211 Bernard: Event tonight! SLS Montreal readings

Join us tonight at 7 p.m. for an evening of readings as part of the Summer Literary Seminars 4-day program in Montreal. Man Booker International Prize finalist Josip Novakovich and acclaimed poet and translator Ariana Reines will read alongside Montreal writers David McGimpsey and Saleema Nawaz!

Josip Novakovich moved from Croatia to the U.S. at the age of twenty. He has published a novel, April Fool's Day, three story collections (Infidelities: Stories of War and Lust, Yolk, and Salvation and Other Disasters) and two collections of narrative essays as well as two books of practical criticism, including Fiction Writers Workshop. His work was anthologized in Best American Poetry, the Pushcart Prize collection, and O. Henry Prize Stories. He has received the Whiting Writer's Award, a Guggenheim fellowship, two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, the Ingram Merrill Award, and an American Book Award, and he has been a writing fellow of the New York Public Library. Novakovich was recently shortlisted for the prestigious Man Booker International Prize for his body of work. He has taught at Bard, Die Freie Universitaet in Berlin, Penn State, and now, Concordia University in Montreal. Josip has done many events with the store, and is always a pleasure to have with us!

Ariana Reines is a poet, playwright, and translator born in Salem, Massachusetts, She earned a BA from Barnard College, and completed graduate work at both Columbia University and the European Graduate School, where she studied literature, performance, and philosophy. Her books of poetry include The Cow(2006), which won the Alberta Prize from Fence Books; Coeur de Lion (2007); and Mercury (2011). Her poems have been anthologized in Against Expression (2011) and Gurlesque (2010). Reines’s first play Telephone (2009) was performed at the Cherry Lane Theater and received two Obie Awards. Reines has taught at Columbia University and the European Graduate School, and was the Roberta C. Holloway Lecturer in Poetry at the University of California-Berkeley in 2009, the youngest poet to ever hold that position. She has traveled to Haiti multiple times as part of the on-going relief efforts there. Ariana has always been a favourite at the store and we are so excited to have her read here!

David McGimpsey lives in Montreal and is the author of five collections of poetry including the recent Li'l Bastard (Coach House Books), which was named as one of the "books of the year" by both The Quill and Quire and The National Post and was nominated for the Governor General's Award. His travel and food writing has been featured in the Globe and Mail and in EnRoute magazine – where has written extensively about tacos and sandwiches. The CBC named him as one of the “Top Ten English-language poets in Canada,” and his work was the subject of the recent book of essays Population Me: Essays on David McGimpsey (Palimpsest Press). David is the Montreal fiction editor of Joyland magazine and the fiction editor of the Punchy Books imprint of DC Books. A PhD in American Literature, David McGimpsey teaches in the English Department of Concordia University. David has done many events at the store, and is always a delight!

Nawaz is also the author of the short story collection Mother Superior (Freehand Books), which was shortlisted for the Quebec Writers’ Federation Best First Book Prize. Her story “My Three Girls” won the Journey Prize in 2008. Originally from Ottawa, Nawaz currently lives in Montreal. - See more at: http://maisonneuve.org/article/2013/03/28/interview-saleema-nawaz/#sthash.wLPDVQV5.dpuf

Saleema Nawaz is the author of Bone & Bread, which recently won the prestigious Quebec Writers' Federation Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction. She is also the author of the short story collection Mother Superior and winner of the Writers' Trust of Canada / McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize. Born and raised in Ottawa, Ontario, she currently lives in Montreal, Quebec. Saleema has read at the store several times, and even launched Bone & Bread with us. We're happy to be welcoming her again!

This evening of readings falls on the third day of the Summer Literary Seminars' first 4-day program in Montreal. The program also features workshops led by Josip Novakovich, Ariana Reines, and the internationally celebrated award-winning poet, Eileen Myles.

SLS, in existence since 1998, is a program like no other: remarkably innovative and dynamic, and the only operating on three continents. Over the years, it has counted more than 1000 participants in its programs. Participants in the writing seminars will include individuals of all ages and all levels of accomplishment: gifted beginners and writers who have already begun publishing; undergraduate and graduate students of creative writing; and people turning (or returning) to writing relatively late in life.

For more information on the program, please visit the SLS site!