Attending Authors : BookFestWindsor

2007 Authors, Moderators and Special Guests

Gil Adamson

Gil Adamson's acclaimed short fiction and poetry has been widely published in magazines and literary journals, and her collection of stories Help Me, Jacques Cousteau received rave reviews. The Outlander, ten years in the writing, is her first novel. Gil Adamson lives with fellow writer Kevin Connolly in Toronto.

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 2, 8:00 - 10:00 PM (Wilkinson)

Clark Blaise

Clark Blaise is among the most widely travelled of authors, having taught or lectured in Japan, India, Singapore, Australia, Finland, Estonia, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Germany, Haiti and Mexico, as well as throughout Canada. He is the author of nine story collections, three novels and four works of non-fiction and is currently the president of the Society for the Study of the Short Story. He has been honoured by the American Academy of Arts and Letters and currently divides his time between San Francisco and Southampton, Long Island.

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 2, 8:00 - 10:00 PM (Wilkinson)

Jo Ellen Bogart

Jo Ellen Bogart grew up in Texas, but has made her home in Guelph, Ontario for more than three decades. Her seventeen children's books range from picture books to junior non-fiction to biography, and now include early chapter books. Her picture book Jeremiah Learns to Read won the Ruth Schwartz Award and the CNIB's Tiny Torgi Award for best Print Braille book, and her biography of Emily Carr was the 2004 Honour Book for the Children's Literature Roundtable's Information Book of the Year Award. Jo Ellen's recent Orca Echo book, The Big Tree Gang, is a collection of six short stories featuring a furry quartet of characters who share wonderful adventures in their woodland home. The sequel, Out and About with the Big Tree Gang, is co-authored with her daughter, Jill Bogart. Jo Ellen has also written song lyrics and six of her songs are featured on a soon to be released CD, Gonna Keep Dancing, by her musical collaborator, Eddie Douglas.

In addition to her panel appearances at BookFestWindsor, Jo Ellen Bogart will be meeting with classes of students at the Central Branch of the Windsor Public Library on Friday, November 2.

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 2, 8:00 - 10:00 PM (Valiant/Rodzik)
November 3, 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM (Wilkinson)

Stephen Cain

Stephen Cain is the author of three poetry collections—American Standard/Canada Dry (Coach House, 2005), Torontology (ECW, 2001), and dyslexicon (Coach House, 1998)—and a collaborative series of micro-fictions, Double Helix (Mercury, 2006), written with Jay MillAr. He is also co-author, with Tim Conley, of The Encyclopedia of Fictional and Fantastic Languages (Greenwood, 2006). He is a past literary editor at the Queen Street Quarterly and fiction editor at Insomniac Press, and now teaches at York University.

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 3, 1:00 - 3:00 PM (Valiant/Rodzik)
November 3, 8:00 - 10:00 PM (Valiant/Rodzik)

Dennis Cooley

Dennis Cooley grew up at Estevan, Saskatchewan, and he teaches at St. John's College, University of Manitoba, in Winnipeg, where he has lived since 1973, and where he has been actively involved in the literary community. Cooley is interested in the play between oral and written language. His latest books include country music (Kalamalka, 2004), the bentleys (University of Alberta, 2006), and by word of mouth (Wilfred-Laurier, 2007).

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 3, 8:00 - 10:00 PM (Valiant/Rodzik)

Afua Cooper

Afua Cooper is an established writer of non-fiction, history, and poetry. She holds a Ph.D. in African Canadian history, with specialties in slavery and abolition. She spent fifteen years researching the intriguing history of Marie-Joseph Angelique, the subject of her book, The Hanging of Angelique. She is the co-author of We're Rooted Here and They Can't Pull Us Up: Essays in African Canadian Women's History, which won the prestigious Joseph Brant Award for history. One of Canada's most versatile poets, she has published four volumes of poetry, including the acclaimed Memories Have Tongue. Afua Cooper teaches history at the University of Toronto.

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 2, 8:00 - 10:00 PM (Wilkinson)
November 3, 3:00 - 5:00 PM (Valiant/Rodzik)

Adam Dickinson

Adam Dickinson was born in Bracebridge, Ontario, where he grew up around the Muskoka Lakes. His poems and reviews have appeared in a number of Canadian literary journals and in anthologies such as Breathing Fire 2: Canada's New Poets, and Post Prairie: An Anthology of New Poetry. He has published academic articles on Canadian literature and Canadian film. His first book of poetry, Cartography and Walking, was published by Brick Books in 2002 and was shortlisted for the Henry Kreisel Award for Best First Book (Writers Guild of Alberta). His second book of poetry, Kingdom, Phylum, was published in 2006 (Brick Books) and has been nominated for the Trillium Book Award for Poetry. Adam received his M.A. in Creative Writing from the University of New Brunswick before moving on to Edmonton where he completed his Ph.D. in English at the University of Alberta. He is now professor of poetics at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario.

