Randall Maggs

Born in Vancouver, Randall Maggs grew up on the move in an Air Force family. After joining up himself for a brief period as a flyer, he left the service to travel through Europe and North Africa and to return to university to do graduate work at Dalhousie and UNB. For the last thirty years, he has lived on the west coast of Newfoundland, teaching Literature and Creative Writing at Memorial’s Grenfell College. With Irish poet John Ennis and Stephanie McKenzie, Maggs edited two anthologies, However Blow the Winds, containing Irish and Newfoundland poetry and song, and The Echoing Years, containing Irish and Canadian poetry. Maggs is the Artistic Director of Newfoundland’s March Hare, the largest literary festival in Atlantic Canada.

His most recent collection, Night Work: The Sawchuk Poems (Brick Books) was launched in Canada at the Canadian Hockey Hall of Fame and in Ireland at the Canadian Embassy in Dublin. According to the author and Globe and Mail sports columnist, Stephen Brunt, Night Work may be the “truest hockey book ever written. It reaches a level untouched by conventional sports literature.” The book has aroused more than a little interest in both the sports and literary worlds. It has been featured in the sports sections of many major newspapers, including the National Post and the Montreal Gazette. At the same time, it was selected for the cover review in the Globe and Mail’s Books section.

Adam Getty

Adam Getty is the author of two books of poetry. His first collection, Reconciliation, received the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award and the Hamilton Literary Award for Poetry, as well as being shortlisted for the Trillium Poetry Award. Some of his writing was included in Breathing Fire 2: Canada’s New Poets. His most recent book is Repose from Nightwood Editions. Adam has worked in a number of different industrial occupations, including hog slaughtering, machining in a tool-and-die shop, rail-cutting, and shipping in a food warehouse. He attended the University of Toronto but left without taking a degree. He currently lives in Hamilton.

Catherine Graham

Catherine Graham is the author of three poetry collections: The Watch, Pupa and The Red Element. She teaches creative writing at the University of Toronto where she was nominated for an Excellence in Teaching Award. Her work has been published in Poetry Ireland Review, The New Quarterly, The Literary Review of Canada, Parameter Magazine (UK) and in The Fiddlehead. As a creativity consultant, Catherine has led workshops at GlaxoSmithKline, BookExpo, York University and Environics Communications. She is Vice President of Project Bookmark Canada and Marketing Coordinator for the Rowers Pub Reading Series. Her most recent book is The Red Element (Insomniac Press, 2008)

Judith Millar

Judith Millar is a writer of short stories, personal essays, poems, song lyrics and magazine articles. She has won numerous awards for her creative writing, including first prize in the Alice Munro Short Story Contest (2006); a shared first prize in the poetry category of The Word Guild Canadian Writing Awards (2007); and first prize in the Toronto Sun Essay contest (2000). A former corporate communications manager, she moved to Nanaimo, BC from Kitchener, Ontario in 2007. Her story “The Green Box” won First Prize in this year’s Arts Hamilton Creative Keyboards contest.
 

Andrew Hood

Andrew Hood, winner of the Danuta Gleed Literary Award, graduated from Concordia University with a double major in literature and creative writing. There, he won the Irving Layton Award for Undergraduate Fiction and his stories have appeared in Concordia’s Soliloquies and in the anthology Headlight.
Pardon Our Monsters is his first book and was published by Esplanade Books in 2007. He lives in Guelph, Ontario.

Erin Aspenlieder

Until Erin Aspenlieder turned 18 she lived in the country. Since then, she has moved to Hamilton where she is part of Graduate English Creative Writing Group. She is also working on a PhD in English at McMaster. Her story "A Momentous Occasion" took second place in this year’s Arts Hamilton Creative Keyboards contest. As well, her story "Reverberations – A Sound" won third prize in the Creative Keyboards contest.

Lit Live Returns September 7, 2008!

You can run but you can't hide from our big literary line-up for September 2008. On the first Sunday of the month, September 7th . . .

John Donlan brings us poetry from his latest collection Spirit Engine, published by Brick Books.

Rozena Maart reads from The Writing Circle, her exciting new novel, brought out in 2007 by TSAR (Toronto South Asian Review) publications.

Mary Ann Mulhern presents When Angels Weep, her newest book of poetry from Black Moss Press.

Lolette Kuby reads from her collection of short fiction Out of Cleveland, published by Vehicule Press.

Keith Garebian presents poetry from his latest book, Blue: The Derek Jarman Poems, published by Signature Editions.

Ted Schmidt brings us his writing on a variety of social and spiritual issues with his book Journeys to the Heart of Catholicism from Seraphim Editions.