All booked up

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This article was published 20/09/2022 (1275 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Charlene Diehl and her team at Thin Air, the Winnipeg International Writers Festival, aren’t quite ready to close the book on the hybrid approach they adopted in 2020 (and honed in 2021) in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rather the festival, which kicks off today and runs through to Oct. 18, will once again feature a mixture of events that include both in-person and streaming options, as well as online-only content, available at thinairfestival.ca.

And while the festival may look very much the same as last year, the return of an in-person opening-night party at Kilter Brewing Co. (450 Rue Deschambault) tonight at 7 p.m. kicks things off with a bang.

Page One will feature readers in English and French, live music and the return of the festival’s popular Haiku Death Match.

“It’s sort of a rowdy party game,” explains Diehl, who is at the helm of Thin Air for the 20th year. “Two people, up against each other, and they each deliver a little 17-syllable blurb… the pieces people write range from really bawdy, sometimes really quite serious, sometimes political.”

As in previous years, the festival’s roster of local, national and international authors runs the gamut from fiction and poetry to non-fiction, biography and beyond, and includes both new and emerging writers as well as established bestsellers.

Asked about notable authors or events she’s excited about, Diehl hesitates in the same way a parent would if asked to name a favourite child, but when pressed says she’s thrilled to have authors such as Suzette Mayr, Margaret Sweatman, Heather O’Neill, Pamela Mordecai, John Elizabeth Stinzi and Chelene Knight involved this year.

Thin Air once again worked closely with McNally Robinson Booksellers in organizing the bulk of the in-person readings and events; the bookstore’s Grant Park location will host most of the live events, with an option to watch live online.

And while this year’s in-person readings again feature primarily local writers, touring authors such as CBC science whiz Bob McDonald and historian Ben Macintyre will be dropping in.

Diehl is also particularly excited about Vancouver-based journalist Marsha Lederman’s appearance in support of her memoir about intergenerational trauma, Kiss the Red Stairs: The Holocaust, Once Removed. Lederman will appear Oct. 12 at 7 p.m. at the Berney Theatre (123 Doncaster St.) at a reading and discussion presented in conjunction with the Rady Jewish Community Centre.

“I think it’s a really important book, and she’s a really special person,” says Diehl.

Another event Diehl is eagerly anticipating is a literary walk with former Winnipegger Tanis MacDonald, who recently released the non-fiction essay collection Straggle: Adventures in Walking While Female. The event, which takes place on Oct. 10 at 2 p.m., starts at the Bridge Drive In (766 Jubilee Ave.) and traces a route from one of Straggle’s essays. MacDonald will also host an in-person writing workshop the day before called The Truth About Bodies in Motion at Artspace (100 Arthur St.).

As was the case in 2020 and 2021, the festival’s online component will feature videos of authors reading from their work, as well as additional content created specially for Thin Air that provides a sense of intimacy often found when a reader is immersed in a book, says Diehl.

“It’s a different kind of intimate… In these cases, sometimes they show you things that you would otherwise never know — they walk you through the neighbourhood and talk about the setting in a novel, or share documents used when researching their book,” she says. “You’re invited into these one-on-one moments with the writer.”

Like many festival organizers (and many of us in general), Diehl found 2021 exhausting. “Last year I was so tired. I was just sitting on the edge of complete collapse the whole year and just trying to keep stuff going,” she says.

For 2022, Diehl feels a renewed sense of energy and enthusiasm, bolstered in large part by her team, who have one more year of hybrid programming under their collective belts.

A key addition to that team earlier this year was Sébastien Gaillard, who has reinvigorated Thin Air’s French-language programming.

“That program has needed a bit of an injection of energy for a while,” says Diehl. “He popped into my inbox when I was looking for a French person… He’s hustled together a really exciting program. He’s very much a connector sort of person. He’s fiercely determined to really have broad diversity in the lineup. He’s just been just a joy.”

With fewer decisions falling on her shoulders this year, Diehl has been able to reflect on just what it is she loves about having helmed Thin Air for 20 years.

“I still find it exciting, inspiring, uplifting — it juices me up,” she says. “The writers get younger… They’re kind of just getting going, and I just love that… the writing is continuing to grow and emerge in the voices that are coming forward.”

The festival closes Oct. 18 back at Kilter with a celebration of the best Manitoba authors. While the Manitoba Book Awards winners were announced online earlier this year, 2022 will be the first time since 2019 that the local writing community will be able to come together and properly celebrate.

“Doing it virtually has been great, but it hasn’t really had a party, festive feeling,” says Diehl. “If we can gather in a relaxed pub setting, it will be a party — and that party needs to happen.”

ben.sigurdson@winnipegfreepress.com