Hey, everybody! Join us for Word Up’s next event @ Unity Market Cafe & Studios. We’ll start at the usual 7 pm and feature one or two guest authors, followed by the ever-popular and always inspiring open mic.
March 12, 2020
Allan Briesmaster
Allan Briesmaster has been active in the Toronto-area literary scene for many years as a workshop leader, reading series organizer, editor, and publisher. The author of eight full-length books of poetry and eight shorter books, he has given readings and talks and hosted poetry events at venues across Canada. His newest book, The Long Bond: Selected and New Poems, was published last fall by Guernica Editions.
Rocco de Giacomo
Rocco de Giacomo is a widely published poet whose work has appeared in literary journals in Canada, Australia, England, Hong Kong and the US. The author of numerous poetry chapbooks and full-length collections, his latest, Brace Yourselves – on the representation of the individual as it relates to the Zeitgeist – was published in January, 2018, through Quattro Books. Rocco lives in Toronto with his wife, Lisa Keophila, a fabric artist, and his daughters, Ava and Matilda.
April 9, 2020
Earth Day is April 22nd! Join us in our Climate Action themed night as we host two passionate cli-fi writers. They can inform and inspire us to help build a sustainable world.
Nina Munteanu
Nina Munteanu is a Canadian ecologist and internationally published novelist of eco-fiction and science fiction. In addition to eight published novels, Nina has written award-nominated short stories, articles and non-fiction books, which were translated into several languages throughout the world. Recognition for her work includes the Midwest Book Review Reader’s Choice Award, finalist for Foreword Magazine’s Book of the Year Award, the SLF Fountain Award, and The Delta Optimist Reviewers Choice. Her recent book Water Is…The Meaning of Water was chosen by Margaret Atwood in The New York Times as her pick for ‘The Year in Reading’.
David Chernushenko
David Chernushenko is a writer, educator, speaker, film producer and explorer of
‘living lightly’ in our personal and professional lives. He was twice elected to Ottawa
city council (2010-18), where he chaired the Environment and Climate Protection
Committee and played a major role in promoting a renewable energy transition, active
transportation, complete streets, public health and supportive housing. He served as a member of Canada’s National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy, the International Olympic Committee’s Sport and Environment Commission and as deputy leader of the Green Party of Canada. He has written three books on sustainable management practices, and produced three films: Be the Change; Powerful: Energy for Everyone; and Bike City, Great City.
May 14, 2020
Elana Wolff
Elana Wolff is the author of six solo collections of poetry and a collection of essays on poems.
She has also co-authored, with the late Malca Litovitz, a collection of rengas; co-authored a chapbook of poems
with Susie Petersiel Berg; co-edited with Julie Roorda a collection of poems written to poets and the stories that inspired them; and co-translated with Menachem Wolff poems from the Hebrew by Georg Mordechai Langer.
Elana’s poems and creative nonfiction pieces have been published in Canada and internationally and have garnered awards.
She has taught English for Academic Purposes at York University in Toronto and at The Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
She currently divides her professional time between writing, editing, and designing and instructing social art courses.
Swoon is her sixth collection of poems.
Kate Marshall Flaherty
Kate Marshall Flaherty’s sixth book of poetry, “Radiant,” launched in 2019 with Inanna Press. She was shortlisted for Arc’s Poem of the Year 2019, and for Exile’s Gwendolyn MacEwen Poetry Prize 2018, and won the 2018 King Foundation Georgian Bay Project Award for her poetry. She has been published in numerous Canadian and International Journals and Anthologies, such as Vallum, Malahat Review, CV2, Grain, Saranac Review, and was shortlisted for Descant’s Best Canadian Poem, the Pablo Neruda Poetry Prize, the Thomas Merton Poetry of the Sacred Prize, the Robert Frost Poetry Award and others. She was Toronto Rep. for the League of Canadian Poets 2012 – 2018, and inaugurated Toronto’s Poetry in Union in2018, and initiated “Poetry and Healing” for Sick Kids in 2019. She guides StillPoint Writing Workshops in schools, youth shelters, universities and hospitals; poetry is her lifeline.
June 11, 2020
Robert Colman
Robert Colman is a Newmarket, Ontario based writer and editor. He has been involved in trade publications for the manufacturing industry for more than ten years. Colman is the author of three full-length collections of poetry: Democratically Applied Machine (Palimpsest Press 2020), Little Empires (Quattro Books 2012) and The Delicate Line (Exile Editions 2008), and the chapbook Factory (Frog Hollow Press 2015). He received his MFA from UBC in 2016 and served on the editorial board of PRISM International from 2015 to 2019.
Look for info on upcoming featured authors!
