dalhousie and UNB. For the last thirty years, he has lived on the west coast of Newfoundland, teaching Literature and Creative Writing at Memorial’s Grenfell College. With Irish poet John Ennis and Stephanie McKenzie, Maggs edited two anthologies, However Blow the Winds, containing Irish and Newfoundland poetry and song, and The Echoing Years, containing Irish and Canadian poetry. Maggs is the Artistic Director of Newfoundland’s March Hare, the largest literary festival in Atlantic Canada.

His most recent collection, Night Work: The Sawchuk Poems (Brick Books) was launched in Canada at the Canadian Hockey Hall of Fame and in Ireland at the Canadian Embassy in Dublin. According to the author and Globe and Mail sports columnist, Stephen Brunt, Night Work may be the “truest hockey book ever written. It reaches a level untouched by conventional sports literature.” The book has aroused more than a little interest in both the sports and literary worlds. It has been featured in the sports sections of many major newspapers, including the National Post and the Montreal Gazette. At the same time, it was selected for the cover review in the Globe and Mail’s Books section.

Adam Getty

Adam Getty is the author of two books of poetry. His first collection, Reconciliation, received the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award and the Hamilton Literary Award for Poetry, as well as being shortlisted for the Trillium Poetry Award. Some of his writing was included in Breathing Fire 2: Canada’s New Poets. His most recent book is Repose from Nightwood Editions. Adam has worked in a number of different industrial occupations, including hog slaughtering, machining in a tool-and-die shop, rail-cutting, and shipping in a food warehouse. He attended the University of Toronto but left without taking a degree. He currently lives in Hamilton.

Catherine Graham

Catherine Graham is the author of three poetry collections: The Watch, Pupa and The Red Element. She teaches creative writing at the University of Toronto where she was nominated for an Excellence in Teaching Award. Her work has been published in Poetry Ireland Review, The New Quarterly, The Literary Review of Canada, Parameter Magazine (UK) and in The Fiddlehead. As a creativity consultant, Catherine has led workshops at GlaxoSmithKline, BookExpo, York University and Environics Communications. She is Vice President of Project Bookmark Canada and Marketing Coordinator for the Rowers Pub Reading Series. Her most recent book is The Red Element (Insomniac Press, 2008)

Judith Millar

Judith Millar is a writer of short stories, personal essays, poems, song lyrics and magazine articles. She has won numerous awards for her creative writing, including first prize in the Alice Munro Short Story Contest (2006); a shared first prize in the poetry category of The Word Guild Canadian Writing Awards (2007); and first prize in the Toronto Sun Essay contest (2000). A former corporate communications manager, she moved to Nanaimo, BC from Kitchener, Ontario in 2007. Her story “The Green Box” won First Prize in this year’s Arts Hamilton Creative Keyboards contest.
 

Andrew Hood

Andrew Hood, winner of the Danuta Gleed Literary Award, graduated from Concordia University with a double major in literature and creative writing. There, he won the Irving Layton Award for Undergraduate Fiction and his stories have appeared in Concordia’s Soliloquies and in the anthology Headlight.
Pardon Our Monsters is his first book and was published by Esplanade Books in 2007. He lives in Guelph, Ontario.

Erin Aspenlieder

Until Erin Aspenlieder turned 18 she lived in the country. Since then, she has moved to Hamilton where she is part of Graduate English Creative Writing Group. She is also working on a PhD in English at McMaster. Her story "A Momentous Occasion" took second place in this year’s Arts Hamilton Creative Keyboards contest. As well, her story "Reverberations – A Sound" won third prize in the Creative Keyboards contest.

Lit Live Returns September 7, 2008!

You can run but you can't hide from our big literary line-up for September 2008. On the first Sunday of the month, September 7th . . .

John Donlan brings us poetry from his latest collection Spirit Engine, published by Brick Books.

Rozena Maart reads from The Writing Circle, her exciting new novel, brought out in 2007 by TSAR (Toronto South Asian Review) publications.

Mary Ann Mulhern presents When Angels Weep, her newest book of poetry from Black Moss Press.

Lolette Kuby reads from her collection of short fiction Out of Cleveland, published by Vehicule Press.

Keith Garebian presents poetry from his latest book, Blue: The Derek Jarman Poems, published by Signature Editions.

Ted Schmidt brings us his writing on a variety of social and spiritual issues with his book Journeys to the Heart of Catholicism from Seraphim Editions.

