Grandmother’s memoir lands Colby a Kobzar

B.C. author Sasha Colby has won the 2026 Kobzar Book Award for her work of non-fiction The Matryoshka Memoirs: A Story of Urkainian Forced Labour, the Leica Camera Factory and Nazi Resistance.

The $25,000 prize, presented by the Shevchenko Foundation at a gala at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights on March 26, is awarded every two years to a work that highlights the Ukrainian-Canadian experience and the issues faced by Ukrainians in Canada.

Colby’s book, published in 2023 by ECW Press, chronicles the plight of her grandmother, Irina Nikifortchuk, who was abducted by the Nazis and made to labour at the Leica camera factory, and the factory heiress who helped rescue Nikifortchuk, who was imprisoned by the Gestapo.

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The other two finalists were Bohdan S. Kordan for the non-fiction book No Place Like Home: Enemy Alien Internment in Canada during the Great War, and Michael Cherkas for Red Harvest: A Graphic Novel of the Terror Famine in 1930s Soviet Ukraine.

This year’s jury consisted of University of Alberta Press acquisitions editor Kay Rollans, 2024 Kobzar winner Myrna Kostash (Ghosts in a Photograph) and Free Press columnist and author Niigaan Sinclair.

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Philipp Schott may have retired from his veterinary practice, but his rural Manitoba vet-turned-sleuth Peter Bannerman is still sniffing out clues in his series of mystery novels.

Schott has authored three popular works of non-fiction based on his practice in his The Accidental Veterinarian books. Three Bengal Kittens is his fourth Bannerman mystery, and sees Peter’s brother Sam take in a trio of bengal kittens after Sam’s neighbour is found dead… and the clues about the murderer point to someone in Sam’s North End apartment building.

Three Bengal Kittens launches Wednesday at 7 p.m. at McNally Robinson Booksellers’ Grant Park location, where he’ll be joined in conversation by RRC Polytech journalism instructor (and Free Press book reviewer) Joanne Kelly.

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Manitoba author Owen Schalk launches his latest book of non-fiction Canada & NATO: Myth of a Global Peacekeeper on Friday at 7 p.m. at McNally Robinson’s Grant Park location, where he’ll be joined in conversation by Sarah Borbridge.

Schalk argues there are many misconceptions about NATO, primarily that rather than the organization being some form of defensive peacekeeper, it in fact instigates and furthers conflict in the world, and that Canada should withraw from the organization.

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For a review of Canada & NATO, see page G2 of this weekend’s Free Press books pages.

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National Poetry Month sees a dynamic duo of poets visiting Steinbach’s The Public Brewhouse and Gallery (301 Main St.) on Friday at 7 p.m. to read from their latest collections.

B.C.-based Winnipegger Patrick Friesen will read from and talk about his collection Sightings, while Victoria’s Eve Joseph will delve into her collection Dismantling.

The event is being presented by the Canada Council for the Arts, The Writers’ Union of Canada, CMU Press and Anvil Press.

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After having to postpone a March 7 trek to Brandon for a pop-up shop at Black Wheat Brewing (402 10th St.), Winnipeg horror bookseller Raven’s End Books is hitting the road today, and will be slinging books alongside the brews from 1-7 p.m.

Then on Saturday, April 11, Raven’s End will be set up at the Winnipeg Punk Rock Flea Market alongside other bookish types such as author A.W. Glen (Bukowski’s Broken Family Band), author/illustrator GMB Chomichuk (The Eye Collector), author Nigel Webber (Gritty City: An Oral History of Winnipeg Hip-Hop Music 1980-2005) and vendor Noble Steed Books.

The Winnipeg Punk Rock Flea Market takes place at the Victoria Inn (1808 Wellington Ave.) from 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Admission is pay-what-you-can/by donation.

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