John Barton has published 9 books of poetry and 5 chapbooks including West of Darkness: Emily Carr, a Self-Portrait and Hymn which was published this fall. His work has won a Patricia Hackett Prize, three Archibald Lampman Awards, an Ottawa Book Award, a CBC Literary Award and a National Magazine Award. From 2008-09 he was writer-in-residence at the Saskatoon Public Library. He currently lives in Victoria where he edits The Malahat Review.

Barton will be joined this evening by Winnipeg poets Ariel Gordon and Clarise Foster.

Author Bios

John Barton has published nine books of poetry and five chapbooks, including Designs from the Interior, Sweet Ellipsis, Hypothesis, and Hymn, which was released by Brick Books in August. A third and bilingual edition of West of Darkness: Emily Carr, a self-portrait, his third book, was published by Buschek Books in 2006. Co-editor of Seminal: The Anthology of Canada¹s Gay-Male Poets, he has won three Archibald Lampman Awards, an Ottawa Book Award, a 2003 CBC Literary Award, and a 2006 National Magazine Award. He lives in Victoria where he is the editor of The Malahat Review.

Ariel Gordon is a Winnipeg-based author who has recently published two small-press chapbooks. Her work has appeared in fine literary magazines such as Carousel, PRISM International and Prairie Fire. Ariel¹s first collection of poetry, Hump, is forthcoming from Ontario¹s Palimpsest Press in spring 2010. When not being bookish, she enjoys tromping through the woods taking macro photographs of mushrooms.

Clarise Foster is the editor of Contemporary Verse 2 and the author of two collections of poetry. She most contentedly resides in Winnipeg with her two dogs and two cats.