Wednesday, July 11, 2018 – 6:30pm
Brockton Writers Series presents readings by
Vanessa McGowan
Chang Liu
Arielle Twist
Kiley May
with special guest speaker
Scott Fraser
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Glad Day Bookshop
499 Church Street, Toronto
The reading is PWYC (suggested $3-$5) and features a Q&A with the writers afterward. Books and refreshments are available for sale.
ACCESSIBILITY INFO
The venue is accessible. Please refrain from wearing scents.
Many thanks to the Ontario Arts Council for their support.
And to the Canada Council for the Arts for travel funding!
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GUEST SPEAKER
“Understanding Acquisitions: What Authors Should Consider When Pitching Their Book.”
Scott Fraser has worked in publishing since 2010 and is the acquisitions editor at Lorimer. Prior to joining Lorimer, Scott worked as the acquisitions editor at Dundurn Press, as a freelance editor/consultant, and as a sales rep working with a number of publishers in North America and the UK.
Prior to entering the publishing industry, Scott served for eight years in the Canadian army, a career change which many find curious.
He lives in Toronto’s Leslieville neighbourhood with his partner and their menagerie of misfit mammals. They keys to his heart are dogs and baseball. Talking about either topic is a sure fire way to get Scott’s attention.
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READERS
Vanessa McGowan is a Toronto, Canada based spoken word artist & singer/songwriter living with Cerebral Palsy. McGowan’s EP “Alive” was released by Factory Fast Records, New York City in 2014 and her work can be heard as the only poetry, on musical compilations “Americana Retrofit” and “Smoking Gun.” She opened for Buddy Wakefield during his 2014/15 world tour and was the highest ranking Canadian poet to perform in the Finals at The Capturing Fire Slam 2015 in Washington, DC. As a successful solo touring performance poet, Vanessa has featured at venues across North America . She is currently working on her first show, “I Don’t Remember” set for release in October 2018. Publications include Divine Cockeyed Genius (bojit Press, 2012) and I Make People Leak…Sometimes (Armora Press, 2015). McGowan is a proud co-founder of WordSpell, Canada’s only ongoing spoken word series showcasing women and non binary poets.
Chang Liu is a freelance translator, an emerging poet and emerging (ie. still jobless) forest conservationist who advocates for a gentler, more natural way of life in the city. He is also a member of the Toronto Thai Dance Troupe.
Born to immigrant parents from China and France, he grew up in the ethnically homogenous countryside south of Ottawa. There, he struggled because of his name, his mixed heritage and, later, his gay orientation. These days, he embraces it all and sees identity as essentially flexible. Who he is now is not who he was, or likely will be.
Chang’s writing has appeared in two anthologies (T.O.K. Book 5 and The Dry Wells of India: an Anthology Against Thirst), and the Spring 2018 online issue of Sky Island Journal. His first collection of poetry is not yet published but available as an e-book here at Glad Day: When it was Naam that I drank, not Water.
Arielle Twist is a writer and sex educator from George Gordon First Nation, Saskatchewan, currently living in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She is a Cree, Two-Spirit, trans femme supernova writing to reclaim and harness ancestral magic and memories.
Within her first year of pursuing writing she has been able to attend Naked Heart the largest LGBTQ literary festival in the world and has attended a residency at Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity to focus on her debut collection of poetry. She has work published/forthcoming with Them, Canadian Art, and Prism International.
Kiley May is a two spirit trans actor, artist and storyteller. She is a Hotinonshón:ni Mohawk from Six Nations reserve and is settled in Toronto. For now. Kiley is currently studying and training in acting, singing, dancing, and playwriting at the Centre for Indigenous Theatre.
She also enjoys other creative arty things like writing, film, fashion, photography and keeping her selfie game strong. As well as transitioning, which is an art form; her greatest artwork to date.
Brockton Writers Series 