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 3, 3:00 - 5:00 PM (Valiant/Rodzik)

Emma Donoghue

Born in Dublin in 1969, Emma Donoghue is a novelist, playwright and literary historian. Her fiction includes historical (Slammerkin, Life Mask, The Woman Who Gave Birth To Rabbits), fairy tales (Kissing The Witch) and contemporary (Stirfry, Hood, Touchy Subjects, and her latest novel, set in South-Western Ontario, Landing). She lives in London, Ontario with her partner and their two children. For more information go to www.emmadonoghue.com.

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 3, 1:00 - 3:00 PM (Wilkinson)

Kay Douglas

A graduate of St. Clair College in Advertising, a 2004 Alumni of Distinction Award winner, and a Nominee for the 2005 Premiers Award, Douglas is recognized as a strong voice and community leader. An activist to promote the growth and development of our unique "International Region", Kay spearheaded "Building a Region", a cross border seminar aimed at positioning our region for success. She has donated many of her own art works to local not-for-profit agencies, and has held seats on numerous Boards of Directors, including the St. Clair College Advisory Board, Victorian Order of Nurses, Information Windsor and in 2007, was named President of Executive Women International, Detroit-Windsor Chapter.

Kay's latest success includes authoring and illustrating a children's book called, Yours for the Dreaming, which encourages creative thinking and presents a new perspective on reading. With the combination of intricate, imaginative art and clever, beautifully written prose, this project also was the catalyst that saw Kay launch her publishing company by the same name. Proceeds from the book's first run will benefit EWI's "Be a Leader, Be a Reader Program" to promote literacy. Her website is www.yoursforthedreaming.com.

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 3, 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM (Wilkinson)
November 4, 1:00 - 3:00 PM (Wilkinson)

Michael Duben (moderator)

In September 2004, Michael E. Duben became General Manager of Client Services for the City of Windsor. As such he is one of five General Managers working with CAO/City Manager John Skorobohacz as a team on corporate initiatives consistent with the directions of City Council. Mr. Duben's areas of responsibility include parks and recreation, hospitality services including Willistead Manor and Mackenzie Hall, the Convention and Visitor's Bureau, facilities management, customer services and culture and heritage.

A Montreal native, Mr. Duben received his B.A. from McGill University in 1989. He came to Windsor to attend the University of Windsor Law School; he received his LL.B. in 1992 and practiced law in Windsor for several years. A graduate of Leadership Detroit, Mr. Duben's community involvement has included President of the Windsor-St. Clair Rotary Club, director of the City Centre Business Association of Windsor, director of the North American Black Historical Museum and Cultural Centre, and director of the Art Gallery of Windsor.

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 2, 8:00 - 10:00 PM (Wilkinson)

Ray Ellenwood

Retired professor of English, York University. Has published ten books of translation, French-to-English, mostly of Québec literature, including the manifesto, Refus global, by the Montreal Automatist Movement. Besides a number of articles on the dancers, writers, and artists of that group, he has published Egregore: A History of the Automatist Movement of Montreal (Toronto: Exile Editions, 1992). He continues working on projects related to his previous research.

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 3, 1:00 - 3:00 PM (Valiant/Rodzik)

Susan Elmslie

Susan Elmslie is a poet who writes and lives in Montreal, Quebec. Her first trade collection of poetry, I, Nadja, and Other Poems (Brick, 2006) won the A.M. Klein Poetry Prize and was shortlisted for the McAuslan First Book Prize. Her poems have also appeared in several Canadian journals, anthologies, and in a prize-winning chapbook, When Your Body Takes to Trembling (Cranberry Tree, 1996). Born in Brampton, Ontario, she has also lived in London, Ontario, and spent year-long stretches in Nice and Vancouver. She received a Ph.D. in English with a specialization in Canadian literature from McGill University. Her poetry has been supported by Canada Council for the Arts grants for Professional Writers. She has also been a resident at the Banff Centre for the Arts and a poetry Fellow at Hawthornden Castle in Scotland.

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 3, 3:00 - 5:00 PM (Valiant/Rodzik)

Robert Fanning

Robert Fanning is the author of Old Bright Wheel, winner of the Ledge Press Poetry Chapbook Award. A graduate of the University of Michigan and Sarah Lawrence College, his writing awards include a Creative Artist Grant from ArtServe Michigan, the Inkwell Poetry Award, and the Foley Poetry Award. His work has also been published in Poetry, Ploughshares, The Atlanta Review, The Hawaii Review, America, The Ledge, and Artword Quarterly. He is the Program Director of the InsideOut Literary Arts Project, which brings professional writers into the classrooms of the Detroit Public Schools. He is a resident of Ferndale. He is the author of The Seed Thieves (Marick Press 2006).

