Curtain Call

Caroline Adderson is the author of two internationally published novels (A History of Forgetting, Sitting Practice), two collections of short stories (Bad Imaginings, Pleased To Meet You), and three books for young readers (Very Serious Children, I, Bruno, Bruno For Real). Her work has received numerous prize nominations including the Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist, the Governor General’s Literary Award, the Rogers’ Trust Fiction Prize, and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. A two-time Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize and three-time CBC Literary Award winner, Caroline was also the recipient of the 2006 Marian Engel Award, given annually to an outstanding female writer in mid-career in recognition of her body of work.

Heather Birrell is the author of I know you are but what am I? (Coach House Books, 2004). Her story “BriannaSusannaAlana” (originally published in The New Quarterly) won the 2006 Journey Prize. She was also one of the writers featured in TNQ’s recent Salon des Refusés issue. A new story collection and a novel are in the works. Please visit heatherbirrell.com to find out more.

Nicole Dixon won the Bronwen Wallace Award and was short-listed for the Journey Prize and a CBC Literary Award. Her fiction has appeared in Grain, The Fiddlehead, and previously in The New Quarterly, on whose cover she was also featured. She has won writing grants in both Ontario and Nova Scotia. Currently she is seeking a publisher for her collection of short fiction and is at work on a novel and a library and information management degree at Dalhousie University. Please visit nicoledixon.ca.

Zsuzsi Gartner is the author of the collection, All the Anxious Girls on Earth. She is also the editor of Darwin’s Bastards: Astounding Tales From Tomorrow (D&M, April 2010) and creative editor of the Blueprint BC Fiction Series for Vancouver Review. The winner of a 2007 National Magazine Award for Fiction, her new story collection, Better Living Through Plastic Explosives, will be published in early 2011. Zsuzsi lives in Vancouver, that most utopian of dystopias.

Elisabeth Harvor is an award-winning fiction writer and poet whose work has appeared in many periodicals and anthologies, among them The New Quarterly, Prairie Fire, The Malahat Review, PRISM international, The New Yorker, Best Canadian Stories, and The Best American Short Stories. Her two novels are Excessive Joy Injures the Heart and All Times Have Been Modern. Her most recent story collection, Let Me Be the One, was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award.

Monica Kidd is a poet and medical doctor. She is the author of four books, and was formerly a reporter for CBC Radio and a seabird biologist. She lives with husband, daughter, and their hairy black dog in St. John’s, Newfoundland.

Colette Maitland has published stories in Kingston This Week, The Antigonish Review, Pottersfield Portfolio, Descant, Room of One’s Own, The Puritan, The Prairie Journal, Freefall, Storyteller Magazine, The Nashwaak Review, The Fiddlehead, and often in The New Quarterly. She has another forthcoming in Wascana Review. Suggestions and comments on the story in this issue, “Keeping the Peace”, from Antanas Sileika and Kim Jernigan were much appreciated by the author.

Eric Ormsby born in the States, was a longtime resident of Montreal where he served as the Director of University Libraries and professor of Islamic Studies at McGill University. Presently, he lives and writes in London, England, where he is Professor and Chief Librarian at the Institute of Ismaili Studies. He has published six poetry collections: Bavarian Shrine and Other Poems (1990), which won the A.M. Klein award, Coastlines (1992), For a Modest God: New & Selected Poems (1997), Araby (2001), Daybreak at the Straits (2004), and Time’s Covenant (2006). His poems have been published in The New Yorker and The Paris Review and anthologized in The Norton Anthology of Poetry. He has also authored a book of essays on poetry and translation, Facsimiles of Time, which includes a wonderful account of his coming-of-age in an eccentric Floridian family.

James Pollock grew up in southern Ontario. His poetry and criticism have been published in The Paris Review, Maisonneuve, The Fiddlehead, Arc Poetry Magazine, Canadian Literature, Canadian Notes & Queries, Contemporary Poetry Review and other journals. He teaches poetry at Loras College in Iowa, and lives in Madison, Wisconsin.

Eleonore Schönmaier's writing has won numerous awards including the 2009 Alfred G. Bailey Prize for best poetry manuscript, the 2009 Antigonish Review Great Blue Heron Poetry Prize (third place), and the 2008 Earle Birney Prize for Poetry. Her story "Sidereal Time" was a 2005 Sheldon Currie Fiction Award winner. Her poetry collection Treading Fast Rivers (McGill-Queen’s University Press) was a finalist for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award for best first book of poetry. Recently she performed her poetry at the Music Room in Halifax with Jamie McLaren playing cello. Her writing has been published or is forthcoming in many magazines internationally including Canadian Literature, Descant, PRISM international, De Tweede Ronde (Amsterdam), Stand Magazine (UK) and has been translated into Dutch.

Jill Sexsmith lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Her work has appeared in various literary magazines and zines including PRISM international, Other Voices, and The Fieldstone Review. She is currently working on her MFA through UBC’s optional-residency program.

Lisa Shatzky's work has been accepted for publication in Canadian Woman Studies, Canadian Literature, The Nashwaak Review, and an upcoming anthology on "Artful Identities" (Ronsdale Press). Her poetry has been published in Jones Ave., Monday’s Poem, The Prairie Journal, The Dalhousie Review, The Antigonish Review, Insights, Canadian Woman Studies, Cahoots Magazine, Quills Canadian Poetry Magazine, Sandstar’s Poetry for Peace (U.S., 2005) and others. When not writing, she works as a psychotherapist on Bowen Island, B.C., where she lives.

Claire Tacon's writing has appeared in Room magazine, sub-TERRAIN, and Cleavage, an anthology by Sumach Press. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia and is a past fiction editor of PRISM international.

Gillian Wigmore's writing has been published in CV2, Geist, the Malahat Review and other Canadian magazines. Her book soft geography won the 2008 ReLit Award and was nominated for the Dorothy Livesay Award. She lives in Prince George, B.C.

Susan Young is a poet and fiction writer living in Vancouver. Her poetry manuscript, In the room that became a forest received an Honourable Mention in the 2009 Alfred Bailey Poetry Prize. Her poems have been published in Event, Room of One’s Own, The Antigonish Review, CV2, Poetry Canada, Prairie Fire and the anthologies, Chasing Halley’s Comet and Vintage 97/98.