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.

25 October 2016

Dimitri Nasrallah reads 4 November!


Photo by Gopesa Paquette
As part of our Journeys theme, we welcome novelist, editor and translator Dimitri Nasrallah.

Please join us at 4:30pm on Friday 4 November in SJ1 3027.

Opening act: David Di Iorio

We're delighted to be sharing Dimitri with The New Quarterly's Wild Writers Festival where he will be featured as part of panel discussions on Publishing and on Translation.

Dimitri Nasrallah has been the editor for Véhicule Press's fiction imprint, Esplanade Books, since 2013. In that time he has initiated a new translation program, working with well-known authors such as Neil Smith and Claire Holden Rothman to translate new Quebecois fiction for Canadian readers. The initiative has resulted in Esplanade's first-ever nomination for a Governor General's Literary Award. Nasrallah is the author of the novels Niko (2011, winner of the Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction) and Blackbodying (2005, winner of the McAuslan First Book Award).  His translation of Éric Plamondon's Hungary-Hollywood Express was published this year.

04 October 2016

Fred Wah Reads 21 October!

One of our favourite writers ever is back! Fred Wah gave a spectacular reading at St Jerome's several years ago -- if you were there, you'll remember and want to see him again, and if you weren't there, now's your chance!

Please join us at 4:30pm on Friday 21 October in SJ1 3027.

We continue our tradition of featuring local talent from SJU creative writing classes as opening acts. Opening for Fred Wah is Sammi Zhao!

Fred Wah was born in Swift Current, Saskatchewan in 1939, grew up in the West Kootenay region of British Columbia and now lives in Vancouver. His work has received many honours, including the Governor General’s Award. He was Parliamentary Poet Laureate from 2011 to 2013 and was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2013. He has published over 20 books of poetry and prose, including Sentenced to Light (2008) and is a door (2009). A recent collaboration, High Muck a Muck: Playing Chinese, An Interactive Poem, is available online. His current project involves the Columbia River.