Synapse reading featuring Kathleen Winter

This is a rather belated post about the reading I did the other night (still getting used to the whole idea of blogging, so better late than never hopefully)...

Anyway, it was for the Synapse reading series which brings together student, emerging and established writers to read from their work in a warm, ambient, art-gallery setting, and this was the last reading of the academic year. The series was created by award-winning poet and Concordia creative writing prof Sina Queyras who is not only an outstanding writer herself but also an incredible reader.  Sina wasn't reading that night but, as it turned out, it was an all-female line-up (not by design apparently, it just turned out that way) and it was truly a pleasure and an honour to be a part of it.

I read alongside "three to watch" student readers ajBishop, Colleen Young and Heather Davidson, all great. The headliner, billed in advance only as a "very special guest author" and whose identity was kept secret until just before she read, was revealed to be Kathleen Winter, award-winning author of the short story collection Boys as well as the bestselling novel Annabel which has just made the prestigious Orange Prize 2011 longlist. This novel has been on my To Buy And Read list for a while but even if I'd never heard of it before, Kathleen's wonderful reading would have compelled me to race off and purchase it.  And it turns out she's not only a talented author but a lovely person too - interesting, warm, funny and smart, just like her writing.

So, a big thank you to Sina Queyras for inviting me to participate, as well as everyone at Synapse, including curators Steph Colbourn and Lizy Mostowski and the evening's Q&A moderator Deanna Fong.

Bird Eat Bird wins Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book, Caribbean and Canada region

I've been meaning to activate this blog for a while now, but I guess I needed a good excuse.

This week I was given one - I was totally shocked but very happy to find out that my debut book of short stories has won the 2011 Commonwealth Prize for Best First Book, Caribbean and Canada region!

As part of the prize, I'll be going to Sydney, Australia in May along with the other regional winners where we'll all participate in the Sydney Writers' Festival (May 16-22). At the end of the week, the two overall winners (one for each category - Best Book and Best First Book) will be announced.

I'm of course thrilled and excited but also still feeling rather stunned - it really was a total surprise, not least because I was in such impressive company: the other five books on the regional shortlist are all excellent and many had been nominated for and/or won other major literary prizes.

Big shout out to my amazing editor Jon Paul Fiorentino (who also designed the book's cover) and everyone at Insomniac Press!