Sarah Lang

Sarah Lang was born on a Saturday the winter of 1980, in Northwestern Canada. In the spring of 2004, she completed her MFA at Brown University. She began work on her PhD in Chicago in the fall of 2005. Her work, which includes poetry, prose, personal, critical and medical essays, has been published in Canada, Great Britain, and the United States. She has translated work from Latin, Ancient Greek, French, Ukrainian, Japanese, and Mandarin. This is her first book. She now lives in, and writes of, airports. She intends to orbit the earth before her projected death in 2056.

On Sarah Lang's first book, The Work of Days: "The Work of Days is an extended meditation on life's quotidian labours, on the intricacies of communication, on the moments and gaps between action and reaction. It refracts language through the vocabularies of the institution, the occult and The Farmer's Almanac and conjures, through Sarah Lang's commanding poetic voice, sinuous rhythms and captivating juxtapositions. In the end, Lang's linguistic pillagings accrete into a poignant shadow under the letters of her own words, pulling them into a stark and alluring focus. Lang has given us a constellation of poems as delicate and relentless as pure light."

Elizabeth Phillips

Elizabeth Philips is the award-winning author of four collections of poetry, most recently Torch River, published by Brick Books. That new title is described as "A book of deceptively quiet lyrics, ...half love song, half funeral dirge, with a measure of travelling tune thrown in." Elizabeth lives in Saskatoon and is a former editor of the long-time literary magazine, Grain. Two of her previous books, A Blue with Blood in it and Beyond my Keeping, both received the Saskatchewan Poetry Award. She has edited numerous poetry collections and has taught creative writing in the Banff Wired Studio, the Banff Writing with Style program, and the Sage Hill Writing Experience.

Heather Haley

Poet, singer, performer, publisher and media artist, Heather Haley is architect of the Edgewise ElectroLit Centre and the Vancouver Videopoem Festival. She is also curator and host of SEE THE VOICE: Visible Verse - an annual Vancouver event known throughout North America for the presentation of new and artistically significant poetry video and film. Her own work has been published in numerous journals and e-zines. Anvil Press published a book of verse, Sideways, in 2003. Surfing Season, an audio CD of song and spoken word, was released in 2004. Her video poem Purple Lipstick, has garnered international kudos and was selected for screening at international VideoPoetry festivals in Argentina and Berlin.

Richard Stevenson

Richard Stevenson has read to enthusiastic audiences across the country and is the author of 22 full-length books and 7 chapbooks, including, most recently, A Murder of Crows: New & Selected Poems; Live Evil: Homage To Miles Davis, Nothing Definite Yeti (YA verse), and Hot Flashes: Maiduguri Haiku, Senryu, and Tanka. Richard also performs with the young adult rock/ poetry group Sasquatch and the adult jazz/poetry ensemble Naked Ear, which recently recorded a CD, See 4/4 Miles. He regularly reviews poetry and fiction, and periodically runs adult and young adult workshops. He holds degrees in English and Creative Writing from The University of Victoria and University of British Columbia and teaches Canadian Literature, Creative Writing, and Business Communication at Lethbridge College in southern Alberta.

Jack McCarthy

Jack McCarthy calls himself a "standup poetry guy." Others have called him "legend." Poet Stephen Dobyns says he's "one of the wonders of contempo-rary poetry." He's an engaging minor character in the film "Slamnation." He's been in jail, but he can explain. His work appears in The Spoken Word Revolution, The Spoken Word Revolution Redux, Poetry Slam, and Complete Idiot's Guide to Slam Poetry and numerous small magazines. High school and college students nationally perform his work in competition. His most recent book, from EM Press, is called Say Goodnight, Grace Notes. His website is www.standupoet.net. He now lives in the state of Washington.

Tippy Agogo

TIPPY AGOGO, the "One Man Orchestra" and Mouth Musician, is known throughout the free world for making beautiful, scary, heavy, and insightful music on reclaimed tin cans, broken guitars, and racks full of technological gadgetry. He performs for children, punk rockers, folkies, metal heads, high brows, low brows, and all those in-between! TIPPY has performed on albums with artists as diverse as Sarah McLachlan, SNFU, German Techno/Industrial Bands, Sun God, Aurora Sutra, and a host of other famous people. He tours constantly. He wins awards for his soundtracks for film and theatre projects. He makes his mother proud. TIPPY has three albums, SOUL-O-WORKS, INCANTOS, and HOLY CROW, and an instructional book & CD, "in the groove". TIP has also been compiling recordings for an upcoming CD entitled SEGWAYS (Soul-O-Works II) from his sound design for theatre, film, and multi-media. Some of this work will include tracks from his award-winning "Lion in the Streets" and "The Oedipus Project", as well as live and studio recordings from his travels at home and abroad.

rob mclennan

rob mclennan lives in Ottawa, even though he was born there. The author of thirteen trade poetry collections, he has a novel, a collection of literary essays and a non-fiction travel book about Ottawa out this fall, and is spending the 2007-2008 academic year as writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta. He posts regular reviews, essays and interviews at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com.

The Raving Poets Band

The Raving Poets is a strange ongoing consummation of musicians, poets, visual artists. The Raving Poets gather weekly in a bar (during their seasons) and combine poetry/performance poetry with improvised music, and of course copious amounts of Stella Artois. The result is usually blissful for all involved. Now in their seventh year of shaking up the Edmonton poetry scene, this group of brilliant artists can be found on line at www.ravingpoets.com and ripping the face off the internet with some seriously GREAT podCasts at www.liveatthekasbar.com. They have produced video poems, been featured several times on CityTV's HelpTV - they've been featured on BookTV's Three-day Novel Contest Series, and were featured in a one-hour documentary on BookTV. They kick at the darkness until it bleeds daylight (Thanks Bruce). If you get a chance to see/feel/taste/experience the Raving Poets, do it!!!