WAG to host Giller finalists

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This article was published 19/10/2019 (2563 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THE Scotiabank Giller Prize is taking its show on the road, with five of this year’s six shortlisted authors taking part in a discussion at the Winnipeg Art Gallery (300 Memorial Blvd.) on Wednesday, starting at 6 p.m..

Authors participating in the event, dubbed Between the Pages, are David Bezmozgis (Immigrant City), Megan Gail Coles (Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club), Michael Crummey (The Innocents), Steven Price (Lampedusa) and Ian Williams (Reproduction). Alex Ohlin (Dual Citizens), the director of the University of British Columbia creative writing program, is the only shortlisted author who won’t be at the event.

The venue is wheelchair accessible, and there will be a sign-language interpreter. Tickets for the event, hosted by poet and broadcaster Rosanna Deerchild, are available at wfp.to/gillertix.

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York University Prof. Jesse Thistle discusses his memoir, From the Ashes: My Story of Being Métis, Homeless and Finding My Way, tonight at 7 p.m. at McNally Robinson Booksellers’ Grant Park location.

Thistle writes of his experiences in the foster system after being abandoned by his parents, leading to years of addiction and trauma, and of how he found his way back. He’ll discuss the book tonight with Rosanna Deerchild.

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Lauren Carter launches her new novel, the story of a woman trying to create a new life with the help of a rescue dog, tonight at 7:30 p.m. at McNally Robinson’s Grant Park location.

This Has Nothing To Do With You is the story of a woman, cast adrift after her mother commits murder, who uncovers family secrets that fuelled her mother’s actions. The Manitoba author’s previous books include the poetry volumes Following Sea and Lichen Bright as well as the novel Swarm.

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One of Canada’s most prominent Indigenous lawyers tells the story of her people in The North West in Our Mother: The Story of Louis Riel’s People, the Métis Nation.

Jean Teillet, senior counsel with the Pape Salter Teillet, has been lead or co-counsel on several prominent Indigenous law cases, including the landmark case in which the Supreme Court affirmed Métis hunting rights.

In her new book, which she discusses Sunday at 2 p.m. at McNally Robinson’s Grant Park location, she tells the story of the Métis, from their birth in the 18th century, through their battles for recognition under Louis Riel to their 20th-century resurgence.

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The team behind a new mystery/action graphic novel about four young women in the 1980s will launch their book Tuesday at McNally Robinson’s Grant Park location at 7 p.m.

Author Christopher Ducharme, artist Lisa Mendis and typographer Lucas Pauls will discuss Curb Angels, in conversation with Winnipeg comic creator GMB Chomichuk.

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British Columbia writer Andromeda Romano Lax won this year’s Sunburst Award for Canadian fantasy literature for her novel Plum Rains, about an elderly Japanese woman, her artificial intelligence caregiver and the legacy of the Second World War and Japanese imperialism.

Kentucky-born Vancouver writer Rachel Hartman won the Sunburst for young-adult writing for her novel Tess of the Road, about an adventurous young woman and her dragon companion. The novel is a companion to Hartman’s earlier novels Seraphina and Shadow Scale.

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It’s taken 15 years, but British novelist Susanna Clark has finally announced a followup to her bestseller Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.

Clark’s debut novel — an alternative history set in a version of 19th-century England where magic is rediscovered — won the Hugo and the World Fantasy award.

Publisher’s Weekly reports that her new novel, a fantasy work called Piransi, will be published in 2020.

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