Guernica Showcase night reader bios

Thursday May 5th livewords welcomes six Guernica Editions poets for our Guernica Showcase Night at the Black Swan, 154 Danforth – 2nd floor – [map]. Doors at 7:30 p.m. - Readings from 8:00 p.m.

Our readers for the show are:

  • Brian Day: is the author of three books of poetry, Love Is Not Native to My Blood, Azure, and Conjuring Jesus, all published by Guernica Editions.  He teaches in Toronto.
  • Baila Ellenbogen: is a poet and psycho-educational consultant who resides  in Vaughan, Ontario, with her family. She conducts research in conjunction with the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto, which focuses on poetry composition and investigates the cognitive and creative processes that underlie writing.
  • John Oughton: Born in Guelph, John Oughton has lived in Egypt, Iraq and Japan as well as Canada. He completed degrees in literature at York University, studying with Irving Layton and Miriam Waddington, and non-credit courses at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics where he worked closely with Anne Waldman, Allen Ginsberg, and William Burroughs.  He is the author of five collections of poetry, most recently Time Slip (Guernica, 2005) and over 400 articles, reviews, blogs and interviews.  John is Professor of Learning and Teaching at Centennial College, and now completing a PhD in education at York University.
  • Julie Roorda: is the author of three volumes of poetry Eleventh Toe (2001), Courage Underground (2006), and most recently Floating Bodies (2010), all published by Guernica Editions.  She has also published a collection of short stories called Naked in the Sanctuary (Guernica Editions, 2004) and a novel for young adults Wings of a Bee (2007) published by Sumach Press.  She has been a winner of The Fiddlehead’s annual fiction contest and a finalist for the Confederation Poets Prize, and has published work in several literary journals across North America.
  • Karen Shenfeld: has published three books of poetry with Guernica Editions: The Law of Return (1999), which won the Canadian Jewish Book Award for poetry in 2001, The Fertile Crescent (2005), and, most recently, My Father’s Hands Spoke in Yiddish (2010). Her work has also appeared in well-known journals published in Canada, the United States, South Africa, and Bangladesh, and she has given readings in Canada, the U.S., Mexico, England (at the home of Lord Tennyson), and South Africa (at the original Manenberg’s Jazz Café). Her poetry has been featured on CBC Radio, and on the U.K.’s 39 Dover Street. Shenfeld has also brought her poetic sensibility to the writing of magazine stories. Her personal documentary, Il Giardino, The Gardens of Little Italy, was screened at the 2007 Planet in Focus Festival.
  • Elana Wolff: Elana Wolff’s poems have appeared in journals and anthologies in Canada, the UK and the US. She has published five books with Guernica, including the You Speak to Me in Trees, which was awarded the 2008 F.G. Bressani Prize for Poetry, and Implicate Me, a collection of short essays on individual poems by Toronto-area poets. Her fourth collection of poetry, Startled Night, will be released this fall. Elana lives in the City of Vaughan, where she writes, edits, and facilitates therapeutic community art.
Hosted by Edward Nixon

PWYC Donations requested during the evening.

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For more information on Guernica Editions

livewords – Guernica Editions Showcase

Join us Thursday May 5 as we host our second “press showcase night” of the year featuring six Guernica Editions poets.

We are pleased to welcome:

  • Brian Day
  • Baila Ellenbogen
  • John Oughton
  • Julie Roorda
  • Karen Shenfeld
  • Elana Wolff

____________________________________________________

As always we will be at the Black Swan, 154 Danforth – 2nd floor – [map]
Doors at 7:30 p.m. - Readings from 8:00 p.m.


We will also have 1-poem Open Mic set to open the evening.

Hosted by Edward Nixon

PWYC Donations requested during the evening.

For more information on livewords please join our Facebook Group

“Closed Mic” opens the night at the Carousel Issue 27 launch party

Come out and celebrate National Poetry Month by supporting one of our favourite literary magazines.

Thursday, April 7th at the Black Swan, 154 Danforth – 2nd floor – [map

Doors at 7:30 p.m. - Readings from 8:00 p.m.


The evening will feature readings by contributors:

  • Laurie D Graham
  • Julie Cameron Gray
  • Jim Johnstone
  • Christine Walde
  • Natalie Zina Walschots
  • Liz Worth

PLUS our “Closed Mic” readers to launch the evening:

  • Kimberly Dawkins
  • Ian Hanna
  • Allen Sutterfield
  • Nicki Ward

Hosted by Edward Nixon

Links:

RSVP for this event

livewords on Facebook

Carousel Magazine

livewords presents the Carousel Magazine #27 launch party.

livewords welcomes back our friends at Carousel to celebrate the Toronto launch of Issue 27.

Come out and celebrate National Poetry Month by supporting one of our favourite literary magazines.

Thursday, April 7th at the Black Swan, 154 Danforth – 2nd floor – [map]

Doors at 7:30 p.m. - Readings from 8:00 p.m.


The evening will feature readings by contributors:

  • Laurie D Graham
  • Julie Cameron Gray
  • Jim Johnstone
  • Christine Walde
  • Natalie Zina Walschots
  • Liz Worth

Plus surprise guests.

Hosted by Edward Nixon

Links:

RSVP for this event

livewords on Facebook

Carousel Magazine

Thanks to all who sang Happy Birthday to livewords

We were grateful to all who came out on February 3rd — over 100 through the course of the evening -to celebrate our 3rd birthday. And thrilled to sharp, shiny, glittering pieces that so many heard the words of Ian Burgham, James Dewar, Rocco de Giacomo, Liz Howard, Stephen Humphrey, Jim Johnstone, Mike Lipsius, Sachiko Murakami, Shannon Maguire, Shawn McLeod, Cathy Petch, David Silverberg, and Dane Swan. It was a privilege to have these fine fellow-travellers “in the house.”

A well-mannered shout out to the Sachiko Murakami for asking the gathered multitude to sing a chorus of Happy Birthday to this wee three reading series.

If  poets were all to exiled from the city so it might be well-governed (Plato, Republic 607d), then we can’t think of a better bunch of souls to be exiled with.

We were sorry to have regrets from Gillian Savigny and Blair Trewartha but we understand that gravity of job demands, the perils of snow and the damn frustration of an absence of transportation. We look forward to having Gillian and Blair at livewords later this year.

NEXT UP: We have the Insomniac Press Showcase night at livewords on March 3rd with Angela Hibbs, Catherine Graham, Jeff Latosik and more TBA.

In the meantime be sure to check out these fine reading Toronto reading series: