Posts Tagged ‘Appearances’
Wednesday, September 21st, 2011
Once again it’s time for Kingston WritersFest, and a brilliant festival it will be! As web content editor I got to write profiles of many of the artists who will be visiting us, and what a wonderful way to get a sense of the variety and excitement the festival will offer. I’m looking forward to so many of these events.
Several, in particular, should appeal to lovers of nonfiction, including In Praise of Older Women, with Lorna Crozier, Molly Peacock, and Merrily Weisbord; and Great Scots, with Richard Gwyn, Vincent Lam, and Ken McGoogan. There are still tickets to these events available, but several others are sold out, and it would be wise to order in advance rather than hoping to get seats at the door.
On Thursday, I’m delighted to be moderating a discussion between young adult writers Adwoa Badoe and Y.S. Lee. Adwoa’s Between Sisters is a gripping realistic account of a young girl caught by temptations that her background has ill prepared her for, while Ying Lee’s The Agency series is a gender bending mystery-romance set in Victorian London. But if you think these books have nothing in common, you are wrong. Join us at 10:45 a.m., Thursday, September 25, at Kingston’s Holiday Inn Waterfront, to find out what I mean.
I will also be hosting several other events during the festival and will be onsite most of the time. Really looking forward to it.
Tags: Appearances, Kingston WritersFest
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Saturday, July 9th, 2011
But You Have No Idea.
A Reading and Discussion with Sarah Leavitt at Novel Idea Books, Kingston
Wednesday, July 20, 6 pm
FREE.
Most readers will confess to mining the details of their favourite novels for evidence of the writer’s life. Switch out one gender for another, add ten years and relocate a character to another province or territory and we’re all but certain that the writer is talking about his or her first love, a parent, an old boss, maybe a child.
What, though, of the non-fiction writer and the memoirist? What of the people we’ve come to know only through a very focused view of their world? Do we take for granted that we know something about them? Do we as readers in a sense fictionalize non-fiction writers, creating heroes and, in some cases, villains? What do we really know of the non-fiction writer?
Please join Sarah and me as we read from our respective works and chat candidly about the figure of the nonfiction writer.
Tags: Appearances, Creative Nonfiction
Posted in Appearances, Creative Nonfiction, Memoir | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 31st, 2010
If I’ve been sadly absent here—and I have been—it’s partly because this summer I’ve been extremely busy putting together the content for Kingston WritersFest’s web site. More than sixty-three authors are coming to share their work with us this season, including novelists Steven Heighton, Lisa Moore, Joan Thomas, Kathleen Winter, and Michael Winter; memoirists Karen Connelly and Iain Reid, and poets Joanne Page and John Steffler. Find the complete list on our Authors Page.
One of the perks of my job was that in composing profiles for each of our authors I got to know quite a lot about them and their upcoming books, as well as their reading habits. Fascinating stuff.
I’ll be appearing at Kingston WritersFest as moderator of an event called In Search of Memory, a conversation with Judy Fong Bates about her beautiful memoir, The Year of Finding Memory. I loved Judy’s novel, Midnight at the Dragon Café, and I’m just about to dive into the memoir now. Tickets to this event, and all others, are available at the Grand Theatre Box Office. Prices are very reasonable, but tickets are selling fast, so get yours soon!
Those of you who love to write should check out the Writers Studio—ten master classes with some of Canada’s best writers. I plan to attend as many of these as I can get into!
If you’re in Kingston or anywhere near it in late September, join us!
Tags: Appearances, Kingston WritersFest
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Monday, May 31st, 2010
I’ve just come back from the annual Prince Edward County Authors’ Festival, where I hosted a panel discussion with Dani Couture, Colin Frizzell, Sarah Selecky, and Paul Vermeersch. We’d been asked to talk about the writing life, so our conversation ranged widely, from questions about genre, to thoughts about revision (including Sarah Selecky’s interesting idea about revision as translation), to Paul Vermeersch’s eerily exact Al Purdy imitation.
As editor of the Al Purdy A-Frame Anthology, Paul also spoke to the audience about the Purdy A-Frame Trust. Spearheaded by the indefatigable Jean Baird, the Trust aims to purchase, restore and preserve the poet’s house on Roblin Lake as a permanent writers’ retreat. For more information, see Marnie Woodrow’s piece about this in The County Grapevine.
The PEC festival must be one of the best small-town festivals in Canada. Audiences are enthusiastic and well-informed, the venue is spacious, yet intimate, organizers are exceptionally welcoming, and the setting is spectacular. Yesterday, I heard brilliant readings by Steven Heighton, Sarah Selecky, Mariann Ackerman, and Cordelia Strube as well as Catherine Gildiner and Helen Humphreys. What a pleasure to be exposed to new work by these authors and to talk with several fine poets and fiction writers about their process.
Tags: Anthologies, Appearances
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Wednesday, May 26th, 2010
On Saturday, May 29 at 4 pm, I will be moderating a panel on the writing life, with guests Roz Bound, Colin Frizzell, Sarah Selecky and Paul Vermeersch.
Books and Company, 289 Main Street, Picton, Ontario.
As a participant in last year’s festival, I can attest that it’s an intimate and inspiring occasion in one of the most beautiful parts of the province! Come for one event or better yet, come for them all!
For tickets or information, call: 613 476 3037
Tags: Appearances, Festivals
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