Tuesday, October 11, 2011

On Sunday November 6th Lit Live Strikes Again!

In November, Lit Live helps the gritLIT Literary Festival launch its new anthology of contest winners, by presenting Jamie Dopp and Elana Wolff and their award-winning writing. Join us and also hear Stan Rogal, Norma Charles, Alexandra Oliver, and Cornelia Hoogland read from their newest publications. Start time is 7:30 p.m. at the newly renovated Homegrown Hamilton venue, on the first floor of the Skydragon Centre: 27 King William Street in Hamilton. See you then!

Stan Rogal

Stan Rogal is the author of seventeen books: four novels, three collections of short stories, and ten books of poetry. A set of fifty selected poems entitled Dance, Monster appeared in May, 2011 from Insomniac Press. His latest novel Bloodline was also published by Insomniac this year. Born in Vancouver, Stan Rogal obtained a B.A. from Simon Fraser University, majoring in English and doing a double minor in Philosophy and Theatre. He moved to Toronto in 1987, where he completed an M.A. in English at York University. He ran the popular Idler Pub Reading Series for ten years and was the co-creator of Bald Ego Theatre.

Cornelia Hoogland

Cornelia Hoogland published two books of poetry in 2011, Woods Wolf Girl (from Wolsak and Wynn) and Crow (from Black Moss Press). Hoogland’s poetry has been shortlisted for the CBC literary award several times. The nominations were for selections from Cuba Journal (Black Moss Press, 2003) and for her her second and third books of poetry, You Are Home (Black Moss Press, 2001) and Marrying the Animals (Brick Books, 1995). Her recent awards include 2009 finalist for the Stephen Dunn Poetry Award in the USA; the Malahat Review Long Poem Competition; and Descant’s 2008 Winston Collins Best Canadian Poem. Hoogland is the founder and artistic director of Poetry London, an organization that brings prominent writers into lively discussion with London writers and readers. She teaches at the University of Western Ontario.

Alexandra Oliver

Alexandra Oliver was born in Vancouver and currently lives in Toronto. She has been nominated for a CBC Literary Award and the Pushcart Prize. Her poetry regularly appears in journals worldwide, and her first collection, Where the English Housewife Shines, was published in 2007 in London, England. She has performed her poems at Lollapalooza and The National Poetry Slam, and on CBC Radio One and National Public Radio, and was a featured performer and interviewee in the 1998 documentary, Slam Nation. Oliver is currently completing an MFA at the University of Southern Maine and co-editing (with Annie Finch) an anthology of poetry in non-iambic meters. A second collection of poetry is forthcoming.

Elana Wolff

Elana Wolff’s suite of poems “Meridian,” was the First Prize winner in the Poetry category of the 2011 gritLIT Writing Competition. Elana has published three books of poetry with Guernica Editions, as well as a duologue and renga collection co-authored with the late Hamilton-born poet Malca Litovitz, and a collection of essays on poems by Toronto-area poets. Elana’s third book, You Speak to Me in Trees, was awarded the 2008 F. G. Bressani Prize for Poetry. Her fourth book of poetry, Startled Night, will be launched at the end of November.

Jamie Dopp

Jamie Dopp's poetry, fiction, reviews and scholarly articles have appeared in many periodicals and journals, including The Malahat Review, The Fiddlehead, and Essays on Canadian Writing. He has published two collections of poetry, On the Other Hand (1996) and The Birdhouse, or (2002) as well as a novel, Prospects Unknown (2000). In 2007 he organized an international conference on hockey called Canada and the League of Hockey Nations. Out of this conference came a collection of essays, co-edited with Richard Harrison, called Now is the Winter: Thinking about Hockey (2009). He continues to play oldtimers' hockey in Victoria. This summer, Dopp won the gritLIT Writing Competition in the Fiction category for his short story "Little Fish."

Norma Charles

Norma Charles is the author of many books for children including the Moonbeam Bronze Medal Award winner The Girl in the Backseat, the Chocolate Lily Award winner All the Way to Mexico, and her latest book, Run Marco, Run. Norma now lives in Vancouver where she often walks along its many beaches and wonders about the people on huge freighters that anchor out in the bay. You can visit Norma on the web at www.normacharles.ca.