Morris House Reading Series 2011-2012

Tess Fragoulis has been published in numerous literary journals including Canadian Fiction Magazine, Grain, and Blood & Aphorisms. Her first book, Stories to Hide from Your Mother (1997), was nominated for the QSPELL First Book Award in 1998. It was later adapted into the television series, Bliss. Ariadne’s Dream, Fragoulis’ second novel, was published in 2001 and was longlisted for the IMPAC International Dublin Literary Prize. Tess Fragoulis is the editor for Musings: An Anthology of Greek-Canadian Literature, which was published in 2004. The Goodtime Girl, Tess Fragoulis’ third book, is scheduled to hit stores in 2012.

Poster (PDF)

Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm is a poet, writer, publisher, librettist, activist, and Indigenous arts advocate. Her writing has been published in numerous anthologies, journals, and magazines in Canada and around the world. She has also released the poetry collection My Heart is a Stray Bullet, and two poetry and music cds: Standing Ground and A Constellation of Bones. With Maori hip hop artist and producer Te Kupu, she produced A Constellation of Bones, which was nominated for a 2008 Canadian Aboriginal Music Award. She is the editor for Without Reservation: Indigenous Erotica and the award-winning book, Skins: Contemporary Indigenous Writing.

Akiwenzie-Damm also established the Indigenous performing arts production company, NiSHin Productions, in 1999. In 2000, NiSHin co-produced the Canadian tour for acclaimed Maori writer Briar Grace-Smith’s play, Purapurawhetu.

She lives and works at Neyaashiinigmiing, Cape Croker Reserve, on the Saugeen Peninsula in south-western Ontario.

Anne Michaels is the celebrated author of Fugitive Pieces, which was published in 1996. Fugitive Pieces follows the story of Jakob Beer and his journey from Poland, through Greece, to Canada as he comes to terms with what happened to him and his family during the Holocaust. Her novel, which was made into a motion picture in 2007, has earned her numerous prizes, including the Trillium Prize, the Chapters/Books in Canada First Novel Award, The Beatrice and Martin Fischer Award, and the Orange Prize. Michaels has also published several collections of poetry. Her first collection, The Weight of Oranges (1986), won the Commonwealth Prize for the Americas. Her second collection, Miner’s Pond (1991), won the Canadian Authors Association Award, and was shortlisted for the Governor General's Award and the Trillium Award. Anne Michaels’ latest novel, The Winter Vault, was published in 2009.

Photo credit: Marzena Pogorzaly

Born in Montreal, Jeffrey Moore was educated at the University of Toronto, the Sorbonne (Paris) and the University of Ottawa. His award-winning novels, published in some 20 countries, include Prisoner in a Red-Rose Chain, which won the Commonwealth Writers Prize and contended for the QSPELL Award, and The Memory Artists, which won the Canadian Authors Association Award and was shortlisted for four other prizes. Both novels have been optioned for film. His most recent work, The Extinction Club, was nominated for the Hugh MacLennan Prize, the Arthur Ellis Award, and the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Jeff also translates for museums, theatres, dance companies and film festivals in Quebec and around the world. He lives in Val Morin in the Laurentians.

Jeramy Dodds grew up in Orono, Ontario, Canada, and received his BA from Trent University in English Literature and Anthropology, and an MA from the University of Iceland in Medieval Icelandic Studies. His poems have been translated into Latvian, Hungarian, Finnish, French, Swedish, Icelandic and German. He is the winner of the 2006 Bronwen Wallace Memorial Award and the 2007 CBC Literary Award for poetry. His first collection of poems, Crabwise to the Hounds (Coach House Books, 2008), was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize, the Gerald Lampert Award, and won the Trillium Book Award for poetry. He currently lives in Calgary, Alberta, where he is the Canadian Writer-in-Residence at the University of Calgary.

John Moss has moved from being a critic to literary writing to writing mysteries. He thinks of this as a process of maturation. Reluctant Dead, the third in the Quin and Morgan series came out in the spring of 2011, following Still Waters (2008), and Grave Doubts (2009). He is also working on a mystery series featuring a former philosopher, Harry Lindstrom, and his dead wife, Karen Malone. John is a Fellow of the Royal Society, a Professor Emeritus of literature, and a scuba diving instructor.