THE LYRIC PROCESS

JUNE 10, 7.30-.9.00p.m.
Homegrown Hamilton, 27 King William Street
NORMAN BROWN leads in a two-part interactive session designed to provoke heated debate, deep thought and mild enthusiasm in a format that tends to be very non-threatening, friendly and comfortable for anyone of any level of poetic understanding.
Norman had his education in many universities including one in North Carolina and one in the U.K. He was a community college professor and a secondary school teacher for 33 years. He also taught behavioural and learning disabled students. He has been involved in amateur theatre for 21 years. He is the owner of Norman Brown Photography and was a past president of Tower Poetry Society in Hamilton

Playwriting and Poetry: Variations and Similarities

MAY 13 7.30p.m. to 9p.m. at Homegrown Hamilton, 27 King William Street.
Award winning writers John Terpstra and Stephen Near will co-host a discussion  on their approaches and challenges in writing fiction, poetry and plays.

ALTERNATIONAL MEDIA by GARY BARWIN

Sunday APRIL 15
7.30p.m.-9.00p.m. at Homegrown Hamilton,
27 King William Str.,
GARY BARWIN discusses
Alternational Media: Small Press, Micropress, Poetry Zines, Chapbooks, Broadsides, Blogs, Online Journals, Literary Ephemera, and DYI Publish, what they are, how they are made, and what their context is.
Gary is a writer, composer, multimedia artist, performer, educator and more. For more check his website at
www.garybarwin.com/

PHILIP LARKIN: POET, ANTHOLOGIST, CRITIC

SUNDAY MARCH 11, 7.30p.m.to 9p.m. at Homegrown Hamilton, 27 King William Str., Hamilton
DAVID COHEN is a freelance writer. His interests are international and local: a just and peaceful resolution to the Palestine-Israel conflict and a more prosperous and livable Hamilton through modern public transit (read LRT) and a denser, more attractively built form.

USING CINEMA TO CREATE MORE AND BETTER POEMS by ALEXANDRA OLIVER

SUNDAY FEB 12, 7.30 -9.00p.m. Homegrown Hamilton, 27 King William Str.
ALEXANDRA OLIVER was born in Vancouver and currently lives in Toronto. She has been nominated for a CBC Literary Award and the Pushcart Prize. Her poetry regularly appears in journals worldwide, and her first collection, Where the English Housewife Shines, was published in 2007 in London, England. She has performed her poems at Lollapalooza and The National Poetry Slam, and on CBC Radio One and National Public Radio, and was a featured performer and interviewee in the 1998 documentary, Slam Nation. Oliver is currently completing an MFA at the University of Southern Maine and co-editing (with Annie Finch) an anthology of poetry in non-iambic meters. Her second collection is due out soon.

CAMARADERIE OF WAR by SUSAN EVANS SHAW

SUNDAY JAN 8, 7.30p.m., Homegrown Hamilton, 27 King William Str.,
Until 1999, Susan Evans Shaw was a research technician in Health Sciences at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario. She now chooses to apply her skills to writing and history. Her father and her husband were both geologists. Their influence helped cultivate her interest in the past, but the real catalyst was the discovery of her grandfather's letters, written home during World War 1. Susan and photographer Jean Crankshaw co-authored Heritage Treasures: The Historic Homes of Ancaster, Burlington, Dundas, East Flamborough, Hamilton, Stoney Creek and Waterdown published by James Lorimar and Company. The book won the 2004 Arts Hamilton Award for non-fiction. In 2011, Canadians at War: A Guide to the Battlefields of World War 1 with photographs by Jean Crankshaw and others, was published by Goose Lane Editions. Susan lives in a Hamilton high-rise with her two cats, Lottie and Maui.

STORIES ON A DECEMBER EVENING

SUNDAY DEC 11, 7.30p.m.-9.00p.m.
Homegrown Hamilton, 27 King William Street.
In the LitChat tradition, you are welcome to read your story in our spirited company to warm up this December evening.