The Ampersand Review is proud to debut its Writing Series with author Stuart Ross! Join us in room B222 at Sheridan College's Hazel McCallion Campus for the chance to share your work with other writers and an established Canadian author. Slots are limited, so be to reserve your tickets early!

AMPERSAND WRITING SERIES with STUART ROSS 

SELF-PORTRAIT: POEMS & PROSE OF OBSERVATION

THE WORKSHOP: Through a series of speedy, positive, pleasurable writing projects, we will explore the idea of writing a portrait of ourselves through that which we observe and prioritize. Poets and prose-ists both welcome!

THE WRITER: Stuart Ross is the author of over 20 books of fiction, poetry, and personal essays, as well as scores of chapbooks. His most recent books are the memoir The Book of Grief and Hamburgers, for which he won the 2023 Trillium Book Award, and the short story collection I Am Claude François and You Are a Bathtub. Stuart received the 2019 Harbourfront Festival Prize, the 2017 Canadian Jewish Literary Award for Poetry, and the 2010 Relit Award for Short Fiction. He has been writer in residence at Queen’s University and the University of Ottawa, and has taught at the Banff Centre for the Arts and the University of Toronto School for Continuing Studies. Since 1979, Stuart has run a micropress called Proper Tales. In the 1980s, he sold over 7,000 of his chapbooks on the streets of Toronto, wearing signs such as “Writer Going To Hell: Buy My Books.” His poetry has been translated into Nynorsk, French, Spanish, Russian, Slovene, and Estonian. Stuart lives in the tiny town of Cobourg, on the north shore of Lake Ontario.

Welcome to The Ampersand Review Reading Series! Join us in the Creative Campus Gallery at Sheridan College's Hazel McCallion Campus for an immersive evening of readings and discussion. Readings will be followed by an open mic with the sign-up sheet available at the event. Slots are limited, so be sure to arrive on time to reserve your time at the mic!

Jean Marc Ah-Sen is the author of Grand Menteur, In the Beggarly Style of Imitation, and Kilworthy Tanner. His work has appeared in Literary Hub, The Walrus, The Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, Maclean’s, and elsewhere. The National Post has hailed his writing as an “inventive escape from the conventional.”

Faith Arkorful is the author of The Seventh Town of Ghosts, out now with McClelland & Stewart (an imprint of Penguin Random House Canada). Her work has appeared in GUTS Magazine, Peach Mag, PRISM International, Hobart Pulp, and Canthius Magazine, amongst other places. In 2019 she was shortlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize. Faith was born in Toronto, where she still resides.

The Ampersand Review is proud to debut its Writing Series with author Lindsay Zier-Vogel! Join us in room B222 at Sheridan College's Hazel McCallion Campus for the chance to share your work with other writers and an established Canadian author. Slots are limited, so be to reserve your tickets early!

Lindsay Zier-Vogel is an author, grant writer, and the creator of the internationally acclaimed Love Lettering Project. After studying contemporary dance, she received her MA in Creative Writing from the University of Toronto. She is the author of the acclaimed debut novel Letters to Amelia, and her first picture book, Dear Street was a 2023 Junior Library Guild pick, a Canadian Children’s Book Centre book of the year, and was nominated for a Forest of Reading Blue Spruce Award. Her second novel, The Fun Times Brigade is out in 2025, and she is co-editing The Deep End: Reflections on Swimming with Andrea Bennett. Her hand-bound books of poetry are housed in the permanent collection at the Thomas Fisher Rare Books Library in Toronto, and she leads creative writing workshops in schools and community settings.

Join us at the launch of The Ampersand Review Issue No. 6 on September 14th, 2024 from 12:30pm-2:30pm at the Mississauga Hazel McCallion Library's Central Branch! Head over to Program Room 3B to hear readings, meet our contributors, and to pick up your copy of our newest issue!

