Qwerty Reads Presents: Featured Readings from Mark Jarman and Ross Leckie

Come to the Wilser's Room in the Capital Complex on Thursday, February 26th to see two of The Fiddlehead's editors, Mark Anthony Jarman and Ross Leckie, perform their featured readings for this month's Qwerty Reads event.

The night will feature live music from the local Fredericton band 1947 Kitchen Party Disaster (Mark Jarman, Rob Ross, Martin Ainsley, and James Turner)

First Year Creative MA Students (Alex Carey, Katie Fewster-Yan, Reid Lodge, and Steven Suntres) will be provide brief 'mini-sets' between the featured readers.  

Also, Kris Bone will be hosting the evening, providing some laughs between all of the great readings.

Doors open at 7PM.  See everyone there!

Featured Reader Bios:

Ross Leckie once had the jobs of “bun boy” and “relish girl” in the restaurant of a fancy New Hampshire hotel.  His most recent book is The Critique of Pure Reason, which is like a lost puppy, as people either love it or feel sorry for it.  He also edits The Fiddlehead and is a member of the editorial board for Icehouse Poetry, and not to namedrop, but he once had a beer with Seamus Heaney.

Mark Anthony Jarman is the author of Knife Party at the Hotel Europa, My White Planet, 19 Knives, New Orleans Is Sinking, Dancing Nightly in the Tavern, and the travel book Ireland’s Eye. His novel, Salvage King Ya!, is on Amazon.ca’s list of 50 Essential Canadian Books and is the number one book on Amazon’s list of best hockey fiction.  He has won a Gold National Magazine Award in nonfiction, has twice won the Maclean-Hunter Endowment Award, won the Jack Hodgins Fiction Prize, and has been included in The Journey Prize Anthology and Best Canadian Stories and short-listed for the O. Henry Prize and Best American Essays.

The UNB Reading Series Presents The Fiddlehead Poetry Editors

The University of New Brunswick would like to invite you to hear a poetry reading by the Poetry Editors of The Fiddlehead: Phillip Crymble, Claire Kelly, and Ian LeTourneau. 

Phillip Crymble’s poems have appeared in Oxford Poetry, The Malahat Review, CV2, The Literary Review of Canada, The New Quarterly, Vallum, Poetry Ireland Review, and elsewhere.  Born in Belfast, N. Ireland, he holds a MFA from the University of Michigan, and is currently pursuing a PhD in American Literature at the University of New Brunswick.  Not Even Laughter, his first full-length collection, is forthcoming from Salmon Poetry, Ireland, in 2015.

Claire Kelly writes and lives in Fredericton, New Brunswick. She has had poems published in The Malahat Review, Prism International, and has poems in upcoming issues of CV2 and Prairie Fire. Her first chapbook, Ur-Moth, was published by Frog Hollow Press in 2014. She is on the poetry board of Goose Lane Edition's Ice House Imprint.

Ian LeTourneau is the author of the chapbook Defining Range (Gaspereau, 2006) and the full-length collection Terminal Moraine (Thistledown, 2008). His poems and reviews have appeared in Arc, The Malahat Review, Event, Books in Canada, and many others.

Their poetry readings will be held Thursday, February 19th at 8:00pm in the East Gallery of Memorial Hall on the UNB Fredericton Campus. Admission is free and all are welcome to attend!

Upcoming Readings in Fredericton Area

There are all kinds of readings happening in Fredericton over the next week starting with tonight! A reminder that Craig Davidson reads at Memorial Hall tonight at 8pm. The event is free and all are welcome!

UNB Alumnus Craig Davidson, author of The Giller Prize short-listed Cataract City, published in 2013 by Doubleday. In his fourth literary novel Davidson presents a tourist town with an uncanny hold over those born within its borders, a place with more to it than first meets the eye. Beyond the gaudy storefronts and sidewalk vendors, past the hawkers of tourist T-shirts and souvenirs, are the townspeople who toil at The Bisk, the local cookie factory. And behind that crumbling façade are the truly desperate: those drawn to gritty alleyways on both sides of the US-Canada border, inhabitants of a shadow world that runs on money exchanged over dog races, bare-knuckle brawls, and night-time smuggling.

