January 5: Julie Joosten, Roger Greenwald, Gregory Betts, Jane Silcott, Alexander Dolinin, Jason Dickson, and host, Chris Pannell

A great line-up for January. Read about the authors and their books below:

Alexander Dolinin was born and raised in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) in the former Soviet Union, where he earned an MA in Iranian philology from the State University of Leningrad. After emigrating to Canada, he earned a BA in Honours History from McMaster University, with Russian history as one of his areas of specialization. Against Destiny, his first novel, joins his experience of living in the Soviet Union with a specialist’s knowledge of the history, realities and circumstances that shape its main characters and plot. He is a Canadian citizen and a member of the Writers Union of Canada. He lives in Hamilton, Ontario.

Gregory Betts is an award-winning author, editor and professor at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario. He has been teaching literature for a dozen years now at four different universities in Canada and Germany. He has published five books of poetry, edited five books of experimental Canadian writing, and recently published Avant-Garde Canadian Literature: The Early Manifestations. He is currently the Director of the Centre for Canadian Studies and Graduate Program Director of Canadian and American Studies at Brock.

Jane Silcott grew up in Toronto and moved west to find out why her father's voice always got softer when he spoke of the mountains. She's still finding out. Jane’s writing has been called "fearless," "honest," "compelling," and "cheeky," and has been recognized by the CBC Literary Awards, the National and Western Magazine Awards, Room Magazine, and the Creative Nonfiction Collective of Canada. Her first book, Everything Rustles, is a collection of personal essays about love, wrinkles, death, fear and laundry – the usual things.

Jason Dickson is a bookseller, publisher and writer who lives in London, Ontario. He is the editor of Clearance: Selected Journals of Dr. Michael Purdon, Parapsychologist (BookThug 2002). He also publishes the London arts and letters magazine, The London Reader.

Julie Joosten has an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and a PhD from Cornell University.  Her first book Light Light was published by Book Thug (2013).  Her poems and reviews can be found in Jacket 2, Tarpaulin Sky, The Fiddlehead, and The Malahat Review. 

Roger Greenwald grew up in New York, attended The City College and the St. Mark’s-in-the-Bouwerie Poetry Project workshop, and then took graduate degrees at the University of Toronto. He has won two CBC Literary Awards, one for his poetry and one for travel literature, as well as numerous awards for his translations. He has published one book of poems, Connecting Flight, and several volumes of poetry in translation, most recently North in the World: Selected Poems of Rolf Jacobsen; Picture World, by Niels Frank; and Meditations on Georges de La Tour, by Paal-Helge Haugen.  

HOST:

Chris Pannell serves on the board of Hamilton's annual gritLIT literary festival. He has published four poetry books: Under Old Stars, Sorry I Spent Your Poem,  Drive, and his most recent, A Nervous City. He is also the author of a set of three poetry broadsheets entitled Fractures,Subluxations and Disclocations, which won the Hamilton and Region Arts Council poetry book award in 1997. In 2010, his book Drive won the Acorn-Plantos People's Poet award and the Arts Hamilton Poetry Book of the Year. From 1993 until 2005 he ran the New Writing Workshop at Hamilton Artists Inc. and edited two book-length anthologies for the group. He has been published in literary magazines across Canada and internationally as well.

Rob Ford, semi-colons, poetry, short stories, and prize-winners: Report from The LitLive Reading Series, December 1.

It’s amazing really: each month in Hamilton, actual real live writers—well known nationally or locally—participate in a lively reading of their work live on stage. And it’s free. The series is called Lit Live, not only because it's ‘live’ (as opposed to recorded) but because it makes literature come alive and I don’t mean in a Frankensteinian way.

The reading series is held the first Sunday of each month at Homegrown Hamilton. It features six writers—novelists, short story writers, poets, memoirists, and non-fiction writers, including, this December, three winners of the GritLit Writing Contest. The audience and the guest writers are always impressed at the size of the crowd and how congenial the series is. And no hipster posing (though I try, I try) or cliquishness.  Just fantastic writing in a friendly atmosphere. This evening, as usual, we had to get out extra chairs for the full house. All found their way to a libation and got comfortable.



