Agatha Press Fall Launch

Featuring: Leilei Chen, ryan fitzpatrick, Rayanne Haines and Carolyne Van Der Meer
Host: Matthew Stepanic

LitFest is thrilled to partner with Edmonton’s Agatha Press to bring you the launch of their fall releases – Sincerely, Sincerely by Rayanne Haines and Carolyne Van Der Meer, AS LONG AS I’M ALIVE I HAVE INFINITE CHANCES by ryan fitzpatrick, and i give birth to my body by Leilei Chen.

Leilei Chen 莫译 (muo-yee, meaning “no translation”) translated from Mandarin the poetry of Ma Hui, a contemporary poet reimagining Tibet’s sixth Dalai Lama, in the collection, I Have Forsaken Heaven and Earth, but Never Forsaken You. She is the author of Re-orienting China: Travel Writing and Cross-cultural Understanding and the translator of Nationalism: A Very Short Introduction in both simplified and traditional Chinese. She has published the English versions of Chinese women’s writing and ecological literature. Her Chinese version of Margaret Laurence’s short story collection, A Bird in the House, is forthcoming in 2025.

ryan fitzpatrick is the author of five books of poetry, including the recent No Depression in Heaven (Talonbooks, 2025) and Sunny Ways (Invisible, 2023). They were the 2024-25 Writer-in-Residence in the University of Alberta’s Department of English and Film Studies.

Rayanne Haines is a producer, podcaster, educator and award-winning poet. Her third collection, Tell The Birds Your Body Is Not A Gun (Frontenac House 2021), won the 2022 Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry and was shortlisted for both the BPAA Robert Kroetsch Award and the ReLit Award. Her poetic memoir, What Kind of Daughter? (Frontenac House 2024), was shortlisted for the 2024 Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry. Rayanne hosts the Crow Reads podcast, is the President of the League of Canadian Poets, and an Assistant Professor at MacEwan University. She teaches and writes with vulnerability as a guiding force.

Matthew Stepanic is a queer writer who lives and works on Treaty 6 territory in Edmonton. They are a co-author of the collaborative novel Project Compass (Monto Books, 2017) and the author of Relying on that Body (Glass Buffalo, 2018), a poetry chapbook about the queens of season 10 of RuPaul’s Drag Race. They edit and design chapbooks for Agatha Press, and they host and co-organize VERS/E, a monthly queer poetry open mic.

Carolyne Van Der Meer lives and writes in Montreal. She has five published books, including Motherlode: A Mosaic of Dutch Wartime Experience, and the poetry collections Sensorial and All This As I Stand By. Her most recent collection is the chapbook Birdology, published by Cactus Press in early 2025. She is currently working on a book of linked fictional vignettes.

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