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 3, 3:00 - 5:00 PM (Valiant/Rodzik)

Judith Fitzgerald

Award-winning poet, literary journalist, cultural commentarian, and music critic Judith Fitzgerald, ABD/Ph.D, a regular contributor to the Book Pages of Canada's national newspaper, The Globe and Mail (where she won the Fiona Mee Award for her "outstanding contribution to English-language literary journalism") was born in Toronto; however, since 1995, she has called Northern Ontario's Almaguin Highlands home. The editor of a trio of verse anthologies, author of twenty volumes of poetry, and creator of a pair of critically acclaimed best-selling biographies, Fitzgerald was named a Poetry Fellow of the Chalmers Arts Foundation in 2003 and designated Parliamentary Poet of the week by Canada's Poet Laureate George Bowering in 2005. Presently, she is immersed in the creation of the fully authorised Leonard Cohen: Master of Song (XYZ, Spring 2008), an in-depth explicatory analysis of what she considers Cohen's five masterpieces. The woman Cohen considers "one of the world's greatest poets" recently completed Oh, Clytaemnestra! (Oberon, Fall 2007), the closing volume of her critically acclaimed ADAGIOS QUARTET (already declared the first successful epic poem written by a woman in the history of The Tradition by belle-lettrists of impeccable credentials around the world). Her QUARTET encompasses several facets of the myth of Agamemnon, treating each as a commentary on contemporary political and personal reality in order to portray the grief and passion of loss while speaking of a truth as real today as it was for ancient Greece 2000 years ago.

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 4, 1:00 - 1:30 PM (Wilkinson)

Jon Flieger

Jon Flieger is a writer from Windsor, Ontario. His book Never Sleep with Anyone from Windsor (Black Moss Press) won the second annual Southwesto competition. He is currently developing a graphic novel. He is afraid of bees.

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 4, 1:00 - 3:00 PM (Wilkinson)

Veronica Fraser

Veronica Fraser was born in England and emigrated to Canada in 1975. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in 1988 in French literature. Since then she has taught French language and medieval literature at the University of Windsor. Her interests include paleography—the study of ancient manuscripts—and the love songs of the Provencal troubadours. She is the author of a recent book on the twelfth century troubadour Peire Vidal, and many articles on the medieval lyric, rhetoric and hagiography.

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 2, 8:00 - 10:00 PM (Lecture)

C.H. "Marty" Gervais

C.H. "Marty" Gervais is the author of more than a dozen books of poetry, including the Milton Acorn People's Poetry Award winner, Tearing Into A Summer Day (1998). He has also published plays, children's books, non-fiction and recently a book of photography, A Show of Hands: Boxing on the Border (2004). His most recent book is his first (published) novel, Reno, published in fall 2005 by Mosaic Press. Marty is also the publisher of Black Moss Press, which recently celebrated its 35th anniversary. In 1998, he won the Harbourfront Festival Prize for his contributions to Canadian letters and to emerging writers.

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 3, 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM (Wilkinson)

Paul Glennon

Paul Glennon is the author of How Did You Sleep? and the Governor General's Award nominated The Dodecahedron. The Dodecahedron inspired Quill and Quire to proclaim, "One rarely sees a book of such scope and ambition succeed so thrillingly." His books thrive on the challenges of storytelling, taking on impossible premises and making the absurd seem believable. Glennon lives in Ottawa where he also works in the software industry. He is currently finishing a literary mystery set in Italy and a trilogy of young adult novels called Bookweird.

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 3, 8:00 - 10:00 PM (Wilkinson)

Mariela Griffor

Mariela Griffor is the author of Exiliana (Luna Publications) and House (Mayapple Press). She was born in the city of Concepción in southern Chile. She attended the University of Santiago and the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro. She left Chile for an involuntary exile in Sweden in 1985. She and her American husband returned to the United States in 1998 with their two daughters. They live in Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan. She is founder of The Institute for Creative Writers at Wayne State University and Publisher of Marick Press. Her work has appeared in periodicals across Latin America and the United States. Mariela holds a B.A in Journalism and a M.A. in Media Studies from Wayne State University. She is Consul Honorary of Chile in Michigan.