Writer/educator/cartoonist Jen Jones was the entertaining host. (Each month, there's a different host from the arts community.) Jen explained how she had recently met Margaret Atwood (I think she's a hockey star or something) at Bryan Prince, Bookseller event and, after talking cartooning, Atwood drew a cartoon for her mother for Christmas. (Jen’s mom: if you’re reading this: we’ll make sure that she gives it to you and doesn’t keep it for herself!)
















The first reader was poet/biologist Jan Conn who travelled from Albany, NY to read. Jan Conn has written eight books of poetry and is also a Research Scientist at the Wadsworth Center, Division of Infectious Diseases in Albany. She read a series of dark and darkly humorous poems, some of which incorporated her interest in biology, from her recent collection, Edge Effects.
















Second was Toronto writer, Mark Goldstein. Before becoming a full-time writer, he played drums alongside Leslie Feist and Broken Social Scene’s Brendan Canning in the indie rock band By Divine Right. Mark read hauntingly from his book on ‘motherloss,’ Form of Forms as well as some of his inventive translations of Celan.

Next up was writer and teacher Dave Haskins who has been involved with the local writing community for many years.  He read from his recently published memoir, This House is Condemned (just out from Hamilton publisher Wolsak & Wynn.) The passage was an evocative account of his English boyhood vision of Canada and of a recent trip to Haida Gwaii.








Then we heard from three winners of the 2013 GritLit Literary Festival writing contest.

Burlington writer Janet Turpin Myers, read her short story, “Crashing,” a dramatic and humorous piece which involved some cars. Crashing. The story placed third in the contest. Her debut novel, Nightswimming was recently launched by Seraphim Editions.

Hamilton writer Alexandra Missett gave a vivid and dynamic reading of her story, "Fire," which won the GritLit short fiction contest.

Raymond Beauchemin, now of Hamilton, closed the evening with a charming reading of three poems (which were part of his 3rd place GritLit-winning poetry entry) and which appear in the novel he is currently writing. Raymond set the scene with some funny stories and read with a beautifully resonant voice.













Then Jen Jones the host asked everyone to look under their chair. We each received a new car and a cruiseship! Alright, so maybe that didn’t happen, but she did let everyone know that all of the GritLit winning writing is available in a chapbook. And that details of the next reading  (Sunday, January 5th, 2014 at 7:30 at Homegrown Hamilton) can be found at the LitLive blog. 

The writers stuck around to chat with the audience, many of whom visited the booktable to buy books and have them signed.  Before we all left, Rob Ford who was in the audience, suddenly stood up and said, “This kind of reading series is great opportunity to hear a diverse range of both new and familiar writers in an intimate setting (as opposed to those poetry readings at the ACC); it is an experience of writing that is vivid, fun, engaging, and often moving.” Then he said, “Did I just use a semi-colon?”  “I can’t comment on a semi-colon that may or may not exist,” Mayor Bratina said. “But this was a really great night of literature in Hamilton.” OK, so if you’ve read this far, you deserve to know that that none of this paragraph is true, except for the great night of literature part. And the part telling you that none of it was true except for that part. And, you know, this part.

I do invite you to come out to a LitLive Reading. The series really is a great opportunity to hear great writing in a welcoming and congenial setting; and semi-colons.

January 5th Reading! Joosten, Greenwald, Betts, Silcott, Dolinin, Dickson.

Dec 1 Reading: Dave Haskins, Jan Conn, Mark Goldstein, and the winners of the gritLIT Contest Winner (Alexandra Missett, Raymond Beauchemin, and Janet Turpin Myers.)

Dave Haskins emigrated from England to Beamsville in 1953 at the age of eight, and now lives in Grimsby with his wife and his 1970 MGB. He holds an Honours B. A. in English from McMaster University and an M. Ed. from University of Toronto. His teaching career spans 35 years, mostly in secondary schools, five as Department Head of English, but also in Brock University, and for Ontario Ministry of Education correspondence courses in writing and journalism. Other writings include a Creative Writing text, theatre reviews for a Toronto arts newspaper, and memoir pieces. He is currently preparing books of recent poems, and a children’s fantasy novel.