In the sixth issue of The Ampersand Review, we are proud to present a variety of short stories, poems, and a work of creative nonfiction that showcase innovative writers in the Canadian literary landscape. This issue features an exclusive interview with Canisia Lubrin, poetry by Adam Wilson and Meghan Kemp-Gee, fiction by Annick MacAskill, and creative non-fiction by Mieke De Vries.

In partnership with Mississauga Library

The Ampersand Review Reading Series returns! Join us in the Creative Campus Gallery at Sheridan College's Hazel McCallion Campus for an immersive evening of readings and discussion. Readings will be followed by an open mic with the sign-up sheet available at the event. Slots are limited, so be sure to arrive on time to reserve your time at the mic!

Danila Botha is the author of three critically acclaimed short story collections, GOT NO SECRETS and FOR ALL THE MEN (AND SOME OF THE WOMEN I’VE KNOWN) which was a finalist for the Trillium Book Award, The Vine Awards and the ReLit Award. Her new collection, THINGS THAT CAUSE INAPPROPRIATE HAPPINESS was published in April by Guernica Editions. The title story, Things that Cause Inappropriate Happiness was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. It was named by The Toronto Star as one of Twenty-One Books to Put At the Top Of Your Reading List. She is also the author of the award-winning novel TOO MUCH ON THE INSIDE which was optioned for film. Her new novel, A PLACE FOR PEOPLE LIKE US will be published by Guernica Editions in 2025. She teaches Creative Writing as part of the faculty at Humber School for Writers.

Damian Tarnopolsky is the author of Lanzmann and Other Stories, Goya’s Dog, and The Defence. His work has been nominated for many awards, including the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, the Amazon First Novel Award, and the Journey Prize, and he won the Voaden Prize for Playwriting in 2019. He teaches at the Narrative-Based Medicine Lab at the University of Toronto. 

We are so excited to invite you to The Ampersand Review Issue No. 5 Launch! Join us on April 2nd to celebrate this incredible issue and the talented contributors that filled its pages. It will be a celebratory evening filled with trivia, readings, prizes, a fun photobooth and more.

Nomad Customs will have a Digital Photo Booth set up from 6pm-8pm for everyone to capture fun memories and celebrate the launch.

Welcome to The Ampersand Review March Reading Series! Join us in the Creative Campus Gallery at Sheridan College's Hazel McCallion Campus for an immersive evening of readings and discussion. The readings will be followed by an open mic with the sign-up sheet will be available at the event. Slots are limited, so be sure to arrive on time to reserve your time at the mic!

Kate Cayley is our host, and she is also this year's Writer-in-Residence at Sheridan College. Kate Cayley has published two short story collections and three collections of poetry, and her plays have been performed in Canada, the US and the UK. She has won the Trillium Book Award, an O. Henry Prize, and the Mitchell Prize for Poetry, and been a finalist for the Governor General’s Award for Fiction, the Firecracker Award for Fiction, the ReLit Award for both fiction and poetry, and the K. M. Hunter Award for Fiction. Her writing has appeared in Brick, Electric Literature, Joyland, Best Canadian Poetry and Best Canadian Stories, and she has been a writer in residence at McMaster University and the Toronto Public Library.

Johanna Skibsrud is the author of three previous collections of poetry, three novels—including the Scotiabank Giller Prize–winning novel, The Sentimentalists—and three nonfiction titles, including The Nothing That Is: Essays on Art, Literature, and Being, and most recently, Fool: A Study in Literature and Practice. An Associate Professor of English Literature at the University of Arizona, Johanna divides her time between Tucson, Arizona, and Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.

Cassidy McFadzean studied poetry at the Iowa Writers' Workshop and fiction at Brooklyn College. She is the author of three books of poetry, most recently Crying Dress (House of Anansi 2024). Her poems have appeared in magazines across Canada and the US, and her fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Joyland, Maisonneuve, Event, and Slate’s Future Tense Fiction series.

Welcome to The Ampersand Review February Reading Series! Join us in the B-Wing Gallery at Sheridan College's Hazel McCallion Campus for an immersive evening readings and discussion. The readings will be followed by an open mic; the sign-up sheet will be available at the event. Slots are limited, so be sure to arrive on time to reserve your time at the mic!

