Adam Dickinson reads 4 April!

Photo by Scott Turnbull

For some time, we expected
the end of the world
to be a mushroom.
A vengeful good, a good
of fire, clouded thought.
But every spring they come out of the ground
like universal suffrage,
a writ of habeas corpus,
speech before writing.
They say, dirt. They say, get up.

- from Adam Dickinson's "The Good, part I"

It's Spring -- Get up and come hear Adam Dickinson read! We welcome him to bring to a rousing close another great year of The Reading Series at St Jerome's -- and to celebrate the release of his latest book, The Polymers (a poetry collection "structured as an imaginary science project"), hot off the presses from Anansi. 

Please join us on Thursday, 4 April at 4:30pm in STJ 3014.

Chrissy Brown will be the opening act.

Adam Dickinson is a writer, researcher and teacher. His poems have appeared in literary journals in Canada and internationally as well as in anthologies such as Breathing Fire 2: Canada’s New Poets and The Shape of Content: Creative Writing in Mathematics and Science. His collection Kingdom, Phylum was a finalist for the Trillium Book Award for Poetry. He is the author most recently of The Polymers (Anansi 2013). He is also working on another poetry project that involves testing his blood and body for chemicals and microbes. When not giving his body to science, he teaches at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, where he researches intersections between pataphysics and ecopoetics.

Vincent Lam reads 19 March!

Photo: Barbara Stoneham

What do emergency medicine and fiction writing have in common? More than you might think! And who could take on both as simultaneous careers? Vincent Lam. We are delighted to welcome Dr Lam as part of this year's series, on our theme of the intersections of literature and science. 

Please join us Tuesday, 19 March, at 8pm, in the St Jerome's Community Centre.

The opening act will be Kenzie Reid.

Vincent Lam is a practicing physician whose first book of short stories, Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures, won the 2006 Scotiabank Giller Prize, and has recently been adapted for television and broadcast on HBO Canada. His first novel, The Headmaster’s Wager, was a finalist for the 2012 Governor General's Award. Lam is from the expatriate Chinese community of Vietnam, and was born in Canada. He is a Lecturer with the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto. He has also worked in international air evacuation and expedition medicine on Arctic and Antarctic ships.

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/