Update: We’re delighted to welcome Taras Grescoe to this event! Jérémie Harris will no longer appear.
A revitalized take on our Sunday Brunch, Food for Thought presents six authors exploring topics at the forefront of our minds. Charlotte Gill (Almost Brown) fearlessly examines the complexities of life within a multicultural household. Holly Hogan is a wildlife biologist who brings a warning of the devastating effect we’re having on the ocean in Message in a Bottle. In Races, Valerie Jerome sets the record straight on her heroic family’s history and the racism they fought along the way. Helen Knott gets straight to the heart of what matriarchy truly means in Becoming a Matriarch. Stephen Marche offers pithy, witty guidance on the craft we love in On Writing and Failure. And Taras Grescoe’s The Lost Supper is an exciting and globe-trotting account of ancient cuisines, in the tradition of Michael Pollan, Anthony Bourdain, and Mark Bittman. Guests will also enjoy a continental breakfast of croissant, fruit and yogurt, tea and coffee, and our signature mimosas. Moderated by Kathryn Gretsinger.
ASL Interpretation will be provided at this event.
Event Participants:
TARAS GRESCOE is the award-winning author of seven nonfiction books and a widely read commentator on the interplay of food, travel, and the environment. His journalism has been published in many of the world’s leading newspapers and magazines, including the New York Times, the Guardian and National Geographic. He lives in Montreal, Quebec.
KATHRYN GRETSINGER is an associate professor of teaching at the School of Journalism, Writing, and Media. She is a long-time public broadcaster at the CBC, and has been named one of North America’s top innovative journalism educators.
HOLLY HOGAN is a writer and wildlife biologist with a focus on seabirds. During her more than thirty years as a scientist, she has spent about a thousand days at sea conducting avian and marine mammal surverys and providing educational programming with expedition teams. Her work has taken her to the Arctic and Antarctic Oceans, and every latitude in between. She has been interviewed for CBC Radio, appears in a National Film Board series called Ocean School and provided expertise on seabirds and the impact of marine plastic for the award-winning documentary Hell or Clean Water (2021). Holly is a mother of three and lives in St. John's, Newfoundland, with her husband, Michael, and an assortment of cats and dogs, depending on the day.
VALERIE JEROME became Canadian senior women’s champion in the sprints and long jump at the age of 15 in 1959 and went on to represent Canada at the 1960 Rome Olympics, the Commonwealth Games, and the Pan American Games (where she won a bronze medal in the 4 x 100 metre relay). Jerome’s brother Harry was one of the most recognizable Black Canadian athletes in the 1960s.
Away from the track, Jerome has represented the Green Party of British Columbia and is a recipient of the 125th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada Medal and a City of Vancouver Heritage Award for her work in conservation.
Emerging Authors presented thanks to the support of RBC
HELEN KNOTT is a Dane Zaa, Nehiyaw, Métis, and mixed Euro-descent woman living in Fort St. John, British Columbia. Her bestselling debut memoir, In My Own Moccasins, wowed reviewers, award juries, and readers alike.
STEPHEN MARCHE is a novelist, essayist and cultural commentator. He is the author of half a dozen books, and has written opinion pieces and essays for the New Yorker, the New York Times, The Atlantic, Esquire, The Walrus, and many others. He lives in Toronto with his wife and children.
