Brian Henderson reads on 7 March!

We'll be welcoming Brian Henderson on Thursday, 7 March, at 4:30pm, in STJ 3027 (rescheduled from his original slot in October). Please join us!

Graeme Ruck will be the opening act.

Photo by Anna Ross

Brian Henderson is the author of 10 collections of poetry, one of which, Nerve Language (Pedlar Press 2007), was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award. His latest, Sharawadji (Brick Books), was shortlisted for the 2012 Canadian Authors Association Award for Poetry. He has published articles, reviews, and poetry in many literary magazines, has a PhD in Canadian Literature and is the director of WLUPress.

Winter Festival: Susan Musgrave, Nora Gould and Anne Michaels

Our winter term readings start off strong with three amazing women writers in three weeks!

Susan Musgrave -- Thursday, 24 January, 8pm, STJ 3014
Nora Gould -- Thursday, 31 January, 4:30pm, STJ 3014
Anne Michaels -- Wednesday, 6 February, 4:30pm, STJ 3027

 

With these readings, for the first time, we are featuring creative writing students from St Jerome's as five-minute opening acts. Come and see the visiting writers, and come and encourage our budding local talent!

Photo by Bruce Stotsebury

Susan Musgrave’s latest poetry collection is Origami Dove (M&S, 2011). A new novel, Given, has recently been published (Thistledown) and two books for children (Orca) are on their way too. She has published over twenty-five books and has received awards in poetry, fiction, non-fiction, personal essay, children’s writing and for her work as an editor. We are very happy to welcome Susan, a former Writer-in-Residence, back to St. Jerome’s for this event. 
Opening Act: Eric Wallace

Photo by Danielle Schaub

Nora Gould writes from east central Alberta where she ranches with her family and volunteers in wildlife rehabilitation with the Medicine River Wildlife Centre. She graduated from the University of Guelph with a degree in veterinary medicine. I see my love more clearly from a distance is her first poetry collection. In 2009 Nora Gould won the Banff Centre Bliss Carman Poetry Award.

Nora Gould comes to us with the generous support of Brick Books. Thank you, Brick!
Opening Act: Emilie Gardham
 

Anne Michaels is an award-winning poet and novelist. Her first novel, Fugitive Pieces (1996),  was not only nominated for the Giller Prize, but also won the Trillium Prize, the Chapters/Books in Canada First Novel Award, The Beatrice and Martin Fischer Award (the main prize in the Jewish Book Awards), and England's prestigious Orange Prize. Previous to this success, she won the Commonwealth Prize for the Americas for the collection The Weight of Oranges (1986) and the Canadian Authors Association Award for Miner's Pond (1991). In 2007, Fugitive Pieces was made into a film. Her most recent novel is 2009’s The Winter Vault.
Opening Act: Adan Jerreat-Poole

Michael Boughn and Christopher Dewdney read on 27 November!

It's November. It's grey and yucky outside. Term is almost over, but not quite. It is definitely time for a couple of amazing avant-garde Canadian writers to come and rouse us all out of wanting to hibernate. 

We're thrilled to be hosting a double bill with Michael Boughn and Christopher Dewdney. 
Please join us at 8pm, Tuesday 27 November 2012, in St Jerome's room 3014. 
And please spread the word -- as always, thanks to the Canada Council and to St Jerome's, the readings are free and all are welcome.

Michael Boughn was described in the Globe and Mail as "an obscure, veteran poet with a history of being overlooked." He is the only living recipient of The Friggin Prize. His last book of poetry, Cosmogrpahia - a post-Lucretian faux micro-epic was shortisted for the 2011 Governor General's Award for Poetry. Great Canadian Poems for the Aged Vol. 1 Illus, Ed. has just come out from Book Thug in fall 2012.

Christopher Dewdney is the author of four books of non-fiction as well as eleven books of poetry. A four-time nominee for the Governor General's Award, he won first-prize in the CBC Literary Competition for poetry and was awarded the 2007 Harbourfront Festival Prize, given in recognition of his outstanding contribution to literature. His most recent non-fiction title, Soul of The World; Unlocking the Secrets of Time, was published by HarperCollins in 2008. It became a Canadian bestseller and was listed in 4th place in the non-fiction section of  The Globe And Mail's Top 100 Books of 2008. Dewdney appeared in the critically acclaimed film, Poetry in Motion, and his 2005 book, Acquainted With the Night, was released as a feature documentary in 2010. The film garnered a Gemini award in 2011. Dewdney teaches creative writing and poetics at York University in Toronto.

Shane Neilson and Brian Henderson read on 25 October!