Wolsak & Wynn writes: This House is Condemned is equal parts elegy, portraiture and exploration of a life lived at the edge of Lake Ontario. In prose both hard-hitting and heart-felt, David Haskins writes essays of immigrating to Canada and building his life as a teacher and writer. Currents of poetry run through the book, which is as touched with humour as it is with sadness. He writes of indestructible garden forks, rafts that bear him away unexpectedly and of the loves that ebb and flow throughout a life. This House is Condemned is a powerful collection that picks the reader up and places them beside the author, walking along the shores of the lake.

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Born in Asbestos, Quebec, Jan Conn received her Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of Toronto. She has lived in Montreal, Vancouver, Toronto, Caracas (Venezuela), Gainesville (Florida), and Burlington (Vermont). Since 2002 she has been living in western Massachusetts, conducting research on insects that transmit pathogens. Her book South of the Tudo Bem Cafe, Vehicule Press, 1990, was shortlisted for the Pat Lowther Award. A suite of her poems, Amazonia, won 2nd prize in the CBC literary awards for 2003. Her poetry has been featured in many anthologies and journals, and broadly reviewed across Canada. She is a member of both the League of Canadian Poets and the Writers' Union of Canada.

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Toronto writer Mark Goldstein is the author of three books of poetry published by the award-winning BookThug: Form of Forms (2012); Tracelanguage (2010); and After Rilke (2008). His poetry and criticism have also appeared in periodicals such as Matrix Magazine and Jacket2. He has taught transtranslation workshops at the Toronto New School of Writing, SUNY Albany and lectured on translation in Paris at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales. Before becoming a full-time writer, Goldstein played drums alongside Leslie Feist and Broken Social Scene’s Brendan Canning in the indie rock band By Divine Right.

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gritLIT Contest Winners

Despite being advised as a teenager to pursue office work rather than writing, Janet Turpin Myers has been writing all her life: novels, poems, short stories. Her poetry has appeared in Hammered Out and Tower Poetry. Her debut novel, Nightswimming was published in 2013 by Seraphim Editions. She resides in Burlington.

Alexandra Missett has been writing for ten years and staring in an annoyed way at blank pages throughout. She has had work published at the University of Indiana and, in 2009, she won Best Fiction at Humber College. She loves tea, and dogs, and listening to Neil Gaiman speak.

Raymond Beauchemin of Hamilton is the author of the novel Everything I Own and Salut! The Quebec Microbrewery Beer Cookbook. His anthologies include 32 Degrees and Future Tense, edited with his wife, the writer Denise Roig. His poems "Watershed," "Rapture" and "Words for Snow" are part of the novel Doctor Lavigne.

December 1 Reading: Jan Conn, Mark Goldstein, Dave Haskins, and winners of the gritLit Writing Contest.

Note: Michael Mirolla was scheduled to read this December, but—tough luck for him—his publisher is sending him to Riga, Latvia for the launch of the translation of his book, Berlin. We'll reschedule his appearance and look forward to hearing him read for us then.

But, we still have six great readers and an excellent host. As always, it'll be a great evening.

November 3rd Reading" Johnston, Pannell, Jernigan, Fradkin, Rogal, Shin

November's reading features lost canoes, ranches, bullets, broken china, epithalamiums, nervous cities, moon howling, and Epic hosting.  Not to mention good food (new menu at Homegrown Hamilton!) and drink and the always warm and convivial audience.

Who are the authors? What are there they're their books?

Ahh. Look below and all will be known.

Sean Johnston’s latest book is the novel Listen All You Bullets. His work has been nominated for the Journey Prize and a Saskatchewan Book Award, and he’s been shortlisted three times for the ReLit Award, winning it in 2003 for his short story collection A Day Does Not Go By. He teaches literature and creative writing at Okanagan College in Kelowna, BC. He can be found online at www.seanjohnston.ca

Listen All You Bullets tells the story of a young boy named Billy who is trapped on a hardscrabble North Dakota ranch with his lonely mother and his wheelchair-bound father. But Billy isn’t just any boy stuck on any ranch: Billy and his family are the creations of Jack Schaefer’s popular 1949 Western novel, Shane. Long after that novel’s action has concluded and its plot and characters have seemingly solidified into popular myth, Sean Johnston sets out to explore the possibilities of a story’s resistance to its own arrested afterlife.

