Feb. 11: Ryan Kamstra, Jenny Sampirisi and Robert Colman

Pivot is back February 11 with three very exciting readers:

Robert Colman is a writer and editor based in Newmarket, Ontario. His poetry has appeared in journals across Canada, including The Malahat Review, Arc, The Fiddlehead and CV2. His first full-length collection of poems, The Delicate Line, was recently published by Exile Editions.

Stumbled from Thunder Bay, raised by lesbian nuns and witchy witches, currently whistling like a bright kettle in Toronto, Ryan Kamstra sat by the water of a coin-toss of cities and wept two folk-punk albums (all fall down 2002, i want an army 2005) and cried one creaky crypt of poetry (late capitalist sublime 2002). The blood now trickling from his ears spawned this latest offering Into The Drowned World (Insomniac Press 2008): about our world that already ended at the turn of the millennium, addressed to the archangel Madonna. In his spare time he fronts glam band Tomboyfriend feted throughout lands near and far, as well as does outreach for knit-goods-for-homeless-shelters project Streetknit. He works as a personal support worker in Toronto. Visit his soul-expropriating exploits: www.ryankamstra.com

Jenny Sampirisi is a poet, prose writer and editor. She is the managing editor for BookThug and facilitates the online concrete poetry journal, Other Cl/utter. She teaches English at Ryerson University where she runs the Ryerson Reading Series. She is also an executive member of the Scream Literary Festival. Her first novel, is/was explores the flexible boundaries of language, media, and the body.

Hosted by Carey Toane
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
8 p.m. at the Press Club,
850 Dundas Street West
PWYC.
http://pivotreadings.wordpress.com

Jan 28: Kerry Clare, Stuart Ross and James Sandham

Pivot is back Jan 28 with three very exciting readers:

Kerry Clare is a writer and a reader. Her essays and short fiction have appeared in The New Quarterly, Descant, The Toronto Star, The Globe & Mail, and she regularly writes for the Descant blog. In 2007, she graduated from the Creative Writing Masters Program at the University of Toronto. She writes about books and reading online at Pickle Me This (http:// picklemethis.blogspot.com).

Stuart Ross published his first literary pamphlet on the photocopier in his dad’s office one night in 1979. Through the 1980s, he stood on Toronto’s Yonge Street wearing signs like “Writer Going To Hell: Buy My Books,” selling over 7,000 poetry and fiction chapbooks. A tireless literary press activist, he is the co-founder of the Toronto Small Press Book Fair and now a founding member of the Meet the Presses collective, Poetry Editor at Mansfield Press, and Fiction & Poetry Editor at This Magazine. He is the author of two collaborative novels, a previous collection of stories, and six full-length poetry books. He has also published a collection of essays, Confessions of a Small Press Racketeer (Anvil Press), and edited the anthology Surreal Estate: 13 Canadian Poets Under the Influence (The Mercury Press). Stuart has taught writing workshops across Canada. He lives in Toronto. This spring, Freehand Books released his first short-story collection in more than a decade, Buying Cigarettes for the Dog

James Sandham was born in St. Catharines, Ontario and grew up in Fonthill. He has a degree in Political Science from the University of Guelph. Since graduating in 2006 he has been living and writing in Toronto, with his beautiful wife, Desiree. His new book is called The Entropy of Aaron Rosclatt, from Clark-Nova Books.

Hosted by Carey Toane
Wednesday, January 28, 2008
8 p.m. at the Press Club,
850 Dundas Street West
PWYC.
http://pivotreadings.wordpress.com

Jan. 14: Kyle Buckley, Rocco de Giacomo and Jessica Westhead

Pivot is back after a nice long break with three very exciting readers January 14.

Hosted by Carey Toane
8 p.m. at the Press Club,
850 Dundas Street West
Free.

Kyle Buckley lives and writes in Toronto. He studied at York and the University of Calgary, and has taught creative writing at Ryerson University. He currently works at Type Books in Toronto and is a member of the Scream Literary Festival executive. He is a past winner of the now-defunct Queen Street Quarterly poetry contest. The Laundromat Essay is his first book.

Rocco de Giacomo is a widely published poet whose work has appeared most recently in the literary journals Arc Poetry Magazine, Contemporary Verse2, and Magma Poetry(UK). His fifth and latest collection of poems, Catching Dawn’s Breath (LyricalMyrical Press, Toronto) was launched in March of 2008. Rocco is a member of the council for the Art Bar Poetry Series and a member of the bpNichol Committee. Rocco de Giacomo lives with his wife Lisa in Toronto, where they both spend the fall and winter months planning their next escape. To learn more please visit www.roccodg.com

Jessica Westhead is a Toronto writer whose fiction has appeared in literary magazines such as The Antigonish Review, Matrix, THIS Magazine, Geist, and Taddle Creek. Her short-story chapbook, Those Girls, was published by Greenboathouse Books in summer 2006, and her first novel, Pulpy & Midge, was published by Coach House Books in fall 2007.