John Donlan

A native of Baysville, in Ontario’s Muskoka region, John Donlan is a poetry editor with Brick Books. He spends half the year as a reference librarian at the Vancouver Public Library, and the other half writing poetry near Godfrey, Ontario. His collections of poetry are Domestic Economy (Brick Books, 1990, reprinted 1997), Baysville (House of Anansi Press, 1993), Green Man (Ronsdale Press, 1999), and Spirit Engine (Brick Books, 2008). You can contact John on the web at
http://www.onlink.net/johndonlan/

Rozena Maart

Rozena Maart was born and raised in District Six, Cape Town, South Africa. In 1987 she was nominated South Africa’s “Woman of the Year” for her work in the area of violence against women and for starting, with four other women, South Africa’s first Black feminist organization, Women Against Repression. She moved to Canada in 1989. Maart won the 1992 Journey Prize for Short Fiction. Rosa's District Six made the weekly bestseller list in 2006 in Canada and the same year it made the HOMEBRU list in South Africa. Her novel The Writing Circle was published in December 2007 in Canada and in May 2008 in South Africa; it is being made into a feature film. Rozena Maart writes short stories, poetry, novels and now entering a new terrain as a screen writer. She has a PhD from the University of Birmingham and currently lives in Guelph, Ontario.

Mary Ann Mulhern

Mary Ann Mulhern is a former nun in the Roman Catholic Church who left the convent to become a teacher in Windsor, Ontario. Her first book, The Red Dress, launched her career as a poet. She has been featured on the national CBC Radio program Tapestry, and has been profiled in The Toronto Star and other media across Canada. Her second book, Touch The Dead, was short listed for the 2007 Acorn Plantos People’s Poetry Award. Her latest book, When Angels Weep deals with one of the most damaging and controversial issues that faces the Roman Catholic Church and the largest settlement for sexual abuse in Canada’s history. The book tells the stories of four victims of the late Father Charles Sylvestre, who was found guilty of 47 counts of sexual abuse.

Lolette Kuby

Lolette Kuby landed in Canada in 1999 after quitting her job at the English department of the Cleveland State University. During her first year in Toronto, she taught at Humber College. Her full-length collection of poems, Set Down Here came out in 2002, and another collection, Inwit, appeared in 2003. Her other books include An Uncommon Poet for the Common Man: A Study of Philip Larkin's Poetry, and Faith and the Placebo Effect: An Argument for Self-healing.

Her first collection of short stories, Out of Cleveland was released in April 2007 by Vehicule Press.

Capable of both humorous self-deprecation and bitter sarcasm, Kuby’s heroines pursue the truth with a resilient curiosity. Kuby is a member of PEN America.

Keith Garebian

Keith Garebian’s writing has been published in over eighty newspapers, magazines, journals, and anthologies. He is the author of three works of literary criticism, nine books on theatre, and has produced production histories for five classic Broadway musicals. He has written three collections of poetry, including Blue: The Derek Jarman Poems and Frida: Paint Me As A Volcano. The latter collection had simultaneous French translation by Governor-General Nominee Arlette Franciere, and was nominated for the ReLit Award for Poetry.

Among his many honours are the 2000 Mississauga Arts Award for Writing, the Lakeshore Arts & Scarborough Arts Council Poetry Award (2003), a Dan Sullivan Memorial Poetry Award (2006), and awards for haiku and free verse from The Ontario Poetry Society. He was the first-ever critic-at-large at a public library — at the Mississauga Public Library from 2000 to 2003.

Ted Schmidt

Ted Schmidt is the recently retired editor of the Catholic New Times. He has given workshops on the social justice and biblical ethics from Kitimat B.C. to Stephenville, Nfld.

In a lifetime of teaching he has been honoured by religion teachers and colleagues, receiving

• the Ontario English Teachers' Award of Merit,
• the Glorya Nanne award for his writing on Catholic education
• the Social Justice Award from the Toronto Secondary Catholic Teachers Association
• the Greer Memorial Award from the or his "outstanding commitment to publicly funded education."

A pioneer in Holocaust studies, Schmidt was the first teacher in Canada to systematically teach the Holocaust (1968) An award winning columnist for the Catholic New Times, Ted Schmidt has written and spoken widely across Canada on the topics of Church and culture.

Lit Live has gone fishin'

For July and August, Lit Live is on vacation. Please join us on Sunday September 7th for more exciting literary performances at the Sky Dragon Centre (27 King William Street) in Hamilton.

Our September line-up will include Lolette Kuby, John Donlan, Ted Schmidt, Keith Garebian, Rozena Maart, and Mary Ann Mulhern.

See you then!

Fiction and Poetry in June!

On Sunday, June the First, 2008, Lit Live presents new writing from six top talents!

Glen Dresser reads from his first novel, Correction Road, published in 2007 by Oberon Press.

Jean Rae Baxter delves into the mystery of a lost play that might be by Shakespeare in Looking for Cardenio, published in 2008 by Seraphim Editions.

Phlip Arima presents his latest poetry collection, Breathe Now from Buschek Books.

Luciano Iacobelli brings the poetry of The Angel Notebook (Seraphim Editions) to Hamilton.

Maxianne Berger reads from Dismantled Secrets, her latest poetry collection, published by Wolsak and Wynn.

