Shortlist READINGS

Lansdowne Prize for Poetry Nominees Reading
Featuring Ball, Gordon & Cayer

When: Thursday, March 31, 7 pm
Location: Aqua Books (274 Garry Street, between Graham and Portage)
Cost: FREE!

Jonathan Ball, Ariel Gordon and Lori Cayer have been shortlisted for this year's Aqua Books Lansdowne Prize for Poetry/Prix Lansdowne de poésie.

Bookstore owner Kelly Hughes will hand out the prize at the Manitoba Book Awards on April 17, but in the meantime, Aqua Books is continuing its tradition of hosting nominee readings.

Award-winning writer Chandra Mayor will host.

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Jonathan Ball is the author of the poetry books Ex Machina (BookThug, 2009) and Clockfire (Coach House, 2010). He holds a Ph.D. in English with a focus in Creative Writing from the University of Calgary. His film Spoony B appeared on The Comedy Network, and his writing has appeared in The Believer and Harper’s. He is the former editor of dandelion and the former short films programmer for the Gimli Film Festival.

Ariel Gordon is a writer whose first book of poetry, Hump, was published in spring 2010. How to Prepare for Flooding, a collaboration with designer Julia Michaud, is forthcoming from JackPine Press in 2011. When not being bookish, Ariel likes tromping through the woods and taking macro photographs of mushrooms.

Lori Cayer’s second volume of poetry, Attenuations of Force, was released by Frontenac House in 2010 as a finalist in the Dektet Series. Her first poetry collection, Stealing Mercury (The Muses’ Company, 2004), won the Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book in Manitoba in 2004, and in 2005 Lori won the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer. She serves as co-editor of English poetry for CV2 and is co-founder of the Aqua Books Lansdowne Prize for Poetry/Prix Lansdowne de poésie, part of the Manitoba Writing and Publishing Awards. Lori works by day as an editorial assistant for a scientific research journal.

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Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book nominees reading
Featuring Cadieux, McClarty, Gordon & Russell

When: Thursday, April 14, 7 pm
Location: Aqua Books (274 Garry Street, between Graham and Portage)
Cost: FREE!

Keith Cadieux, Theodore Fontaine, Sheila McClarty, Ariel Gordon and Craig Russell have been shortlisted for this year's Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book.

Bookstore owner Kelly Hughes will host.

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Keith Cadieux lives and writes in Winnipeg, where he grew up. His first published work was the novella Gaze which was released by Quattro Books in 2010. He holds a Master’s degree in Creative Writing from the University of Manitoba where he also received the Robert Kroetsch Creative MA Thesis Prize. Keith teaches English at the University of Winnipeg and will be working on a new collection of short stories while serving as Aqua Books’ Writer in Residence from May to August, 2011.

Ariel Gordon is a writer whose first book of poetry, Hump, was published in spring 2010. How to Prepare for Flooding, a collaboration with designer Julia Michaud, is forthcoming from JackPine Press in 2011. When not being bookish, Ariel likes tromping through the woods and taking macro photographs of mushrooms.

Oakbank, Manitoba author Sheila McClarty's stories have appeared in various magazines, including Grain, The Antigonish Review and The Fiddlehead. She won first prize at the Sheldon Currie Fiction contest. High Speed Crow (Oberon Press, 2010), a book of short stories, is her first book.

Craig Russell grew up on what may be the flattest half-section of land on the planet, six miles north of Carman. Now a lawyer in Brandon, along with wife Janet, Craig has spent the past twenty-two years restoring a 1906 Victorian home, The Johnson House. Ten years ago, Craig began to study acting in his spare time. He believes that live theatre is a great training ground for a writer’s ear because it teaches you to recognize effective dialogue. Black Bottle Man, a YA fable released by Great Plains Publishing, is his first novel.