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Shane Neilson, frequent Fiddlehead contributor, reads at Odd Sundays at Molly's on Sunday, February 15. The reading starts at 2pm, is free, and open to the public.

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And this Thursday, February 12, The Cinnamon Café at 469 King Street is hosting a Spoken Word Poetry Night from 7 - 9pm. If you would like to read your own piece for this event, contact Cassidy or Brooke.

Craig Davidson Reads February 9

The University of New Brunswick would like to invite you to hear a reading by UNB Alumnus Craig Davidson, author of The Giller Prize short-listed Cataract City, published in 2013 by Doubleday. In his fourth literary novel Davidson presents a tourist town with an uncanny hold over those born within its borders, a place with more to it than first meets the eye. Beyond the gaudy storefronts and sidewalk vendors, past the hawkers of tourist T-shirts and souvenirs, are the townspeople who toil at The Bisk, the local cookie factory. And behind that crumbling façade are the truly desperate: those drawn to gritty alleyways on both sides of the US-Canada border, inhabitants of a shadow world that runs on money exchanged over dog races, bare-knuckle brawls, and night-time smuggling.

Davidson is the author of Rust and Bone, which was a finalist for the 2006 Danuta Gleed Literary Award and was made into a Golden Globe-nominated feature film of the same name. His other literary works include The Fighter and Sarah Court. His articles and journalism have been published in the National Post, Esquire, GQ, The Walrus, and The Washington Post, among other places.

Davidson has also published under the pen names Patrick Lestewka and Nick Cutter. Under the name Cutter he is the acclaimed author of The Troop (2014), about which Stephen King raved it “scared the hell out of me and I couldn’t put it down . . . old-school horror at its best.” Cutter’s latest novel The Deep has just been published by Simon & Schuster; it features a plague that threatens humanity on a global scale.

His reading will be held Monday, February 9th at 8:00pm in Memorial Hall on the UNB Fredericton Campus. Admission is free and all are welcome to attend.

UNB Art Centre Celebrates Black History Month with Poet and Filmmaker Sylvia D. Hamilton

UNB ART CENTRE CELEBRATES BLACK HISTORY MONTH
FEBRUARY 2015

In celebration of Black History Month, the UNB Art Centre is pleased to welcome Sylvia D. Hamilton to Memorial Hall for a poetry reading on Thursday, February 5 at 7:00 PM. She is an award-winning filmmaker and acclaimed poet. Dr. Hamilton’s films have been screened on CBC, TVO, the Knowledge Channel, and on university campuses across the country. She has been honoured with many awards for her work, including a Gemini award, the CBC Television Pioneer Award, and Nova Scotia’s Portia White Prize for Excellence. Her collection of poetry, And I Alone Escaped to Tell You, was published by Gaspereau Press in 2014.

Much of Dr. Hamilton’s work exposes the systemic racism that Black Canadians have experienced across the country. Her collection of poems, And I Alone Escaped to Tell You, deals with the settlement of African peoples in Nova Scotia, and discusses the complex layers of the lives of early Black Nova Scotians and the generations that followed.

In addition to the reading, there will be a talk, and a lunchtime film series that will run from Monday, February 2 to Friday, February 6, screening Dr. Hamilton’s films as well as others related to the Black History of Canada. All films will be screened at Memorial Hall, starting at 12:00 PM.

On Monday, February 2, the UNB Art Centre will be screening Black Mother, Black Daughter (Dir: Sylvia Hamilton & Claire Prieto | National Film Board of Canada | Canada | 29 minutes). This film explores the lives of Black women in Nova Scotia, and the heritage they pass on to their daughters.

On Tuesday, February 3, the film will be Remember Africville (Dir: Shelagh Mackenzie | National Film Board of Canada | Canada | 35 minutes), a short film about Africville that was uprooted in the 1960s. Through archival photographs and films, Remember Africville tells the story of the relocation.

On Wednesday, February 4, join us for Journey to Justice (Dir: Roger McTair | National Film Board of Canada | Canada | 47 minutes), a documentary film profiling 6 Canadians who were instrumental in the legal battle for civil rights in Canada.

