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Breakfast Speakers 2020

Breakfast Meeting, November 21, 2020

September 6, 2019 Maurus Cappa

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Breakfast Meeting, Octpber 19, 2019

Max Layton: I was born in Montreal in 1946. My father, Irving Layton, who would later become the well-known poet, was barely making ends meet while my mother, Betty Sutherland, who would later change her name to Boschka, was a painter working as a cashier at a local restaurant.

My parents were, to say the least, unconventional. Atheists and socialists; they were part of a writers’ co-op. I remember the interior walls of my childhood home were lined with books and paintings and I remember there were frequent parties – artists of all kinds: dancers, potters, sculptors, actors and, of course, writers. One of these was a young poet who always brought his guitar. His name was Leonard Cohen. When I was twelve, my mother traded one of her paintings in return for Leonard giving guitar lessons to me. I’ve been in love with the guitar ever since.

My parents split up when I was 13. I remember my mother staring out the window and playing the same Leadbelly record over and over. Eventually, my mother and sister moved to California while I went to live with my father: I moved out when I was 16…

Somehow, I finished high school, then worked odd jobs – picking tobacco in southern Ontario, laying track in northern Manitoba, logging in B.C., apprentice car mechanic in Montreal, etc. – while putting myself through university. It took me ten years but finally I graduated with a BA in Eng. Lit. and Philosophy…

The trouble with being seventy years old is that by now I have too many memories – family, friends, enemies, canoe trips in the wilderness, Aikido, Tai Chi, the delicious loneliness of reading a good book at four in the morning in an all-night greasy spoon, the first time I saw my wife Sharon, the first time I saw an impossible bend in a telephone pole…

A few months later, I was legally blind.

Unable to work, I retreated into the darkness of my room and wrote my first album, Heartbeat of Time. Unable to read, I turned to my steel-string Martin guitar. And then a very strange thing happened – my fingers found new chords and I found myself singing new words and new melodies.

The good news is that, my eyesight restored thanks to the miracle of modern science, I am now able to read again – and write. In fact, I have since published two books of poetry and released four CDs.

No longer blind, filled with love and gratitude, my songs and poems celebrate the new world I see…

Isobel Raven Launches New Book

WECOME TO THE ROONS, the ruins of a once magnificent condominium, home to oligarchs of a previous age, long gone and truly forgotten. Hom and his friends play there (they call it “The Roons”), hidden from the eyes of patrolling police.

WEN members, family, and friends are invited to the launch of Isobel Raven’s

Out of the Roons.

Location: Royal York Road United Church, 851 Royal York Road M8Y 2V3. Time: Saturday, November 9, 2.00 p.m.- 4.30 p.m.

SFEP Workshop November 5th

New WEN Member Maya Berger announced this on our Writers and Editors Facebook Page.

The Society for Editors and Proofreaders’ Toronto group, a very lively and expanding local group, is hosting a workshop on November 5 and a mini-conference on November 6. I’m one of the co-organizers, and we thought these events might be of interest to WEN members who are editors and/or proofreaders.

We would like to extend an invitation to all WEN members, and we can also offer members a special 15% discount on the cost of registration.

The workshop, titled “Money Matters: H…

SFEP.ORG.UK

Mini-conference – Toronto 2019

After the success of last year’s conference in Toronto, we’re hosting another one-day mini-conference. The international, jam-packed event features speakers from the United Kingdom (Paul Beverley), the United States (Erin Brenner and Amy Schneider) and Canada (Heather Ebbs and Jennifer Glossop)….

Friends of WEN

Canadian Authors Association
CANSCAIP
Editors' Association of Canada
Mississauga Arts Council
PWAC Toronto
The Writers' Union of Canada
WCDR

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The Winners of the 2019 Poetry Contest were announced at the May 18 Breakfast Meeting. Cynthia Robins (first), Husain Mehdi (second), Maria Marchelletta (third).

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