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Posted: Monday, September 15, 2003

Trent University’s Writers Reading Series Fall Events

Book launch to kick-off 2003/2004 series

The launch of Peterborough poet Betsy Struther’s ninth book will signify the start of Trent University’s 2003/2004 Writers Reading Series and the beginning of "Poetry Season".

Titles Bookstore and the Writers Reading Series announce the launch of Still, published by Black Moss Press, a book of poetry by Ms. Struthers. She will read from this most recent work on Wednesday, September 17 at 7:30 p.m. at Titles Bookstore, 379 George Street North.

This year’s Writers Reading Series will see a number of poets participate. The University’s department of English organized the first Writers Reading Series in the 1988-89 academic year. They decided to mount a reading series which would not only bring to the University established writers who are well-known on the reading circuit, but also act as a showcase for newer writers who have not yet developed a wide audience.

One of the founders of Trent University's Writers Reading Series, Ms. Struthers, who has lived in Peterborough since 1977, is the author of six books of poetry and three novels. She received the Silver Medal in the Milton Acorn People's Poetry Award competition in 1994 and has been president of the League of Canadian Poets.

Ms. Struthers also works as an editor and co-edited (with Sarah Klassen) Poets in the Classroom, an anthology of essays about teaching poetry. She will be leading a poetry workshop Telling Poems as part of Julian Blackburn College's Continuing Education Program this fall. For further information, visit www.trentu.ca/continuinged/.

Ms. Struthers' work has been widely published in journals and anthologies and she has read her work in many venues across Canada, in Australia and the USA.

Also this fall, as part of Writers Reading:

Karen Solie was born in Moosejaw and grew up on the family farm in southwestern Saskatchewan. Her first collection of poems, Short Haul Engine (Brick Books 2001), was awarded the BC Book Prize, the Dorothy Livesay Award for poetry and was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize, the Gerald Lampert Award and the ReLit Prize. Solie's short fiction won the 1999 Other Voices fiction contest, appeared in the Journey Prize Anthology 12 and won this year's Subterrain short fiction contest. Karen Solie lives in Toronto and is currently completing her Ph.D. dissertation in English from the University of Victoria.
Wednesday, September 24, 2003, 8 p.m., The Pit, Lady Eaton College

Ken Babstock was born in Newfoundland and grew up in the Ottawa Valley. His poems have appeared in several Canadian journals and anthologies, including The Malahat Review, Fiddlehead, PRISM International, and Canadian Literature. His first collection of poetry, Mean (Anansi 1999), was awarded the Milton Acorn People's Poetry Prize and the Atlantic Poetry Prize. Babstock published his second poetry collection, Days into Flatspin (Anansi), in 2001 and was awarded the K.M. Hunter Artist Award for literature in 2002. Currently living in Toronto, Ken Babstock has also taught at the Banff Centre for the Arts.
Wednesday, October 8, 2003, 8 p.m., Junior Common Room, Traill College

Bruce Meyer is a poet, literary critic, and teacher, and is well known to CBC radio audiences as the mind and voice behind The Great Books, produced by CBC in 1999. In addition to The Golden Thread: A Reader's Journey Through the Great Books (2000), recent publications include the poetry collections The Spirit Bride (2002), Anywhere (2000) and The Presence (1999). Meyer has been a visiting writer at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Southern Mississippi. He was also the writer-in-residence at Leacock House in July 2001. Meyer won the Ruth Cable Memorial Prize for Poetry in 1998 and received honourable mention for the T.S. Eliot Poetry Prize in 2000.
Monday, October 27, 2003, 8 p.m., Trent University Bookstore, Symons Campus Julian Blackburn College, Peterborough and
Tuesday, October 28, 2003, 7:30 p.m., Durham College, Oshawa (room TBA)
Julian Blackburn College, Trent @ Durham

Michael Redhill, the managing editor of Brick Magazine, studied acting, film production and screenwriting at Indiana University and York University, and completed a B.A. in English at the University of Toronto in 1992. He is a poet, playwright, and novelist, and has also been involved in publishing, film production, and bookselling. Seven of Redhill's plays were produced in the 1990s, including Building Jerusalem (published 2001), which won the Dora Mavor Moore Award. Redhill won the Norma Epstein Award for poetry in 1990 and the E.J. Pratt Prize for poetry in 1991. His poetry collections include Impromptu Feats of Balance, Lake Nora Arms and Asphodel. Michael Redhill's very successful first novel, Martin Sloane (Doubleday, 2001), was shortlisted for the 2001 Giller Prize.
Wednesday, November 5, 2003, 8 p.m., Private Dining Room, Otonabee College

Frances Itani has written novels, short stories, poetry and radio drama. She grew up in a small village on the Ottawa River in Quebec, and has lived in various Canadian provinces and European countries. Itani has held teaching and writer-in-residence positions at several universities and libraries, including Trent University. Her most recent publications are the short story collections, Man Without Face (1994), which won the Ottawa-Carleton Book Award, and Leaning, Leaning Over Water (1998). She was awarded the Tilden/CBC/Saturday Night Literary Award for short stories in 1995 and 1996. Frances Itani's novel, Deafening, is being published this fall in Canada, USA, UK, and the Netherlands. It will be translated and published in other countries in 2004.
Thursday, November 6, 2003, 8 p.m., Junior Common Room, Traill College

Stephen Finucan received his B.A. in English from Trent University and his MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia. He has written two collections of short stories, Happy Pilgrims and the recently published Foreigners. Finucan is a Creative Writing instructor with the University of Toronto's School of Continuing Studies and contributes to the Toronto Star's book pages. He was Write Magazine's New Writer of the Year in 2000, won the Humber School for Writers Prize in 1997 and in 2000 was short listed for the Upper Canada Brewing Company's Writer's Craft Award and the Ian James Award for short fiction.
Wednesday, November 26, 2003, 8 p.m., Junior Common Room, Traill College

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For further information, contact Gordon Johnston, 748-1011, Ext. 1522

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