THE RIGHT WAY TO RANT with RUTH EDGETT

TUES JAN 10, 7.30p.m. - 9p.m.
HAMILTON ROOM, 1st floor, Central Branch, Hamilton Public Library

A rant, done well, can be a very effective and entertaining thing; done poorly, it can just make you look silly. Come prepared with a rant of your own and we'll help you make it into a thing of beauty.

Ruth Edgett is a Hamilton-area writer of fiction and creative non-fiction, and a dabbler in poetry. A former newspaper journalist turned public relations consultant, Ruth is a compiling editor in The Meaning of Forever Project, author of A Watch in the Night: The story of Pomquet Island's last lightkeeping family (Nimbus), of stories in three collections by the same publisher, and a frustrated submitter to literary journals who would like to rant about that.

STORIES IN DECEMBER

TUES DEC 13
7.30p.m.-9.00p.m.
LINC classroom, Central Branch, Hamilton Public Library

In LitChat’s annual tradition, everyone is welcome to bring a story to read in a warm and friendly group setting. This is your chance to share with us something you have written or a short piece by your favourite author. 

THE INTERRELATION OF PLACE AND STORY, PLACE AND WRITING with DANIEL COLEMAN

TUES NOV 8
7.30p.m.-9.00p.m.
LINC classroom, 4th floor, Central Branch, Hamilton Public Library

There’s a lot of writing about Hamilton these days. So much that Wolsak and Wynn has a new series of Hamilton books. Why does place need stories? What is it that makes us want to write about places, especially everyday, non-celebrity places? Join Daniel Coleman for a wide-ranging discussion about the interrelation of place and story, place and writing.

Daniel Coleman lives in Hamilton and works at McMaster University where he teaches and studies Canadian Literature and writes creative non-fiction. He has published Masculine Migrations (U Toronto P, 1998), The Scent of Eucalyptus (Goose Lane Editions, 2003), White Civility (U Toronto P, 2006) and In Bed With the Word (U Alberta P, 2009). He has co-edited ten scholarly volumes on various topics including early Canadian culture, Caribbean Canadian writing, masculinities, postcoloniality, race, the retooling of the humanities, and displacement. His forthcoming book Yard Work: A Biography for an Urban Place devotes its attention to the lot he lives on near the Ancaster Creek valley.

DAYLIGHTING CHEDOKE with JOHN TERPSTRA

TUES OCT 11
7.30p.m.-9.00p.m.
LINC classroom, Central Branch, Hamilton Public Library

Daylighting Chedoke, and other adventures in tracking down the natural landscape in an urban environment. What story do we tell, once we have paved paradise and put up a parking lot?

John Terpstra is a Hamilton poet, writer and carpenter who has published nine books of poetry, four books of non-fiction, two of which, Falling into Place and The House with the Parapet Wall, lean heavily on Hamilton and its built and natural environs. He has won a few prizes along the way. This year he received the City of Hamilton Arts Award for Writing. He is currently working on a project about Chedoke Creek.

WRITING WORKSHOPS AND THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CRITICISM

TUES SEPT 13

7.30p.m.-9.00p.m.

LINC classroom, Central Branch, Hamilton Public Library

Chris Pannell’s latest poetry book is A Nervous City (Wolsak and Wynn, 2013). This title won the Kerry Schooley Book Award from the Hamilton Arts Council. In 2010, his book Drive won the Acorn-Plantos People’s Poetry Prize and the Arts Hamilton Poetry Book of the Year. From 1993 to 2005 he ran the new writing workshop and published two anthologies of work by that group. He has a book of poetry forthcoming in 2016 called Love, Despite the Ache. He is a former board member of the gritLIT Writers Festival and a former DARTS bus driver. He hosts and helps organize the monthly Hamilton reading series Lit Live.

