welcome to
common readings
2018
December 17th, 2018
MEGHAN HARRISON
CATRIONA WRIGHT
ALEX BOYD
Doors: 7pm
Readings: around 8ish
Pay-What-You-Can
MEGHAN HARRISON is a writer, editor, and performer based in Toronto. She is most recently the author of the chapbook Amateur Hours (Rahila’s Ghost, 2018).
CATRIONA WRIGHT is the author of the poetry collection Table Manners (Véhicule Press, 2017) and the short story collection Difficult People (Nightwood Editions, 2018). Her short stories have appeared in Geist, Joyland, Grain, The New Quarterly, and Room. Her poems have appeared in Prism International, Prairie Fire, Fiddlehead, and Lemon Hound, and they have been anthologized in The Next Wave: An Anthology of 21st Century Canadian Poetry and in The Best Canadian Poetry 2015 & 2018. She is the poetry editor for The Puritan and a co-founder of Desert Pets Press.
ALEX BOYD's first book of poems Making Bones Walk (2007) won the Gerald Lampert Award. His second book of poems The Least Important Man was published in 2012. He has written for The Globe and Mail among other publications and helped establish Best Canadian Essays, an annual collection selecting work from Canadian magazines. His first novel, Army of the Brave and Accidental, a retelling of The Odyssey as modern mythology, was published in 2018.
November 26th, 2018
CAROLINE SZPAK
CHRIS GILMORE
SOUVANKHAM THAMMAVONGSA
Come for the words and the wine!
Pay-What-You-Can!
Doors: 7pm
CAROLINE SZPAK is a writer of Polish ancestry based in Toronto. Her poetry and fiction have appeared in journals across Canada. Slinky Naive (Anvil Press) is her debut collection. The title is a conjunctive reference to the term treatment naive, and the helical toy that slinks, entrancing and entranced down stairs, inclines, and inclinations.
CHRIS GILMORE is the author of Nobodies. His writing has appeared in McSweeney's, The New Quarterly, Matrix, Broken Pencil, and CNQ: Canadian Notes & Queries.
SOUVANKHAM THAMMAVONGSA is the author of four poetry books, Cluster (M&S, 2019), Light (Pedlar Press, 2013), winner of the Trillium Book Award for Poetry, Found (Pedlar Press, 2007), and Small Arguments (Pedlar Press, 2003), winner of the ReLit Award. Her writing has appeared in Harper's, Granta, Best American Nonrequired Reading, and other places.
October 22nd, 2018
JASON FREURE
K.B. THORS
DANIEL PERRY
Doors: 7pm P-W-Y-C
JASON FREURE is originally from Kitchener. He is the operations manager of The Puritan. Everyone Rides the Bus in a City of Losers is his first collection of poetry. He lives in Toronto’s east end.
K.B. THORS is a poet, editor, and translator from west of Penhold, Alberta, Canada. Her debut poetry collection is forthcoming from Coach House Books in fall 2019. She won Vallum’s Poetry Prize in 2016, was an Arc Poem of the year finalist in 2017, and has been selected for Lambda Literary’s Poetry Spotlight. Poems have appeared in journals and anthologies across Canada, the U.S., and the U.K.. Her translation of Stormwarning by Icelandic poet Kristín Svava Tómasdóttir (Phoneme Media 2018) was awarded the Leif and Inger Sjöberg Prize by the American Scandinavian Foundation. She is also the Spanish-English translator of translation of Chintungo: The Story of Someone Else by Soledad Marambio (Ugly Ducking Presse). Essays and literary criticism have appeared in Guernica, The Harvard Review, Europe Now & elsewhere. She holds an MFA from Columbia University, where she was a Teaching Fellow in Poetry despite not being a Fellow at all. She taught at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in Manhattan before moving back to Canada just last year.
DANIEL PERRY is the author of the short story collections Nobody Looks That Young Here (Guernica, 2018) and Hamburger (Thistledown). His fiction has been short-listed for the Carter V. Cooper Prize, and has appeared in more than 30 publications in Canada, the U.S., the U.K. and the Czech Republic. He lives in Toronto, and on Twitter @danielperrysays..
September 24th, 2018
ZAK JONES
KATERI LANTHIER
AARON TUCKER
ZAK JONES is an American expatriate living and writing in Toronto. Zak borrows his delivery style from revival-tent preachers and factory chaplains but his material is concerned more with the waking dream of loss, the double exposure of memory, the circus of family and the burning smell of sentimentality.
