Karen Smythe and Kasia Jaronczyk read 7 November!

We have a double-header reading coming up in November as we welcome Karen Smythe and Kasia Jaronczyk, two writers coming to us from Guelph. 

Please join us on Friday 7 November at 4:30pm in SJ2 1002. 

The reading is free and all are welcome, so please spread the word!

Karen Smythe is the author of the novel This Side of Sad (from Goose Lane Editions, 2017), the story collection Stubborn Bones (from Raincoast, 2001), and the critical study Figuring Grief: Gallant, Munro, and the Poetics of Elegy (from McGill-Queen’s U.P., 1992). Her scholarship was published widely in academic journals, and several of her short stories appeared in Canadian literary journals such as The Fiddlehead, Grain, and The Antigonish Review.  Karen’s professional career took her across Canada in various roles including Assistant Professor of English, Managing Director of Continuing Education, University Registrar, and Senior Policy Analyst. Now retired, she currently lives in Guelph, Ontario. A Town with No Noise is Karen's second novel -- and her third is in progress. 

Kasia Jaronczyk is a Polish-Canadian writer, artist and microbiologist. She immigrated to Canada at the age of 14. Her debut short story collection Lemons was published in 2017 by Mansfield Press. She is a co-editor of the only anthology of Polish-Canadian short stories Polish(ed): Poland Rooted in Canadian Fiction(Guernica Editions, 2017). Her stories were short-listed for the Bristol Prize 2016 and long-listed for CBC Short Story Prize 2010. She has published in Canadian literary magazines such as TNQ, Room, Prairie Journal, Carousel, The Nashwaak Review, Postscripts to Darkness, and in anthologies Wherever I Find Myself, Essays by Canadian Immigrant Women(Miriam Matejova, Ed. Caitlin Press, April 2017) and The Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology(2016. Vol 9.).

 

Sneha Madhavan-Reese Reads 3 October!

 We kick off this year's Reading Series at St. Jerome's with a visit from poet Sneha Madhavan-Reese. 

 Please join us on Friday 3 October at 4:30pm in SJ2 1002. 

The reading is free and all are welcome!

photo credit: Sara McConnell

Sneha Madhavan-Reese is the author of the poetry collections Observing the Moon and Elementary Particles. Her poems have appeared in publications around the world, including The Best Canadian Poetry in English 2016. She is the 2015 winner of Arc Poetry Magazine's Diana Brebner Prize, was shortlisted for the 2015 Montreal International Poetry Prize, and received an honourable mention at the 2018 National Magazine Awards. Her second collection, Elementary Particles, was longlisted for the Raymond Souster Award and was a finalist for the Ottawa Book Award. Sneha lives with her family in Ottawa. 

 

Keith Hazzard Reads 7 March!

The last event in this year's fabulous series is a reading by Keith Hazzard!

Please join us on 7 March at 4:30pm in SJ2 1002. And please spread the word!

 

Photo credit: Karen Smythe

Keith Hazzard writes stories, poems, and plays. As Jesus Hardwell, he published Easy Living, a collection of short stories, with Exile Editions (2011). The title story from that book appeared in EXILE Quarterly, as well as being included in that year’s Journey Prize Anthology; another of its stories won a Silver National Magazine Award. Keith's plays have been produced in Saint John, Guelph, and Kitchener. He lives in Guelph, Ontario.

 His latest book is Brief Lives,
published by Exile Editions.

Antonio Michael Downing Reads on 31 January!

 We kick off our Winter term events this year with a reading by Waterloo alumnus Antonio Michael Downing! 

Please join us on 31 January at 4:30pm in SJ2 1002.

And please spread the word!

Antonio Michael Downing spends his time writing books, singing songs, and trying to make his Grandma proud. The Taylor Prize named him one of Canada's best emerging authors. His acclaimed memoir Saga Boy was called by Giller winner Ian Williams "the triumph of Blackness everywhere…” He has been shortlisted for the Toronto Book Award and the Ontario Speaker's Book Prize and was named by the Taylor Prize for non-fiction as Canada's outstanding Emerging Author. His debut children’s book, Stars In My Crown is out now, and his debut novel for adults, Black Cherokee, is coming out in 2025. He writes and performs music as John Orpheus.

Tamas Dobozy Reads 15 November!

We're delighted to announce that for our next event Tamas Dobozy will be reading for us! 

Please join us on 15 November at 4:30pm in SJ2 1002. 

Hope to see you there! Please spread the word.

 

Tamas Dobozy is a professor in the Department of English and Film Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University. He lives in Kitchener. He has published four books of short fiction, When X Equals Marylou, Last Notes and Other Stories, Siege 13: Stories, and Ghost Geographies: Fictions, along with a limited-run collaborative work with artist Allan Kausch, 5 Mishaps. Siege 13 won the 2012 Rogers Writers Trust of Canada Fiction Prize, and was shortlisted for both the Governor General's Award: Fiction, and the 2013 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award. Dobozy has published over ninety short stories in journals such as One Story, Fiction, Agni, and Granta; won an O Henry Prize in 2011, the Gold Medal for Fiction at the National Magazine Awards in 2014, with a shortlisting and honorable mention again in 2022; and appeared in The Best Canadian Short Stories in 2017 and 2023. His scholarly work—on music, utopianism, American literature, the short story, and post-structuralism—have appeared in journals such as Canadian Literature, Genre, The Canadian Review of American Studies, Mosaic, and Modern Fiction Studies, among others. He has also published chapters in peer-reviewed anthologies published by Routledge, University of Nebraska Press, University of South Carolina Press, and Wilfrid Laurier University Press.

 His latest book is Stasio: A Novel in Three Parts, published this past summer by Anvil Press.