Save this date! THURSDAY, MARCH 31
Time: 9:30 pm for Main Event
12:00 pm midnight for Liar's Fest
Place: Our Town Cafe
245 Broadway E
Vancouver, BC
(604) 879-1924
Cost: Free!

Join six terrific North American authors for a special night celebrating the diversity and popularity of literary magical realism.

Co-hosts Johnny Frem of Vancouver's lively and interactive Bolts of Fiction literary arts community and Tamara Kaye Sellman, editor and publisher of MARGIN: Exploring Modern Magical Realism are proud to announce the upcoming performances of these marvelous magical realist writers:

(featured readers' bios below)

The event is held in conjunction with the year-long celebration of the 5th anniversary of MARGIN, the de facto North American clearinghouse for authors of magic realism. Special thanks to the Writer's Union of Canada and the Canada Council for help with honoraria and travel expenses, and a grateful nod to Associated Writing Programs, which have selected Vancouver BC as the site of its annual conference, which has attracted four of MARGIN's authors to this corner of the world.

Between performances, selected definitions of magical realism will be presented by Sellman as a way to answer the question, "What IS magical realism?" and Frem will give out various door prizes.

WE WANT YOU! (to participate in this audience-interactive event!)

LIAR'S FEST
Stick around to ring in April Fool's Day at midnight when Paulo da Costa (SCENT OF A LIE) leads a story-circle of tall tales, urban legends, fish stories and other adventures in fabrication! Magical realism enjoys roots in oral tradition and tall tale story forms; stick around and see who can spin the wildest yarn! Participation encouraged: Prepare to read, recite or relate your own tall tale?something social, silly, sensual and symbolic!

DOOR PRIZES
Throughout the evening, participating audience members may win door prizes for dropping an interesting definition of magic realism into the box at the door and for being the first name-and-answer drawn from a hat to correctly identify some link between all the stories?a phrase, an object, an image (to be decided by the authors just beforehand). Members of the audience could also win one of several door prizes (copies of Periphery, a magical realist zine, fountain pens, key-chains, etc.) plus the grand prize, a small library of signed copies of books from our featured authors.

BOOK SALES
All of our featured authors will be available to sell and sign their books throughout the evening. Help support North American magical realist authors!

For more information:
(in Canada) ? CNT: Johnny Frem, 604.254.0355
About Johnny Frem

(in the US) ? CNT: Tamara Kaye Sellman, 206.618.7348 (cell/text messages)
About Tamara Kaye Sellman

ABOUT THE FEATURED READERS

American authors

JANICE EIDUS (New York) is a novelist, short story writer, and essayist. Eidus has twice won the O. Henry Prize for her short stories, as well as a Redbook Prize, a Pushcart Prize, a National Writers Voice Residency Award, and a Money for Women/Barbara Deming Fellowship. She is the author of the short story collections THE CELIBACY CLUB and VITO LOVES GERALDINE and the novels URBAN BLISS and FAITHFUL REBECCA. She is co-editor (along with John Kastan) of ITS ONLY ROCK AND ROLL: an anthology of rock and roll short stories.

JOHN P. BRIGGS' (Massachusetts) most recent book release is the collection, TRICKSTER TALES. Briggs has published fiction in Prairie Schooner, Northwest Review, Parting Gifts, Pudding Magazine, Art Times, New Novel Review, and many others. A 2003 issue of River Oak Review featured several of his dream stories and an interview about metaphor and chaos in literature. Briggs' published books include THE SEVEN LIFE LESSONS OF CHAOS (coauthored with physicist F. David Peat), FRACTALS: THE PATTERNS OF CHAOS, FIRE IN THE CRUCIBLE: THE ALCHEMY OF CREATIVE GENIUS, and others. Briggs helped to develop the MFA in Professional Writing at Western Connecticut State University, where he is Distinguished Professor. He is also Senior Editor at Connecticut Review.

EWING CAMPBELL (Texas) is author of WEAVE IT LIKE NIGHTFALL, PIRANESI'S DREAM, MADONNA MALEVA and other books. Campbell received the 2002 American Literary Review and 1998 Chris O?Malley fiction prizes. His work has also been recognized with NEA and Dobie-Paisano fellowships. Campbell was a Fullbright scholar to Argentina in 1989 and Spain in 1997.

KAREN MCELMURRAY (Georgia) is the author of the novel, STRANGE BIRDS IN THE TREES OF HEAVEN, which explores the boundaries between beliefs, desires, obsessions, and madness. McelMurray has received such distinctions as the Chaffin Award, the Sherwood Anderson Award, the James Purdy Prize for Fiction, and an NEA fellowship. She has published essays and stories in numerous magazines and journals. McElMurray will be specially honored in Vancouver by the AWP Award Series for her memoir, SURRENDERED CHILD, which earned the organization's Award for Creative Nonfiction in 2003.

Canadian authors

PAULINE HOLDSTOCK wrote HOUSE, a darkly humourous metaphysical tale of loss and the search for belonging. Holdstock's most recent novel, BEYOND MEASURE, was nominated for the 2004 Giller Prize. She is also the author of numerous short stories within her collections. Her novels and short fiction have been published internationally, and her literary non-fiction has appeared in national newspapers and has been broadcast on CBC radio. Her most recent book is a collection of essays, MORTAL DISTRACTIONS, published by Thistledown.

PAULO DA COSTA was born in Angola and raised in Portugal. His first book of short fiction, THE SCENT OF A LIE, received the 2003 Commonwealth First Book Prize for the Canada-Caribbean Region and the W. O Mitchell City of Calgary Book Prize. His poetry and fiction have been published internationally in literary magazines around the world and have been translated to Italian, Spanish, German, Serbian, Slovenian and Portuguese. His latest works are MIDWIFE OF TORMENT & OTHER STORIES, a CD of sudden fictions, and NOTAS-DE-RODAPE, a book of Portuguese poems.