December 2nd Reading: Starnino, Favro, Burgham, Tamerg, Rogal, and Lawson. Hosted by Jeff Mahoney.

ABOUT THE READERS: 

Carmine Starnino is a poet, essayist, critic and editor of Signal Editions (an imprint of Véhicule Press). His first poetry collection, The New World, was nominated for the 1997 QSPELL A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry and the 1997 Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. His second collection, Credo, won the 2001 Canadian Authors’ Association Prize for Poetry and the 2001 David McKeen Award for Poetry. His recent publications include With English Subtitles (GP, 2004), Lover’s Quarrel on criticism of Canadian poetry, and an anthology called The New Canon. He lives in Montreal. 

JonArno Lawson is a two-time winner of the Lion and the Unicorn Award for Excellence in North American Poetry. His most recent books are Down in the Bottom of the Bottom of the Box, Old MacDonald Had Her Farm, and There Devil, Eat That. He was born in Hamilton, grew up in Dundas, and now lives in Toronto with his wife, Amy, and three children, Sophie, Ashey, and JoJo. 

Ian Burgham has lived in both the UK and the South Pacific. He has been engaged in publishing as an editor, sales rep and publisher working in Scotland for Canongate Publishing and Macdonald Publishers, and in Canada, helped to found Grosvenor House Press. He has degrees in literature from both Queen’s University and the University of Edinburgh. Burgham’s The Grammar of Distance (Tightrope Books), was published in April of 2010. The publication follows two previous collections; A Confession of Birds, (MacLean Dubois, 2003) and The Stone Skippers, (Tightrope, 2007) which was nominated for a ReLit Award. His work has been published in the UK, Australia and New Zealand, and has appeared in most Canadian literary journals over the past few years. Burgham is working on a fourth collection, A Weight of Bees (Tightrope Books) which will be launched in London, England, and in Toronto, in 2012. He is also working on two public art projects with internationally renowned artist and sculptor, Uno Hoffmann. 

Terri Favro is a winner of the McMaster Medal for the Creative and Performing Arts. Her work has appeared in Prism, Geist, and Riddle Fence, among others, and she collaborated on the graphic novel Bella, published by Grey Borders. Favro’s new book, The Proxy Bride, won the Quattro Books Ken Klonsky Award and was published in 2012. Set in 1960s Niagara, it tells the operatic tale of an Italian woman who marries a candy shop owner with crime connections, only to fall in love with his son. Favro lives in Toronto and blogs at terrifavro.ca 

Stan Rogal wonders what he can say about himself knowing that lies are ultimately more interesting. He left Vancouver for Toronto many years ago and doesn’t regret the choice. He has poems in three separate anthologies this fall, which is fun. His published books include poetry, short stories and novels, and he has a new collection of poems (perhaps two) coming out in spring 2013. He dabbles in theatre and is currently working on another collection of short stories as well as a play. Raised in St. Catharines, 

Urve Tamberg grew up in Toronto as the daughter of Estonian immigrant parents. With a B.Sc. (Physical Therapy) and a M.B.A., her management career spanned both the public and private sectors of health care. In her free time, she enjoys cooking, travelling, spending time with family and, of course, reading. Urve lives in Oakville, Ontario. The Darkest Corner of the World is her first novel.

Popular Hamilton Spectator writer and columnist, Jeff Mahoney has written with insight, sensitivity, and humour about practically everything in Hamilton, probing its quirks, mysteries, triumphs, disappointments, diagonal arachnid poets, wrong-way parking kerfuffles, politicians, moustaches, heroes, and unique culture.