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 3, 3:00 - 5:00 PM (Valiant/Rodzik)

Barbara Godard

Barbara Godard has written extensively on Canadian and Quebec literatures and cultures. As a literary translator she has introduced Quebec writers Louky Bersianik, Antonine Maillet and France Théoret to an anglophone audience. Her most recent translations include Nicole Brossard's Intimate Journal (2004) and a new edition of Picture Theory (1991, 2006). A founding co-editor of Tessera, review editor of Topia: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies and contributing editor of the Semiotic Review of Books and Open Letter, she is co-editor of Egregore: For Ray Ellenwood (Open Letter 13, 1, 2006).

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 3, 1:00 - 3:00 PM (Valiant/Rodzik)

Susan Gold Smith

Susan Gold is an artist and educator in Windsor, Ontario. Her interest in the book form is of the book as sculptural and as time-based object, the book as a meeting place for text and image, the book as collage, the book as collection. The book form is a flexible arena for the artist's explorations and representations.

This is the second year Susan Gold has "performed the book" at BookFestWindsor, with students from the School of Visual Arts, University of Windsor, by altering books on site and creating wearable text images. Her website is www.nobelpeaceproject.com

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 3, 1:00 - 4:00 PM (Concourse)

Beatriz Hausner

Beatriz Hausner is a Toronto poet whose work owes much to the cadences of Latin American writers like César Moro, Jorge Cáceres, Enrique Gómez-Correa, Aldo Pellegrini and Rosamel del Valle. She has translated their writings, as well as that of many other poets associated with international surrealism. Hausner has published the collection The Wardrobe Mistress, as well as chapbooks like Towards the Ideal Man Poems, The Stitched Heart and The Archival Stone. Co-editor of Egregore: For Ray Ellenwood (Open Letter 13, 1, 2006), she has edited several publications and is one of the publishers of Quattro Books.

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 3, 1:00 - 3:00 PM (Valiant/Rodzik)
November 3, 3:00 - 5:00 PM (Wilkinson)
November 3, 8:00 - 10:00 PM (Valiant/Rodzik)

Lawrence Hill

Lawrence Hill's novels and non-fiction have been published to critical acclaim and have captured the interest and allegiance of readers. His sixth book, The Book of Negroes, a novel, was published by HarperCollins Canada in January 2007 and his seventh book, The Deserter's Tale (written with Joshua Key) was released in February 2007 in Canada, the United States and Australia and later this year will be published in India, Japan and six European countries.

Hill is the son of a black father and a white mother who came to Canada hoping to escape the enduring racism of their native United States. Growing up in the predominantly white suburb of Don Mills, Ontario in the sixties, Hill was greatly influenced by his parents' work in the human rights movement. Much of Hill's writing touches on issues of identity and belonging.

Formerly a reporter with The Globe and Mail and parliamentary correspondent for The Winnipeg Free Press, Hill speaks French and Spanish. He has lived and worked across Canada, in Baltimore, and in Spain and France. As a volunteer with Canadian Crossroads International, he has traveled to the West African countries Niger, Cameroon and Mali. He has a B.A. in economics from Laval University in Quebec City and an M.A. in writing from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Hill, who often speaks at conferences, universities, schools and book clubs, lives in Burlington, Ontario with his wife and five children.

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 3, 1:00 - 3:00 PM (Wilkinson)

Susan Holbrook

Susan Holbrook is the author of poetry books misled (Red Deer Press, 1999) and Good Egg Bad Seed (Nomados 2004). She teaches North American literatures and creative writing at the University of Windsor.

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 3, 8:00 - 10:00 PM (Valiant/Rodzik)

Leslie Howsam (moderator)

Leslie Howsam is a historian of the book and of print culture, with research interests focusing on Britain from the eighteenth to the twentieth century. Her Ph.D. in History was conferred at York University (Toronto) in 1989, and she taught at the University of Toronto before coming to Windsor in 1993. She teaches courses in British history, in historical method, and in the history of the book and print culture. She has worked on the publishing of bibles, on a general literary publisher, and on both scientific books and cookbooks.

Her current project (which was SSHRC-funded in 1999) concerns the publishing history of history books in Britain, between 1850 and 1950. She is one of the leading scholars in Canada in this field, and currently serves as President of the Canadian Association for the Study of Book Culture/Association canadienne pour l'étude de l'histoire du livre and Vice-President of the international Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing.

