The Readers for October 5th @ LitLive

Hailed as a “Writer to Watch” by the CBC, Spencer Gordon is the the author of Cosmo (Coach House Books, 2012), a short story collection called “startling and invigorating” by Quill and Quire, “rare [and] brave” by the National Post, “poignant and hilarious” by This Magazine, and “both heartwarming and heartbreaking” by The Winnipeg Review. He is also the author of the poetry chapbooks Conservative Majority (Apt. 9, 2013) and Feel Good! Look Great! Have a Blast! (Ferno House, 2011, shortlisted for the 2012 bpNichol Chapbook). He's co-founder/editor of the online literary magazine The Puritan and the defunct micro-press Ferno House.

Paula Eisenstein was born and raised in London, Ontario. She was a champion swimmer. She is contributor to and editorial member of Influencysalon.ca. Her prose was recently published in Black Moss Press’s The White Collar Anthology. She lives in Toronto with her husband and son. The novel, Flip Turn (Mansfield Press) is her first book.

Richard Scarsbrook is a Canadian author, teacher, and entertainer. He grew up in the tiny rural community of Olinda (near Leamington, Ontario) and now makes his home in Toronto where he teaches creative writing courses at Humber College and George Brown College. Richard's first novel was Cheeseburger Subversive (Thistledown Press, 2003). The sequel is Featherless Bipeds (Thistledown Press, 2006). Destiny's Telescope, a collection of short stories, was published in 2006 by Turnstone Press. His novel The Monkeyface Chronicles, was published in  2010 and was the winner of the Ontario Library Association's 2011 White Pine Award. Richard'a first book of poetry is Six Weeks (Turnstone Press, 2014). Scarsbrook's new book, The Indifference League (Dundurn) was released in this fall.

Novelist, short story writer, poet, and playwright, Michael Mirolla's publications include a punk-inspired novella, The Ballad of Martin B.; two novels: Berlin (a Bressani Prize winner as well as a finalist for the Indie Book and National Best Book Awards), and The Facility, three short story collections: The Formal Logic of Emotion (translated into Italian), Hothouse Loves & Other Tales and The Giulio Metaphysics III; and three collections of poetry: Light and Time, the English-Italian bilingual Interstellar Distances — Distanze Interstellari, and 2013's The House on 14th Avenue. A new collection of short stories, Lessons In Relationship Dyads, is scheduled for publication with Red Hen Press in the U.S. His short story, "A Theory of Discontinuous Existence," was selected for The Journey Prize Anthology, while another short story, "The Sand Flea," was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. His poem, "Blind Alley," was shortlisted for the Winston Collins/Descant Prize for Best Canadian Poem in 2007. His short fiction and poetry has been published in numerous journals in Canada, the U.S. and Britain. Along with partner Connie Guzzo McParland, Michael runs Guernica Editions, a Canadian literary publishing house.


Julie Joosten  is originally from Georgia. She has an MFA from the prestigious Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a PhD from Cornell University.Her poems and reviews can be read in Jacket 2, Tarpaulin Sky, the Malahat Review, and The Fiddlehead.  Light Light is her first book. It was shortlisted for the 2014 Gerald Lampert Memorial Award and explores nature and human thought from the Enlightenment science of natural history to the contemporary science of global warming. She lives in Little Italy in Toronto.





Dr. Sharon Baltman began writing creatively at age 45, using a manual typewriter during a year-long stay on an Israeli kibbutz in an attempt to win a computer in a writing contest. She lost the competition, bought a computer and pursued the long path of studying the craft. Escape from the Beside is her first full-length book. She lives in Toronto working as a physician psychotherapist.