2014 Online Semifinals Judges

 

Martine Audet

Martine Audet

Born in Montreal, Martine Audet is the author of over a dozen poetry books published since 1996, as well as one children’s book. She has taken part in a variety of literary and artistic events, and her poems are published regularly in Quebec and elsewhere. Among her distinctions, Audet has received the Estuaire magazine prize and the Alain-Grandbois prize, and has been shortlisted three times for the Governor General’s Award and the Grand Prize in poetry at the Trois-Rivières International Poetry Festival. Audet occasionally associates painting or photography to her writing and illustrated L’oiseau, le vieux-port et le charpentier by the late poet Michel van Schendel. She has been a member of the editorial committee of Estuaire magazine since 2008. Her most recent book of poetry, Des voix stridentes ou rompues was shortlisted for Montreal’s Grand prix du livre.

 

Bathélemy Bolivar

Bathélemy Bolivar

Born in Haiti, Bathélemy Bolivar emigrated to the United States in 2000 to study computer sciences while teaching physics. In 2002, he settled in Winnipeg, where he continues to teach. In 2011, his master’s studies in Education and Online Business gave him the opportunity, with the help of friends from both Haïti and elsewhere, to launch Ecole haïtienne sans Frontières (Haitian School Without Borders), the mission of which is to provide free, high-quality education to Haitian students.

Bathélemy Bolivar has published four books of poetry: Manguiers têtus (which won the Rue-Deschambault Prize in 2006), Re-bondir, mots de terre / voices of the earth, which is bilingual, and Tempo.

 

Alice Burdick

Alice Burdick

Alice Burdick lives in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia. Born and raised in Toronto, she has also lived in Halifax, Espanola, Vancouver, and on the Sechelt Peninsula. In the early 1990s, she was co-editor of The Eternal Network, and assistant coordinator of the Toronto Small Press Fair. Her work has appeared in magazines including EVENT, Two Serious Ladies, Dig, What!, subTerrain, This Magazine, and Who Torched Rancho Diablo? She is the author of many chapbooks and three full-length poetry collections, Simple Master (Pedlar Press, 2002), Flutter (Mansfield Press, 2008), and most recently, Holler (Mansfield Press, 2012). Her work has also appeared in Shift & Switch: New Canadian Poetry (The Mercury Press), Surreal Estate: 13 Canadian Poets Under the Influence (The Mercury Press), Pissing Ice: An Anthology of ‘New’ Canadian Poets (BookThug), My Lump in the Bed: Love Poems for George W. Bush (Proper Tales Press), and Rogue Stimulus: The Stephen Harper Holiday Anthology for a Prorogued Parliament (Mansfield Press), and recently in collaborative form in Our Days in Vaudeville by Stuart Ross and 29 Collaborators (Mansfield Press).

 

Brad Cran

Brad Cran

Brad Cran served as Poet Laureate for the City of Vancouver from April of 2009 until October of 2011. He published his first book of poetry, The Good Life, in 2001, and his first book of nonfiction, Hope in Shadows: Stories and Photographs of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (with Gillian Jerome), won the City of Vancouver Book Award and has raised over $50,000 for the people of the Downtown Eastside. His second book of poems, Ink on Paper, was published in 2013, and he is currently finishing his second book of nonfiction, The Truth About Ronald Reagan: How Movies Changed the World.

 

Jon Paul Fiorentino

Jon Paul Fiorentino

Jon Paul Fiorentino’s first novel is Stripmalling, which was shortlisted for the 2009 Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction. He is the author of the poetry books Indexical Elegies, which won the 2010 CBC Book Club Award for Best Book of Poetry, The Theory of the Loser Class, which was shortlisted for the 2006 A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry, and Hello Serotonin, and the humor book Asthmatica. His most recent book of poetry is Needs Improvement, which was published in 2013 with Coach House Books. He lives in Montreal, where he teaches creative writing at Concordia University and edits Matrix magazine.

 

Ariel Gordon

Ariel Gordon

Ariel Gordon is a Winnipeg writer. Her second collection of poetry, Stowaways, will be published in May 2014 by Palimpsest Press. Most recently, her chapbook How to Make a Collage won Kalamalka Press’ inaugural John Lent Poetry-Prose Award. When not being bookish, Ariel likes tromping through the woods and taking macro photographs of mushrooms. (photo credit: Mike Deal) 

 

Jeanne Painchaud

Jeanne Painchaud

Poet, artist, creator of literary projects, and leader of writing workshops, Jeanne Painchaud (MA in literature, Université de Québec à Montréal) has spent the last 20 years fascinated by haikus and by teaching poetry to young people. Jeanne Painchaud has published one children’s book, six collections of poetry and prose, the most recent of which was published in Paris, and been a member of a score of artists’ collectives. She has led several projects using unusual ways to raise awareness about literature, including permanent and transitory exhibits, and poetry on sidewalks, among others. In 2013, Painchaud won first prize in the international stream of the haiku competition run by Mainichi Shimbun, Tokyo’s famous daily newspaper. Jeanne Painchaud has been the guest at literary events in the United States, France, Japan, and Senegal. She lives in Montreal.

 

Stuart Ross

Stuart Ross

Stuart Ross published his first literary pamphlet on the photocopier in his dad’s office one night in 1979. Through the 1980s, he stood on Toronto’s Yonge Street wearing signs like “Writer Going To Hell,” selling over 7,000 poetry and fiction chapbooks. He is a founding member of the Meet the Presses collective, and is editor at Mansfield Press. He is the author of two collaborative novels, two story collections, eight poetry books, and the novel Snowball, Dragonfly, Jew. He has also published an essay collection, Confessions of a Small Press Racketeer, and co-edited Rogue Stimulus: The Stephen Harper Holiday Anthology for a Prorogued Parliament. His most recent poetry book is Our Days in Vaudeville (Mansfield Press), collaborations with 29 other poets from across Canada. In addition to working on 11 new book projects of his own, Stuart teaches writing workshops and coaches writers one-on-one. He has worked with students in high schools in BC, Alberta, Ontario, and Quebec. Stuart lives in Cobourg, Ontario.

 

Rino Morin Rossignol

Rino Morin Rossignol

Rino Morin Rossignol is a writer from Madawaska, in northwest New Brunswick. He has published poetry collections (on the shortlist for the Governor General’s Award in 2007), a novel, essay, and plays. He has also worked as an MC, guide, translator, political advisor, public relations advisor, and editor of a daily newspaper. Today, Rino Morin Rossignol writes a column for the magazine Acadie Nouvelle. In 1998, he was named Chevalier de l’Ordre de la Pléiade by the Assemblée parlementaire de la francophonie. Rino Morin Rossignol was also awarded the New Brunswick Lieutenant-Governor’s Award for High Achievement in French Language Literary Arts.

 

 

Ian Williams

Ian Williams

Ian Williams is the author of Personals, shortlisted for the 2013 Griffin Poetry Prize and the Robert Kroetsch Poetry Book Award; Not Anyone's Anything, winner of the 2011 Danuta Gleed Literary Award for the best first collection of short fiction in Canada; and You Know Who You Are, a finalist for the ReLit Prize for poetry. He was named as one of ten Canadian writers to watch by CBC. (Photo credit: Luke Khomeriki)

 

 

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