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.