January 6th reading: Sheard, Nason, Dickinson, McDonald, Baxter, Day

Playwright Stephen Near hosts!

David Day was born and raised in Victoria British Columbia. He is a poet and author who has published over 40 books of poetry, ecology, history, fantasy, mythology and fiction. David Day has also written for theatre and television. He was a writer in residence at the Aegean School of Fine Arts in Paros, Greece, and worked for the Canadian Publishers McClelland Stewart in Toronto. He subsequently travelled extensively, and lived in England, Greece, Spain and Canada. He currently lives in Toronto, Canada.

Anne McDonald has an MA in Psychology, has studied improv at Second City in Toronto, and has attended Sage Hill (Poetry Colloquium, Fiction Workshop) and the Humber School for writers. She facilitates creative writing and theatre workshops and also provides training in collaboration, communication, and creativity for organizations across the country. Anne is a published author whose work has been produced by CBC radio. Her novel To the Edge of the Sea, published with Thistledown Press in March 2011, won the First Book Award at the Saskatchewan Book Awards April 2012. Anne grew up just down the road in Grimsby and moved to the Prairies 13 years ago. The toboggan ‘bowl’ at the end of her street is the closest thing to the escarpment. Her website. 

Mary Lou Dickinson is a Toronto author who comes originally from northern Quebec and Montreal. Her short story collection, One Day It Happens, was published in 2007. Her novel, Ile D’Or, was published in 2010. She has had short stories published in such literary periodicals as Descant, Grain, The Fiddlehead and the University of Windsor Review. Dickinson participated in the summer program at the Humber School for Writers in 2005 and prior to that a writing studio at the Banff Centre for the Arts in 1992.

Jean Rae Baxter writes both for an adult general audience and for young adults. Freedom Bound is the third volume in a trilogy about the United Empire Loyalist experience. The Way Lies North (2007) won the Arts Hamilton Award for a young adult book and was nominated for the Red Maple and Stellar awards. Broken Trail won the Gold Medal in the Moonbeam Awards. Jean lives in Hamilton.

Sarah Sheard is the author of three critically acclaimed novels: Almost Japanese (Coach House Press), The Swing Era (A.A. Knopf Canada) and The Hypnotist (Doubleday Canada). She is in private practice as a Gestalt psychotherapist and writing coach. She also owns a horse and is writing a nonfiction book about the western reining scene. Sarah's blog.

Jim Nason is the author of two books of poetry, If Lips Were as Red and The Fist of Remembering, the latter a emotionally rich and honest account of the death of his partner from cancer. And while his subject matter has often been about death and dying, his poetry is filled with light. In many ways his is the truly philosophical view that wastes no time mourning what might have been but is eager to embrace all that life might teach even in the deepest of sorrows. Educated in Montreal (McGill), and Toronto (Ryerson and York), Jim Nason currently lives and works as a social worker in Toronto. His work, praised by writers such as John Ashbery in the United States and Laura Lush here, has appeared in many literary journals across North America.