Recently described as “Iran’s finest living poet,” Reza Baraheni, also an activist and former political prisoner, has been the subject of three documentary films by the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation. Born in Tabriz, Iran, in 1935 he obtained his doctorate in literature from the University of Istanbul. In 1963, he was appointed Professor of English at Tehran University and has also taught at universities in the US and England. In 1973, during the rule of the Shah, he was arrested and imprisoned in Tehran and spent 102 days in solitary confinement. “God’s Shadow: Prison Poems” is based on this experience. In 1982, he was expelled from the University of Tehran and deprived of the right to work.
Baraheni is a founding member of the assembly formed to promote freedom of literary expression and establishment of a writers’ union in Iran, and was vital in the “Declaration of 134 Iranian Writers,” written in 1994, calling for the end of literary censorship in Iran. Baraheni escaped Iran in the fall of 1996 after an attempt on his life. He was elected President of PEN Canada in June 2000. PEN Canada, with a membership of about 700 poets, novelists, dramatists, critics and journalists, is the Canadian section of the International PEN working for “unhampered expression of thought” both on national and international levels.
Currently, he is a professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Toronto.
Shannon Blake: Rejected by foreigners.
Adam Collier is graduating in june in philosophy, and he hopes to continue writing. He wishes coke would bring back ‘new’ coke, because it was good..
Mary Alice Elcock is in her last year of her degree, at the University of Toronto, where she has specialized in the study of English Renaissance sonnet cycles, particularly those of Lady Mary Wroth. She has spent time living across Canada in the Yukon, British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, and Prince Edward Island, as such her poetry often tackles particularly Canadian themes with a Renaissance flavour.
Eric Foley is currently completing a double major in Literary Studies and English at U of T. In addition to writing, he also enjoys making films, traveling, and spending time in nature.
Albert R. Gaudio is a third-year specialist in Political Science. His work tends to deal with the very small, focusing on the minutiae of daily and urban life. A native of Toronto, he is fond of bicycles, streetlamps, walrus moustaches and the history of long-forgotten Livonia. The son of Western European immigrants, he has a strong dislike for processed foods, synthetic fabrics and Calvinism.
Helene Goderis was born in the Belgian Congo.When she was 5, she witnessed a picture of a giant squid in the Guinness Book of World Records and kindly asked her parents to paper clip the pages where the picture lay. She has not overcome her phobia since.
alexandra grigorescu: 21. Currently enrolled in a doublemajor of english and bioethics. Afflicted by a conspicuous love of espresso and books. Previously published in Acta Victoriana.
Helen Guri’s work has appeared in various Canadian literary journals including The Fiddlehead, Grain, and Arc. In the spring of 2005, she was awarded first prize in Terry magazine’s annual writing contest. She currently lives in Toronto, where she is pursuing a Master’s degree in creative writing.
Eryn Hiscock: I have been a part-time student at the University of Toronto for too many years! I should graduate soon. I enjoy cooking, reading and writing. I try to appreciate all arts, but words are my first and true passion.
Jim F. Johnstone is the founder and editor of Misunderstandings Magazine. He was awarded the 2005-2006 E. J. Pratt Medal and Prize in Poetry & has recently appeared in periodicals such as Canadian Literature, Contemporary Verse 2, Descant, and The Malahat Review. His chapbook, siamese poems, is available from Surly Editions (2006). After studying English at U of T and living in Toronto for four years.
Elizabeth Karp feels at home in this city. Preferring her stories short, she has had two previously published in the Acta Victoriana and journals in the States. Lizzy Pearl hails from Salt Lake City, Utah, where she’ll always return.
Ryan MacIsaac: Bicycles
Micaela Maftei: claims that Amelia Earhart never died. Nor did she lose her way. It was deliberate and I’ll tell you where she is.
When he’s not writing poetry Damir Maltaric can be found collecting penguins. Watch out for his upcoming book: “Collecting Penguins: the art of trapping flightless birds” from Penguin Group publishers. Note: To save face Penguin may deny this book’s existence. He also wishes to thank his collaborators: Dr. Anisa Mnyusiwalla and Pingu.
James Marchment communicates primarily through gesture and innuendo. Favourite things include ‘happiness’ and ‘being asleep.’
Daniel Shawn Otis is exhilaratingly/frighteningly near the completion of his undergraduate degree in Philosophy and Political Science at the University of Toronto. He is currently devoting much of his spare time developing a time machine for the purpose of bringing William Blake into the present to live in his closet. Whether it be music, photography, or poetry, Daniel finds most all of his creative inspiration from God and Sex.
Rebecca Rosenblum will soon finish her masters degree in English and Creative Writing at the University of Toronto. Her work has been seen in Exile Quaterly and The Danforth Review.
She has forthcoming pieces in echolocation and The New Quaterly. Her favourite colour is green.
Zach Slootsky has written no more than ten of his own bios (autobios); he has never been to Poland, among other places; he enjoys stealing pens, giving and receiving high fives, taking photos of you and puking major American cities. Within the next ten years Zach plans to either be famous or in jail, possibly both. He is also wondering if you can lend him 5 dollars. If so, please contact him at TakeMorePhotos.com.
Zsofja Szmidt laments the death of the film camera. She likes Ali Farka Touré and music of the Tuareg people. When not floating between countries in the E.U. Of the mind, she can be found spending her life savings eating discount all-day breakfasts at local Annex cafés. Coffee is her current life-partner.
Jessica Taylor is an anthropology student living and working in Toronto. She has been previously published in Other Voices, Antigonish Review, and Hart House Review.
Yavanna S. Valdellon graduated wit ha BFA in Creative Writing from the Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines. She is currently taking her MA in English -CreativeWriting at U of T, and is missing her black cat Metaphor.
Chris Wanless is a fourth year student at the University of Toronto studying Architectural Design. Throughout his education, he continues to develop his photographic skills, in both the analogue and digital realms, seeking the production of a complex and refined vocabulary of images.
Ted witzel [background sources dubious].
Talia Zajac is currently finishing her M.A. At the Centre of Medieval Studies. Writing has been a life-long passion. She has been fortunate to have published fiction in the Hart House Review and Misunderstandings Magazine, and essays in the undergraduate journals Saeculum and The Future of History.
Talia is currently a member of Hart House’s Le Mot Juste, a weekly prose group.