NADINE DOOLITTLE
- Saturday February 18, 2012 — 12pm
- Solstice Books and Music: 815 Chemin Riverside, Wakefield, QC
Nadine Doolittle writes psychological suspense set in the Gatineau Hills of West Quebec. Her debut novel, Iced Under, was shortlisted for the Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel in 2009. Her second novel, The Grey Lady, is released this spring by McArthur and Co., along with the paperback edition of Iced Under. Her third novel,The River Bride is in the final stage of revision.
More 2012 events coming soon!
ELISABETH BELLIVEAU, JOE OLLMANN, and BILLY MAVREAS
- Thursday March 24, 2011 — 7pm
- Drawn and Quarterly: 211 Bernard West, Montreal
Elisabeth Belliveau is an interdisciplinary artist, working in stop-motion animation, drawing, textiles and writing. She has published two books: the great hopeful someday (Conundrum, 2007) and Don’t Get Lonely Don’t Get Lost (Conundrum 2010). Elisabeth has received several grants and awards including the William Blair Brucebo Scholarship, and has participated in residency programs at the Banff Centre for the Arts and The National Film Board of Canada.
Joe Ollmann is the author of three books: Chewing on Tinfoil (Insomniac, 2001), The Big Book of Wag! (Conundrum, 2006) and This Will All End in Tears (Insomniac, 2006, Winner of the 2007 Doug Wright Award for best book), all ostensibly funny books but mostly consisting of bug-eyed, bucktoothed characters enacting various depressing aspects of the misanthropic author's world view. His fourth book, MID-LIFE is being published by Drawn and Quarterly in March, 2011.
Billy Mavreas is a Canadian cartoonist whose posters, featuring otherworldly creatures, figured strongly in the Montreal literary and spoken word scene of the 1990s. His books are Mutations: The Posters of Billy Mavreas (Conundrum, 1997), The Overlords of Glee (Conundrum & Crunchy Comics, 2001) and Inside Outside Overlap (Timeless Books, Kootenay, 2008). Since 2004, Mavreas has been a regular cartoonist for ascent magazine, a Canadian yoga magazine and Matrix magazine.
MIGUEL SYJUCO
- Thursday April 7, 2011 — 7pm
- Hosted by Suzanne Hancock
- Eleanor London Library: 5851 Cavendish Blvd., Côte Saint-Luc
Miguel Syjuco is the author of Ilustrado (Hamish Hamilton Canada, 2010), the debut novel which won the 2008 Man Asian Literary Prize (for unpublished manuscript), the QWF's 2010 Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction, and the Palanca Award, the Philippines' highest literary honour. He has a master's degree in creative writing from Columbia University and is completing a PhD in English literature from the University of Adelaide in Australia. He lives in Montreal.
Host Suzanne Hancock’s second collection of poetry, Cast From Bells, was published by McGill-Queen’s University Press in April 2010. Poems from her first collection, Another Name for Bridge, were short-listed for the Bronwen Wallace Award and won a number of Hopwood Awards at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor where she received her MFA.
JACK TODD
- Saturday April 16, 2011 — 4pm
- Brome Lake Books: 264 Knowlton Road, Lac-Brome, QC
Jack Todd’s memoir, The Taste of Metal, won QWF’s 2001 McAuslan First Book Prize and Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-fiction and was short-listed for the Governor General’s award. Todd has been a columnist for the Montreal Gazette for 20 years. He is also the author of the novel Sun Going Down (Penguin Canada, 2008), and Come Again No More (Simon & Schuster Canada, 2010). He is now completing the third novel of the trilogy, Rain Fell Like Mercy.
H. NIGEL THOMAS and RABINDRANATH MAHARAJ
- Saturday April 16, 2011 — 7pm
- Cost: Students $5, Members $10, General Public $12
- Morrin Centre: 44 chaussée des Écossais (Rue St-Stanislas), Quebec City, QC
A native of St. Vincent Island in the Caribbean, Nigel Thomas currently lives in Montreal. Mr. Thomas taught American literature at Laval University for more than 18 years.
Rabindranath Maharaj was born in Trinidad and came to live in Canada in 1990. He has since written 5 novels and three short story collections.
This event is part of the Morrin Centre's ImagiNation 2011: Writers’ Festival. Though these two authors are far from home, their cultural heritage has nonetheless followed them. People on the margins of society, exile, immigration and duality are themes that have enriched their fiction over the years. These themes will be analysed during the workshops. The discussion between the two authors will be preceded by an individual reading.
