Celebrate our second anniversary by bringing a poem to share
at the open mike to be held after the readings.
Elisabeth de Mariaffi's work has been widely published in Canadian magazines, including The New Quarterly, The FIddlehead, This Magazine, Prairie Fire, and The Puritan, and is taught as part of the short story curriculum at the University of Waterloo. She is one of the wild minds behind Toronto Poetry Vendors, a new press that sells poetry broadsides from refurbished vending machines in the downtown area. Her poetry chapbook, Letter on St. Valentine's Day, was published last year by The Emergency Response Unit. Currently at work on a novel, Elisabeth lives in Little Portugal with two children and one maniac dog.
Catherine Graham is the author of four critically acclaimed poetry collections: The Watch (Abbey Press) and the poetry trilogy Pupa, The Red Element and Winterkill (Insomniac Press). She holds an M.A. in Creative Writing from Lancaster University (UK) and teaches creative writing at the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies. Visit: www.catherinegraham.com
Koom Kankesan is a writer with a background in English Literature and Film Studies. He has written short stories and small anecdotal pieces for various journals, and has published film and book reviews with newspapers such as the Montreal Gazette. He is an unabashed fan of comic books and movies. The Panic Button is his first novella.
K.D. Miller, B.A, M.F.A., has published stories and essays in a variety of Canadian literary magazines. Her work has appeared in Best Canadian Stories – Oberon 2008 and 2009, in The Journey Prize Anthology, and has been broadcast by the CBC. She has published two collections of stories: A Litany in Time of Plague and Give Me Your Answer; an essay collection: Holy Writ; and a novel: Brown Dwarf. K.D. Miller is a teacher of writing courses and workshops, and is both a founding member and Editor of Red Claw Press. She lives in Toronto. Her website is: http://www.dawnwriter.com/.
Giovanna Riccio was born in Calabria, Italy, immigrated to Canada when she was 6 years old and grew up in Toronto. She has a degree in philosophy from the University of Toronto. Over the years, her poems have appeared in newspapers, journals, magazines, and anthologies. She is the author of the chapbook Vittorio, published by Lyricalmyrical Press in July 2010. Her book of poems, Strong Bread, was published by Quattro Books in the spring of 2011 and launched in Montreal in April and in Toronto in May 2011.
Ayelet Tsabari is a two-time winner of Event’s Creative Non-Fiction Contest, and a first runner-up for Prism International Non-Fiction contest. Her fiction was published in Grain and Room, and her unpublished manuscript, You and What Army and Other True Stories was shortlisted to the First Book Competition by Anvil Press. She’s currently working on a collection of short fiction. She often dreams of warmer places.
And as emcee ...
Michelle Alfano is a co-organizer of the (Not So) Nice Italian Girls & Friends Reading Series and a Co-Editor with Descant. Her novella Made Up of Arias (Blaurock Press) won the 2010 Bressani Prize for Short Fiction. Her short story “Opera”, on which her novella Made Up Of Arias is based, was a finalist for a Journey Prize anthology. Her fiction and non-fiction work has been widely published in major literary publications. She will be featured in a forthcoming documentary on the passengers, and the children of the passengers, of the Saturnia that will be featured on OMNI-TV. She is currently at work at a new novel entitled Vita’s Prospects.