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 4, 1:00 - 4:00 PM (Lecture)

Karl Jirgens (moderator)

Karl E. Jirgens, was born in Toronto. He is the editor-in-chief of Rampike magazine. He is the author of Bill Bissett and His Works (ECW, 1992), Christopher Dewdney and His Works (ECW, 1995), Strappado (Coach House Press, 1985), and A Measure of Time (Mercury Press, 1995). He recently edited Children of the Outer Dark: The Poetry of Christopher Dewdney (Wilfrid Laurier University Press). His literary works appear in Canadian journals such as Open Letter, The Tamarack Review, Only Paper Today, Impulse, Descant, The Journal of Canadian Fiction, Inter, and internationally in Tyuonyi (USA), UNIverse (Germany), Essex (USA), the International Symposia of Concrete & Visual Poetry (Australia), Offerte Speciale (Italy), La Revista Canaria de Etudio Ingleses (Spain); Q/W/E/R/T/Y (France), and World Literature Today (USA), among others. His fictional works have been anthologized by Coach House Press, Black Moss Press, and Mercury Press. His Theatre/Performance works have been presented nationally and internationally including at the Ultimatum Fest in Montreal and at the INTER-Festival in Quebec City. Karl Jirgens currently serves as the Department Head for English Language, Literature & Creative Writing at the University of Windsor.

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 3, 1:00 - 3:00 PM (Valiant/Rodzik)
November 3, 8:00 - 10:00 PM (Valiant/Rodzik)

Erin Knight

Originally from Edmonton, Erin Knight most recently published a poetry collection, The Sweet Fuels (Goose Lane Editions, 2007). She has studied at the University of New Brunswick and attended the International Exchange Program of the Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara. Her work appears in a variety of magazines and journals including Arc, The Malahat Review, and The Fiddlehead, and in the anthology Edmonton on Location: River City Chronicles (NeWest 2005). She now lives in St. Catharines.

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 3, 3:00 - 5:00 PM (Valiant/Rodzik)

Suzanne Konyha

Suzanne Konyha is a Windsor-based visual artist who has been exhibiting her work across Ontario for well over a decade. Her sculpture entitled "Blue Rhapsody" was part of the 2005 CarTunes on Parade sculpture displays in Windsor and Detroit. Suzanne has also worked closely with children in southwestern Ontario schools, using visual arts as a medium to enhance the curriculum and classroom participation, as part of the Learning Through The Arts initiative. Suzanne will present a hands-on workshop in bookmaking for children in the AGW studio.

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 4, 1:00 - 3:00 PM (Studio)

Michèle Laframboise

Trained academically as an engineer and geographer, Michèle Laframboise first came to public notice through her humorous drawings. While continuing to produce comic books, she also writes highly inventive sci-fi novels with numerous twists and turns. Her YA novel Les Nuages du Phoenix was awarded the 2001 Prix Cécile Gagnon.

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 2, 8:00 - 10:00 PM (Lecture)
November 3, 2:00 - 4:00 PM (Studio)

Jeff Lemire

Born in a tiny farming town in Southwestern Ontario, Canada in 1976, cartoonist Jeff Lemire now resides in Toronto. Jeff is the cartoonist and illustrator behind the graphic novels TALES FROM THE FARM and GHOST STORIES from Top Shelf Productions. His debut graphic novel LOST DOGS won a Xeric Award in 2005.

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 3, 2:00 - 4:00 PM (Studio)

Tanis MacDonald

Tanis MacDonald is the author of three books of poetry: Holding Ground (Seraphim Editions, 2000; nominated for Gerald Lampert Award), Fortune (Turnstone Press, 2003), and a third as yet untitled volume forthcoming from Turnstone Press in spring 2008. She is also the editor of Speaking of Power: The Poetry of Di Brandt (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2006). She has lived in Winnipeg, Victoria, and Toronto, and now lives in Kitchener and teaches Canadian literature in the Department of English and Film Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University.

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 3, 8:00 - 10:00 PM (Valiant/Rodzik)

Alistair MacLeod

Alistair MacLeod has long been recognized as one of Canada's greatest short story writers, based on his two collections, Lost Salt Gift of Blood (1976) and As Birds Bring Forth the Sun (1986). His first novel, No Great Mischief (1999) won the Canadian Booksellers Association Library Award, the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the Trillium Book Award and the Lannan Literary Award. It has been translated into many languages.

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 3, 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM (Wilkinson)
November 3, 8:00 - 10:00 PM (Wilkinson)

Mary Jane Maffini

Before she fell into a life of crime, Nova Scotia-born Mary Jane Maffini was a librarian, a federal public servant, and a bookstore owner. She finds that "Mystery Writer" fits more neatly on a business card. Now she leads dangerous days as the author of three mystery series and many short stories. Her latest book is Organize Your Corpses, which will be followed by Too Hot to Handle in October 2007.