CATHERINE McKENZIE
- Wednesday May 11, 2011
- Megantic English-speaking Community Development Corporation: Thetford Mines, QC
Catherine McKenzie was born and raised in Montreal, Canada. A graduate of McGill University and McGill Law School, Catherine practices law in Montreal. Her first novel, Spin, was published by HarperCollins Canada in January, 2010. It debuted at #15 on the Globe and Mail Canadian best-seller list. Her second novel, Arranged, will be published by HarperCollins Canada in January, 2011.
KATE HALL and JOHANNA SKIBSRUD
- Tuesday May 24, 7pm, free
- Hosted by Stephanie Bolster
- Ye Olde Orchard Pub: 324 Lakeshore Rd., Pointe Claire Village, West Island
- Click here for the event poster
Kate Hall’s first book, The Certainty Dream (Coach House, 2009), was shortlisted for the Griffin Award. Her poems have appeared in many journals, including The Colorado Review, jubilat, Swerve, The Denver Quarterly, Open City, LIT and Boston Review. She lives in Montreal and teaches at Dawson College.
Johanna Skibsrud’s debut novel, The Sentimentalists (Gaspereau Press, 2010), was awarded the 2010 Scotiabank Giller Prize and was named a Globe 100 Book of the Year for 2010. Her first poetry collection, Late Nights With Wild Cowboys, (Gaspereau Press, 2008) was shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Award. Johanna currently lives between Paris and Montreal.
Host Stephanie Bolster’s fourth book of poetry, A Page from the Wonders of Life on Earth, is forthcoming from Brick Books in fall 2011. Her previous collection, Pavilion, appeared in 2002 with McClelland & Stewart, and her first, White Stone: The Alice Poems (Signal Editions, 1998) won the Governor General’s Award. The editor of The Best Canadian Poetry in English 2008 (Tightrope, 2008) and co-editor of Penned: Zoo Poems (Signal Editions, 2010), she teaches creative writing at Concordia University in Montréal.
TREVOR FERGUSON
- Sunday June 12, 2011 — 2pm
- St. Mary’s Hall: 261 Main Rd., Hudson,
followed by a reception at The Greenwood Centre for Living History: 254 Main Rd., Hudson
Trevor Ferguson is the author of nine novels and four plays. His novels include The True Life Adventures of Sparrow Drinkwater (HarperCollins, 1993) The Timekeeper (HarperCollins,1996), which won the QWF's 1996 Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction, and City of Ice (HarperCollins, 1993) and Ice Lake (HarperCollins, 2001), both published under the pen name of John Farrow. His first play, Long, Long, Short, Long was the first English play in history to be nominated by l'académie québécoise du theatre for a Masque award for best text. His ninth novel, The Earth in its Devotion, will be published in spring 2011 by HarperCollins.
MARIANNE ACKERMAN
- Saturday October 22, 2011 — 2pm
- Solstice Book Store: 815 Riverside, Wakefield, QC
Marianne Ackerman is the author of three novels published by McArthur & Company: Jump (2000), Matters of Hart (2005) and, most recently, Piers’ Desire (2010). Her plays include Woman by a Window & Céleste (Signature Editions, 1996) and Venus of Dublin (Signature Editions, 2000). She is also an award-winning journalist, and publisher of the online arts magazine, The Rover.
TESS FRAGOULIS
- Thursday October 6, 2011 — 5:30pm
- Bishop's University Bookstore, Lennoxville, QC
Tess Fragoulis’ first book, Stories to Hide from Your Mother (Arsenal Pulp, 1997) was nominated for the QWF's 1998 First Book Prize. Her novel, Ariadne’s Dream (Thistledown, 2001) was nominated for the 2003 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and received an honourable mention for the Books in Canada/Amazon First Novel Award. She edited Musings: an anthology of Greek-Canadian literature (Véhicule, 2004) and has published widely in literary journals. Her novel, The Goodtime Girl, will be released by Cormorant Books in 2011.
KATHLEEN WINTER
- Photo by Aaju Peter
- Thursday November 3, 2011 — 5:30pm
- McGill Bookstore: 3420 Rue McTavish, Montreal
Kathleen Winter’s first book, the vivid story collection, BoYs (Biblioasis, 2007), won the prestigious Metcalf-Rooke Award and the 2008 Winterset Award for Excellence in Newfoundland Writing. She recently published her first novel, Annabel (Anansi, 2010). Her stories have appeared in The Malahat Review, TickleAce, Antigonish Review, The Fiddlehead and Pottersfield Portfolio as well as Geist. Kathleen has also written dramatic and documentary scripts for Sesame Street and CBC Television.
QWF gratefully acknowledges the assistance of the Canada Council for the Arts.
