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.
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