Goodhand to unpack stories with book club

The Free Press Book Club is pleased to welcome Winnipeg author Seyward Goodhand to the next virtual meeting on Monday, March 27 at 7 p.m. to read from and discuss her debut short-story collection Even That Wildest Hope.

Published by Invisible Publishing in September 2019, the 10 stories in Even That Wildest Hope explore the anxieties that exist in the world. In a November 2019 interview with the Free Press, Goodhand shared thoughts on her book and the world, which now seem eerily prophetic. “Everything is heating up, something is about to change — whether it’s something catastrophic or some sort of political structural change. It feels like things are heating up to the point that something’s about to break,” she said.

Past, present and future collide in the collection’s stories, which includes a rewriting of Goodhand’s story The Fur Trader’s Daughter, which landed her on the $10,000 Journey Prize short list in 2011. Some of the stories offer a surreal quality while delving into retelling myths, including characters such as Gilgamesh, while others riff on fictionalized accounts of history featuring Leni Riefenstahl. All of the stories are tied together by a rich language that fleshes out their core concepts.

“I think with short fiction you can be a bit experimental, you can do odd things that over the course of a novel might try people’s patience,” Goodhand explained in the 2019 interview. “[I]f some of the stories are inspired by ideas, concepts, moral problems, you can explore them quickly.”

At the 2020 Manitoba Book Awards, Even That Wildest Hope was a finalist for the Manitoba Book Awards’ Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction and the Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book. It was also longlisted for the Sunburst Award for Adult Fiction.

Goodhand will be joined by Free Press reporter Katie May and Joanna Graham of McNally Robinson Booksellers for the virtual book club meeting on Monday, March 27 at 7 p.m. She will read from Even That Wildest Hope, discuss themes that run throughout the collection and answer questions from viewers and readers.

Copies of Even That Wildest Hope are available to purchase at McNally Robinson; there is no cost to join the book club and virtual discussion, which will be available to replay after the event on the Free Press YouTube channel.

To join the Free Press Book Club and for more information on current and future book picks, visit wfp.to/bookclub.

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