Readers for 2008
Saturday, July 12, 7 p.m. – Philip Slayton, reading from Lawyers Gone Bad
Saturday, July 26, 7 p.m. – Bernice Morgan, reading from Cloud of Bone
Saturday, August 9, 7.p.m. – George Elliot Clarke, reading from George and Rue
Author Information
Philip Slayton (July 12th) is a retired lawyer and legal academic whose recent title, Lawyers Gone Bad: Money, Sex and Madness in Canada’s Legal Profession has generated impassioned discussion among his former colleagues in the profession. His authoritative and entertaining book demonstrates why this stereotypical view of lawyers resonates so strongly and provides a welcome addition to the literature on lawyer self-regulation.In his book, Slayton details the practices of some lawyers who strayed over the boundaries of accepted ethical standards. A recent article in Maclean's magazine entitled "Lawyers are Rats," created more national attention and provocative discussion about Slayton’s non-fiction offering.Phillip Slayton studied law at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. He pursued an academic career, teaching at McGill University and becoming Dean of Law at the University of Western Ontario. He continued his career as a corporate lawyer with a major Canadian law firm in Toronto. Most recently, he has been a visiting professor of law at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, and has worked at a pro bono legal clinic in one of Cape Town’s black townships.“Slayton’s critique shows an insider’s awareness of the legal profession’s most pressing problems.”
-The Globe and Mail“…smart and lively… Slayton’s credentials… make him just the man to figure out why lawyers who go bad do so.”
-Toronto Star
Bernice Morgan (July 26th) was born and resides in St. John's, Newfoundland. She worked in public relations, first with Memorial University of Newfoundland, where she was editor of the Gazette, and later with the Newfoundland Teacher's Association, where she was Communications Officer and editor of the Bulletin until 1986, when she resigned to begin writing full time.
With her best-selling historical novels Random Passage and Waiting for Time she has created a fictional island community, named Cape Random. Random Passage (1992) follows the fortunes and misfortunes of English immigrants to Newfoundland in the early 19th century. Waiting for Time tells the same story from a different point of view, bringing the story up to date by introducing a 20th century narrator. Waiting for Time won the 1994 Canadian Authors Association Literary Prize for Fiction and the Thomas H. Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award. A CBC Mini-series based on Random Passage and Waiting for Time aired in 2001.
Of her recent novel Cloud Of Bone, published in 2007, the Globe and Mail says, “Morgan’s writing has a careful, almost minimalist touch that is still full of bright images...and Morgan’s vision rings absolutely true”. The Ottawa Citizen writes about Cloud Of Bone; her descriptions of violence are unflinching…. This is powerful, Cain-and-Abel stuff, a study of "humankind's long commitment to violence." And, in its concluding part, set in 1998, with the shadow of genocide in Rwanda and Yugoslavia in the background, Cloud Of Bone does what historical fiction does best - it connects our past to our present.”
Bernice Morgan has been a member of the editorial board of Killick Press, the literary imprint of Creative Publishers. She has served on the executive of The Writer's Alliance and The Newfoundland Writer's Guild as well as many community-based positions including the St. John's Library Board and the City of St. John's Art Jury. She holds an Honourary Degree awarded by Memorial University of Newfoundland. In 1996, she was names “ Artist of the Year” by the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council.
George Elliott Clarke (August 9th) is a Canadian poet and playwright. Born near the Black Loyalist community of Windsor Plains, Nova Scotia, he has spent much of his career writing about the black communities of Nova Scotia and served for a time in the African-American Studies department at Duke University. He earned a B.A. honours degree in English from the University of Waterloo (1984), an M.A. in English from Dalhousie University (1989) and a Ph.D. in English from Queen’s University (1993). In addition, he has received honorary degrees from Dalhousie University (LL.D.), the University of New Brunswick (Litt.D.), the University of Alberta (Litt.D.), and the University of Waterloo (Litt.D.). He is the inaugural E.J. Pratt Professor of Canadian Literature at the University of Toronto.Clarke's lyrical style largely explores and chronicles the experience and history of the Black Canadian community of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, creating a cultural geography that Clarke often refers to as Africadia. He has publishes in a variety of genres: verse, verse-novel (Whylah Falls), two verse plays. His powerful opera about slavery, Beatrice Chancy, was staged four times and broadcast on CBC television. In 2001 he won the Governor General's Award for poetry for his book Execution Poems. His first offering of fiction, George & Rue, was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Best First Novel Award, Canada and Caribbean Region.Clarke’s Whylah Falls was showcased in the 1996 CBC Radio Drama series and one of the selected books in the 2002 edition of CBC’s Canada Reads . In 1998, he was the first recipient of the prestigious Portia White Prize, recognizing cultural and artistic excellence. He was a featured writer/instructor at the 2007 Maritime Writers' Workshop & Literary Festival in Fredericton, New Brunswick.