Pivot brings a big mid-winter show with two Poets Laureate, a former Pivot host turned big-deal thriller writer we knew her when! and the poet behind Livewords, our east end sibling. Come be warm.

Cast List

Author of eight books of poetry most recently a volume of his selected poetry entitled Please, No More Poetry, four volumes of conceptual fiction most recently the short fiction collection Local Colour: ghosts, variations and over 175 chapbooks, derek beaulieus work is consistently praised as some of the most radical and challenging in contemporary Canadian writing. He is the 2014-16 Poet Laureate for the City of Calgary.

As a young girl growing up in Trinidad, Dionne Brand submitted poems to the newspapers under the pseudonym Xavier Simone, an homage to Nina Simone, whom she would listen to late at night on the radio. Since then, her 9 books of poetry include winners of the Governor Generals Literary Award, the Trillium Book Award, the Griffin, and the Pat Lowther Memorial Award. Her novels have won the Toronto Book Award and been named to the New York Times Notable Books list. She was Torontos Poet Laureate from 2009 to 2012. Her newest is the novel Love Enough, published last year by Knopf.

Elisabeth de Mariaffis first book of short stories, How to Get Along with Women, was longlisted for the 2013 Scotiabank Giller Prize. Her poetry and short fiction have been widely published in magazines across Canada. In 2013, her story Kiss Me Like Im the Last Man on Earth was shortlisted for a National Magazine Award. She lives in St. Johns but, prior to that, spent time in Toronto and for two years served as co-host and co-director of the Pivot Reading Series.

Edward Nixon was born and grew up in British Columbia. He has hosted and curated the monthly Toronto reading series Livewords since 2008. He is the author four poetry chapbooks Nights in the City of the Dead, Arguments for Breath, Free Translation, and Instructions for Pen and Ink. The Fissures of Our Throats, his first full collection, was recently released by Guernica Editions.

Pivot Readings at the Press Club

Featuring derek beaulieu, Dionne Brand, Elisabeth de Mariaffi, and Edward Nixon

Wednesday, February 25th

8 PM

850 Dundas Street West

PWYC Suggested: $5

Hosted by Jacob McArthur Mooney