Clara Blackwood gives us poetry from her first full-length collection, Subway Medusa, published by Guernica Editions.

Glen Dresser

Glen Dresser was born in 1977 and grew up on a farm near the small prairie town of Carbon, Alberta. He later studied journalism and technical writing at Mount Royal College. With his wife, he runs a gallery and bookstore in Calgary that specializes in illustration and design. He has written everything from greeting cards to books on exhibitions. His first novel Correction Road was short-listed for the City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize. Correction Road was published in 2007 by Oberon Press.

Jean Rae Baxter

Jean Rae Baxter turned to full-time writing after a career in education. Her original intention was to write for young adults, but she quickly discovered a talent for noir. Her fiction has been widely published literary journals and anthologies and she recently won the Silver Hammer award for short fiction. Seraphim Editions published her debut short story collection, A Twist of Malice in 2005. In 2007, Ronsdale Press published her young-adult historical novel, The Way Lies North. Her latest novel in the noir vein is Looking for Cardenio. Jean holds a B.A and an M.A. in English from the University of Toronto and a B.Ed from Queen’s. The mystery of Shakespeare’s lost play Cardenio has fascinated her ever since she took a course in Shakespeare’s late plays as part of her work on her Master’s degree. Jean is one of the organizers of the LiT Live Reading series. You can visit Jean at http://www.jeanraebaxter.ca/

Phlip Arima

Phlip Arima's first two books of poetry, Beneath the Beauty (1996) and Damaged (1998); and his book of short stories, Broken Accidents (2003) were published by Insomniac Press. His poetry videos have aired on both Bravo and Vision television. His work has been well anthologized, most notably in Poetry Nation (Vehicule Press, 1998) and In Our Own Words (MW Enterprises, 2002). A resident of Toronto, he was short-listed for a 2004 ReLit Award. He is a former director of the Art Bar Poetry Series and was co-organizer of The Basement reading series.
His latest book of poetry is Breathe Now (BuschekBooks) -- a collection of image-driven poems dealing with both individual and global socio-political issues. You can visit Phlip at www.phliparima.com

Luciano Iacobelli

Luciano Iacobelli was born in 1956 in Toronto. While earning a degree in Education from York University, he studied English Literature and attended writing courses taught by Frank Davey and Don Coles. In 1986 his first play The Porch was staged in Toronto, followed in 1988 by a one-man show entitled Byrdbrain. Throughout the 1990's he focused on art and painting and was involved in a number of group shows featuring Italian-Canadian artists. In 1990 he founded Lyricalmyrical Press, which specializes in handcrafted chapbooks. Luciano is one of the organizers of the Toronto Wordstage reading series, and a partner in Quattro Books. The author of six chapbooks, The Angel Notebook, from Seraphim Editions, is his first full-length collection of poetry.

Maxianne Berger

Maxianne Berger’s poems have appeared in numerous anthologies and literary journals such as In Fine Form (Polestar, 2005) and Carpe Diem: anthologie canadienne du Haiku / A Canadian Anthology of Haiku (David & Borealis, 2008). She likes juggling words and phrases: recent publications include a plunder-paradelle in dANDelion and a trans-cento in The New Quarterly. A montréalaise anglophone, she is active in the French and English haiku and tanka communities, reviewing for Gusts and writing about poetics for the Revue du tanka francophone. With Angela Leuck, she co-edited Sun Through the Blinds: Montreal Haiku Today (Shoreline, 2003). Maxianne Berger’s first book of poems, How We Negotiate (Empyreal, 1999) appeared in French as Compromis (des forges, 2006) in a translation by Florence Buathier. She has served as the Quebec representative for The League of Canadian Poets and as a mentor in the Quebec Writers’ Federation’s mentorship program. When not involved in writing, she is an audiologist at the McGill University Health Centre.

Clara Blackwood

Clara Blackwood is a Toronto-based writer. Her first book of poetry, Subway Medusa, was published by Guernica Editions in December 2007. From 1998 to 2004, Clara ran the monthly Syntactic Sunday Reading Series at the Free Times Café in Toronto.

Six Readers for May 4, 2008

Gary Gottfriedson reads from Whiskey Bullets, published by Ronsdale Press.

Johanna Skibsrud presents Late Nights with Wild Cowboys, from Gaspereau Press

Editor and poet Paul Sutherland introduces Dream Catcher, a top-tier UK literary journal with Canadian and international connections.

M.E. Csamer reads from Light is What We Live In, from Artful Codger Press.

Domenico Capilongo brings us his first collection, I thought elvis was italian, a spring publication from Wolsak and Wynn.

Karen Houle reads from her new book of poems, During, recently released by Gaspereau Press.

