War not with May ...

Suzanne Robertson was born in Perth, Ontario. She is a writer and photographer living in Toronto where she also works at the Children’s Aid Society. Her first collection of poetry Paramita, Little Black was published by Guernica Editions in 2011. It has recently been nominated for the Gerald Lampert Award, for best first book of poetry in Canada.

Lindsay Smail is a Creative Director who plies her trade in the distinctly unpoetic world of provincial politics. She holds an M.A. in English Literature from UofT and has studied with Ken Babstock at the Summer Writing School. A frequent reader at the Plasticene Poetry series, Lindsay has finally admitted she wants to be published and is busy editing her work with an eye to submission.

Born and raised in Bermuda to a Bermudian father and Jamaican mother, for Dane Swan, visiting family involved trips to small villages in Jamaica like Yallas and Land’s End, or to New York communities like Crown Heights in Brooklyn. The great story-tellers he heard in these communities were his only literary professors. At 17, Dane moved to Canada with his brother to further their education. Dane’s poetry can be found on CD, 12”Vinyl, MP3, in anthologies and in poetry reviews. Bending the Continuum is his first full-length collection of poetry in print. 

Lisa Young is a Toronto poet and experimental fiction writer. Her first poetry collection, When the Earth, was published by Quattro Books in the Fall of 2011. Her work has appeared in Jones Av., Misunderstandings Magazine, Quills Canadian Poetry Magazine, dead g(end)er and Rampike. She is a former fiction editor and senior poetry editor for Existere: Journal of Arts and Literature. Lisa is part of the Quattro Presents WordStage Reading Series Team and co-hosts every other month.

And the emcees ...

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 was featured in a forthcoming documentary on the passengers, and the children of the passengers, of the Saturnia that was recently featured on OMNI-TV. She is currently at work at a new novel entitled Vita’s Prospects.

Giovanna Riccio was born in Calabria and immigrated to Canada as a child. Her poems have appeared in newspapers, magazines, journals and anthologies.Her work has been translated into Romanian and a number of her poems are being translated into Italian for an upcoming anthology to be published in Italy. She is the author ofVittorio (Lyricalmyrical Press) and Strong Bread (Quattro Books).