Samantha Bernstein's memoir, Here We Are Among the Living, was published by Tightrope Books in June 2012. She is in the fourth year of an English Ph.D. at York University; her writing has appeared in various places, including Exile, The Fiddlehead and Numero Cinq. Here We Are Among the Living is available in bookstores, on Amazon, and through Tightrope Books. tightropebooks.com
Andrew Borkowski’s debut collection of short stories, Copernicus
Avenue, was published by Cormorant Books in 2011. He studied Journalism
and English Literature at Carleton University. Over his thirty-year
career, he has published articles in the Globe and Mail, the Canadian
Forum, Quill & Quire, TV Guide, and the Los Angeles Times, and
contributed as an editor to titles published by John Wiley and Sons
Canada, McGraw-Hill Ryerson, Pearson Canada and D&M Publishers. His
short fiction has appeared in Grain, The New Quarterly, and in
Storyteller. His story “Twelve Versions of Lech,” was nominated
for the 2007 Writer’s Trust/McClelland and Stewart Journey Prize and
published in Journey Prize Stories 19.
Sonia Di Placido is a writer, performer, and artist currently completing the Creative Writing, Optional Residency MFA Program, with the University of British Columbia. She is also a graduate of the Ryerson University Theatre School and holds an Hons. BA in Humanities from York University. She has worked as a Supernumerary with the Canadian Opera Company, is a member of the Association of Italian Canadian Writers and The League of Canadian Poets. Sonia has published profile pieces, creative non-fiction, and poems in literary journals and anthologies.
Garret Dwyer-Joyce was born and educated in Dublin, fled to
Canada to escape the rain only to find himself knee-deep in snow. However, he fell
in love - with a woman, not the snow - and stayed. His fiction and non-fiction
have appeared in The Fiddlehead, Descant and Foreign Affairs. He lives in
Toronto and works as a documentary producer with CTV's W5.
Bianca Lakoseljac is the author of three books: Summer of the Dancing Bear (Guernica Editions, 2012) a novel about the rite of passage of a fourteen year old girl befriended by a gypsy clan; Bridge in the Rain (Guernica Editions, 2010), a collection of stories linked by an inscription on a bench in Toronto’s High Park; and, Memoirs of a Praying Mantis, a collection of poetry. Her writing has been published in journals and anthologies such as the Inanna Publication and Education, York University; and Central European Association for Canadian Studies. Bianca taught communication courses at Ryerson University and Humber College. She is Past President of the Canadian Authors Association, Toronto branch, and has judged various national literary competitions.
Nyla Matuk is the author of the chapbook, Oneiric, published in 2009. Her poems have appeared in Maisonneuve, The Walrus, Canadian Notes and Queries, ARC Poetry, the Literary Review of Canada, and The Best Canadian Poetry in English 2012. Her first full-length collection, Sumptuary Laws, was published in Fall 2012 with Signal Editions/Véhicule Press. She was nominated twice in 2012 for The Walrus Poetry Prize.
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 documentary on the passengers of the Saturnia that was featured on OMNI-TV and at the Moving Images Film Festival. 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 of Vittorio (Lyricalmyrical Press) and Strong Bread (Quattro Books).
