Sarnia’s Spoken Word June event spotlight to shine on special guest readers and four new books

Sarnia's Spoken Word has announced this week highlights about their June event that will feature special guest readers James Deahl, a renowned publisher, writer and poet, and Norma West Linder, a prolific and award-winning local writer who taught Creative Writing and English at Lambton College for 24 years.

Debbie Okun Hill, local writer and co-host of Spoken Word with Ryan Gibbs, said internationally published writers Linder and Deahl will share glimpses from four new poetry books, during the last Spoken Word event in the 2011-2012 season; Friday, Jun. 29 starting at 8 p.m. at the Lawrence House Centre for the Arts.

"Their spotlight presentation will be followed by an open mic for others to share their work or the work of another author," said Hill adding, "This month’s optional theme is Fairy Tales and Happy Endings and everyone is welcome to read or just watch."

Admission to Spoken Word events is always free.

The official Sarnia launch of these new books by Linder and Deahl will take place during the literary and cultural event ‘Books and Biscotti” hosted by the Association of Italian Canadian Writers (AICW), the Dante Club Literary Committee and other local organizations, Aug. 19 at the Dante Club.

“We are so fortunate to have these two professional writers living in our community,” said Spoken Word co-hosts Hill and Gibbs.

The four spotlighted books include:

• Adder’s-tongues: A Choice of Norma West Linder’s Poems, 1969- 2011 (Aeolus House) written by Norma West Linder and edited by James Deahl.
• In A Springtime Instant: The Selected Poems of Milton Acorn 1950 -1986 (Mosaic Press) edited by James Deahl, Acorn’s long-time friend and roommate.
• North of Belleville (Hidden Brook Press) written by James Deahl with photography, layout and design by Richard M. Grove.
• Rooms the Wind Makes (Guernica Editions) by James Deahl.

Spoken Word was first introduced over 12 years ago and is held on the last Friday of every month, except July, August and December.

The 13^th season of Spoken Word will be launched in September. For further information about Sarnia’s Spoken Word, e-mail spoken-w@hotmail.com or call the Lawrence House at (519) 337-0507.

Tags: City of, Debbie Okun Hill, James Deahl, Lawrence House, Norma West Linder, Ryan Gibbs, Sarnia, Sarnia-Lambton, spoken word