To kick off our 2012-13 series, Metaphoriment -- where literature meets science, metaphor meets experiment -- we're honoured and delighted to host two brilliant poets from right here in K-W and Guelph. 

Shane Neilson and Brian Henderson will be joining us on Thursday 25 October at 8pm in room 3014 at St Jerome's University. The reading is free and all are welcome!

photo by Janet Sunohara

Shane Neilson is a doctor and a poet. His collection Complete Physical was shortlisted for the Trillium Poetry Award in 2011. His latest book is Gunmetal Blue, a memoir about the intersection of poetry and medicine. Lately Shane is working on poetry based on historical figures—doctors and patients—in psychiatry.

photo by Anna Ross

Brian Henderson is the author of 10 collections of poetry, one of which, Nerve Language (Pedlar Press 2007), was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award. His latest, Sharawadji (Brick Books), was shortlisted for the 2012 Canadian Authors Association Award for Poetry. He has published articles, reviews, and poetry in many literary magazines, has a PhD in Canadian Literature and is the director of WLUPress.






We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, which last year invested $154 million to bring the arts to Canadians throughout the country.

Nous remercions le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien. L’an dernier, le Conseil  a investi 154 millions de dollars pour mettre de l’art dans la vie des Canadiennes et des Canadiens de tout le pays.

The New Quarterly's Wild Writers Festival

The New Quarterly: Canadian Writers and Writing, the nationally acclaimed literary magazine based right here at St Jerome's, is having a fabulous festival on November 2nd - 3rd. Among its many attractions -- such as masterclasses and readings -- it features two current Governor General's Award nominees, Carrie Snyder and Tamas Dobozy. Both were featured in past years TNQ, and at the Reading Series at St Jerome's -- we knew them when!

For more information, and tickets, please visit:

http://www.tnq.ca/wildwriters/

Our 2012-13 Series

Get ready for another year of dynamic readings at St Jerome's! We are very excited about our lineup, and the theme that guides it, specially suited to St Jerome's and Waterloo. 

Our upcoming Reading Series -- Metaphoriment -- will explore how the literary arts approach the sciences, how metaphor meets experiment. Our vision for this series begins with the assumption that the sciences and the literary arts are both grounded in the act of exploration. The languages of description and imagination are, in different ways, foundational to both. Scientists and writers alike start with intent attention to the worlds around and within them, and then imagine themselves into worlds that could, or should, be. Both the scientist and the writer create their arts in that tense but invigorating space between the control one might exert over one’s mediums and the willingness and necessity not to know what the outcome might be.

In selecting authors for our Metaphoriment series, we have defined the sciences rather broadly to include, for instance, representations of medicine, physics, and biology. Some of our writers are practicing doctors, veterinarians, or scientists. Some explore scientific themes in their writing, employ science as metaphor, or apply experimental principles to their creative practice.

Here's what we have in store:

Brian Henderson and Shane Neilson -- Thursday, 25 October, 8pm, STJ 3014
Michael Boughn and Christopher Dewdney -- Tuesday, 27 November, 8pm, STJ 3014
Susan Musgrave -- Thursday, 24 January, 8pm, STJ 3014
Nora Gould -- Thursday, 31 January, 4:30pm, STJ 3014 With the generous support of Brick Books
Anne Michaels -- Wednesday, 6 February, 4:30pm, STJ 3027
Vincent Lam -- Tuesday, 19 March, 8pm, St Jerome's Community Centre
Adam Dickinson -- Thursday, 4 April, 4:30pm, STJ 3014

All readings are free and open to the public, thanks to the assistance of St Jerome's University, and the fundamental support of the Canada Council for the Arts. 

Hope to see you there!

Robert Paul Weston reads March 27!

A bonus reading for this Winter term -- Robert Paul Weston, a YA author whose novel Dust City has been described as "Chinatown via the Brothers Grimm", while Zorgamazoo "is about saving the universe from boredom. And it rhymes -- all 280 pages worth". 


Join us Tuesday 27 March 4:30pm in STJ 2009. The reading is free and all are welcome, so please spread the word!

Robert Paul Weston's first novel, Zorgamazoo, is the winner of the 2011 California Young Reader Medal, the 2010 Silver Birch Award, the 2009 Children’s Choice Award, and a 2009 E.B. White Honour. The film rights to the book have been optioned by the producer of Shrek. His second novel, Dust City, was shortlisted for the 2011 Edgar Alan Poe Award from the Mystery Writers of America, the 2011 Sunburst Award for Canadian Fantasy, and the 2012 Manitoba Young Readers Choice Award; it was also named a 2011 Honour Book by the Canadian Library Association. Currently, Weston lives in Toronto, where he lectures in creative writing at U of T.


Check out his website at www.robertpaulweston.com.