Canadian Mennonite University Spring Literary Festival
Authors Announced
Members of the public are invited to hear prairie authors on May 4, 6, and 8, 2009, at CMU’s Spring Literary Festival.
People who like enjoy literature and who also like hearing from and meeting authors are in for a treat during the second annual Spring Literary Festival at CMU.
From May 4-8, during the university's third annual School of Writing, the public is invited to come and hear readings and presentations by authors Di Brandt, Myrna Kostash, Jake MacDonald, David Elias, Joan Nickel, Barbara Thomas and Trevor Herriot.
The first reading, on May 4 at 7 p.m., features authors Di Brandt, Myrna Kostash and Jake MacDonald.
The second reading, on May 6 at 7 p.m., features authors David Elias, Barbara Nickel and Joan Thomas.
The third reading, on May 8, at 7:30 p.m., features award-winning author and naturalist Trevor Herriot of Regina.
LOCATION:
All of the readings are in the Great Hall at CMU's Shaftesbury campus; 500 Shaftesbury Blvd.
Admission is free.
The Festival is sponsored by the School of Writing at CMU, with the support of The Canada Council for the Arts, through The Writers' Union of Canada, and The League of Canadian Poets.
The School of Writing at CMU was started in 2007 with the support of award-winning author Rudy Wiebe. This year's instructors are David Bergen (Advanced Fiction); David Elias (Intermediate Fiction); Myrna Kostash (Creative Non-Fiction); Barbara Nickel (Poetry); and Joanne Klassen and Eleanor Chornoby (Life Writing). Over 50 people have signed up for this year's School.
For more information about the School of Writing at CMU please go to their website at
About the 2009 Spring Literary Festival Authors:
Monday, May 4, 7 p.m.:
- Di Brandt is an award-winning poet, essayist, teacher, and editor and holds the Canada Research Chair in English/Creative Writing at BrandonUniversity. She is the author of seven books of poetry, questions i asked my mother (1987), Agnes in the sky (1990), mother, not mother (1992), Jerusalem, Beloved (1995), Bouquet for St. Mary (2003), Now You Care (2003), and Speaking of Power: The Poetry of Di Brandt (2006). In addition, Brandt has published numerous books of creative/critical prose with the latest being So this is the world & here I am in it (2007). Her poetry has been set to music and adapted for theatre, film and other media.
- Myrna Kostash of Edmonton is one of Canada's best-known writers of creative non-fiction. She is the author of All of Baba's Children (1978), Long Way From Home: The Story of the Sixties Generation in Canada (1980), No Kidding: Inside the World of Teenage Girls (1987), Bloodlines: A Journey into Eastern Europe (1993), and Reading the River: A Traveller's Companion to the North Saskatchewan (2006).
Kostash has served as Chair of The Writers' Union of Canada, is the founder of the national Creative Nonfiction Collective, has taught widely, and been a popular writer-in-residence in many cities. One of her most recent works is the bestseller The Next Canada: Looking for the Future Nation (2000).
- Jake MacDonald of Winnipeg is the award-winning author of six books and a respected magazine writer. His memoir, Houseboat Chronicles (2002), won three awards including the Writers' Trust Non-Fiction Prize. His feature articles have been published in Saturday Night, The Globe and Mail, Maclean's and Canadian Geographic. His latest book, Grizzlyville (2009), is part memoir and part natural history about the relationship between humans and bears.
Wednesday, May 6, 7 p.m.
- David Elias lives in Winnipeg. His latest novel from Coteau Books is called Waiting for Elvis (2008). His first two books were collections of short fiction, from which his short story, "How I Crossed Over," was a finalist for the 1996 Journey Prize. His novel Sunday Afternoon, published in 2004, was nominated for several awards, including The Books In Canada First Novel Award, The McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award, and The Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction.
- Barbara Nickel is the winner of the Pat Lowther Award (best Canadian poetry collection by a woman) and the Malahat Review Long Poem Prize. Her most recent collection is Domain (2007). Earlier collections are The Gladys Elegies (1997) and From the Top Of a Grain Elevator (1999). Born in Saskatchewan, she now lives in British Columbia. Barbara is also an award-winning author of children's books such as Hannah Waters and The Daughter of Jordan Sebastian Bach (2006) and Secret Wish of Nannerl Mozart (1996). She has an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia.
- Joan Thomas has worked as a freelance writer, editor, and arts administrator. Her reviews and articles have appeared in The Globe and Mail, The Winnipeg Free Press and Prairie Fire. Joan's first book, Reading by Lightning (2008), was listed as one of the Globe and Mail's 100 Best Books in 2008 and was recently won the 2009 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Canada/Caribbean Best First Book. Her second book, Curiosity, is due from McClelland & Stewart in 2010. She is from Winnipeg.
Friday, May 8, 7:30 p.m.
- Trevor Herriot of Regina is an award-winning author and naturalist. His first book, River in a Dry Land: A Prairie Passage (2000), won the Drainie-Taylor Biography Prize, the Saskatchewan Book of the Year Award, the Regina Book Award, a CBC Libris Award, and was short listed for the Governor General's Award. In 2006 he published Jacob's Wound: A Search for the Spirit of Wildness, which revisits the Biblical story of Jacob and Esau, and asks what is their enduring legacy for us today. His new book is Grass, Sky, Song: Promise and Peril in the World of Grassland Birds (2009). He is active in the Nature Conservancy of Canada and appears frequently on CBC Radio in Saskatchewan.
For more information please contact:
Michael Van Rooy
Administrator
School of Writing at CMU
CanadianMennoniteUniversity
500 Shaftesbury Blvd.
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, R3P 2N2