Kate Cayley is our host, and she is also this year's Writer-in-Residence at Sheridan College. Kate Cayley has published two short story collections and three collections of poetry, and her plays have been performed in Canada, the US and the UK. She has won the Trillium Book Award, an O. Henry Prize, and the Mitchell Prize for Poetry, and been a finalist for the Governor General’s Award for Fiction, the Firecracker Award for Fiction, the ReLit Award for both fiction and poetry, and the K. M. Hunter Award for Fiction. Her writing has appeared in Brick, Electric Literature, Joyland, Best Canadian Poetry and Best Canadian Stories, and she has been a writer in residence at McMaster University and the Toronto Public Library.

Sydney Hegele is our headlining reader. Sydney is the author of The Pump (Invisible Publishing 2021), winner of the 2022 ReLit Literary Award for Short Fiction and a finalist for the 2022 Trillium Book Award. Their novel Bird Suit is forthcoming with Invisible Publishing on May 07, 2024, and their essay collection Bad Kids is forthcoming with Invisible in Fall 2025. Their essays have appeared in Catapult, Electric Literature, EVENT, and others. They live with their husband and French Bulldog on Treaty 13 Land (Toronto, Canada).

Moez Surani's writing has been published internationally, including in Harper's, the Globe & Mail, and Best Canadian Poetry. His visual art has been exhibited at WhiteBox Arts Space in New York, the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, and Nuit Blanche Toronto. He is the author of 4 poetry books and, most recently, the novel The Legend of Baraffo, which Omar El-Akkad called, "a lucid dream of a novel, a fable fierce in its moral clarity and gorgeous at the line level."

Welcome to The Ampersand Review Reading Series! Join us in the B-Wing Gallery at Sheridan College's Hazel McCallion Campus for an immersive evening of listening to several authors read from their books. The readings will be followed by an open mic, and the sign-up sheet will be available at the event. Slots are limited, so be sure to arrive on time to reserve your time at the mic!

Kate Cayley is our host, and she is also this year's Writer-in-Residence at Sheridan College. Kate Cayley has published two short story collections and three collections of poetry, and her plays have been performed in Canada, the US and the UK. She has won the Trillium Book Award, an O. Henry Prize, and the Mitchell Prize for Poetry, and been a finalist for the Governor General’s Award for Fiction, the Firecracker Award for Fiction, the ReLit Award for both fiction and poetry, and the K. M. Hunter Award for Fiction. Her writing has appeared in Brick, Electric Literature, Joyland, Best Canadian Poetry and Best Canadian Stories, and she has been a writer in residence at McMaster University and the Toronto Public Library.

Our headliner is Stuart Ross. Stuart Ross is the author of over 20 books of fiction, poetry, and personal essays, as well as scores of chapbooks. His most recent books are the memoir The Book of Grief and Hamburgers, for which he won the 2023 Trillium Book Award, and the short story collection I Am Claude François and You Are a Bathtub. Stuart received the 2019 Harbourfront Festival Prize, the 2017 Canadian Jewish Literary Award for Poetry, and the 2010 Relit Award for Short Fiction. He has been writer in residence at Queen’s University and the University of Ottawa, and has taught at the Banff Centre for the Arts and the University of Toronto School for Continuing Studies. Since 1979, Stuart has run a micropress called Proper Tales. In the 1980s, he sold over 7,000 of his chapbooks on the streets of Toronto, wearing signs such as “Writer Going To Hell: Buy My Books.” His poetry has been translated into Nynorsk, French, Spanish, Russian, Slovene, and Estonian. Stuart lives in the tiny town of Cobourg, on the north shore of Lake Ontario.

Bronwyn Fischer is the author of the novel, The Adult. She is a graduate of the University of Guelph’s MFA program in Creative Writing. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto. She was born in Bahrain. She now lives in Toronto with her wife, Emma.

Location: The B-Wing Gallery room B234 of the Hazel McCallion Campus, Second Floor