Jeff Seffinga

Jeff Seffinga was born in the Netherlands and grew up in rural Eastern Ontario. Most of his adult life he has lived in Hamilton. He is a long-standing member of the Tower Poetry Society and is also the administrator of the Acorn-Plantos People's Poetry Award. Seffinga has published numerous collections of poetry including We Measure Our Time in Coffee Cups, Bailey's Mill, and Tight Shorts, a collection of haiku. His latest book is All We Like Cats.

David Helwig

While at Queen's University, David Helwig did some informal teaching in Collins Bay Penitentiary and he wrote A Book about Billie with a former inmate. In 1974, John Hirsch hired him as literary manager of CBC television drama, and he spent two years in this position, supervising the work of story editors and the department's relations with writers. From 1976 to 1980, he taught part time at Queen's while doing a great deal of freelance work, and in 1980, he gave up teaching and became a full-time freelance writer. He has from the beginning written both fiction and poetry as well as a wide range of radio, televison and journalism. Vocal music was for many years his avocation. Beginning in his forties, he sang with a number of choirs in Kingston, Montreal and Charlottetown. He appeared as bass soloist in Handel's Messiah, Bach's St Matthew Passion, and Mozart's Requiem. He currently lives in an old house in the village of Eldon in Prince Edward Island. His latest book is entitled Mystery Stories.

Marc di Saverio

Marc di Saverio, an English student at McMaster University, hails from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. His poetry, translations, criticism, artwork and Verso D’oggetti/Objectverse, have appeared in numerous on and offline publications. His chapbooks Sanatorium Songs (Cactus Press) is recently released and The Manifesto of Mortarism (Cactus Press) is forthcoming.

Julie Berry

Julie Berry is the author of two collections of poetry: Worn Thresholds (Brick Books, 1995 and reprinted in 2006) and The Walnut Cracking Machine (Buschek Books, 2010). Her poems have appeared in numerous periodicals and anthologies including Open Wide a Wilderness: Canadian Nature Poems (Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2009). She lives outside of St. Thomas, Ontario, with her partner, Jonathan and their dog, Guinness.

Ann Elizabeth Carson

A poet, writer, artist, feminist and psychotherapist, Ann Carson was selected as one of Toronto’s Mille Femme at the 2008 Luminato Festival, which paid tribute to women who have made a contribution to the arts. Her latest book, The Risks of Remembrance, (Words Indeed ) distills a life’s experience in poetry and visual images. In this book she asks: What is remembrance and what does it mean? Carson distills a life’s experience in haunting lyric and narrative poetry and visual images as she explores the mysterious power of memory to shape us and to mould how we see and interact with life. You can reach her at her website.

For February Find What is Fabulous in Poetry

On the first Sunday in February (the 6th), Lit Live brings you six writers with poetry in their repertoire. One of our committee members, Chris Pannell recently won the 2010 Acorn-Plantos People's Poetry award and Jeff Seffinga will be at Lit Live this night, to make the presentation. Additionally . . .

Jim Johnstone will delve into Patternicity, his collection of poems released last March by Harbour Publishing.

Chris Banks makes his first appearance at Lit Live with his book, The Cold Panes of Surfaces, published by Nightwood Editions.

Chris Pannell will rev your engines with Drive, the book that won the 2010 Acorn-Plantos People's Poetry Award, published by Wolsak and Wynn.

R.W Megens reads from The Infinite Ache, his new collection of poetry recently launched by Serengeti Press.

Kildare Dobbs takes us great distances with Casanova in Venice, his new poems published by The Porcupine's Quill.

David Seymour will warm every corner of the room with Inter Alia, his poetry collection from Brick Books.

Jim Johnstone

Jim Johnstone obtained his M.Sc. in Reproductive Physiology from the University of Toronto, where he is currently a doctoral candidate. He is a two-time winner of the E. J. Pratt Medal and Prize in Poetry, the recipient of a 2008 CBC Literary Award and his work has been broadcast on CBC Radio's Between the Covers and published in Canadian periodicals such as The Fiddlehead, Grain and PRISM International. Currently he edits Misunderstandings Magazine, a literary journal he co-founded with Ian Williams and Vicki Sloot. His most recent book of poetry is entitled Patternicity. He keeps a blog at http://jimjohnstone.wordpress.com/