Magic, romance, gore; who could ask for more?

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/09/2010 (5799 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Filling in the occupation box as “writer” may seem sufficient for tax purposes, but it doesn’t come close to being a useful handle here in the real world, any more than “mammal” qualifies as a sufficient description of a bank robber.

It requires more information. Genus. Species. Habits. Breeding grounds.

In its 14th year, the Thin Air Winnipeg International Writers Festival fills in the blanks with an acknowledgement that “writer” is a multifaceted profession. The festival is thus literally and figuratively all over the map, with eight days of readings, workshops, lectures and discussions encompassing poetry, journalism, novels, short stories, memoir and metafiction.

“That’s what keeps me excited,” says Charlene Diehl of Thin Air’s diversity.

“I have all sorts of academic experience and training,” says Diehl, now in her eighth year as festival director. “But I’m also a writer and the older I get as a book lover, the more I realize how much I’ve been influenced and guided and inspired and challenged by many different kinds of writing.

“So I really do strive in my programming to embrace a broad spectrum, not just of styles, but also genres and writing techniques and strategies.”

“With people who love books, some of them are reading books because they want information, people want escape, some people really want magic, some people want romance and some people want a nice bit of gory crime.

“It’s how we feed ourselves,” she says. “So I think the older I get, the less distinction I make between how you get your stories.”

Also among the literary stars and notable events of Thin Air:

 

— North Bay, Ont.-spawned Giles Blunt is a mystery novelist (A Delicate Storm, Blackfly Season) who has successfully crossed over into television (Law & Order, Street Legal). He’ll be offering a workshop on The Writer’s Toolkit on Saturday, Sept. 25, at 10 a.m. at Aqua Books.

Admission to the session is $25 (or $20 with Thin Air Club Card) with admission including a beverage and fresh baking from Aqua’s EAT! Bistro.

Giles will also be the featured guest of festival director Charlene Diehl for a discussion titled A Pint of Bitter Murder, also at Aqua Books on Saturday at 3 p.m. that Saturday.

 

— Winnipeg-born Ken Finkleman is coming to Thin Air as a novelist with his first published novel, Noah’s Turn. But Finkleman’s first writing credits were on American television, writing for the likes of Dick Van Dyke and British vaudevillian Frankie Howerd in the mid-’70s, graduating to big-screen fare such as Grease 2, Airplane 2 and the Madonna vehicle Who’s That Girl? throughout the SSRq80s.

In the last 15 years, Finkleman earned respect as the writer, producer and star of critically acclaimed CBC series such as The Newsroom and More Tears.

Noah’s Turn presumably encompasses much of Finkleman’s experience. It’s about a declining TV writer who jealously murders (with a machete) a literary pal just as his star is ascending.

Finkleman participates in a few Thin Air events on Tuesday, notably a round table discussion titled What’s the Matter with Men? at 8 p.m. at the Canwest Performing Arts Centre (MTYP), at The Forks. Finkleman will be joined by Winnipeg author David Bergen, David Carpenter (A Hunter’s Confession), Lawrence Scanlan (The Man Who Listens to Horses) and AJ Somerset (Combat Camera) as they take on this daunting subject.

Also on Tuesday, Finkleman will do free readings from Noah’s Turn at the Millennium Library at 12:15 p.m. and the Red River College downtown campus at 160 Princess St. at 4 p.m.

 

Big Ideas (Monday through Friday, 4:30-5:30 p.m. in the Carol Shields Auditorium of the Millennium Library) offers a daily dose of writers examining the great notions that drove their works.

— Monday’s speaker is former Haitian Bathélemy Bolivar, who moved from Haiti to Winnipeg in 2002. The recent earthquake in his homeland prompted him to write Mots de Terre/Voice of the Earth: Haiti, an ode to his birthplace.

— Tuesday, veteran journalist Lawrence Scanlan discusses the premise of his book A Year of Living Generously: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Philanthropy, which involved him offering a month of his services to different charities for one full year.

— Wednesday, David Carpenter discusses his metamorphosis from avid hunter to avid conservationist in his book A Hunter’s Confession.

— Thursday, journalist Amy Jo Ehman shares her adventures in writing A Prairie Feast: A Writer’s Journey Home for Dinner, a personal look at taking on the challenges of the Hundred Mile Diet.

— Friday, Theodore Fontaine recounts the painful experience of recalling life in a residential school for his book Broken Circle: The Dark Legacy of Indian Residential Schools.

For more information on Thin Air, log onto www.thinairwinnipeg.ca or call Thin Air at 927-7323 or email info@thinairwinnipeg.ca.

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca