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.

 

Spencer Gordon reads 4 October!

 We're excited to announce the kickoff event for our 2024-25 series!

Spencer Gordon will read for us on Friday 4 October at 4:30pm, in SJ2 1002. 

Hope you can join us! And please spread the word. The reading is free and all are welcome. 

Photo credit: Danita Hosking

Spencer Gordon is the author of three books: a collection of 'dramatic monologues,' A Horse at the Window (House of Anansi Press, June 2024); the poetry collection Cruise Missile Liberals (Nightwood Editions, 2017); and the short story collection Cosmo (Coach House Books). He invented the literary magazine The Puritan (now Ex-Puritan) and ran it for a decade. He's taught writing at OCAD University, George Brown College, Humber College, and the University of Toronto, and now works as a Principal Associate at Blueprint, a nonprofit research organization dedicated to solving public policy challenges. He currently lives in Bowmanville, Ontario.

Spencer notes, "as with my last book, any potential royalty-related money is going to FredVictor.org, a charity that fosters long-lasting and positive change in the lives of homeless and low-income people living in Toronto. (Also, Fred Victor's Bethlehem United shelter is the only long-term shelter in Toronto that allows pets to accompany their owners!) So, know that picking up a copy of A Horse at the Window also supports a worthwhile organization."

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.

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. 

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