SINGLE ONION #151
WHAT: The Single Onion winds up its season with five great poets: Scott Alderson, Thea Bowering, Aaron Giovannone, Vivian Hansen, and Alan Leangvan.
WHEN: Thursday, June 21, at 7:00 p.m.
WHERE: Shelf Life Books, 100 – 1302 4th St. SW (shelflifebooks.ca)
About the Poets:
Scott Alderson began his writing career in 1983, and he started publishing chapbooks and full-size collections of his poetry in 1994. He founded Three Small White Mice Publications and continues under that banner. He has eight books in print in the National Library of Canada. With numerous readings and participation in events throughout Alberta, Scott has a distinctive voice in the Calgary literary community. His latest publication is Imaginative Spasms, seven books in one (3 chapbooks and 4 full-size collections plus new pieces, 365 pages).
Thea Bowering’s first short-story collection, Love at Last Sight (NeWest Press, 2013), was long-listed for The Alberta Readers’ Choice award, and won the Alberta Book Publishing Award for Trade Fiction Book of the Year, 2014. Her essays and stories have appeared in literary journals including The Capilano Review, Dandelion, TESSERA and Matrix. Years back, her poems were included in the anthology Breathing Fire, edited by Lorna Crozier and Patrick Lane. Thea lives in Edmonton where she has works as a bartender, Film Studies and Creative Writing instructor, editor, free-lance writer and reviewer. She is co-host of WORD, a long-form interview show on CJSR about writers and books, and is a member of The Olive Reading Series. She is working on a hybrid novel that delves into Canadian literary scene of the ‘60s.
Aaron Giovannone’s poems have been published widely in journals across Canada and the US, and his nonfiction has appeared or is forthcoming in The Walrus, Brick, and Vice. Originally from St. Catharines, Ontario, Aaron has a Ph.D. in English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Calgary and has lived in Italy, including a year as a visiting scholar at the University of Siena. He is the author of a previous collection of poetry titled The Loneliness Machine. Aaron splits his time between Calgary and the Okanagan Valley, where he teaches literature and writing at Okanagan College. His latest collection is The Nonnets (BookThug, 2018). Capturing transformations from first dates to goodbye texts, from mama’s boy to unrepentant shoplifter, from post-industrial downtown to eleventh-century Italian monastery, the poems in The Nonnets present a kaleidoscopic world that careens wildly between despair and ecstasy.
Vivian Hansen has published in the genres of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. A Bitter Mood of Clouds was published by Frontenac House in 2013, a long poem that tells the story of Arne Petersen, who received gender reassignment in Denmark in 1953. Earlier work includes Angel Alley: the Victims of Jack the Ripper and Never Call it Bird: the Melodies of AIDS (Passwords Enterprises), and Leylines of My Flesh (Touchwood 2002), which chronicles the immigration experience of Danish Canadians. Vivian teaches creative writing at Mount Royal University and the University of Calgary, as well as at the Alexandra Writers Centre. Her latest collection of poetry is called A Tincture of Sunlight (Frontenac House, 2017). This collection of poetry honours the small stories about Old Man, who has lived a real life as an uncommon character. His life and its diverse tales are sensate, enticing the reader into Old Man’s individual and mythical being.
Born and raised in London, Ontario, Alan Leangvan has been writing since 2002; he wrote his first poem in 7th grade. Over a decade later he decided to dive into the world of spoken word and it’s been a wild ride ever since. Alan was the 2015-16 Grand Slam Champion of London, Ontario, and has had the honour of competing at CIPS and CFSW both twice each. Alan has no defined genre or style, nor does he want one. He considers himself not just a poet but a performer, entertainer, and overall strange human that people enjoy listening to for some reason.
Single Onion usually happens the third Thursday of the month, nine times a year. Our event schedule can always be found at: http://www.singleonion.com.
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We gratefully acknowledge the support of The Canada Council for the Arts, The League of Canadian Poets and the Calgary Arts Development