Amanda Jernigan is a poet, playwright, essayist and editor. Her first book of poems, Groundwork, published by Biblioasis, was shortlisted for the Pat Lowther Award and named to National Public Radio's list of "Best Books" of 2011. Her new book, All the Daylight Hours, was published by Cormorant Books in the spring. She currently lives in Hamilton, where she is at work on a Ph.D. in English at McMaster University, her dissertation project a critical edition of the poems of Richard Outram.

All the Daylight Hours, Amanda Jernigan’s second poetry collection, took shape over the course of twelve years, through many changes of setting and amid a changing cast of characters encountered both face to face and in the pages of books long lived-with and loved. The poems themselves ring changes on nature and artifice, love and loss, the power of language and the limitations of language, returning to these themes in a wide variety of registers. No less moving for being meticulously crafted, these elegies, epithalamiums, dramatic monologues, and meditations trace a human journey through time.

Stan Rogal's work has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies in Canada, the US and Europe, some in translation, including: Rampike, The Fiddlehead, Grain and Exquisite Corpse.  He is the author of 18 books: 4 novels, 3 story and 11 poetry collections.  A poem of his placed third in the 2012 GritLIT contest.  He is also a playwright with productions mounted variously across Canada, generally in fringe venues.  His new collection is Howl Down the Moon, and his next, Love's Not The Way To is due in April 2013.

Chris Pannell serves on the board of Hamilton's annual gritLIT literary festival. He has published four poetry books: Under Old Stars, Sorry I Spent Your Poem,  Drive, and his most recent, A Nervous City. He is also the author of a set of three poetry broadsheets entitled Fractures, Subluxations and Disclocations, which won the Hamilton and Region Arts Council poetry book award in 1997. In 2010, his book Drive won the Acorn-Plantos People's Poet award and the Arts Hamilton Poetry Book of the Year. From 1993 until 2005 he ran the New Writing Workshop at Hamilton Artists Inc. and edited two book-length anthologies for the group. He has been published in literary magazines across Canada and internationally as well.

In A Nervous City is an array of poems that explore the depth and breadth of the city, capturing both its darkness and its charm.

Ann Shin’s writing has been published in anthologies and magazines in Canada and the US, including Crossroads Cant , Broken Jaw Press On a Bed of Rice, Anchor Books, and Geography of Encounters, Rowman and Little Press and IV Lounge Reader, Insomniac Press, and The Last Thing Standing, by Mansfield Press.  Her latest book of poetry, The Family China was published in 2013, by Brick Books and has won the Anne Green Award for innovation in story and narrative form. Some of the poems from the book were produced for broadcast on the CBC Radio One program ‘Living Out Loud.’

Barbara Fradkin has been writing since she was six and has always had an affinity for the dark side. Her work as a child psychologist provides ample insight and inspiration for stories. She is a two-time winner in Storyteller Magazine's annual Great Canadian Short Story Contest, as well as a four-time nominee for the Crime Writers' of Canada Arthur Ellis Award for Best Short Story, including "Voices from the Deep" in 2007.

However, she is best known for her award-winning police procedural series. There are nine books in the series, starting with Do or Die in 2000. The sequel Once Upon a Time (2002) was shortlisted for the Crime Writers' of Canada's Arthur Ellis award for Best Novel, while both Fifth Son (2004) and Honour Among Men (2006) won the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel in their respective years.

Whisper of Legends begins in the wake of a violent summer storm when a broken canoe washes up on the rocky shore of the Nahanni River. Four canoeists are missing. Has the mighty river claimed another life? Or has greed, revenge and a family legend led to murder?


The MC for the evening, Jaime Krakowski is the owner of the popular Epic Books located at 226 Locke Street South in Hamilton. The store hosts many readings of its own, details of which can be found at their website.

Nov 3rd Reading: Jernigan, Shin, Rogal, Fradkin, & Johnston