WEDNESDAY, JULY 13, 2016 – 6:30pm
It’s Queer Night again at Brockton Writers Series (though we’re always a little queer!). Featuring readers:
Gwen Benaway
Kumasi Jay Gwynne
Matthew R. Loney
Yaya Yao
and special guest speaker
Rachna Contractor
AT
full of beans Coffee House & Roastery
1348 Dundas St. W., Toronto
The reading is PWYC (suggested $3-$5) and features a Q&A with the writers afterward. Books and treats are available for sale. Please note that while the venue is wheelchair accessible, washroom facilities are not.
Many thanks to the Ontario Arts Council for their support.
And to the Canada Council for the Arts for travel funding!
—
GUEST SPEAKER
Rachna Contractor
Rachna Contractor is Associate Editor – Reviews for Plenitude Magazine, and has written about literature, art and culture for Xtra and Kala Magazine as well. She earned her BA in Art History from the University of Toronto. After a decade of working in communications, Rachna has moved to the culinary arts sector.
READERS
Gwen Benaway is of Anishinaabe and Métis descent. Her first collection of poetry, Ceremonies for the Dead, was published in 2013, and her second, Passage, is forthcoming from Kegedonce Press in Fall 2016. As an emerging Two-Spirited poet, she has been described as the spiritual love child of Thompson Highway and Truman Capote. In 2015, she was the recipient of the inaugural Speaker’s Award for a Young Author from the Speaker of the House for the Ontario Legislative. Her work has been published and anthologized internationally.
The Lonely is Kumasi Jay Gwynne‘s first fiction manuscript, and it’s largely about men interacting with other men. New York State born, Kumasi was raised in Toronto where he currently resides. He has spent time living in Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary and Chicago.
Matthew R. Loney is the author of That Savage Water (Exile Editions, 2014), a collection of backpacker-themed short fiction. He was a finalist for the 2013 and 2014 Vanderbilt/Exile Short Fiction Award and his work has appeared in a range of North American publications, including installments Three and Four of the Carter V. Cooper Short Fiction Anthology Series and the short fiction anthology, Everything Is So Political. He lives in Toronto.
Yaya Yao is an educator, writer, and editor born and raised in Little Portugal. She is the author of a collection of poetry, Flesh, Tongue, and a resource book for teachers, The Educator’s Equity Companion Guide. Yaya lives with her family in Sapporo, Japan, where she teaches middle school.
Brockton Writers Series 