April 24, 1994, 8:00 p.m.
	An evening of stories, poems and songs featuring Norma Harrs, Elisavietta Ritchie and Nina Shapilsky We asked Norma Harrs, whose (then) latest book of short stories Love Minus One was about to appear, to read at Artword, and asked her who she would like to appear with. She suggested her friend, poet Elisavietta Ritchie, who in turn suggested singer Nina Shapilsky. Norma Harrs was a professional actress before turning to writing. She has written a novel, A Certain State of Mind, and three plays, Sonya, Essential Conflict and The 40th Birthday Party. Many of her short stories have been published in literary journals across the country and in the United States. Love Minus One was published by Hounslow Press in the fall of 1994. Elisavietta Ritchie read from The Arc of the Storm and Elegy for The Other Woman. two books of poetry about to be published by Signal Books in 1994. Her collection of short stories, Flying Time: Stories and Half-Stories includes four PEN syndicated Fiction winners. Palmerston Press of Toronto published A Wound-Up Cat and Other Bedtime Stories in 1993. Tightening the Circle Over Eel Country won the Great Lakes Colleges Association's "New Writer's Award for Best First Book of Poetry 1975-76", and Raking the Snow won the 1981 Washington Writers' Publishing House competition. She edited The Dolphin's Arc: Poems on Endangered Creatures of the Sea. Nina Shapilsky was one of the performers in "Russians on Broadway" who was stranded in Toronto in 1992 when the show was cancelled. In the former Soviet Union, while completing studies in composition and piano at the Moscow Academy of Music, she worked as senior concert-master at the Stanislavsky State Theatre of Opera and Ballet. She was the musical director of various popular groups, ultimately directing the Moscow Transit Quartet, the most popular big band in Russia. RW