2025 Ottawa Book Awards shortlist : On Beauty: stories,

Thanks much to the City of Ottawa! Yesterday it was announced that my short story collection, On Beauty (University of Alberta Press, 2024), was shortlisted for the 2025 Ottawa Book Awards! This is my first ever appearance on a shortlist for this particular award, so that's pretty exciting. Congratulations, also, to the other four on the shortlist: Manahil Bandukwala, for Heliotropia (Brick Books); Nina Berkhout, for This Bright Dust (Goose Lane Editions); Paul Carlucci, for The Voyageur (Swift Press); and Chuqiao Yang, for The Last to the Party (Goose Lane Editions). Hooray all! I've only actually seen Chuqiao's book of the quartet [see my review of such here], and it is remarkable, which makes me curious to see the other three. Naturally, I think you should pick up a copy of my short story collection [check out here for some links to reviews of the book, although it's Salma Hussain who really gets it], as well as the other nominated titles. There's plenty of time to read all five books, I'd think, before the winner gets announced on November 15th, yes?

Profile of Nina Berkhout, at Open Book: Ontario,

My short profile of Ottawa poet Nina Berkhout (author of the forthcoming novel, The Gallery of Lost Species, with Anansi) is now online at Open Book: Ontario.

the VERSeFest 2014 schedule is now online,

The schedule for the fourth annual VERSeFest, Ottawa's annual poetry festival, is now on-line. Running from March 25 to 30, 2014, VERSeFest is comprised of various literary and spoken-word reading series (including The Factory Reading Series) collaborating to organize and host a wide-ranging poetry event, featuring readings and performances from Mary Ruefle, David W. McFadden, Brandon Wint, Marilyn Irwin, Margaret Christakos, Stephen Brockwell, Andrew Faulkner, Blaize Moritz, Billie Jane Kearns, Elizabeth Bachinsky, Jenna Tenn-Yuk, Kathryn Mockler, Karen Connolly, Kaie Kellough, Mary Pinkoski, Nina Berkhout, Peter Richardson, Shane Rhodes, Flilosi-Fire, Sarah De Leeuw, Souvankham Thammavongsa, Stephen James Smith, Sue Goyette, Suzannah Showler and others, a screening of Robert McTavish's documentary on the 1963 Vancouver Poetry Conference, The Line has Shattered, as well as a post-screening panel discussion with McTavish and conference participants Roy MacSkimming, Robert Hogg and William Hawkins.

For a full schedule and list of readers, as well as information on tickets, check out their website.