Mari-Lou Rowley

Mari-Lou Rowley has published seven collections of poetry, most recently Suicide Psalms (Anvil Press 2008), which was nominated for best poetry in the 2008 Sask Book Awards, and CosmoSonnets (JackPine Press 2007). Her work has appeared in journals and anthologies in Canada and the US—and on the Canadian Association of Physicists website. Rowley has performed her poetry across the continent, from Harbourfront to Seattle, and in Europe, where participated in the Poetic Ecologies conference in Brussels in May 2008. Rowley has a Master’s of Liberal Studies degree from Simon Fraser University. Her work as a science writer has informed much of her poetry, and her poetry and readings have been followed by scientists—most recently in articles in UBC’s Physics and Astronomy newsletter and on TRIUMF’s webpage. Rowley lives with two cats in a bluebell house by the South Saskatchewan river in Saskatoon.

Trevor Herriot

Trevor Herriot is the author of River in a Dry Land: a Prairie Passage (McClelland & Stewart, 2000), which won the Canadian Booksellers Association Libris Award for Best First Book, as well as the Writer’s Trust Drainie-Taylor Biography Prize, and was short-listed for a Governor’s General Award. His second book, Jacob’s Wound: a Search for the Spirit of Wildness (M&S, 2004), was short-listed for the Writer’s Trust Award for Non-Fiction.

His new book is Grass, Sky, Song: Promise and Peril in the World of Grassland Birds (HarperCollins, February, 2009).

His writing has appeared in the Globe & Mail, Canadian Geographic, Nature Canada, and several anthologies. He has written two radio documentaries for CBC Ideas and is a monthly guest on CBC Radio Saskatchewan’s Blue Sky.

Also joining us will be some emeringing talent from Regina.

AEGEAN COFFEE HOUSE
1967 12TH AVE
REGINA, SK

7-9 PM

The Vertigo Reading Series is a platform for emerging and established writers in any genre to share their work with an audience and sell their books at the Aegean Coast Coffee and Tea [which is also licensed for beer and wine] 1901 Hamilton Street in sunny Regina, Saskatchewan.  It takes place once or twice a month with the exception of July and August, generally with four readers per event.

The administrator of the Vertigo Reading Series as of April 2010 is Kris Brandhagen.

Please contact Kris if you are a writer looking to perform.  You can do this by leaving a comment on this blog, or by befriending her on Facebook.

photo:  Kris Brandhagen

Bio

The story of Kris Brandhagen began with adulthood, with the discovery of self as writer.  She used the University rag as a vehicle for her first publications in 2001, and the story goes on from there to publish in Spring Magazine, In Medias Res, Transverse Journal, Carousel, Ramble Underground, Cahoots, Poetry Reviews, Contemporary Verse 2, and Regina Fine Lifestyles Magazine.

As far as education goes, Kris completed a BA in English literature and Visual Arts from the University of sunny Regina in 2004.  She then did a little housekeeping in Canmore, Alberta before heading off to Seoul, South Korea in 2004 to splash her feet in cultural waters and teach English as a Second Language.

Running parallel to the story of Kris as a writer, there is the story of Kris as a photographer.  What brought her back to Canada in 2005 was the Commercial Photography program at Dawson College in Montreal, where she spent two years being squeezed like a lemon.  Regina was happy to have her back in 2007.  She did a little of this and a little of that.

In 2008 she applied for and received a grant from the Saskatchewan Arts Board to work on her book-length manuscript of poems, Jennifer.  Kris is currently hard at work on her second manuscript as well as several visual and interdisciplinary projects.

The Vertigo Reading Series was created in April 2009 by Tracy Hamon.

photo:  Kris Brandhagen

Bio

Tracy Hamon was born in Regina, SK and grew up traveling between Regina and her parents’ farm near Edenwold, Saskatchewan. She holds a BA Hon and is finishing a MA in English with a creative option at the U of R in the fall of 2009. She is a mother, works part time as a barber/stylist, and is the Program Officer for the Saskatchewan Writers Guild.

Most recently, she started a reading series in Regina called the Vertigo Reading Series. Her poetry has appeared in numerous Canadian literary magazines including Grain, Wascana Review, A Room of One’s Own, sub-TERRAIN, and Event as well as numerous anthologies. Recently her manuscript of poetry on Egon Schiele was short- listed for the 2007 CBC Literary Awards.

Her first book of poetry This Is Not Eden was released in April 2005 and was a finalist for two Saskatchewan Book Awards. Portions of her recent collection won the City of Regina Award in 2005. She currently lives in Regina, Saskatchewan.

The Vertigo Reading Series is funded the Sask Arts, Thanks!