She is a former President of The Crime Writers of Canada, a former co-owner of Prime Crime Mystery Bookstore and a charter member of the Ladies' Killing Circle Inc. She spends her days pondering the printed word, the nature of justice, and just what makes people do very bad things and think they can get away with them. She is a frequent speaker on the writing process, mysteries and Canadian crime writing. Mary Jane lives and plots in Ottawa, along with her long-suffering husband and two princessy dachshunds. The truth is she's never really killed anyone. Learn more at www.maryjanemaffini.com

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 3, 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM (Wilkinson)
November 3, 3:00 - 5:00 PM (Lecture)
November 3, 8:00 - 10:00 PM (Wilkinson)

Leslie McCurdy

Leslie McCurdy has been performing for many years in Southwestern Ontario and the Mid-Western United States as an Actor, Dancer/Choreographer, and Singer. Also a teacher, Leslie has been instrumental in creating programs which provide opportunities for children and youth, particularly from disadvantaged circumstances, to participate in high quality performing arts activities. Her one-woman plays, The Spirit of Harriet Tubman and Things My Fore-Sisters Saw, tour internationally to audiences of all ages.

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 2, 8:00 - 10:00 PM (Wilkinson)

John Metcalf

John Metcalf is a writer and editor living in Ottawa. His most recent book is a memoir, Shut Up He Explained, a follow-up volume to An Aesthetic Underground. He is currently fiction editor for Biblioasis and editor of Oberon's Best Canadian Stories. His selected stories Standing Stones was published in 2004.

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 3, 3:00 - 5:00 PM (Wilkinson)
November 3, 8:00 - 10:00 PM (Wilkinson)

Ken Milburn

Ken Milburn was born in Chatham, Ontario. A Windsor businessman since 1970, he owns and operates a local real estate and mortgage brokerage firm. Asked to dispose of some historical artifacts that his aunt and uncle possessed, Ken tells the story of how his family came into possession of Joe Louis's boxing gloves from the first Louis-Schmeling fight on June 19th, 1936 in NYC and how on January 31st, 2007 he donated these artifacts to the National Museum of American History Smithsonian Institution Washington, D.C.

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 4, 1:00 - 3:00 PM (Wilkinson)

Irene Moore (moderator)

Irene Moore is Manager of Continuing Education at St. Clair College. She holds a B.A. in English from the University of Windsor, an M.A. in English from Queen's University, and a B.Ed. from the University of Western Ontario. In her spare time, Ms. Moore enjoys a wide array of community activities including board and committee roles with the Essex County Black Historical Research Society, the Windsor and District Black Coalition, the Northstar Cultural Community Centre, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Leadership Windsor/Essex, and BookFestWindsor.

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 2, 8:00 - 10:00 PM (Valiant/Rodzik)

Mary Ann Mulhern

Mary Ann Mulhern is a Windsor writer who has had two recent readings at Shakespeare and Company in Paris, France. She has two books published by Black Moss Press. The Red Dress is a narrative that allows the reader behind convent walls in the rebellious decade of the sixties. Touch the Dead tells the story of growing up in a cemetery house. Both books effectively use poetry as a genre of powerful expression.

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 3, 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM (Wilkinson)

George Murray

George Murray is the author of four acclaimed books of poetry, most recently The Rush to Here (Nightwood Editions, 2007) and The Hunter (McClelland & Stewart, 2003). His poetry and short fiction have appeared widely in Canada and the US, as well as in Australia, Europe, and the UK. He is the former Poetry Editor for The Literary Review of Canada, and is currently a contributing editor for several magazines, including Canadian Notes & Queries, Maisonneuve, and The Drunken Boat. A regular reviewer of poetry for The Globe and Mail, he is also the founder and editor of the popular literary website, Bookninja.com.

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 3, 3:00 - 5:00 PM (Wilkinson)
November 3, 8:00 - 10:00 PM (Valiant/Rodzik)

Barry Neavill

Barry Neavill is a professor in the Library and Information Science Program at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. A book historian and collector, he is a member of the Book Club of Detroit. His topic for discussion is "What and How to Collect".

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 4, 1:00 - 4:00 PM (Lecture)

Momcilo Nikolic

Momcilo Nikolic is recognized as one of the world's finest Tamburitza musicians. He is the descendent of generations of tambura players who lived in the ancient city of Novi Sad in Vojvodina, a multi-cultural province of the former Yugoslavia. Mr. Nikolic performed in his homeland with the well-known tamburitza orchestra "Eight Tamburitzans of Petrovaradin," and later had his own tamburitza orchestra. Since moving to North America in 1988, he has continued to perform as an instrumentalist and a vocalist, including a stint at Disney World. He was recently honoured (2007) by being accepted into the Hall of Fame of the American Tamburitza Association. His book Once There Were Eight Tambura Players (published in Serbian) has been released in English by Cranberry Tree Press.

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: Mr. Nikolic will be performing in the Concourse of the Art Gallery, accompanied by pianist Branislav Djordjevic, on Sunday November 4, from 12:15 to 1:00 PM.

