Ottawa's Plan 99 Reading Series, End of Winter Schedule

Ottawa's renowned Plan 99 Reading Series announces its End of Winter Schedule 2007

In April of 2001, Peter Schneider of the Ottawa Xpress wrote that the Plan 99 Reading Series had "established itself as the local gold standard.In a few years, it's likely members of the literary set will be bragging of being present at the Manx when a celebrated author took the microphone."

Now in its seventh year, the Plan 99 Reading series continues to bring the best of Canadian writing to the Manx Pub. Our alumni readers have won or been shortlisted for Giller Awards, Governor General Awards, Griffin Poetry Prizes, Trillium Awards, Atlantic Poetry Awards and many others, but awards or not, the Plan 99 Series prides itself on choosing the best writers across the country.

Located in the cozy Manx Pub, well-known for its connection and sponsorship to culture and arts (not to mention its great food and single-malt scotch list), the Plan 99 series is pleased to announce its End of Winter line-up of five great readings. This series is especially exciting as we will be hosting the book launches of three local authors.

*Sunday, March 18th: Roy Miki
Saturday, April 14th: Book Launch-Shane Rhodes and Steven Ross Smith
Saturday, April 28th: Book Launch-Ian Roy
Saturday, May 12th: Mark Frutkin
Saturday, May 26th: Book Launch-Joanne Proulx

All readings take place at the Manx Pub (370 Elgin St; 613-231-2070) on Saturdays (*note exception) at 5:00 pm. Seating is not guaranteed. Sponsored by the Canada Council for the Arts, Alexander Keiths Pale Ale, and the Manx Pub.

Readers' Biographies:

Roy Miki is a poet and critic, and the editor of West Coast Line. His books include Surrender (winner of the 2002 Governor General's Literary Award for Poetry), Broken Entries: Race, Writing, Subjectivity (Mercury), Random Access File (Red Deer College Press), Saving Face: Poems Selected 1976-1988 (Turnstone) and Justice in Our Time: The Japanese Canadian Redress Settlement (with Cassandra Kobayashi; Talonbooks). Miki lives in Vancouver, B.C., and teaches at Simon Fraser University. There, the follow-up to the award-winning Surrender, extends Miki's exploration of the margins joining social and individual language.

Shane Rhodes is the author of The Wireless Room, which won the Alberta Book Award for poetry, and Holding Pattern, which won the Archibald Lampman Award. He has published chapbooks, poetry, reviews, articles, and essays in magazines, anthologies, and newspapers across Canada. He has also worked as an editor with filling Station, The Fiddlehead, and Qwerty. His third poetry collection is The Bindery. Rhodes lives in Ottawa. An interview with Rhodes appears in the third issue of ottawater.

Steven Ross Smith was born in Toronto and raised in the Parkdale neighbourhood of Toronto. Smith's previous books of poetry include blind zone, Transient Light, Sleepwalkers, which was co-authored by Richard Truhlar, and Reading My Father's Book. Smith has also published fiction and non-fiction, and has written for many periodicals and anthologies. In addition to this, Smith creates, records, and performs sound poetry. This is the fourth book in Smith's fluttertongue series. He currently lives in Saskatoon, SK.

Ian Roy was born in the province of Quebec in 1972. His last book, People Leaving, was short-listed for both the Upper Canada Writers' Craft Award and the City of Ottawa Book Award. Red Bird is Ian's third book. Ian currently lives in the province of Ontario.

Mark Frutkin has published seven books of fiction and three books of poetry, including Atmospheres Apollinaire (shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award (fiction) and Trillium Book Award), Iron Mountain, and Fabrizio's Return (recently shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book ). His work has appeared in Canada, the U.S., England, Russia, Poland, Holland and India. He has written on art and books for The Globe and Mail, Amazon.ca, Harper's, The Ottawa Citizen, and others. His poetry and fiction have been published in numerous Canadian and foreign journals. He lives in Ottawa with his wife and son.

Joanne Proulx, a graduate of Humber College's creative writing mentorship program, has had short stories published in literary journals on both sides of the Atlantic, including Exile: The Literary Quarterly, and Upstairs at Duroc, a literary magazine out of Paris. Her debut novel, Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet, will be published by Penguin Canada in May 2007, and by Picador (UK) and Soho Press (USA) in early 2008. Joanne currently lives in Ottawa, Ontario.

For more information on the series, email Chris Swail at chrisswail@rogers.com