His poems have appeared in The Hart House Review, Milkweed Zine, and other various rags and is forthcoming in Palimpsest: Yale’s Graduate and Literary Arts Magazine.
Zak is a graduate student at University of Toronto where he has completed a manuscript of poetry and is working on a novel about isolation in southern Appalachia.
KATERI LANTHIER holds a BA and MA in English Literature from the University of Toronto. Her poems have been published in many journals, including The Fiddlehead, Leveler, Event, Hazlitt, Green Mountains Review, Arc, Halibut Haiku, the Literary Review of Canada, and Best Canadian Poetry 2014. She won the 2013 Walrus Poetry Prize and was profiled in Portraits of Canadian Writers (Porcupine’s Quill, 2016). She is an Adjunct Professor, MA in Creative Writing, University of Toronto. Her first collection is Reporting from Night (Iguana, 2011). Her second is Siren (Véhicule Press, 2017). Siren was longlisted for the 2018 Pat Lowther Memorial Award. Poems from Siren have been included in four anthologies.
AARON TUCKER is the author of the novel Y: Oppenheimer, Horseman of Los Alamos (Coach House Books) as well as two books of poetry, Irresponsible Mediums: The Chess Games of Marcel Duchamp (Bookthug Press) and punchlines (Mansfield Press), and two scholarly cinema studies monographs, Virtual Weaponry: The Militarized Internet in Hollywood War Films and Interfacing with the Internet in Popular Cinema (both published by Palgrave Macmillan).
His current collaborative project, Loss Sets, translates poems into sculptures which are then 3D printed (http://aarontucker.ca/3-d-poems/); he is also the co-creator of The ChessBard, an app that transforms chess games into poems (http://chesspoetry.com).
Currently, he is a guest on the Dish with One Spoon Territory, where he is a lecturer in the English department at Ryerson University (Toronto), teaching creative and academic writing. He began his doctorate as an Elia Scholar in the Cinema and Media Studies Department at York University in Fall 2018.
August 27th, 2018
JESSIE JONES
MARC DI SAVERIO
EMILIA NIELSEN
Come for the Words and the Wine!
Doors: 7pm Pay-What-You-Can.
JESSIE JONES grew up in the prairies, spent a decade on Vancouver Island, and now lives in Toronto. Her work has appeared in CV2, Lemonhound, PRISM International, The Puritan and Arc among others. She has been shortlisted for the Malahat Review’s Far Horizons Award, selected as Editor’s Choice in Arc’s Poem of the Year, and been first-runner up in PRISM International’s Poetry Prize. She is the founder of Literistic and is currently at work on a new poetry manuscript.
MARC DI SAVERIO hails from Hamilton, Canada. His poems and translations have appeared in such outfits as Maisonneuve, CNQ, and Hazlitt. In Issue 92 of Canadian Notes and Queries Magazine, poet and critic Shane Neilson called Di Saverio's Sanatorium Songs (2013), "the greatest poetry debut from the past 25 years." In 2016, he received the City of Hamilton Arts Award for Best Emerging Writer. In 2017, his work was broadcasted on BBC Radio 3, his debut became a best seller in both Canada and the United States, and he published his first book of translations: Ship of Gold: The Essential Poems of Emile Nelligan (Vehicule Press). Forthcoming in Spring 2019 is his epic poem, Crito Di Volta (Biblioasis). He is currently writing his first novel, the Daymaker, and his second book of translations, L'Infinito: The Selected Poems of Giacomo Leopardi.
EMILIA NIELSEN’s debut book, Surge Narrows (Leaf Press, 2013), was a finalist for the League of Canadian Poets’ Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. Body Work, her second collection of poetry, was published by Signature Editions in spring 2018. She is the author of the scholarly text Disrupting Breast Cancer Narratives: Stories of Rage and Repair, forthcoming with the University of Toronto Press in spring 2019. In 2017-2018 she was a Visiting Scholar at the Canadian Literature Centre at the University of Alberta. She recently joined York University’s Department of Social Science as a tenure track Assistant Professor in the Health & Society Program.
