Writers Read is bringing together alumni, faculty and current students to celebrate the voices of our creative writing department.

The reading will span the day of Wednesday March 5th. Selected undergraduate and graduate students will open the morning at 11am with their work. This will be followed by a catered lunch and the opportunity to connect with other writers. After lunch, audiences will hear work from poetry faculty members Stephanie Bolster and Gillian Sze and alumni Faith Paré, Emilie Lafleur and Bridget Huh

Writers read is part of Concordia University’s Creative Writing program and is supported by the Department of English, with funding from the Faculty of Arts and Science. The tradition of literary readings at Concordia predates the existence of the university itself, as such events were held well before Sir George Williams and Loyola merged in 1974. Please check out SpokenWeb for audio of those events. The current series, Concordia Writers Read, invites renowned and emerging authors, both Canadian and international, to read from and discuss their work with students and local audiences. In addition to readings, the series includes Master Classes and professional development activities, some open to the public and others only for Concordia students.

The event will take place at Concordia’s unique 4TH SPACE. Known as the gateway to the research and learning activities at the University, the innovative public space will transform for the day into a hub for creative voices. We welcome you to join Writers Read in this celebration of community success.

Event is free and open to all. Masks encouraged.

Current Students

Poetry

Lena Palacios

Sabyah Seyam

Emma Moss Brender

Sabrina Papandrea

Fiction

Gladwell Pamba

Alana Dunlop

Creative Non-Fiction

Nicky Taylor

Ciku Gitonga

Alumni

Bridget Huh is a queer Korean-Canadian poet from Toronto (Tkaronto). She is currently an MFA candidate in poetry at Cornell University, and she holds a BA from Concordia University, where she received the Gabriel Safdie Award in Creative Writing. Her poems have appeared in or are forthcoming from The Walrus, Gulf Coast, The Margins, The Ex-Puritan, The Capilano Review, and elsewhere. She is the winner of the 2023 Vallum Poetry Award, and her debut collection of poetry, Fugue Body, is forthcoming from Véhicule Press in March 2025.

Emilie Lafleur is a writer from Montreal. She holds an MA in English and Creative Writing from Concordia University, and her poetry has appeared online and in print in The Void, Expat Press, Peach Mag, Metatron, Vallum, Usurpator, and The End, among others. She is the 2024-25 recipient of the Susan Jeanne Briscoe Fellowship for experimental writing by women and is currently working on a project about the poetics of conspiracism.

Faith Paré is a poet and literary event curator of Afro-Guyanese ancestry. Her writing has appeared in The Capilano Review, The Ex-Puritan, Contemporary Verse 2, and elsewhere, and she has performed at national art centres such as the Goldfarb Gallery at York University, La Centrale galerie Powerhouse, and the Winter Garden Theatre. Faith has received fellowships from the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and the Quebec Writers’ Federation. She is the winner of the 2024 Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers in Poetry from the Writers’ Trust of Canada, and was shortlisted for the League of Canadian Poets’ 2024 Spoken Word Award. Faith presently lives in Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang/Montreal, the unceded territory of the Kanien’kehá:ka people, where she is at work on her first collection of poetry.

Faculty

Stephanie Bolster has published four books – the first of which, White Stone: The Alice Poems, won the Governor General’s Award and the Gerald Lampert Award – and edited The Best Canadian Poetry 2008. Her next book, Long Exposure, is forthcoming in Fall 2025. Born in Vancouver, she has taught creative writing at Concordia since 2000 and lives in Pointe-Claire, on the Mohawk (Kanien’kehá:ka) territory of Skaniatara:ti.

Gillian Sze is the author of multiple poetry collections, including Peeling Rambutan, Redrafting Winter, and Panicle, which were finalists for the QWF’s A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry. She studied Creative Writing and English Literature at Concordia University and received a Ph.D. in Études anglaises from Université de Montréal. Her forthcoming publications include a book of essays and poems from ECW Press and three books written for children. Sze lives in Montreal.