Miriam Toews honoured with Steinbach plaque

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This article was published 07/09/2024 (436 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Miriam Toews will join the likes of Manitoba authors such as Margaret Laurence and Gabrielle Roy when the house in Steinbach where Toews lived as a teenager is recognized with a plaque.

The project was spearheaded by Steinbach author Andrew Unger, who previously ran the satirical website The Daily Bonnet and now runs The Unger Review and whose first novel, Once Removed, was published in 2020. Unger set up a GoFundMe for the plaque project in April, which was fully funded (to the tune of $1,600) in just 24 hours.

Anyone interested in attending the plaque unveiling is to meet at The Public Brewhouse and Gallery (301 Main St.) at 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 13 before a short walk to the house (58 Brandt St.), with a brief stop at Toews’ first home on First Street.

Following the unveiling, folks will reconvene at The Public for readings of Toews’ work by authors including Jonathan Dyck, Armin Wiebe, Mitchell Toews and Sarah Ens. Admission is free.

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Winnipeg author katherena vermette is one of a dozen authors who have made the long list for the 2024 Giller Prize.

Vermette’s novel Real Ones, which was published on Sept. 3 by Hamish Hamilton, follows two Michif sisters whose estranged mother, an artist, is labelled a “pretendian.”

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(For a review of Real Ones, see page G1.)

“I received a beautiful letter this morning from Elana Rabinovitch, who runs the Giller Prize,” said vermette when reached by the Free Press on Sept. 4, the day the long list was revealed. “I was shocked, actually — I’m always shocked at these things.”

Vermette was previously longlisted for the Giller Prize in 2021 for her novel The Strangers. She launches Real Ones at McNally Robinson Booksellers on Tuesday at 7 p.m., where she’ll be joined in conversation by Shelagh Rogers.

The 2023 Giller ceremony was marked by controversy when protesters interrupted proceedings, decrying Scotiabank’s ties to Israeli weapons manufacturers. Two of the five jurors for the 2024 prize subsequently resigned, and in an online letter to the Giller Foundation, a number of authors withdrew their books from consideration for this year’s prize, with other previous winners, including Winnipeg’s David Bergen, withdrawing their support for any promotional purposes.

Other authors on the 2024 Giller Prize long list include Jane Urquhart for In Winter I Get Up at Night, Anne Michaels for Held, Shashi Bhat for Death By a Thousand Cuts and Claire Messud for This Strange Eventful History. A complete list of shortlisted authors/books can be found at wfp.to/Cz6.

The 2024 Giller Prize short list will be revealed on Oct. 9, and the winner announced at a ceremony in Toronto on Nov. 18.

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Vancouver-based author Sonya Lalli will pay a virtual visit to the University of Winnipeg on Thursday as part of the Publishing Speakers’ Series, where she’ll be joined on Zoom at 2:30 p.m. by author and U of W professor Lindsay Wong for a conversation about writing and the literary industry.

Those in attendence will get two guests speakers for the price of one. In addition to writing romance novels, Lalli also pens psychological thrillers under the name S.C. Lalli. Her most recent novel is The Plus One, dubbed as “The White Lotus meets The Guest List.”

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To register to watch the Zoom chat, visit wfp.to/Czj.

books@freepress.mb.ca