July 23rd, 2018
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JEFF LATOSIK
NYLA MATUK
A. F. MORITZ
Doors: 7pm
JEFF LATOSIK's third full-length collection of poetry, Dreampad, was released in Spring of 2018. He is also the author of Helium Ear, a chapbook from Anstruther Press. He's the former poetry editor of the Humber Literary Review and is a current Collective Member of InkWell Workshops.
NYLA MATUK is the author of two collections: Sumptuary Laws (2012) and Stranger (2016), and a chapbook, Oneiric (2009). Her poems have appeared in a number of literary journals and anthologies in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K., including The New Yorker, Poetry, PN Review, Arc Poetry Magazine, The Walrus, Canadian Notes and Queries, and The Literary Review of Canada.
This winter she was the 2018 Mordecai Richler Writer-in-Residence at McGill University. Her work has been nominated for the Walrus Poetry Prize and the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award.
A. F. MORITZ's most recent book is The Sparrow: Selected Poems, from House of Anansi Press. In 2015, he published Sequence, a Poem, also from Anansi, and Princeton University Press re-issued his 1986 collection, The Tradition. His poetry has received the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Griffin Poetry Prize, the Award in Literature of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Bess Hokin Prize of Poetry magazine, and other recognitions
June 25th, 2018
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CURTIS LEBLANC
MALLORY TATER
DAVID JAMES BROCK
CURTIS LEBLANC is a poet and writer based in Vancouver, British Columbia. His debut collection, Little Wild, was published by Nightwood Editions in April 2018. His poems have won the Readers' Choice Award in Arc's Poem of the Year competition, Honourable Mention in the Margaret Reid Poetry Contest, and have been shortlisted for The Walrus Poetry Prize and CV2's Young Buck Poetry Prize. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia.
MALLORY TATER is a writer based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Her debut collection of poetry This Will Be Good (Book*hug Press) was released Spring 2018. Mallory’s poetry & short stories have been published in literary magazines across Canada such as Room, CV2, The Malahat Review, and The Fiddlehead. She was the recipient of CV2’s 2016 Young Buck Poetry Prize. She is the publisher of Rahila’s Ghost Press, a poetry chapbook press. Her debut novel “The Birth Yard” has been contracted with Bukowski Agency.
DAVID JAMES BROCK is a playwright, poet, and librettist whose plays and operas have been performed in cities across Canada, the US, and the UK. He is the winner of the 2011 Herman Voaden Canadian National Playwriting Award for his play Wet. Brock’s debut poetry collection, Everyone is CO2, was released by Wolsak & Wynn in spring 2014 and his second collection, Ten-Headed Alien, was just released in March of 2018.
May 28th, 2018
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PHILLIP CRYMBLE
ROBIN RICHARDSON
MATTHEW TIERNEY
Doors at 7pm. Drinks: $5!
Come for the Words and the Wine!
PHILLIP CRYMBLE is a disabled writer and scholar living in Atlantic Canada. A poetry editor at The Fiddlehead and SSHRC doctoral fellow at UNB, he received his MFA from the University of Michigan and has published poems in The Malahat Review, Poetry Ireland Review, The Literary Review of Canada, The New Quarterly, CV2, The Forward Book of Poetry 2017, and elsewhere.In 2016, Not Even Laughter, his first full-length collection, was a finalist for both the New Brunswick Book Award and the Writer’s Federation of Nova Scotia’s J.M. Abraham Prize.
ROBIN RICHARDSON is the author of three collections of poetry, and is Editor-in-Chief at Minola Review. Her work has appeared in Salon, Poetry Magazine, The Walrus, Hazlitt, and Tin House, among others. She holds an MFA in Writing from Sarah Lawrence College, has won the Fortnight Poetry Prize in the U.K., The John B. Santorini Award, The Joan T. Baldwin Award, and has been shortlisted for the CBC, Walrus, and ARC Poetry Prizes, among others. Richardson’s latest collection, Sit How You Want, is out now with Véhicule Press. www.sithowyouwant.org
MATTHEW TIERNEY’s fourth book of poetry, Midday at the Super-Kamiokande, is coming out with Coach House Books in Fall 2018. His previous collection won the Trillium Award for Poetry, and he is recipient of the K.M Hunter Award and the P.K. Page Founders’ Award. He lives in Toronto with his wife and son.
April 23rd, 2018
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BEN GALLAGHER
MICHELLE BROWN
LAURA RITLAND
Doors at 7pm.
Come for the words and the wine!
