Available now for purchase - 2015 Rising Spirits Anthology on Amazon.ca
Friday October 30th 2015
Rising Spirits Award Celebration Gala
The Cellar (Old Winery). .
Special Guest Speaker
Richard Scarsbrook
http://www.richardscarsbrook.com
Bio: Scarsbrook's fiction and poetry have appeared in many publications, including The Guardian Unlimited (UK), The FISH Anthology (Ireland), Verbicide (US), Prairie Fire, Descant, Matrix, Carousel, The Dalhousie Review, PRECIPICe, Rampike,Storyteller, The New Orphic Review, The Nashwaak Review, The Harpweaver, The Backwater Review, NeWest Review,Lies With Occasional Truth, The Moose and Pussy, Jones Avenue, Surface and Symbol, and Zygote.
His stories and poems have won many prizes and awards , including the 1998 Hinterland Award for Prose, the 2001 New Orphic Short Story Prize, the 2001 Scarborough Arts Council Poetry Prize, the 2002 Lawrence House Centre for the Arts Short Story Prize, and the 2009 Matrix LitPop Award for Fiction.
His first book publication was Guessing at Madeleine, a collection of poems which won the 1996 Cranberry Tree Press Poetry Prize.
Scarsbrook's first novel, Cheeseburger Subversive, was published by Thistledown Press in 2003, to positive reviews and great reader response. Renowned author W.P. Kinsella (Shoeless Joe, Dance Me Outside), wrote this in Books in Canada: "Cheeseburger Subversive is a coming of age story written with humour and panache. Scarsbrook has a special eye for the absurd, a wonderful way of looking at the world that turns tragedy into humor. A very funny and heart-warming debut.""
Cheeseburger Subversive was short listed for The Canadian Library Association's 2004 Young Adult Book of the Year Award, The Ontario Library Association's 2005 White Pine Award, and the 2005 Stellar Book Award
Featherless Bipeds, the sequel to Cheeseburger Subversive, was published by Thistledown Press in 2006, and was short-listed for short listed for the Canadian Library Association's 2007 Young Adult Book of the Year Award, and the 2008/2009 Stellar Book Award.
Destiny's Telescope, a collection of Scarsbrook's prize-winning short stories, was published in 2006 by Turnstone Press. Reviewer Mike Gillespie, of the Ottawa Citizen, wrote that "Destiny's Telescope is. . . a gem. Scarsbrook's stories are arresting. Anyone looking through the lens of this Telescope can't miss the author's own star - rising up through the literary universe to a date with charmed destiny."
The book was long-listed for the 2007 ReLit Award, and many individual stories in the collection won magazine and fiction competition prizes.
Scarsbrook's novel The Monkeyface Chronicles, was published in 2010, to excellent reviews. CM Magazine called the book a "multi-layered, engrossing, complex tale", and a review in Resource Links said "Scarsbrook is an excellent writer with great comic overtones". A review by author Ann Ewan (Firedrake, Brondings' Honour) said of The Monkeyface Chronicles, "It reminds me of the books of Paul Quarrington and John Irving, creating an over-the-top yet close-to-real world."
The Monkeyface Chronicles was the winner of the Ontario Library Association's 2011 White Pine Award.
Scarsbrook's most recent YA novel is Nothing Man and The Purple Zero, published by DCB/Cormorant in 2014. It has been HIGHLY RECOMMENDED by CanLit - Books for Kids and Teens, Recommended by The Canadian Children's Book Centre, and was a BEST BOOKS OF 2013 selection in Resource Links Magazine.
Richard also released his first book of poetry, Six Weeks, with Turnstone in 2014. "Don't let the sparseness of Richard Scarsbrook's writing fool you - the poems in Six Weeks are lush, layered, and rich with wit and imagination." - Jeanette Lynes.
Scarsbrook's much-anticipated next book, The Indifference League, was published by Dundurn in September 2014, to many excellent reviews.
Richard Scarsbrook's biography is listed in the Canadian Who's Who, "the largest and most authoritative publication of its kind in Canada, offering instant access to nearly fourteen thousand notable Canadians in all walks of life".
