Poetry book launch with Marita Dachsel, Dede Gaston & Jay Ruzesky

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Sunday, April 28th, 2013
4:00 PM

Join Marita Dachsel, Dede Crane, and Jay Ruzesky for a powerhouse literary event as all three celebrate the launch of their new books of poetry.

Dede Crane will be reading from her new short story collection, Every Happy Family (Coteau Books), Jay Ruzesky from his new creative non-fiction memoir, In Antarctica: An Amundsen Pilgrimage (Nightwood Editions), and Marita Dachsel from her new poetry collection, Glossolalia (Anvil Press). Admission to this event is free and all are welcome. Books will be for sale on location by the University of Victoria bookstore.

DEDE CRANE: Humorous and heartbreaking, wise and demented, the stories in Dede Crane�s collection Every Happy Family (Coteau Books) explore the colourful�and sometimes repurposed�fabric of the Wright family as they crash along, unable to give up on themselves or each other�hard as they might try.

Victoria author Dede Crane is the author of the short story collection Cult of Disrepair and the nationally acclaimed novel Sympathy, both finalists for the Victoria Butler Book Prize, as well as the teen novels, The 25 Pains of Kennedy Baines and Poster Boy, finalist for the Bolen Book Prize and Canadian Library Association Award. She has also co-edited along with Lisa Moore, a collection of essays on birth called Great Expectations.

JAY RUZESKY: Jay Ruzesky�s memoir, In Antarctica: An Amundsen Pilgrimage (Nightwood Editions) is the story of two men: Ruzesky�s ancestor Roald Amundsen, who in December 1911 became the first person to set foot on the South Pole; and Ruzesky himself, who in December, 2011 followed in the footsteps of Amundsen when he booked passage on the Polar Pioneer, bound for Antarctica. Ruzesky interweaves these two fascinating quests to a place that has captured the imagination of the world for centuries�a place of snow, ice and dreams.

Jay Ruzesky is a professor at Vancouver Island University, an editor at The Malahat Review, and the co-founder of Outlaw Editions. He is the author of three poetry collections, including Blue Himalayan Poppies, and his first novel, The Wolsenburg Clock, was shortlisted for the City of Victoria Butler Book Prize and a ReLit Award.

MARITA DACHSEL: Marita Dachsel�s poetry collection Glossolalia (Anvil Press) is an unflinching exploration of sisterhood, motherhood, and sexuality as told in a series of poetic monologues spoken by the thirty-four polygamous wives of Joseph Smith, founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It�s an extraordinary, often funny, and deeply human examination of what it means to be a wife and a woman through the lens of religious and history.

Marita Dachsel is also the author of All Things Said & Done (Caitlin Press). Her poetry has been shortlisted for the Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry, the ReLit Prize, and has appeared in many literary journals.