Barbara Peacock (moderator)

Barb worked at CBC Radio in Toronto in the late 70's and then at CBC Radio in Regina. She's hosted virtually every radio and TV program at CBC Windsor... Supperhour and late night TV news, and the Morning Show on radio in the mid-80's before settling in as the host of Crosstown. Barb has also worked as a radio newsreader and even done a few stints as sportscaster. Barb didn't get into this business the "normal way": she spent her university days, not in Journalism, but in the Bachelor of Science in Agriculture program at Guelph University. In her personal life Barb considers herself a dabbler. She dabbles in gourmet cooking, birdwatching, gardening, sketching and watercolours, and photography. She's been a volunteer with Big Sisters for twenty years, and during that time has had four "little sisters". Barb is married to Lee Rabideau.

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 3, 1:00 - 3:00 PM (Wilkinson)

Stephen Pender (moderator)

Dr. Stephen Pender, currently director of the Humanities Research Group, University of Windsor, is a minor artist of the late twentieth century. He is a specialist in the poetry and prose of early modern Britain, intellectual history, and the history of medicine. His current projects include work on the relationship between rhetoric and medicine in early modern England, on medical thought in contemporary historiography, and on early modern ethics. He lives in Windsoria.

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 3, 3:00 - 5:00 PM (Valiant/Rodzik)

Scott Randall

Scott Randall will be unable to attend BookFestWindsor 2007 due to family considerations. Mary Jane Maffini will join the "To Make a Long Story Short" panel in his place. All the best to Scott and his family from BookFestWindsor!

George Rizok

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 3, 2:00 - 4:00 PM (Studio)

Clive Robertson

Clive Robertson is an artist, cultural critic, performance and media arts curator and publisher. THEN + THEN AGAIN: Practices Within An Artist-Run Culture, 1969-2006 is a touring archival retrospective of his individual and collaborative art, curatorial and publishing projects that will be at ARTCITE INC., Windsor, October 17 – November 17, 2007. Clive is a founding editor/publisher of the continuing Voicespondence Audio Art Publishing (1974) and Centerfold/ FUSE magazine (1976). His most recent book is Policy Matters: Administrations of Art and Culture (YYZBOOKS, 2006). Clive received a doctorate in Communication Studies (Concordia) in 2004 and teaches contemporary art history, cultural policy and performance studies at Queen's University.

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: Visual Arts Installation at Artcite Inc. (109 University Ave. W.) throughout BookFest weekend

Ray Robertson

Ray Robertson is the author of the novels Home Movies, Heroes, Moody Food and Gently Down the Stream, and a collection of non-fiction, Mental Hygiene: Essays on Writers and Writing. He is a contributing book reviewer for The Globe & Mail. His latest novel is What Happened Later (Thomas Allen, 2007), from which he will be reading at the "Preface to BookFest" on October 28.

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: Sunday, October 28, 5:00 - 8:00 PM (Art Gallery of Windsor)

Eden Robinson

Eden Robinson is a Haisla/Heiltsuk author who grew up in Haisla, BC. Her first book, Traplines, a collection of short stories, won the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year in 1998. Monkey Beach, her first novel, was shortlisted for both the Giller Prize and the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction in 2000 and named a notable book by The Globe and Mail. Her most recent novel is Blood Sports.

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 3, 1:00 - 3:00 PM (Wilkinson)

Tom Vajdik

Thomas Vajdik received his M.L.S. degree from the University of Western Ontario. He has been employed by the Windsor Public Library for 30 years. In 1996, he was appointed the librarian in charge of the Genealogy and Local History collections. Recently, Mr. Vajdik received his Professional Learning Certificate in Genealogical Studies (PLCGS) from the National Institute for Genealogical Studies in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. His topic is "Attacking the Attic: What to Keep and How to Store and Preserve It".

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 4, 1:00 - 4:00 PM (Lecture)

Paul Vasey (moderator)

Paul Vasey, host until June 2005 of CBC radio's Windsor morning show, and now host of the morning show in Victoria, BC, is an award-winning journalist who spent the early part of his career working at newspapers including the Hamilton Spectator and the Windsor Star. Paul has written two novels, Sufferer Kind (1978) and It's Only a Broken Heart (2000), a novella, Into Thin Air (1994), a book of short stories, Failure of Love (1991) as well as an acclaimed work of non-fiction, Kids in the Jail (1995). His latest novel is The Last Labour of the Heart (2005), published by Black Moss Press.