Rising Spirits Award Celebration Gala
The Cellar (Old Winery). .
Special Guest Speaker
Richard Scarsbrook
http://www.richardscarsbrook.com
Bio: Scarsbrook's fiction and poetry have appeared in many publications, including The Guardian Unlimited (UK), The FISH Anthology (Ireland), Verbicide (US), Prairie Fire, Descant, Matrix, Carousel, The Dalhousie Review, PRECIPICe, Rampike,Storyteller, The New Orphic Review, The Nashwaak Review, The Harpweaver, The Backwater Review, NeWest Review,Lies With Occasional Truth, The Moose and Pussy, Jones Avenue, Surface and Symbol, and Zygote.
His stories and poems have won many prizes and awards , including the 1998 Hinterland Award for Prose, the 2001 New Orphic Short Story Prize, the 2001 Scarborough Arts Council Poetry Prize, the 2002 Lawrence House Centre for the Arts Short Story Prize, and the 2009 Matrix LitPop Award for Fiction.
His first book publication was Guessing at Madeleine, a collection of poems which won the 1996 Cranberry Tree Press Poetry Prize.
Scarsbrook's first novel, Cheeseburger Subversive, was published by Thistledown Press in 2003, to positive reviews and great reader response. Renowned author W.P. Kinsella (Shoeless Joe, Dance Me Outside), wrote this in Books in Canada: "Cheeseburger Subversive is a coming of age story written with humour and panache. Scarsbrook has a special eye for the absurd, a wonderful way of looking at the world that turns tragedy into humor. A very funny and heart-warming debut.""
Cheeseburger Subversive was short listed for The Canadian Library Association's 2004 Young Adult Book of the Year Award, The Ontario Library Association's 2005 White Pine Award, and the 2005 Stellar Book Award
Featherless Bipeds, the sequel to Cheeseburger Subversive, was published by Thistledown Press in 2006, and was short-listed for short listed for the Canadian Library Association's 2007 Young Adult Book of the Year Award, and the 2008/2009 Stellar Book Award.
Destiny's Telescope, a collection of Scarsbrook's prize-winning short stories, was published in 2006 by Turnstone Press. Reviewer Mike Gillespie, of the Ottawa Citizen, wrote that "Destiny's Telescope is. . . a gem. Scarsbrook's stories are arresting. Anyone looking through the lens of this Telescope can't miss the author's own star - rising up through the literary universe to a date with charmed destiny."
The book was long-listed for the 2007 ReLit Award, and many individual stories in the collection won magazine and fiction competition prizes.
Scarsbrook's novel The Monkeyface Chronicles, was published in 2010, to excellent reviews. CM Magazine called the book a "multi-layered, engrossing, complex tale", and a review in Resource Links said "Scarsbrook is an excellent writer with great comic overtones". A review by author Ann Ewan (Firedrake, Brondings' Honour) said of The Monkeyface Chronicles, "It reminds me of the books of Paul Quarrington and John Irving, creating an over-the-top yet close-to-real world."
The Monkeyface Chronicles was the winner of the Ontario Library Association's 2011 White Pine Award.
Scarsbrook's most recent YA novel is Nothing Man and The Purple Zero, published by DCB/Cormorant in 2014. It has been HIGHLY RECOMMENDED by CanLit - Books for Kids and Teens, Recommended by The Canadian Children's Book Centre, and was a BEST BOOKS OF 2013 selection in Resource Links Magazine.
Richard also released his first book of poetry, Six Weeks, with Turnstone in 2014. "Don't let the sparseness of Richard Scarsbrook's writing fool you - the poems in Six Weeks are lush, layered, and rich with wit and imagination." - Jeanette Lynes.
Scarsbrook's much-anticipated next book, The Indifference League, was published by Dundurn in September 2014, to many excellent reviews.
Richard Scarsbrook's biography is listed in the Canadian Who's Who, "the largest and most authoritative publication of its kind in Canada, offering instant access to nearly fourteen thousand notable Canadians in all walks of life".
