Canadian novelist and poet to read at UPEI

Steven Heighton, one of Canada's most talented, versatile, and eloquently riveting writers, will be the Winter's Tales featured author for November on November 24, at 7:30 pm in the UPEI Faculty Lounge, Main Building. A book signing and reception will follow.

As a novelist and short story writer, Heighton combines spell-binding narratives, intensely realized characters, vivid settings, rich language, and illuminating intelligence. Of his latest novel, Every Lost Country, set in Tibet, T.F. Rigelholf writes in The Globe and Mail, 'Heighton takes the bare bones of an event occurring on the borderlines of most of our geographical, political and moral experiences, and refashions it into a novel that offers readers more than [just] big ideas and beautiful language… Every page, minor character and plot twist matters. Every Lost Country not only rivets readers to their seats, it challenges them to rethink the David-and-Goliath inequalities of this new millennium.'

John Barber in The Globe and Mail says, 'What sets the novel far above the thriller norm is the diversity of the viewpoints it incorporates, blended invisibly into the heart-pounding narrative by means of constant small miracles of characterization.' The Toronto Star says this novel 'recalls a Hitchcock thriller, but with better scenery.'

A dazzling poet, Heighton will also read from his new poetry book, Patient Frame. Previous novels are Afterland, a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice, and The Shadow Boxer, a Publisher's Weekly Book of the Year. His short fiction collections are Flight Paths of the Emperor and On Earth As It Is. He has published four other poetry collections and a book of essays, The Admen Move on Lhasa.

Widely anthologized and translated into ten languages, Heighton lives in Kingston, Ontario. An excellent athlete, during his last visit to PEI on a book promotion tour, in the middle of winter, Steve ran at impressive speed for several miles along Dalvay Shore. His presentation on November 24, and the official timing of a repeat run, is sponsored by the UPEI English Department, with support from The Canada Council for the Arts. www.steveheighton.com