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 3, 8:00 - 10:00 PM (Wilkinson)
November 4, 1:00 - 3:00 PM (Wilkinson)

Jean Pierre de Villers

Born of French and Swiss parents, Jean-Pierre de Villers was raised and educated in France, and Switzerland (Saint-Paul de Vence-Nice, University of Paris, University of Aix-en-Provence) and the United States where he was a Fulbright Scholar from 1961 to 1968 at Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut and the University of Colorado at Boulder. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Colorado. He has taught at the University of Colorado, the University of Notre Dame, the U.S. Air Force Language School at Sacramento, and the University of California. He is presently Professor of Modern Literature at the University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario. His publications include: Roger Vitrac et le théâtre d'avant-garde (University of Michigan Microfilms), Futurism and the Arts (University of Toronto Press), Le Premier Manifeste du Futurisme de F.T. Marinetti (University of Ottawa Press), and Manifestes Futuristes/Futurist Manifestoes (Mellen Press, New York, forthcoming 2007). He is the founder and editor of Studies on Futurism and the Avant-Garde, a scholarly journal devoted to the study of international avant-garde movements. His first novel, Guns of Babylon, was published in 1993 in Toronto.

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 2, 8:00 - 10:00 PM (Lecture)

Allen E. Walls

A secondary school teacher for 31 years, Allen Walls is the co-author, with his wife Connie, of the children's book series, The Adventures of Spyke and Spencer. Born in Maidstone Township, he worked for 10 years as a journeyman carpenter before embarking on an educational career at the Universities of Windsor and Toronto that led to his classroom tenure. Walls received an Honourary Doctorate of Humanities from the Urban Bible College of Detroit in 1982, and has been recognized with numerous awards for his work in education, tourism, volunteerism, cultural and heritage promotion, and race relations. Among others, he has worked with the Metro Toronto Police Hate Crime Division, the International Network to Freedom Association, and NASA, but it was his love of children and animals that inspired him to get involved with Spyke, Spencer and Connie in writing books for children.

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 4, 2:00 - 4:00 PM (Central Branch, Windsor Public Library)

Eric Walters

Born in Toronto in 1957, Eric Walters began writing in 1993 as a way to entice his grade 5 students into becoming more interested in reading and writing. Each day he would read to his students the story he was writing which was set in their school; this book, Stand Your Ground, became Eric's first published novel.

Since that first creation Eric has published over best-selling 50 novels. His novels have won over thirty awards, and have been translated into several languages including French, Japanese, Dutch, Chinese and German. Eric writes in a variety of genres including historical/fiction, contemporary, humour, first chapter books, a picture book, sports, and mystery, but often his stories incorporate themes that reflect his background in education and social work and his commitment to humanitarian and social justice issues. He donated all the royalties from his book about Terry Fox, Run, to The Terry Fox Foundation, and was the person who conceived, and then actively promoted, The National Run Day in 2005 to mark the 25th Anniversary of Terry's run.

As part of his appearance at BookFestWindsor, Eric will be speaking to students in schools on the Thursday and Friday preceding the festival

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 3, 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM (Wilkinson)
November 3, 1:00 - 3:00 PM (Wilkinson)

Edward A. Watson

Edward A. Watson immigrated to Canada after studying at Howard University and the University of Chicago. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto and taught English Literature and Literary Criticism at the University of Windsor from 1966 to 1995 when he retired. The author of many articles in literary journals and reviews, his books include Out of the Silent Stone and Other Poems, A Study of Selected English Critical Terms from 1660 to 1800: a Constellation, and Literary Criticism: Ten Approaches.

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 4, 1:30 - 2:00 PM (Wilkinson)

Derek Weiler

Derek Weiler is the editor of Quill & Quire, Canada's magazine of book news and reviews. He has been with the magazine for eight years and has also written about books for several other publications, including the Toronto Star and Saturday Night.

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 3, 3:00 - 5:00 PM (Wilkinson)

Daniel Wells (moderator)

Daniel Wells is the publisher of Biblioasis, a literary press committed to publishing poetry, fiction, criticism and history in high quality, well produced editions. Biblioasis is also the publisher of the journal CNQ: Canadian Notes & Queries.

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 3, 3:00 - 5:00 PM (Wilkinson)

Jeremy Worth (moderator)

Jeremy Worth received his Ph.D. in French literature from the University of Western Ontario in 2004, and since 2006 has been a member of the department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures at the University of Windsor. In 2007-2008 he is teaching a variety of courses, including French Literary Theory, Realism & Naturalism and French Romanticism. His research interests include French Naturalism, Émile Zola and theories of identity and subjectivity, and over the past decade he has published articles and given conference papers in Canada, the USA, the United Kingdom and France. A native of Watford, England, Jeremy Worth emigrated to Canada in 1992.

Appearances at BookFestWindsor:: November 2, 8:00 - 10:00 PM (Lecture)

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