Six New Books (with Writers) and an Anthology Launch Too!

On November 7th, Lit Live will feature six outstanding writers, newly published for your delight. Two are prize winners from the 2010 gritLIT Writing Competition whose work appears in the new anthology -- The Challenge of Three: Poetry and Fiction from the gritLIT Writing Competition. Reading from it are Betsy Struthers and Liz Harmer.

In addition, Keith Garebian, Paul Sutherland, Susan McMaster, and Ian Williams all have new books to share with us.

Betsy Struthers took first prize in the Poetry section of the gritLIT competition and as well has a new book of fiction called Relay, from Black Moss Press.

Liz Harmer was one of the winners in the Short Fiction section of the gritLIT competition.

Paul Sutherland brings his latest publication, Spires and Minarets from the UK to our Hamilton stage.

Ian Williams has a recent book of poetry. You Know Who You Are came out in the spring from Wolsak and Wynn. He also has a collection of short stories, Not Anyone's Anything, forthcoming from Freehand Books.

Susan McMaster reads from Paper Affair: Poems Selected & New (Black Moss 2010).

Keith Garebian makes his third visit to Lit Live, bringing with him poetry in the form of Children of Ararat (Frontenac House 2010).

Betsy Struthers

Betsy Struthers has written eight books of poetry and three novels. She was also co-editor and contributor to Poetry in the Classroom, a book of essays about teaching poetry. Struthers has won several awards for her work including First Prize in the Poetry section of the 2010 gritLIT Writing Competition, the 2004 Pat Lowther Award from the League of Canadian Poets, and the silver medal in the 1994 Milton Acorn Award. She has twice been short listed for the CBC Literary Award and was on the short list for the 1993 Arthur Ellis Best First Novel Award. Her poems and fiction have been published in many literary journals and anthologies, most recently

• Pith and Wry: Canadian Poetry
• In Fine Form: The Canadian Book of Form Poetry
• Going Top Shelf: An Anthology of Canadian Hockey Poetry.

She has taught writing workshops to students of all ages and has read her work in venues from Goose Bay, Labrador to Victoria, BC. A resident of Peterborough since 1977, Struthers works as a freelance editor of academic texts.

Liz Harmer

Liz Harmer grew up in Hamilton and currently lives in Toronto. She has worked at libraries, orchards and at Tim Hortons; she has tutored and studied and spent most of her time wishing she was writing instead. She has an M.A. in English from McMaster and a certificate in Creative Writing from the Humber School for Writers, mentored by Joan Barfoot. Currently, she is the stay-at-home mother to two young girls and somehow manages to stay productive. She is polishing stories and sending them out for publication, working at a memoir and a novel, drafting a few non-fiction pieces, and developing a thicker skin. Her story "Dying Media" placed third in the gritlit Writing Competition. In 1998, she won Hamilton's "Power of the Pen" contest for a second time. She blogs at profswife.wordpress.com.

Keith Garebian

Keith Garebian has published over 1200 reviews, interviews, and features in over 80 newspapers, journals, and magazines. He has also published 17 books, including four poetry collections, the latest being Children of Ararat (Frontenac House). He was longlisted for the Re-Lit Award for Frida: Paint Me As A Volcano (Buschek Books) and for the LAMDA Award for Blue: The Derek Jarman Poems. He has also won the Canadian Authors Association (Niagara Branch) Poetry Award (2009), the Naji Naaman Literary Honour Prize (Lebanon, 2009), the Mississauga Arts Award (2000 and 2008), and a Dan Sullivan Memorial Poetry Award (2006). One of the poems from his most recent book was selected Poem of the Month by the Parliamentary Poet Laureate in 2009. His second edition of The Making of 'Cabaret' is forthcoming from Oxford University Press (New York) in 2011, and he has begun work on a new biography of William Hutt. He lives in Mississauga and can be reached at www.stageandpage.com.

Ian Williams

Ian Williams completed his Ph.D. at the University of Toronto and is currently an Assistant Professor of American literature at Fitchburg State College in Massachusetts. His first book of poetry, You Know Who You Are, was recently published by Wolsak and Wynn, and his first collection of short stories, Not Anyone's Anything, is forthcoming from Freehand Books. His writing has appeared in Arc, Contemporary Verse 2, Rattle, jubilat, The Antigonish Review, Gargoyle, Pebble Lake Review, Callaloo, Descant, and Matrix Magazine. He is a Cave Canem fellow, a recipient of a Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts poetry residency, a Palazzo Rinaldi fiction residency in Italy, and was also a scholar at the National Humanities Center Summer Institute for Literary Study. He divides his time between Ontario and Massachusetts.

Paul Sutherland

Paul Sutherland, a Canadian-British poet, emigrated to the United Kingdom in 1973. He has written seven collections of poetry and has edited seven others. He is the founding editor of Dream Catcher, a distinguished international arts journal. He has read his poetry in public over a hundred and fifty times including twice at Lit Live. He attends festivals and leads workshops in creative writing for all ages and abilities. His poems have recently appeared in Sjama Ghazal Salaam UK, an anthology of Islamic-inspired contemporary British poetry, in The Mantle Adorned (an anthology) and in the Brownsbank Anthology celebrating the life of poet Hugh MacDiarmid. His Tennyson-inspired poems (2009) were displayed in Lincolnshire as part of the events commemorating the poet's bi-centenary. In the same year a poem of his was selected for Writing Your Self, (edited by Myra Schneider and John Killick,). He has a pamphlet Spires and Minarets just out from Sunk Island Publishing, 2010 and another collection Intimacies is planned for later in the year. He won the 2008 Nassau Review (US) Poetry Prize for best poem submitted to the journal and came 2nd in the English Association Poetry Prize in 2009. http://www.scribd.com/doc/29317530/Spires-and-Minarets

Susan McMaster

Ottawa poet and editor Susan McMaster has performed across Canada and abroad, and has published some 20 books and recordings, most recently Paper Affair: Poems Selected & New (Black Moss 2010). Her midlife memoir, The Gargoyle’s Left Ear: Writing in Ottawa (Black Moss, 2007), recounts her activism in the Canadian literary world. McMaster’s work has appeared widely in broadcast and electronic media and in literary publications at home and abroad. She was a featured poet, for example, at the Italian festivals Napolipoesia (2003) and Salernopoesia (2005). Her editing projects include

• Waging Peace: Poetry & Political Action
• Dangerous Graces: Women’s Poetry on Stage
• Bookware: Ottawa Valley Poets
• Siolence: Poets on Women, Violence & Silence
• and chapbooks such as Two Women Talking: Correspondence 1985–87, Erin Mouré and Bronwen Wallace.

She is currently Vice-President of the League of Canadian Poets.