Fingers on the pulse

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This article was published 15/09/2011 (5436 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In trying to choose authors to invite to Thin Air, Winnipeg’s annual autumn literary festival, director Charlene Diehl estimates that she reads 150 new books per year, and gives partial reads to another 300.

As she’s soaking up the latest releases from Canadian publishers, she says, possible themes for the mainstage presentations of author readings begin to emerge.

“It’s taught me a lot about how writers are a little bit ahead of the curve, like canaries in the coal mine,” Diehl says. “They’re out there a little ahead of the rest of us, signalling back: Here are the things that we’re thinking about in larger community ways. Here are the issues that matter to us right now.”

So what are some of the contemporary concerns voiced by 50 authors — 27 Manitoban, 20 Canadian and three international — who will share their writings at the weeklong celebration, Sunday through Sept. 24?

One, says Diehl, is masculine identity. A number of recent releases grapple with what it means to be a man today. Though Diehl didn’t program an evening on that specific theme, she points to several examples.

Montreal writer David Homel’s Midway is about a man in middle age exploring his relationships with his elderly father and newly adult son. Edmonton-based author Lynn Coady’s The Antagonist centres on a young man with a hulking physique who is pressured into the role of menacing thug.

Former Winnipeg TV reporter Waubgeshig Rice’s debut novel, Midnight Sweatlodge, looks at an aboriginal man reaching maturity. A Good Man, a sweeping novel about the end of the Wild West by Saskatchewan’s Guy Vanderhaeghe, is in part about masculinity.

Another recurring subject, reflected in Tuesday’s mainstage theme Who We Are, is life in Canada for immigrants and members of minority groups. Montreal’s Dimitri Nasrallah, for example, has written the autobiographical novel Niko about immigrating from war-torn Lebanon.

“It’s not necessarily a highly flattering vision of what it’s like to come to Canada,” Diehl says. “We have a pretty strong mythology of being a very accepting mosaic culture, right? I think for many people who arrive here, it’s not quite that simple.”

This year marks the 15th edition of the festival, which is produced on a budget of about $325,000 and draws a total audience of about 8,000.

Besides the main series (see below), there are French-language events, readings at universities and colleges, a school program, a rural tour and a writers’ workshop.

 

The author lineup includes Toronto sci-fi luminary Robert J. Sawyer with the novel Wonder, North Dakota-born Clark Blaise with the short-story collection The Meagre Tarmac, Ottawa novelist Elizabeth Hay with Alone in the Classroom and Haitian-born Montrealer Dany Laferrière with the award-winning, newly translated novel The Return.

Four of the guest authors — Blaise, Coady, Laferrière and Vanderhaeghe — are longlisted for the prestigious $50,000 Giller Prize.

While Diehl imagined months ago that Toronto literary titan Michael Ondaatje — Giller-nominated for The Cat’s Table — would be the marquee name on the literary circuit this fall, it turns out his publisher is “not flying him around the country.”

But Thin Air does just fine, she suggests, without such blinding star power.

“We’ve got a really great mix of very high-profile writers, some very high-quality debut writers, and a bunch in the middle. It leaves more room for a community of writing voices.

“I don’t spend a lot of my energy trying to seduce the publicists to get the most famous people here.”

This is Diehl’s ninth year as director. People still ask frequently why the festival adopted the mysterious moniker Thin Air when she took the reins in 2003.

For one thing, she says with a laugh, it’s a quicker way to answer the phone than “Winnipeg International Writers Festival.” The name is partly based on Shakespeare’s words from The Tempest about actors melting into thin air after a performance.

“It’s partly about how things that are ephemeral can make a really lasting, powerful impression. I think reading is like that….

“When the writers are reading their stuff, they’re sending their words into thin air, and the people sitting in the audience are gathering them out of thin air. To me, it’s about creativity. It can also be about risk… and courage.

“(A reading) is a kind of acrobatic act with words alone.”

For a complete schedule, pick up a free paperback program or visit www.thinairwinnipeg.ca.

alison.mayes@freepress.mb.ca

 

Some Thin Air highlights:

• The festival opens Sunday with a 7 p.m. free outdoor reading by five Manitoba writers at The Forks’ Oodena Circle (in case of bad weather, it moves inside the Forks Market).
• The six mainstage presentations are Monday to Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Shaw Performing Arts Centre (MTYP Theatre) at The Forks. Each weeknight features readings by five or six writers, a cash bar and on-site book sales so you can get your copy autographed. Tickets are $12 (seniors/students $10) at the door.
• Sept. 24, the closing mainstage show marks the culmination of the Manitoba Reads contest. Four panelists will each champion a Manitoba book, selected from an initial field of 16. They’ll debate the finalists down to a winning title that we’re all encouraged to read. The debate will be broadcast the following morning on CBC Radio. The panelists are arts writer Alison Gillmor touting Reading by Lightning by Joan Thomas; composer Vincent Ho promoting The Life of Helen Betty Osborne by David Alexander Robertson; The Forks’ honcho Paul Jordan defending Bandit by Wayne Tefs; and writer/professor Niigonwedom James Sinclair advocating Where Nests the Water Hen by Gabrielle Roy. (Robertson and Tefs are among the festival’s 50 authors.)
• The free Nooner series, Monday to Friday from 12:15 to 12:45 p.m., features one novelist or poet each day reading at the Millennium Library’s Carol Shields Auditorium. As with most Thin Air events, you can buy their books onsite. Friday’s author is Governor General’s Award winner Guy Vanderhaeghe, so it’s a chance to see him for free, buy his new novel A Good Man and grab an autograph.
• The free Afternoon Book Chats series, Monday to Friday from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m., is at McNally Robinson Booksellers. Each session pairs two writers in a relaxed conversation about writing. Friday’s duo is Manitoba-bred literary star Miriam Toews (Irma Voth) with Calgary’s Rosemary Nixon (Kalila).
• The free Big Ideas series, Monday to Friday from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. at the Millennium Library’s Carol Shields Auditorium, features one writer each day expounding on the topic of his or her new book. Tuesday’s writer is Kim Anderson on aboriginal women’s wisdom, Thursday’s is Myrl Coulter on adoption, and Friday’s is Richard Brignall on the history of hockey in Manitoba.
• The event A Pint of Bitter Murder, Sept. 24 at 3 p.m. at the Park Theatre (admission $5), is a chance for mystery fans to hear two accomplished Winnipeg novelists read. David Annandale’s new thriller is called The Valedictorians. Alison Preston’s fresh whodunnit set in Norwood Flats is The Girl in the Wall.

Festival preview

Thin Air Winnipeg International Writers Festival