Writers fest kicks off with a bookish bang

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This article was published 16/09/2023 (1120 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Kilter Brewing Co. is helping pop the cork on Thin Air 2023: The Winnipeg International Writers Festival.

The brewery, located at 450 Rue Deschambault, is hosting ForeWords, the festival kickoff party, on Wednesday at 7 p.m. The event will feature “master improvisers” and “book-centered wit,” says the event page.

Tickets to the event are pay what you can (with a suggested price of $10) and are available at wfp.to/6Y8. Kilter will also host AfterWords, the festival’s closing party, on Oct. 18, which features a haiku death match (in which no actual deaths occur).

Following the kickoff, the festival will bring back-to-back book launches at McNally Robinson Booksellers’ Grant Park location featuring local literary heavy hitters.

David Bergen will launch his historical fiction title Away from the Dead (which recently made the Scotiabank Giller Prize long list) on Thursday, when he’ll be joined by local author Maurice Mierau.

Buy on mcnallyrobinson.com

Then on Friday, novelist Joan Thomas returns with her latest, Wild Hope, which she will launch at 7 p.m. in conversation with McNally’s co-owner Chris Hall.

Thomas, the author of Five Wives, returns with a novel that follows the floundering marriage between Isla, a chef, and Jake, a visual artist. When Jake goes missing after a camping trip, Isla tries to put the pieces together as to what happened, with all signs pointing to Reg, a childhood friend of Jake’s who made a fortune in the bottled-water business.

Buy on mcnallyrobinson.com

For more on the festival, which runs through to Oct. 18, see thinairwinnipeg.ca. The festival’s destination website, thinairfestival.ca, goes live on Wednesday.

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Winnipeg-born, Toronto-based Adriana Chartrand launches her new horror novel An Ordinary Violence on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at McNally Robinson’s Grant Park location.

The story follows a young Indigenous woman in Toronto who returns to her childhood prairie home. When her brother, newly released from prison, introduces her to a strange new friend, things take a turn toward the supernatural.

Chartrand will be joined at the launch by Lake St. Martin First Nation producer Jason Ryle.

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Prairie Comics Festival returns Saturday, Sept. 23 and Sunday, Sept. 24 with a jam-packed lineup of panels and talks featuring artists, writers, exhibitors and publishers showing off their wares at the West End Cultural Centre (586 Ellice Ave).

The three headlining guests are Vancouver graphic novelist Johnnie Christmas (Swim Team), Toronto cartoonist Megan Kearney (Swan Lake: Quest for the Kingdoms) and Vancouver-based Tahltan artist Cole Pauls (Dakwäkãda Warriors II).

The trio will be joined by local author/creator SM Beiko at McNally Robinson’s Grant Park location September 23 at 7 p.m. for a panel chat and question-and-answer session.

For more on the fest see prairiecomics.com.

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Métis author Chantal Fiola has been awarded nearly $200,000 via a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) grant for her research project Métis Expressions of Spirituality and Religion Across the Homeland.

Fiola, who is an associate professor in the department of urban and inner-city studies at the University of Winnipeg, is working with scholars from Saskatchewan and Alberta on the project, which explores Métis spirituality in the communities of St. Laurent, Man., Lebret, Sask. and St. Albert, Alta.

Fiola is the author of two books that explore a similar topic — 2015’s Rekindling the Sacred Fire and 2021’s Returning to Ceremony, both published by University of Manitoba Press. For more on the accouncement see wfp.to/6YJ.

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The Winnipeg Public Library has named Winnipeg author Susie Moloney as its new writer in residence.

Moloney writes fiction and screenplays and is known for her 1997 horror novel A Dry Spell. The first feature film based on a screenplay she wrote, Bright Hill Road, debuted in 2020. Her second, Romi, premiered in August at the Fantasia Festival in Montreal.

Moloney will serve as writer in residence until April 30, 2024, and will be available for guidance and mentoring.

books@winnipegfreepress.com