Guest Speakers

John Baxter

John Baxter is Professor of English at Dalhousie University. He is the author of Shakespeare’s Poetic Styles (1980; rpr. Routledge, 2005), co-editor of Aristotle’s Poetics by George Whalley (McGill-Queen’s, 1997), and co-editor of In Defence of Adam by C.Q. Drummond (Edgeways Books, 2004).  Recent articles include: “George Whalley and a Way of Thinking about Shakespeare," Animus: The Canadian Journal of Philosophy and Humanities 15 (2011): online; “Reported Speech in The Winter’s Tale,” Renaissance and Reformation 36.3 (Summer, 2013): 127-51; “Some Landmarks in Whylah Falls,” The Literary Atlas of Atlantic Canada (Summer, 2014): online; and “Tying the Knot in Othello,” Essays in Criticism 64.3 (July, 2014): 266-92.

Elizabeth Hay

Elizabeth Hay writes novels and short stories. Her new novel His Whole Life will appear in August, 2015. Recent novels include Alone in the Classroom and the Giller-winning Late Nights on Air. Years ago she worked as a broadcaster for CBC Radio in Yellowknife, Winnipeg and Toronto. She lives in Ottawa now, where she is putting together a story collection to follow Small Change.

Werner Nell

Werner Nell is a full professor and chair of Comparative Literature at the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) in Halle, Germany. Werner is head of the executive board of the Institut für Sozialpädagogische Forschung Mainz (ISM)—a large NGO with an annual turnover of 8 million Euro—and the vice executive director of the Muhlenberg Center for American Studies (MCAS) at MLU. He has been a visiting professor and lecturer at the Goethe Institute in Moscow and a number of other universities in Russia, Poland, Hungary, and Italy. Werner’s published work on German Romanticism and aesthetics is extensive, and includes the books Poetische und historische Synthesis: Jean Pauls Kritik der hö­fischen Gesell­schaft im poetologischen Kontext seiner Romane (Afra-Ver­lag, 1987); Reflexionen und Konstruktionen des Fremden in der europäischen Li­tera­tur  (Gardez!, 2001); and Brockhaus: Die Mythologie (with Wolfgang Riedel) (Wissensmedia, 2010). Four times he has been a visiting professor at Queen's (2007, 2008, 2010, 2011).

Michael Ondaatje

Michael Ondaatje is a novelist and poet. He was born in Sri Lanka and has lived in Canada since 1963. His works include The Cat's Table, Divisadero, The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film, Anil’s Ghost, The English Patient, In the Skin of a Lion, Coming Through Slaughter, The Collected Works of Billy the Kid, and his memoir, Running in the Family. His collections of poetry include Secular Love, The Cinnamon Peeler and Handwriting. He has made two documentary films: Sons of Captain Poetry (on the poet bp Nichol) and The Clinton Special (about Theatre Passe Muraille’s The Farm Show). Michael Ondaatje lives in Toronto.