BEN GALLAGHER is a poet and essayist, who divides his time between Toronto, ON and Scotch Village, NS, where he helps to organize a co-operative farm. He is currently in a PhD program at OISE, studying poetry curriculum and pedagogy, alternative arts education, and land. He is also a co-host of semi-regular Listening Parties. Recent writing can be found in The Maynard, The Puritan, Sewer Lid, Arc, (parenthetical), and Lion's Roar.
Originally from Victoria, BC, MICHELLE BROWN lives in Toronto with her husband and three-legged dog Bo. Previously shortlisted for CV2's Young Buck poetry prize and longlisted for the CBC poetry prize, Safe Words (Palimpsest Press, 2018) is her first full-length collection.
LAURA RITLAND’s poems have appeared in magazines across Canada, including The Fiddlehead, CNQ, The Walrus, Maisonneuve, Arc Poetry Magazine, and The Malahat Review. She is the author of the chapbook Marine Science (Anstruther 2016), a graduate of the Masters in Creative Writing Program at the University of Toronto, and recipient of the 2014 Malahat Far Horizons Award. Born in Toronto and raised in Vancouver, she currently divides her time along the west coast between Vancouver and the California Bay Area, where she is a PhD student in English at UC Berkeley and a current Simpson Fellow with the Simpson Family Literary Project. Her debut collection East and West launches with Véhicule Press this April.
March 26th, 2018
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E MARTIN NOLAN
MUGABI BYENKYA
DANI COUTURE
E MARTIN NOLAN is a poet, essayist and editor. He edits interviews at The Puritan, where he’s also published numerous essays, interviews and blog posts. His long, illustrated poem about Donald Trump, “Great Again,” can be found greatagainpoem.com. His non-fiction writing focuses on literature, sports and music. His first book of poems, Still Point, was published with Invisible Publishing in Fall, 2017.
MUGABI BYENKYA was born in Nigeria to Ugandan parents and is currently based between Kampala and Toronto. Mugabi is a writer, poet and rapper who honed his craft through writing workshops, poetry slams, cyphers and open mics from across North America and East Africa. Mugabi was longlisted for the Babishai Niwe Poetry Award in 2015, has been featured on Brittle Paper, The Good Men Project and his writing is used to teach international high school English reading comprehension. His debut novel, ‘Dear Philomena,’ was published in 2017 and he recently concluded an 18 city North American tour in support of this.
DANI COUTURE is the author of several collections of poetry and the novel Algoma (Invisible Publishing). Couture’s work has been nominated for the Trillium Book Award for Poetry, received an honour of distinction from the Writers’ Trust of Canada’s Dayne Ogilvie Prize for Emerging LGBTQ Writers, and won the ReLit Award for Poetry. Her new collection of poetry, Listen Before Transmit, will be published in March 2018.
February 19th, 2018
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AMY JONES
KEVIN HARDCASTLE
CHERIE DIMALINE
Come for the words and the wine!
AMY JONES is the author of the short fiction collection What Boys Like (Bibiloasis, 2009), and the novel We’re All in This Together (M&S 2016). Her short fiction has appeared in several literary magazines, and has been anthologized in Best Canadian Stories and The Journey Prize Stories. Originally from Halifax, she now lives in Toronto.
KEVIN HARDCASTLE is a fiction writer from Simcoe County, Ontario. He studied writing at the University of Toronto and Cardiff University. He was a finalist for the 2012 Journey Prize, and his stories have been published widely in Canada and anthologized internationally. Hardcastle’s debut short story collection, Debris, won the Trillium Book Award and the ReLit Award for Short Fiction. His debut novel, In the Cage, was recently published by Biblioasis.
CHERIE DIMALINE is a writer and editor from the Georgian Bay Metis Community in Ontario who has published 4 books. Her latest book, The Marrow Thieves, won the 2017 Governor General’s Award and the prestigious Kirkus Prize for Young Readers, is a finalist for the White Pine Award, and is a selection for CBC’s 2018 Canada Reads. The Marrow Thieves was also named a Book of Year on numerous lists including the National Public Radio, the School Library Journal, the New York Public Library, the Globe and Mail, Quill & Quire and the CBC, and is a national bestseller. Cherie currently lives in Toronto, Ontario where she coordinates the annual Indigenous Writers’ Gathering and is at work on her next novel.
