Savour an afternoon of outstanding readings and high tea delicacies, at one of our most beloved returning events. The tables will be laden with scones, sandwiches, and cookies; the tea and coffee will be flowing, alongside a signature glass of sherry. Accompanying the sumptuous spread are readings of anticipated new fiction from celebrated authors: Myriam J. A. Chancy (Village Weavers), Anne Fleming (Curiosities), Conor Kerr (Prairie Edge), Kirsten McDougall (She’s A Killer), Claire Messud (This Strange Eventful History), and Jacob Wren (Dry Your Tears to Perfect Your Aim). Hosted by Bill Richardson.
Generously sponsored by the Faris Family in memory of Yulanda Faris.
More information about the Festival:
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Event Participants:
MYRIAM J.A. CHANCY, award-winning author of What Storm, What Thunder, is a Haitian-Canadian-American writer, the HBA Chair in the Humanities at Scripps College in Claremont, California and a Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
ANNE FLEMING is the author of Pool-Hopping and Other Stories, shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction and the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize; and the novel Anomaly, published to widespread acclaim. Her middle-grade novel, The Goat, was a Junior Library Guild and White Ravens selection, shortlisted for Italy's Premio Strega, optioned for film, and named one of the Top Ten Children's Books of the Year by the New York Public Library and The Wall Street Journal. Anne Fleming lives in Victoria, British Columbia.
CONOR KERR is a Métis/Ukrainian writer living in Edmonton. A member of the Métis Nation of Alberta, he is descended from the Lac Ste. Anne Metis and the Papaschase Cree Nation. His Ukrainian family are settlers in Treaty 4 and 6 territories in Saskatchewan. He grew up in Saskatoon, Edmonton, and other prairie towns and cities. In 2022 he was named one of CBC’s Writers to Watch. He is the author of the poetry collections An Explosion of Feathers and Old Gods, as well as the novel Avenue of Champions, which was shortlisted for the Amazon Canada First Novel Award, longlisted for the 2022 Giller Prize and won the 2022 ReLIT award. Conor is an Assistant Professor at the University of Alberta where he teaches creative writing.
KIRSTEN MCDOUGALL is a novelist, short story writer and creative writing lecturer. Her 2017 novel Tess was longlisted for the Ockham NZ Book Awards and shortlisted for the Ngaio Marsh Award. She’s a Killer was longlisted for the Ockham NZ Book Awards 2022. She lives in Wellington, New Zealand.
CLAIRE MESSUD has been awarded Guggenheim and Radcliffe Fellowships and the Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with her husband and children.
BILL RICHARDSON is the author of Last Week, an illustrated children’s book that sensitively portrays medical assistance in dying (MAiD); I Saw Three Ships, a collection of stories set in Vancouver’s West End; and Hare B&B, a picture book with illustrations by Bill Pechet.
JACOB WREN’s books include Polyamorous Love Song (a Globe and Mail best book of 2014); Rich and Poor (finalist for the Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction and a Globe and Mail best book of 2016); and Authenticity is a Feeling. Wren is co-artistic director of the interdisciplinary group PME-ART and lives in Montreal.