Garry Gottfreidson

A member of the Secwepemc First Nation, Gottfriedson was born, raised, and lives in Kamloops, British Columbia. He is a self-employed rancher with a Masters degree in Education from Simon Fraser University. His published works include In Honor of Our Grandmothers: Imprints of Cultural Survival (Theytus Books, 1994), 100 Years of Contact (Secwepemc Cultural Education Society, 1990), Glass Tepee (Thistledown Press, 2002), nominated for First People's Publishing Award 2004, and Painted Pony (Partners in Publishing, 2005), his first children’s story. He has read from his work across North America and Europe, and recently, in Taiwan.

Johanna Skibsrud

Johanna Skibsrud was born in Meadowville, Nova Scotia, and completed her MA in English and Creative Writing at Montreal’s Concordia University in 2005. Her work has appeared in Prism International, Exile, The Antigonish Review, and is forthcoming in The Fiddlehead. Her first collection of poetry, Late Nights with Wild Cowboys was published in April, 2008 by Gaspereau Press. The title poem, like many of the poems within the collection, follows the narrator’s search for a way of living and understanding the world that is constantly both more exact and exacting. In 2006, Johanna was runner-up in Lichen’s “Tracking a Serial Poet” contest, and placed first in the Stickman Review’s short fiction contest. Her limited-edition chapbook, The Electric Man, was published in 2005 through Delirium Press. Johanna is currently working on a novel, and will begin a doctorate program in English at the University of New Brunswick in the fall. (Photo by Moez Surani.)

Paul Sutherland

Paul Sutherland grew up in Hamilton and published his first collection, Winter Poems in 1970. He emigrated to the UK in 1973. There, he published four collections of his own work and edited books by six other poets. His Seven Earth Odes and Holy Week Sequence (both published in 2004) were highly praised by British authors, the US-Croatian poet Mario Susko and by the editor of the Times Literary Supplement, Jules Smith. Paul Sutherland is the founding editor of Dream Catcher, a respected international journal based in the UK. His work has appeared in UK journals such as Brando’s Hat, Pennine Platform, and in Poetry New Zealand and the Nassau Review in the US. His poems have recently been anthologized in North Yorkshire 199, Tales of the Fox, Spires and Steeples and Pendulum. He has work forth-coming in the International Other Voices Anthology. His latest manuscript is entitled Journeyings.

M. E. Csamer

M. E. Csamer has been widely published in Canadian literary magazines. Her first collection Paper Moon appeared in 1998. A former board member of the ArtBar poetry reading series in Toronto, she is also past president of the League of Canadian Poets. In 2005 Artful Codger Press published her poetry book Light is What We Live In). A novella, A Month Without Snow, is slated for publication in October by Hidden Brook Press as part of a series entitled North Shore, south of 401, featuring writers from Port Hope to Kingston.

Domenico Capilongo

Domenico Capilongo was born in Toronto in 1972 and grew up in Vancouver and Swift Current, Saskatchewan before returning to Toronto. He is a karate instructor as well as a former Ontario Karate Champion and National Black Belt Medalist. He has lived in Japan and traveled throughout Asia. He teaches high school creative writing and alternative education. His work has appeared in journals and anthologies in Canada and abroad. In 2004, he won Honourable Mention in The Toronto Star Poetry Contest and his work has been nominated for The Journey Prize. He lives in Toronto with his wife and two sons. HIs first collection of poetry, I thought elvis was italian, was published by Wolsak and Wynn in April 2008.

Karen Houle

Karen Houle is an associate professor in Philosophy at the University of Guelph. Houle’s first collection of poetry, Ballast, was nominated for the Gerald Lampert Award in 2001. Her essay “Double Arc” was published in Dropped Threads 2. (Photo by Dean Palmer)

gritLIT comes to Lit Live in April 2008

This month Lit Live joins the gritLIT festival, presenting poets, fiction writers and artists from across Canada as part of Hamilton's major annual literary event. Click the links on the right to see who's coming!

Steve McOrmond

Steve McOrmond was born in Nova Scotia and grew up on Prince Edward Island. His poems have been published internationally in literary magazines and online at Maisonneuve, nthposition (UK) and Jacket (Australia). His work also appears in the anthology Breathing Fire 2: Canada's New Poets. His first book of poetry, Lean Days, was short listed for the 2005 Gerald Lampert Award. His second collection, Primer on the Hereafter, was awarded the 2007 Atlantic Poetry Prize. He lives in Toronto.

Shari Lapeña

Shari Lapeña worked as a lawyer and as an English teacher before turning to writing fiction. She is a graduate of The Humber School for Writers, where her mentor was David Adams Richards. An excerpt from her first novel, Things Go Flying, appeared in the Spring 2005 issue of The Dalhousie Review. She won the Globe and Mail’s Great Toronto Literary Project contest, and was short listed for the 2006 CBC Literary Awards. She lives in Toronto and is currently at work on her second novel, The Poets’ Preservation Society.