Lit Live Joins Hamilton's Literary Festival!

April is always a special month in our year. On Sunday April 1st Lit Live shares the stage with the gritLIT Literary Festival, presenting authors who have been invited to the biggest writerly shindig in the city. For your pleasure . . .

Glen Downie brings you his most recent poetry book: Local News , published by Wolsak & Wynn in 2011.

Susan Evans Shaw will introduce you to Canadians at War: A Guide to the Battlefields of World War One, from Goose Lane Editions in 2011.

Stuart Ross presents his new novel Snowball, Dragonfly, Jew, published in 2011 by ECW Press.

Amanda Jernigan lays the Groundwork in her new collection of poetry from Biblioasis

Chris Banks provides poetry from his latest collection, Winter Cranes, released in 2011 by ECW.

Trevor C. Smith tackles head on the world that the alienated youth face today in his first novel Year of the Rooster, published by Rebel Satori Press in 2010.

Glen Downie

Glen Downie has published half a dozen books of poetry and in 2008 he was awarded the Toronto Book Award for his collection, Loyalty Management. His work has appeared in the secondary school textbook Inside Poetry, as well as in many anthologies and journals. Formerly a social worker in cancer care, he served a term as writer-in-residence at Dalhousie University’s Medical Humanities Program before returning to a life of anonymity in Toronto as an at-home father. His most recent poetry book is Local News (Wolsak & Wynn, 2011).

Susan Evans Shaw

Until 1999, Susan Evans Shaw was a research technician in Health Sciences at McMaster University. She now applies herself to writing and history. Her father and husband were both geologists. Their influence helped cultivate her interest in the past, but the real catalyst was the discovery of her grandfather’s letters, written home during World War I. Susan and photographer Jean Crankshaw co-authored Heritage Treasures: The Historic Homes of Ancaster, Burlington, Dundas, East Flamborough, Hamilton, Stoney Creek and Waterdown published by James Lorimer & Company. The book won the 2004 Arts Hamilton Award for non-fiction. Susan’s second book, Canadians at War: A Guide to the Battlefields of World War I, with photographs by Jean Crankshaw and others, was published by Goose Lane Editions in 2011. (Photo by Janice Jackson.)

Stuart Ross

Stuart Ross published his first literary pamphlet on the photocopier in his dad’s office one night in 1979. Through the 1980s, he stood on Toronto’s Yonge Street wearing signs like “Writer Going To Hell: Buy My Books,” selling over 7,000 poetry and fiction chapbooks. A tireless literary press activist, he is the co-founder of the Toronto Small Press Book Fair and now a founding member of the Meet the Presses collective, Editor at Mansfield Press and Fiction & Poetry Editor at This Magazine. He is the author of two collaborative novels, two story collections and six full-length poetry books. He has also published a collection of essays, Confessions of a Small Press Racketeer (Anvil Press), and edited the anthology Surreal Estate: 13 Canadian Poets Under the Influence (The Mercury Press). His poetry collection Farmer Gloomy’s New Hybrid (ECW Press, 1999) was shortlisted for the 2000 Trillium Book Award. His story collection, Buying Cigarettes for the Dog (Freehand Books, 2009), won the 2010 ReLit Award for Short Fiction. In spring 2011, ECW Press released his first novel, Snowball, Dragonfly, Jew.

Amanda Jernigan

Amanda Jernigan is a poet, playwright, essayist, and editor. With her husband, the artist John Haney, she has produced limited-edition pamphlets and broadsides under the imprint Daubers Press. Her work has been published and performed in Canada, the U.S., and Europe, and is featured online in the archive of the Poetry Foundation. Her first book, Groundwork, was published by Biblioasis in 2011, and named to the National Public Radio list of Best Books of the year. She is currently at work on a new book of poems, slated to be published by Cormorant Books in 2013. She lives in Hamilton, Ontario. (Photo by John Haney.)

Chris Banks

Raised in the Ontario communities of Bancroft, Sioux Lookout, and Stayner, award-winning poet Chris Banks has published three poetry books. His first book was Bonfires (2003, Nightwood Editions) which received the 2004 Jack Chalmers Award for Poetry and was shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Award. His second book was The Cold Panes of Surfaces (2006, Nightwood). His latest poetry collection is Winter Cranes (ECW, 2011).

Trevor C. Smith

Trevor C. Smith is an artist in as many facets as he can manage. He is a commissioned painter and a tattoo artist. He is a graduate of the University of Hard Knocks with honors. Trevor lives in Toronto with his family. His first novel, Year of the Rooster dismantles the illusions of security, predictability and anonymity that pacify humankind. It exposes the common incarcerating binds of society: greed, the cubicle effect, and our contentious relationship with money.