TORONTO, September 7, 2001 --  York University students and the public will be treated to readings and musings by 12 Canadian writers, including Booker Prize nominee Jane Urquhart and award-winning author David Adams Richards, during York's Canadian Writers in Person series, which runs from September 2001 through March 2002.

Part of York Professor John Unrau's innovative first-year English course, the series will introduce students and avid readers to some of the best contemporary Canadian fiction and poetry, and give them a unique opportunity to quiz the authors who pen the very works they are studying.

"Hearing some of Canada's finest authors read from their work adds a dimension to the literary experience that is unavailable from the printed word alone," says Unrau.

Now in its third year, the series is sponsored by the Master's office and student association of York's Atkinson Faculty of Liberal and Professional Studies, with the support of the Canada Council, and a dozen other benefactors. The following public readings will be held Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. in Stedman Lecture Hall "D" at York University, 4700 Keele Street:

•Roo Borson reading: Night Walk: Selected Poems (Oxford, 1994), September 20
Often anthologized, Roo Borson has gained popularity not only in Canada but in the United States. Borson's Night Walk: Selected Poems was nominated for the Governor General's Award for poetry in 1994. She is part of the collaborative performance poetry ensemble Pain Not Bread.

•Cecil Foster reading: Slammin' Tar (Random House, 1998), October 11
Barbados native Cecil Foster emigrated to Canada in 1978, and has become one of the country's most important writers and journalists. Besides publishing four novels, he has worked for CTV, The Globe and Mail, The Financial Post and CBC Radio and Television. He is host, writer and producer of a documentary series on multiculturalism that will air this fall on CBC Radio.

•David Adams Richards reading: Mercy Among the Children (Doubleday, 2000), October 25
One of Canada’s most distinctive writers, David Adams Richards has won Governor General’s Awards for his compelling fly-fishing memoir Lines on the Water (Doubleday, 1998) and his novel Nights Below Station Street (1988), making him one of only three Canadians to win for both fiction and non-fiction. He is also the co-winner of the 2000 Giller Prize for his latest work, Mercy Among the Children.

•Robyn Sarah reading: Promise of She1ter (Porcupine's Quill, 1997), November 8
Considered one of Canada's finest poets, Robyn Sarah is the author of five poetry collections, including Promise of Shelter, which was shortlisted for the Hugh MacLennan Prize. One of the stories in the book, "Accept My Story", won a National Magazine Award and was shortlisted in Best American Short Stories 1994.

•George Szanto reading: The Condesa of M. (Cormorant/Stoddart, 2001), November 22
Renowned playwright and literary critic, George Szanto received the Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction in 1995 for his novel Friends and Marriages (Vehicule, 1994). Szanto was educated at Dartmouth College, the Goethe Universität, Frankfurt and Harvard University (Woodrow Wilson Fellow) where he received his PhD in comparative literature in 1967. He has been a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada since 1988.

• Jan Zwicky reading: Songs for Relinquishing the Earth (Brick, 1998), December 6
A professor of philosophy at the University of Victoria, Jan Zwicky has published several books of poetry including Wittgenstein Elegies (Brick, 1996). Songs for Relinquishing the Earth (Brick, 1998) received the Governor General's Award for Poetry in 1999.

•Ron Charach reading: Dungenessque (Vehicule Press, 2001), January 3
Renowned throughout North America and the United Kingdom for poems on medical themes, Ron Charach, a child psychiatrist in Toronto, has published six volumes of poetry. His work is featured in the anthology of physicians' poetry Blood and Bone (University of Iowa Press, 1997). He also writes a column on poetry for The Medical Post.

•Jane Urquhart reading: The Stone Carvers (McClelland and Stewart, 2001), January 17
Bestselling author Jane Urquhart's novel, Away (McClelland and Stewart, 1993), remained on Globe and Mail's National Bestseller list for 132 weeks (the longest of any Canadian book) and was shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. She was named to France's Order of Arts and Letters as a Chevalier in 1996, and won the 1997 Governor General's Award for her novel The Underpainter (Viking, 1997). The Stone Carvers has been nominated for this year's Booker Prize.

•Kathleen McCracken reading: A Geography of Souls (Thistledown Press, 2001), January 31
Kathleen McCracken published her first book of poetry Reflections (Fiddlehead, 1978) at age 16. She holds BA and MA degrees in English from York University and a PhD from the University of Toronto. Her work Blue Light, Bay and College (Penumbra Press, 1991) was shortlisted for the Governor General's Award for Poetry in 1992. She is currently a professor at the University of Ulster at Jordanstown.

•Patricia Keeney reading: The Selected Poems of Patricia Keeney (Oberon, 1996), 
February 21
One of three Canadian writers sent to Mexico in 1995 under a NAFTA cultural exchange program, Patricia Keeney is the author of six books of poetry including The Book of Joan (Oberon, 1994) and Global Warnings (Oberon, 1999). Keeney's Selected Poems have been translated and published into French, Spanish, Chinese and Hindi. She teaches creative writing, English and humanities at York University.

•George Murray reading: The Cottage Builder's Letter (McClelland and Stewart, 2001), 
March 7
George Murray's poetry and non-fiction have appeared in numerous publications across North America, including The Antigonish Review, Fiddlehead, The Globe and Mail, and Saturday Night. He was Poetry Editor of The Literary Review of Canada and is a contributing editor to www.thedrunkenboat.com, an American electronic literary journal.

•Steven Hayward reading: Buddha Stevens and Other Stories (Exile Editions, 2000), March 21
Steven Hayward's first collection of short stories Buddha Stevens and Other Stories was recently awarded the $10,000 Upper Canada Writer's Craft Stories Award for the best short fiction collection in Ontario. Hayward has just completed his PhD at York University in English.

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For more information, please contact:

Prof. John Unrau
Atkinson Faculty of Liberal and Professional Studies
York University
416-736-2100, ext. 33893
junrau@yorku.ca

Ken Turriff
Media Relations
York University
416-736-2100, ext. 22086
kturriff@yorku.ca
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