Canadian Writing Comes to You -- Live!

The Reading Series has been bringing cutting-edge Canadian writers to St. Jerome's University since 1984.

Each year we strive to offer a range in our slate of visiting writers: well-established and up-and-coming, from the local area and from sea to sea, working in verse and prose and beyond. Experimental and traditional, serious and playful, beautiful and stark, cynical and celebratory -- come and sample the wealth and variety that is Canadian literature today.

These readings are special opportunities to get inside the book -- to hear writers read their own words, and speak about their own writing. Every reading includes an open question and answer session.

All readings are free and open to the public. And there's free parking!

St. Jerome's is located at 290 Westmount Road North, Waterloo, Ontario.

From its beginnings through 2018-19, the Reading Series has been funded by the Canada Council for the Arts and St. Jerome's University. It now continues to be funded by St. Jerome's.

09 February 2024

Chris Banks reads 1 March!

 To end our series this year, we're pleased to present a reading by poet Chris Banks. 

Please join us on Friday 1 March at 4:30pm in SJ2 1002.

The reading is free and all are welcome! Please spread the word!

 

Chris Banks is a Canadian poet and author of seven collections of poems, most recently Alternator from Nightwood Editions (Fall 2023). His first full-length collection, Bonfires, was awarded the Jack Chalmers Award for poetry by the Canadian Authors’ Association in 2004. Bonfires was also a finalist for the Gerald Lampert Award for best first book of poetry in Canada.  His poetry has appeared in The New Quarterly, Arc Magazine, The Antigonish Review, Event, The Malahat Review, American Poetry Journal, and Prism International, among other publications. He lives and writes in Kitchener, Ontario.

18 November 2023

Kimia Eslah reads 2 February!

For our first event for Winter term, we are thrilled to invite Kimia Eslah to read for us!

Please join us on Friday 2 February at 4:30pm in SJ2 1002.

The reading is free and all are welcome. Hope to see you there! Please spread the word. 

 

Photo credit: Andrew S. Cant

Kimia Eslah writes novels about urbanites, underdogs, and the Iranian diaspora. 

CBC Books, Ms. Magazine, and The Miramichi Reader have praised her work. Her latest novel, Enough, is a corporate drama about three women of colour who challenge the old boys' club at Toronto City Hall. 

Before she wrote social justice novels, Kimia designed courses. After that, just to shake things up, she made a kid. Then she did a bunch of laundry. She now writes full-time.

Kimia is a feminist writer and a Queer woman of colour. Visit www.kimiaeslah.com.

Kimia pens a monthly newsletter about being dominated by cats, and other meaningful life realizations. To subscribe, send a message to author@kimiaeslah.com. 

28 October 2023

Bernadette Rule reads 17 November!

For our second event this Fall term, we're delighted to welcome Bernadette Rule to read for us! 

Please join us on Friday 17 November at 4:30pm in SJ2 1002. 

The reading is free and all are welcome. Please spread the word! 

Photo credit: Carys Ryan carysryanphotography.ca

Bernadette Rule's 9th book of poetry, forthcoming from Paradise North Press, is The Window Washer of Chartres. Among other awards, she has received two Short Works Prizes, one for poetry and one for creative nonfiction, as well as the 2017 City of Hamilton Arts Award for Writing. Rule’s first novel, a creative nonfiction book entitled Dark Fire (Ironing Board Press/lulu.com) was released in the spring of 2021. The Arithmetic of Color, her second creative nonfiction novel, is also based on true events from the 1920s in her hometown of Mayfield in Graves County, Kentucky. www.bernadetterule.ca

15 September 2023

Darlene Madott reads 27 October!

Announcing our first reader for 2023-24: we're very happy to be kicking off this year's series with a reading from Darlene Madott! 

Please join us on Friday 27 October at 4:30pm in SJ2 1002.

Hope to see you there! The reading is free and all are welcome, so please spread the word.

 

Photo credit: Eric Fefferman

 

 About Darlene Madott:

"A Toronto-based lawyer who practised for over three decades, I have authored nine books, including Winners and Losers (GUERNICA, 2021), Dying Times (EXILE, 2021), Making Olives and Other Family Secrets (Ripasso) (LONGBRIDGE BOOKS, 2014), Stations of the Heart (EXILE, 2012), and Joy, Joy, Why Do I Sing? (WOMEN’S PRESS, 2004). I have twice won the Bressani Literary Award and have been shortlisted for the Gloria Vanderbilt sponsored Carter V. Cooper Short Fiction Award three times, as well as being a frequent finalist in Accenti Magazine competitions. My short fiction has been widely anthologized, including anthologies arising out of the International Conferences of the Short Story in English, alongside internationally acclaimed authors. Author Guy Vanderhaeghe described my short stories as “haunting meditations by a fine artist blessed with a scrupulous intelligence.” Caterina Edwards: “Madott’s short stories remind me of why I love the genre. They need to be read and reread. So many left me breathless in admiration.” My fiction has also been translated and published into Italian. For more about me and my books, kindly visit: www.DarleneMadott.com."