“This is a powerful, essential, book that should be read by all, to understand the unofficial truth of a war in any country where ‘the Watchtowers lying awake / on the face of the sea / do not rest.'”
—Michael Ondaatje

KFB [EXTENDED] WEEKEND 

JUNE 15TH  4 J’s  JIMMY MCINNES | JAMES LINDSAY | JOHN NYMAN | JIM JOHNSTONE

JUNE 16TH  MAWENZI HOUSE LAUNCH AHILAN  THEN THERE WERE NO WITNESSES bilingual reading Tamil/English with book translator GEETHA SUKUMARAN | ARCHNA SAHNI ANOTHER NIRVANA

JUNE 17TH  KFB OAKVILLE  KIRBY | STANLEY FEFFERMAN | OAKVILLE LITERARY CAFE | JOSHUA CREEK ART CENTRE GALLERY 4PM

JUNE 18TH  KFB WHITBY ROXANNA BENNETT UNSEEN GARDEN | KIRBY SHE’S HAVING A DORIS DAY | WHITBY PUBLIC LIBRARY CENTRAL BRANCH 7PM

knife | fork | book
at The Dark Side Studio | 244 Augusta Avenue | 2nd Floor | Kensington Market | Toronto

Doors 6:30 Poetry 7

Access: We are a second floor walk-up with two all-gender washrooms. Please remove your shoes upon entrance.

Packiyanathan AHILAN was born in 1970 during a troubled period in Sri Lanka. His greatest influences are the Russian modernist Anna Akmatova, the Kirghiz writer Chingiz Aitmatov and the Indian Tamil poet Sukumaran. He lives in Sri Lanka.

ARCHNA SAHNI was born in India and made Toronto her home in 1992. Her debut collection of poems, First Fire, was highly praised. She is the recipient of the Agha Shahid Ali Prize and received Honourable Mention for the E J Pratt Poetry Prize. She holds an MEd and PhD in English.

JIMMY McINNES was born and raised on Ontario’s Bruce Peninsula. His first chapbook,Begin Speech With, was released by Ferno House in the fall of 2013. His poetry has appeared in various journals, including This Magazine, ditch, The Puritan, Descant, and the Capilano Review Web Folio. His work has been shortlisted for the Great Canadian Literary Hunt and the Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry. He lives in Toronto, where he completed his MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Guelph, and is currently employed as a political hack. A More Perfect [ is his first book-length work of poetry. Connect with him on Twitter @JimmyMcInnes.

JIM JOHNSTONE is a Canadian poet, editor, and critic. He’s the author of five books of poetry, including The Chemical Life(Véhicule Press, 2017), Dog Ear (Véhicule Press, 2014), Patternicity(Nightwood Editions, 2010), and editor of The Next Wave: An Anthology of 21st Century Canadian Poetry (Anstruther Press, 2018). He’s also the recipient of a CBC Literary Award, The Fiddlehead’s Ralph Gustafson Poetry Prize, Matrix Magazine’s LitPop Award and Poetry‘s Editors Prize for Book Reviewing. Johnstone is currently the poetry editor at Palimpsest Press, and an associate editor at Representative Poetry Online. He lives in Toronto.

JOHN NYMAN writes and performs poetries ranging from traditional verse to visual and conceptual forms, as well as short fiction, reviews, and critical writing on literature and the arts. Originally from North York, he lives in Toronto and is completing a PhD in Theory and Criticism at Western University. He has served as Associate Editor of Hamilton Arts & Letters, Senior Fiction Editor of Existere, and Arts Editor of Excalibur, York University’s community newspaper, and writes and workshops with the Guelph-based &, experimental poetry collective. John holds a BA in English and Creative Writing from York University and an MA in Cultural Studies and Critical Theory from McMaster University. John’s first full-length collection of poetry, Players, was shortlisted for the League of Canadian Poets 2017 Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. His work has been published in a variety of Canadian and international print and online journals, magazines, and anthologies (many of which are listed on the CV / Publications page), and he has performed at numerous reading series in Southern Ontario and elsewhere. He also designs innovative chapbooks, artist’s books, and digital editions featuring visual and conceptual poetry; selections from these are featured regularly on his Instagram.

JAMES LINDSAY is the author of the poetry collection Our Inland Sea (Wolsak & Wynn, 2015) and the chapbook, Ekphrasis! Ekphrasis! (Anstruther Press, 2018). He is the founder of Pleasence Records, a Toronto-based record label and interviews poets about poetry for Open Book.

ROXANNA BENNETT is a disabled poet and the author of The Uncertainty Principle  (Tightrope Books, 2014) and Unseen Garden (knife | fork | book, 2018). Her work has appeared in Bitch Magazine, Slice Magazine, The Dalhousie Review, Existere, Arc, Vallum, CV2, Cosmonauts Avenue, Qwerty, carte blanche, and many other publications. She lives in Ontario, Canada.

Jeff KIRBY Poet. Owner/publisher knife | fork | book. EARLIER Simple Enough. Cock & Soul. Bob’s boy. The world is fucked and sometimes beautiful. A Cocksucker’s Prayer (bandcamp). RECENT  She’s Having a Doris Day (knife | fork | book, 2017). Matrix Magazine. The Rusty Toque Issue 13 (Pushcart Prize Nominee), National Poetry Month 2018. UPCOMING This Is Where I Get Off (Permanent Sleep Press, Spring 2019). White Christian Daze.