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.