61 Polyphony

Farzana Doctor Ontario	Pauline Holdstock British Columbia	Thomas Pletzinger Germany
Steven Price* British Columbia	Antanas Sileika Ontario	Michael V. Smith British Columbia
Timothy Taylor British Columbia

Farzana Doctor, Ontario

Farzana Doctor’s first novel, Stealing Nasreen, received critical acclaim and was nominated for Masala! Mehndi! Masti! People’s Choice Award. Doctor was recently awarded the Dayne Ogilvie Grant, awarded by the Writers’ Trust to an emerging gay or lesbian writer. She has also written on social work and diversity-related topics, and in her spare time she provides private practice consulting and psychotherapy services. She lives in Toronto. Her new novel is Six Metres of Pavement. Read more

Pauline Holdstock, British Columbia

Pauline Holdstock’s novel Beyond Measure was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (Caribbean and Canada region) and the City of Victoria Butler Book Prize, and it won the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. Holdstock’s other novels include The Blackbird’s Song, which was nominated for the Books in Canada First Novel Award, The Turning and The Burial Ground. She lives on Vancouver Island. Her new novel is Into the Heart of the Country. Read more

Thomas Pletzinger, Germany

Thomas Pletzinger was born in 1975 in Münster, Germany. His critically acclaimed debut novel, Bestattung eines Hundes (Funeral for a Dog), has recently been translated into English. Pletzinger has received various literary awards and fellowships, including the 2009 Uwe-Johnson-Förderpreis. Read more

Steven Price*, British Columbia

Steven Price’s first collection of poems, Anatomy of Keys, was shortlisted for the Dorothy Livesay Award for Poetry, won the 2007 Gerald Lampert Award and was named a Globe and Mail Book of the Year. His work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies and has been translated into Hungarian, German and French. His debut novel, Into That Darkness, opens at the moment when a massive earthquake devastates the West Coast. Read more

* We regret that Steven Price will not be appearing at event 6. And Introducing....

Antanas Sileika, Ontario

Antanas Sileika is the author of two novels and one collection of linked short stories, Buying on Time, which was nominated for both the City of Toronto Book Award and the Stephen Leacock Award for Humour. His last novel, Woman in Bronze, was a Globe and Mail Best Book selection. He lives in Toronto, where he is the artistic director for the Humber School for Writers. His new novel, Underground, is set in Lithuania’s resistance movement in the 1940s. Read more

Michael V. Smith, British Columbia

Michael V. Smith is an assistant professor at ubc, where he teaches creative writing. His first novel, Cumberland, was shortlisted for the Amazon.ca / Books in Canada First Novel Award. His short fiction has won the Western Magazine Gold Award for Fiction and been nominated for the Journey Prize. In 2007, Smith received the Dayne Ogilvie Award for Emerging Gay Writers and Vancouver’s Community Hero of the Year Award. A native of Cornwall, Ontario, Smith currently lives in Kelowna, BC. Michael’s new novel is Progress. Read more

Timothy Taylor, British Columbia

Timothy Taylor’s first two novels, Stanley Park and Story House, have both been critical and commercial successes. He has also published a prize-winning collection of short fiction, Silent Cruise. He is the winner of the Writers’ Trust of Canada/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize and has been finalist or runner-up for six other major national fiction prizes in Canada, including the prestigious Scotiabank Giller Prize. He has also been widely published and recognized for his non-fiction magazine and newspaper work. Read more

Host: Paul Grant
Saturday, October 22, 2011 - 8:00pm
Waterfront Theatre
$19

Settle back this evening to hear six fine writers read from their new works. There’s more than enough in store to get you fired up on some riveting fiction by authors whose books may not have made it into your hands yet. Let these voices transport you from Hamburg to Brazil, Manitoba to Lithuania. Get swept up with the resistance movement against the Soviet bloc or the heart-wrenching mistake that changes one man’s life in a morning. Experience hostage-takings and earthquakes from the safety of your seats. In other words, let tonight’s authors take you to places you may never have been, feel things you’ve never felt and come out changed.

Tickets are still available and can be purchased at the door 45 minutes before the event begins.

61 Polyphony

2011 Festival