83. A Trio of Vast Ideas

These immersive, short interviews reveal profound observations, as Minelle Mahtani sits down with three authors of transformative non-fiction titles in back-to-back talks. Claire Cameron’s How to Survive a Bear Attack weaves together a memoir about her experience with skin cancer and an investigation of a fatal black bear attack, in a meditation on the precious act of survival. In his defining essay collection Wînipêk, Niigaan Sinclair tells the story of Winnipeg—the place he calls “ground zero” of Canada’s future—to illuminate the reality of Indigenous life across the country. elin kelsey is an environmental activist who leads with hope; she shares How to Be Hopeful, an inspiring and evidence-based guide to dealing with climate anxiety.

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Event Participants:

Claire Cameron

CLAIRE CAMERON’s most recent novel, The Last Neanderthal, was a national bestseller and a finalist for the 2017 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. It sold in eleven territories. Her second novel, The Bear, was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, sold in ten territories, and was a #1 national bestseller. It won the Northern Lit Award from the Ontario Library Service, which her first novel, The Line Painter, also won. Claire has led canoe trips in Algonquin Park and worked as an instructor for Outward Bound, teaching mountaineering, climbing, and whitewater rafting in Oregon and beyond. She lives in Toronto.

Elin Kelsey

ELIN KELSEY, PhD, is an award-winning author, speaker, and thought leader. She has written numerous bestselling children’s books, including You Are Stardust, and is the author of Hope Matters: Why Changing the Way We Think Is Critical for Solving the Environmental Crisis. kelsey splits her time between Monterey, California and Victoria, British Columbia.

Minelle Mahtani

MINELLE MAHTANI is an author, former radio host and professor. She is the author of the award-winning memoir, May it Have a Happy Ending (with Penguin Random House). She is the Chair of Canadian Studies at UBC and has won two national magazine awards for her creative non fiction work. She is from Toronto and is of mixed Indian-Iranian descent.

Niigaan Sinclair

NIIGAAN SINCLAIR is Anishinaabe from Peguis First Nation and a professor at the University of Manitoba, where he holds the Faculty of Arts Professorship in Indigenous Knowledge and Aesthetics in the Department of Indigenous Studies. Niigaan is a multiple nominee of Canadian columnist of the year (winning in 2018) and is a featured commentator on CBC's Power & Politics and APTN’s Truth and Politics panel. Niigaan was recently named to the “Power List” by Maclean’s magazine as one of the most influential individuals in Canada and is a former secondary school teacher who won the 2019 Peace Educator of the Year from the Peace and Justice Studies Association based at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. He is an award-winning author, speaker, and curriculum developer, and was co-editor of Manitowapow: Aboriginal Writings from the Land of Water (Highwater Press)—the book voted by Manitobans in the “On the Same Page” competition as the top book to read in 2012.