Matt Rader, M.F.A (Oregon), is the author of two highly acclaimed books of poetry, Miraculous Hours (Nightwood 2005) and Living Things (Nightwood 2008) as well as the award winning fine press chapbook, The Land Beyond (greenboathouse books 2003). His poems and stories have appeared in journals across North America, Australia, and Europe and in anthologies such as Breathing Fire 2: Canada’s New Poets, The Journey Prize Anthology, The Echoing Years: Poetry from Canada and Ireland, Jailbreaks: 99 Canadian Sonnets, and most recently Best Canadian Poetry 2008.

The recipient of numerous award nominations including The Gerald Lampert Award, The Journey Prize, The Pushcart Prize, and The National Magazine Award for both Poetry and Fiction, Rader recently completed a novel about love, revenge, jealousy, and brothers, set in northern Vancouver Island, as well as a long poem on the lynching of the Sto:lo boy, Louis Sam in Sumas, 1884. A limited edition chapbook, Reservations, was recently published by Alfred Gustav Press. A companion chapbook, Customs, is forthcoming in fall 2009 from Cactus Press. He is currently at work on a third collection of poems called, Human Nature, and a second novel entitled, Couples.

For many years, Matt ran the micro-publisher Mosquito Press, and related literary cabarets. Mosquito Press published a number of young Canadian writers who have gone on to have successful writing careers such as Michael V. Smith, Elizabeth Bachinsky, Chris Hutchinson, Nick Thran, Sean Horlor, and Matt Hooton. He is also a past director of the Robson Reading Series at The University of British Columbia where he hosted readings from many of the most prominent writers in the country. In addition to his curatorial work, Rader has preformed his poems and stories at bookstores, bars, cafes, and festivals from Newfoundland to British Columbia, and through-out the United States. He has appeared numerous times at The Vancouver International Writers Festival, and in 2007 he appeared at the Queensland Poetry Festival in Brisbane, QLD. His poems have been read on numerous radio programs including CBC’s North by Northwest and The Arts Tonight. He has written literary criticism for several publications including Event Magazine, Matrix, and Zoland Poetry Review.