On Thursday, February 5, the film will be Sylvia Hamilton’s film Little Black Schoolhouse (Dir: Sylvia Hamilton | Maroon Films | Canada | 60 minutes), which exposes the segregation of schools in Nova Scotia and Ontario. The policies of segregation officially ended in the provinces in 1954 and 1964, respectively, but remained in operation as late as 1983, when the last segregated school closed in Nova Scotia. Dr. Hamilton will be present at the film, and participate in a question and answer session following the screening.

On Friday, February 6, the final film in the series, Speak it! From the Heart of Black Nova Scotia (Dir: Sylvia Hamilton | National Film Board of Canada | Canada | 28 minutes), is also one of Sylvia Hamilton’s films. This piece looks at Black Nova Scotians at a predominately white high school in Halifax, the racism they experienced there, and the educational and cultural programs they develop to build self-esteem and cultural awareness.

On Friday, February 6, 12:30-1:50 p.m., Sylvia Hamilton will be giving a talk titled “Education: A Passport for the Future” at Marshall d’Avray Hall room 356.

The UNB Art Centre is located at Memorial Hall, 9 Bailey Drive, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton. The galleries are open 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM weekdays and for special events. Admission is free to members of the public. Everyone welcome!

Qwerty Launches New Issue!

Our friends at Qwerty, UNB's graduate student literary journal, are launching their new issue, no. 32, this Thursday, January 29 at 7pm down at Wilser's Room, 362 Queen St. There will be readings and Qwerty's redesign will be unveiled.

Also: the deadline for the chapbook contest jointly hosted by Qwerty and Echolocation is coming up very soon. Entries are due by January 31. For more details, see their Facebook page.

Introducing the Judges for The Fiddlehead's 24th Annual Literary Contest

We have now closed The Fiddlehead's Annual Literary contest, and we are thrilled to announce the panel of judges reading the submissions this year.

Fiction Judge

Craig Davidson, credit Kevin Kelly

Craig Davidson was born and grew up in St. Catharines, Ontario, near Niagara Falls. He has published three previous books of literary fiction: Rust and Bone, which was made into a feature film of the same name, The Fighter, and Sarah Court. Davidson is a graduate of the University of New Brunswick, and his articles and journalism have been published in the National Post, Esquire, GQ, The Walrus, and The Washington Post, among other places. He lives in Toronto, Canada, with his partner and their child.

Follow Craig's alter-ego on Twitter.

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The Ralph Gustafson Poetry Prize Judges

Jeramy Dodds

Jeramy Dodds grew up in Orono, Ontario, Canada. He is the winner of the 2006 Bronwen Wallace Memorial Award and the 2007 CBC Literary Award for poetry. His first collection of poems, Crabwise to the Hounds, was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize and won the Trillium Book Award for poetry. He is a poetry editor at Coach House Books. His most recent publication is an English translation of the Poetic Edda. He is currently the Writer-in-Residence at the University of New Brunswick.

Follow Jeramy on Twitter: @jeramy_dodds

Sina Queyras

Sina Queyras is the author most recently of MxT. She lives and works in Montreal.

Follow Sina on Twitter.

Danny Jacobs

Danny Jacobs’ poems have been published in a variety of journals across Canada, including The Fiddlehead, Arc, Event, The Malahat Review, Grain, and Hazlitt, among others. He has also written reviews for Maisonneuve and Vallum. His first book, Songs That Remind Us of Factories

(Nightwood, 2013), was shortlisted for the 2014 Acorn-Plantos Award for People’s Poetry. Danny completed an MA in creative writing at The University of New Brunswick in 2008 (he did a fiction thesis) and went on to do an MLIS at Dalhouise (2011). Danny now lives with his wife in Riverview, NB and works as the librarian in the village of Petitcodiac.You can follow him on Twitter: @DannyJJacobs. 

And don't forget, The Fiddlehead is on Twitter too!

Contest winners (including the honourable mentions) will be featured in our Spring 2015 Issue No. 263.