2016-2017 Reading Series Past Speakers
Information for
2016-2017 Reading Series Past Speakers
Events
Fred Wah
October 21, 2016
Fred Wah was born in Swift Current, Saskatchewan in 1939, grew up in the West Kootenay region of British Columbia and now lives in Vancouver. His work has received many honours, including the Governor General’s Award. He was Parliamentary Poet Laureate from 2011 to 2013 and was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2013. He has published over 20 books of poetry and prose, including Sentenced to Light (2008) and is a door (2009). A recent collaboration, High Muck a Muck: Playing Chinese, An Interactive Poem, is available online. His current project involves the Columbia River.
Dimitri Nasrallah
November 4, 2016
Dimitri Nasrallah has been the editor for Véhicule Press's fiction imprint, Esplanade Books, since 2013. In that time he has initiated a new translation program, working with well-known authors such as Neil Smith and Claire Holden Rothman to translate new Quebecois fiction for Canadian readers. The initiative has resulted in Esplanade's first-ever nomination for a Governor General's Literary Award. Nasrallah is the author of the novels Niko (2011, winner of the Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction) and Blackbodying (2005, winner of the McAuslan First Book Award). His translation of Éric Plamondon's Hungary-Hollywood Express was published this year.
Farzana Doctor
November 25, 2016
Farzana Doctor is a Toronto-based author of three novels: Stealing Nasreen, Six Metres of Pavement (which won a Lambda Literary Award and was short-listed for the Toronto Book Award) and the recently released All Inclusive. Farzana was named one of CBC Books’ “Ten Canadian Women Writers You Need to Read Now” (2012), was Voted Best Author in NOW Magazine’s 2015 Best of Toronto Readers’ Choice Poll and was the recipient of the Writers’ Trust of Canada’s Dayne Ogilvie Award (2011). She curates the Brockton Writers Series.
Tim Conley
March 10, 2017
Tim Conley's recent books include Dance Moves of the Near Future (2015), the poetry collection One False Move (2012), Burning City: Poems of Metropolitan Modernity (edited, with Jed Rasula, 2012), and Nothing Could be Further: Thirty Stories (2011). He lives in St. Catharines, ON, where he teaches English at Brock University, and has published widely on Joyce, Nabokov, and other topics in twentieth-century literature.
Tasmeen Jamal and Pamela Mordecai
March 30, 2017
Tasneem Jamal was born in Mbarara, Uganda, and immigrated to Canada with her family in 1975. She has worked as a journalist for over a decade at a number of Canadian newspapers, including The Globe and Mail and National Post. In 2014, her debut novel, Where the Air Is Sweet, was published to critical acclaim. That same year, the CBC named Tasneem one of 12 rising CanLit stars on its annual list of Writers to Watch.
Pamela (Pam) Mordecai writes poetry and long and short fiction. In 2015, her first novel, Red Jacket, was shortlisted for the 2015 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and Mawenzi House published her sixth book of poetry, de book of Mary. She also writes poetry, plays and stories for children and is committed to the use of her heart language, Jamaican Creole, in her work. Born in Jamaica and educated there and in the USA, Pam and her family moved to Canada in 1993. She lives in Kitchener, Ontario.