THE IMPORTANCE OF POPULAR FICTION with DAVID LEE

TUES MAY 14

7.30p.m. LINC classroom, 4th floor, Central Branch, Hamilton Public Library

Although literary fiction gets the awards, it is worth considering that popular fiction - otherwise called "genre" or even "formula" fiction - is equally evocative of a time and place, and can effectively work its way through an era's most pressing issues. Hamilton author David Lee's 2015 Young Adult novel The Midnight Games won the Hamilton Arts Council's Kerry Schooley Award for the book that "best conveys the spirit of Hamilton." He is also the author of the novel Commander Zero, and the non-fiction books The Battle of the Five Spot: Ornette Coleman and the New York Jazz Field, Stopping Time: Paul Bley and the Transformation of Jazz, and Chainsaws: A History. He is presently completing a sequel to The Midnight Games.

WHY THOMAS MERTON MATTERS NOW

TUES APR 9, 7.30p.m.
LINC classroom,4th floor, Central Branch, Hamilton Public Library

Poet and essayist, J.S. Porter was born in Belfast in the north of Ireland and educated at McMaster University (MA in English literature). He is the Culture Critic for The Nancy Duffy Show, a columnist for Dialogue Magazine and a frequent contributor to Hamilton Arts and Letters. His most recent books are The Glass Art of Sarah Hall and Lightness and Soul: Musings on Eight Jewish Writers. He co-authored a book with SusanMcCaslin, Thomas Merton Superabundantly Alive. He is currently writing a book of poetry and notes entitled Furrawn: Talk that Leads to Intimacy.  John reads and writes in Hamilton with his wife Cheryl.             

spiritbookword - The Writings of J.S. Porter

Susan McCaslin is an established Canadian poet and Faculty Emeritus of English and Creative Writing and has published fifteen volumes of poetry, including Into the Open: Poems New and Selected (Inanna, Sept. 2017).  Susan has recently collaborated with J.S. Porter on a work of creative non-fiction, Thomas Merton Superabundantly Alive (Wood Lake, Oct. 2018), on the twentieth-century contemplative and activist Thomas Merton. Her Demeter Goes Skydiving (University of Alberta Press, 2011) was short-listed for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize (BC Poetry Book Prize) and first-place winner of the Alberta Book Publishing Award. Susan resides in Fort Langley, BC, where she initiated the Han Shan Poetry Project as part of a successful campaign to protect an endangered rainforest along the Fraser River.  www.susanmccaslin.ca

WORKING ACROSS GENRE with KATE CAYLEY

TUES MARCH 12

7.30p.m., LINC classroom, 4th floor, Central Branch, Hamilton Public Library       
Kate Cayley’s first collection of short fiction, How You Were Born, won the Trillium Book Award and was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award. She has published two collections of poetry, When This World Comes to an End, and Other Houses. She has also written a young adult novel, The Hangman in the Mirror, which won the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction. She was a playwright-in-residence at Tarragon Theatre in Toronto from 2009-2017, and wrote two plays for Tarragon, After Akhmatova and The Bakelite Masterpiece, which had its American premiere in 2016 and a third production at the New Repertory Theatre in Boston this past spring. She is a frequent writing collaborator with immersive theatre company Zuppa Theatre, most recently on The Archive of Missing Things and This Is Nowhere. She is the writer in residence at McMaster University for the 2018-19 academic year, and is working on a novel and a second collection of short stories. She lives in Toronto with her wife and their three children.

HOW TO WRITE A CHILDREN’S STORY AND GET PUBLISHED WHILE PROCRASTINATING

TUES FEB 12, 7.30p.m. LITCHAT is CANCELLED DUE TO WEATHER, LIBRARY IS CLOSED.
LINC classroom, 4th floor, Central Branch, Hamilton Public Library

JENNIFER MOOK-SANG grew up in Guyana, South America and now lives Burlington Ontario. While reading bedtime stories to her two sons, she fell in love with picture books and decided to write one of her own. In the midst of her writing journey, Jennifer is amazed and delighted to find herself a published author. Her humorous middle-grade novel Speechless (2015, Scholastic) was nominated for a slew of awards. It was named the Surrey  Schools Book of the Year and commended as a ‘best book of the year’ by the CBC. Jennifer’s picture book Captain Monty Takes the Plunge was published by Kids Can Press in October 2017. Captain Monty is a stinky pirate who’s never had a bath, because he’s afraid of the water, because he can’t swim. Of course he falls in love with a mermaid. What could be more perfect? Jennifer loves to read and cook (and eat) and talk to her many young readers about writing. The actual writing part? Not so much. She will share her story of becoming a real live writer and her road to publication. Questions welcome!

COUNTRY NOIR: BRAD SMITH in CONVERSATION with GRAHAM ROCKINGHAM

TUES JAN 8 2019

7.30p.m.-9p.m.

LINC classroom, 4th floor, Central Branch, Hamilton Public Library

BRAD SMITH was born and raised in the hamlet of Canfield, in southern Ontario, a couple of hours from Toronto. After high school, he worked for the signal department of the Canadian National Railway for three years, and then got a chance to work on a rail project in South Africa. Upon returning from Africa, Smith worked all over the place - Alberta, British Columbia, Texas - at a variety of jobs. Farmer, signalman, insulator, truck driver, bartender, schoolteacher , maintenance mechanic, roofer, and so on. He became a carpenter and built custom homes in Canada. He still works as a carpenter when not writing. He now lives in an eighty-year-old farmhouse near the north shore of Lake Erie.

Novels:

RISES A MORAL MAN – 1990 – Penumbra Press

ONE-EYED JACKS – 2000 – Doubleday Canada

ALL HAT – 2003 – Penguin Canada

BUSTED FLUSH – 2005 – Penguin Canada

BIG MAN COMING DOWN THE ROAD – 2007 – Penguin Canada

RED MEANS RUN – 2012 – Simon & Schuster Canada

CROW’S LANDING – 2013 – Simon & Schuster Canada

SHOOT THE DOG – 2014 – Simon & Schuster Canada

ROUGH JUSTICE – 2016 – Severn House

HEARTS OF STONE – 2017 - Severn House

THE RETURN OF KID COOPER – 2018 – Skyhorse New York 

Screenplays:

ALL HAT – premier Toronto International Film Festival 2007

FADING FAST – Bravo TV 2009

OUR STORIES IN DECEMBER

TUES DEC 11
7.30p.m.-9.00p.m.
LINC classroom, 4th floor, Central Branch, Hamilton Public Library.
Everyone is invited to bring and share a story for this December evening.

DIVIDED with LINDA FRANK

TUES NOV 13

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

Linda Frank's fourth book of poetry, published by Wolsak & Wynn this spring, is called Divided. Her work has been widely published in literary journals and anthologies. She has been short listed for the Pat Lowther Award and won the Bliss Carman Award.

Linda will discuss research and poetry. How do you research when writing a poem? Can facts be lyrical? Are facts truth in poetry? Can poetry tell the truth without fact?