Six Reasons Why NOT to Write (and what to make of them) PART 2

TUES JUNE 14
7.30p.m.-9.00p.m.
LINC classroom, Central Branch, Hamilton Public Library

 A young man once asked the great mythologist and story-teller, Joseph Campbell, whether or not he should become a writer. Campbell's response to the young man was this - "Can you endure ten years of disappointment with nobody responding to you?" The reasons why NOT to write are profuse, pervasive, and persuasive. Join novelist and poet, Janet Turpin Myers, for a free-ranging discussion about some of the best justifications (excuses?) for not writing - and (hopefully) develop arguments to silence these naggings of negativity.

JANET TURPIN MYERS has been writing all her life, despite being advised as a teenager to pursue office work rather than writing.  Her poetry has appeared in Hammered Out and Tower Poetry. Her debut novel, Nightswimming was published in 2013 by Seraphim Editions. Her short story, Crashing, won third place in Hamilton's gritLIT Short Fiction competition. The Last Year of Confusion was published in May 2015. She is a graduate of McMaster University, and a happy resident of the ravines and forests of north Burlington's beautiful escarpment lands.

WHAT CONCERNS YOU?

TUES MAY 10
7.30p.m.-9.00p.m.
Hamilton Room, Central Branch, Hamilton Public Library
We welcome those of you who are willing to disclose yo ur concerns about subject matter or themes in fiction and what pleasure or pain you get as writers or readers.

THE EDITOR/WRITER RELATIONSHIP: FICTION & NON-FICTION with GEORGE AND TRUDI DOWN

TUES APRIL 12
7.30p.m.-9.00p.m. Hamilton room, Central Branch, Hamilton Public Library 

G. W. Down is a poet, lyricist, editor and business consultant who lives in Hamilton, Ontario. He has edited more than twenty books of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. He has also been Editor-in-chief of the Tower Poetry Society since 2012, and is a partner in The Book Band, a company which does marketing, distribution and promotion for Canadian publishers.
 
After graduating with a BA in History (McMaster) and obtaining a teacher’s certificate from Hamilton Teacher’s College, Trudi worked at McMaster University library, first in the book selection/book ordering section, and then as Head of the Circulation Department at Mills Memorial Library. These experiences provided her with excellent writing, editing, research and proofreading skills. She founded The Corporate Word over 25 years ago to offer writing, editing and proofreading services. Currently, Trudi copyedits research articles for online American and Canadian medical journals.

GENDER with BERNADETTE RULE

TUES MARCH 8
7.30p.m.-9.00p.m.
Hamilton Room, Central Branch, Hamilton Public Library
People often speak of how well a male writer has written his female characters, and vice versa.  But how limited are we by our gender?  Is gender itself real?  If it is, can we tell whether the book we are reading was written by a man or by a woman?  There will be a test....
Bernadette Rule has edited numerous books, most recently Brought to Light: More Stories of Forgotten Women (Seraphim Editions, 2015).  She won the poetry prize at the Eden Mills Writers' Festival back when they had one, and has won Hamilton's Short Works Prize for both poetry (2015) and literary non-fiction (2014). Rule's seventh collection of poetry, Earth Day in Leith Churchyard: Poems in Search of Tom Thomson, was published this fall by Seraphim Editions. She taught English at Mohawk College, and creative writing in the Writing Certificate Program at McMaster. She also hosts Art Waves, a weekly arts-interview program on Mohawk radio. Art Waves is podcast at archive.org/details/artwaves

QUEST TO WRITE: FAMILY, LOVE, WORK

TUES FEB 9, 7.30p.m.-9.00p.m.
HAMILTON ROOM, CENTRAL BRANCH, HAMILTON PUBLIC LIBRARY
KIM ECHLIN's books include Elephant Winter, Dagmar's Daughter, Inanna, and The Disappeared which was nominated for a Giller and has been translated into 19 languages. Her most recent novel is Under the Visible Life.
She has been a documentary-maker, editor and teacher, and has lived and travelled in France, China, the Marshall Islands, Malawi, Central America, Pakistan and Cambodia. In 2016 she will travel to The Hague to research the International Criminal Court.
Currently, she is writer in residence at McMaster University and the Hamilton Public Library. She has taught for many years at the University of Toronto’s School for Continuing Studies.
Kim is a founding board member for El Hogar, a home and school for children in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and National co-chair for the Loran Scholarship.