Name: RCLAS present Tellers of Short Tales and Poetic Justice: In Honour of Remembrance Day
Start: 2024-11-09T14:00:00-08:00
Location: New Westminster Public Library

RCLAS present Tellers of Short Tales and Poetic Justice: In Honour of Remembrance Day
Featuring Jerena Tobiasen, Winona Kent, Shawn Gale, H.W. Bryce, Alan Girling with host Alan Hill
Date: Saturday NOVEMBER 9, 2024
Time: 2:00PM to 4:15PM, Doors 1:45PM, Free admission.
Location: New West Public Library
716 6th Avenue, New Westminster
(Downstairs Room, accessible by elevator)
Open Mic time-permitting.
Host Alan Hill was born in the UK and immigrated to Canada in 2005. He is the former Poet Laureate of the City of New Westminster, BC (2017-2020), former president of the Royal City Literary Arts Society (RCLAS), and was the editor and curator of A Poetry of Place: Journeys Across New Westminster, published in partnership with New Westminster Arts Services. His writing has been published internationally and his poetry has appeared in Event, CV2, Canadian Literature, The Antigonish Review, subTerrain, Poetry is Dead, among others. He works in the field of community development and immigrant settlement and lives in New Westminster, BC. His book In The Blood, was published by Caitlin Press in 2022.
Jerena Tobiasen, a native Vancouverite, is the author of four award-winning historical fiction novels, including the 3-volume saga The Prophecy, and her latest series The Nightingale and Sparrow Chronicles. Jerena embellishes her writing by travelling to foreign lands, visiting museums and libraries, conducting interviews, and travelling in the footsteps of her characters. Her experiences and discoveries enrich the authenticity of the historical fiction she crafts.
Included among her several awards are:
2020 Canada Book Awards for each of The Crest, The Emerald and The Destiny
2021 Hemingway Book Award for 20th Century Wartime Fiction, 1st Place – The Emerald
2023 Hemingway Book Award for 20th Century Wartime Fiction, 1st Place –Tsarina’s Crown
Tsarina’s Jewels, the next adventure in The Nightingale and Sparrow Chronicles, will be released later this year.
Jerena also writes short stories, travel commentaries and poems, some of which can be found on her website jerenatobiasen.ca.
WINONA KENT was born in London, England and grew up in Regina, Saskatchewan, where she completed her BA in English at the University of Regina. After moving to Vancouver, she graduated from UBC with an MFA in Creative Writing and received her diploma in Writing for Screen and TV from Vancouver Film School.
Winona’s debut novel Skywatcher was a finalist in the Seal Books First Novel Award and was published by Bantam Books in 1989. Since then, she has written eleven more books, including her five current soft-boiled musical mysteries featuring professional musician / amateur sleuth Jason Davey.
Winona’s also the author of a number of short stories, which she’s gathered together for her anthology Ten Stories That Worried My Mother.
Winona has been a temporary secretary, a travel agent, a screenwriter and the Managing Editor of a literary magazine. She’s currently the national Chair of the Crime Writers of Canada, and is also an active member of Sisters in Crime – Canada West. After many decades working in jobs completely unrelated to writing, Winona is now happily embracing life as a full-time author. She lives in New Westminster, BC with her husband, and a concerning number of disobedient houseplants, many of which were rescued from her apartment building’s compost bin after being abandoned by previous owners.

Shawn Douglas Gale is a Canadian screenwriter, an academic, and a critically-acclaimed author. Gale graduated from Fraser Valley Writers' School with a Master's diploma. He graduated from Humber College's prestigious School for Writers, where he earned a Letter of Distinction. He completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in Creative Writing at Bircham International University. He studied at University of Wisconsin-Madison's Creative Writing department from 2014 to 2017 with a focus in both TV Writing and Screenwriting. He has completed various other courses and programs in areas such as trauma, psychology, criminology, and vocational training.
Gale's many stories and articles have been widely published in magazines, anthologies, and periodicals in the U.S. and Canada. He is the author of the acclaimed story collection The Stories That Make Us. He is also the author of the critically-acclaimed fantasy/adventure series World of Dawn. He is working on developing it into film. His books are in small and large libraries all across the globe.
Gale is a member of Burnaby Writers Society, Royal City Literary Arts Society, and The Writers' Union of Canada. He lives in New Westminster, BC, with his family.
H. W. Bryce, former journalist and book editor, is author of Chasing a Butterfly, a book of poems about his wife’s Alzheimer’s, the writing of which saved him from depression. His poetry appears in anthologies in Canada, the US, India, Bolivia, and in Neworld Review, Ekphrastic Review, and the Spanish Azahar. A former judge for the Rabindranath Tagore Award, he is the recipient of the Distinguished Poet/Writer award from the International Writers Network, and has been dubbed the Bard in the Park by the Royal City Literary Arts Society. A member of the Federation of British Columbia Writers, Bryce’s Facebook blog reaches an international audience via facebook.com/herb.w.bryce. He has read at international conferences and various poetry groups via zoom. He also performs regularly at area poetry groups and is a repeat performer on radio’s World Poetry Café. He is the holder of a BA in English and Journalism.
alan girling lives in Richmond, British Columbia. His writings have appeared in print, online, on the radio, and in the occasional shop window. He’s won a few prizes for poetry and fiction and has had a short play produced.
He regularly publishes his poetry at his Substack newsletter called man of aran: https://alangirling.substack.com/