Join us for readings and conversation on the theme of friendship with Anita Lahey (The Last Goldfish: A True Tale of Friendship, Biblioasis), Bardia Sinaee (Intruder, Anansi), and Anne Marie Todkill (Orion Sweeping, Brick Books). Moderator: Ottawa poet Ben Ladouceur (Mad Long Emotion, 2019).
WHEN: Tuesday, September 20, 2022 at 7:30 PM ET.
WHERE: Perfect Books, 258A Elgin Street, Ottawa, ON K2P 1L9
Refreshments will be served. Masking when possible is requested.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
ANNE MARIE TODKILL has lived mainly in her home town, Ottawa, but has been setting down new roots in Wollaston Township, Ontario, where she lives off-grid with her husband. She spent many years as a medical and academic editor, but never strayed far from her lifelong, intersecting preoccupations with writing and the natural world. She has won Arc Poetry Magazine’s Poem of the Year contest, was a recipient of Arc’s Diana Brebner Prize, and placed first – twice – in The New Quarterly’s Nick Blatchford Occasional Verse Contest. She is also a past winner of The Malahat Review’s Creative Nonfiction Prize, and her winning entry in Malahat’s Novella Contest was subsequently anthologized in Best Canadian Stories. Orion Sweeping is her first book.
ANITA LAHEY's latest book, The Last Goldfish: a True Tale of Friendship, was a finalist for the Ottawa Book Award. Series editor for the Best Canadian Poetry anthology, she’s the author of two Véhicule Press poetry collections (Spinning Side Kick and Out to Dry in Cape Breton), as well as The Mystery Shopping Cart: Essays on Poetry and Culture, a Palimpsest Press book. Anita lives in Ottawa, on unceded Alongonquin, Anishinabek territory.
BARDIA SINAEE was born in Tehran, Iran, and currently lives in Toronto. He is the author of the chapbooks Blue Night Express and Salamander Festival. His poems have also appeared in magazines across Canada and in several editions of Best Canadian Poetry. In 2012 his poem “Barnacle Goose Ballad” was Reader’s Choice winner for The Walrus Poetry Prize, and in 2020 he was co-winner of the Capilano Review’s Robin Blaser Award. He holds an M.F.A. in Poetry from Guelph University’s Graduate Program in Creative Writing. Intruder is his first book.
BEN LADOUCEUR is an author living on the unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabe Nation (Ottawa). His first book, Otter, was selected as a best book of 2015 by the National Post, nominated for a Lambda Literary Award, and awarded the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award; his second book, Mad Long Emotion, was awarded the Archibald Lampman Prize. He is the recipient of the Writers’ Trust Dayne Ogilvie Prize for emerging LGBT+ writers, and a National Magazine Award for Poetry. His short fiction has been featured in the Journey Prize Anthology and awarded the Thomas Morton Prize.