Poetry posse to convene in person again

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This article was published 09/12/2023 (760 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Longstanding monthly poetry reading series Speaking Crow is doing something it’s not done in some time — holding an in-person event.

The poetry reading series, which offers a different featured reader every month, moved online during the pandemic, but returns to an in-person format today at 1 p.m. at the Millennium Library (251 Donald St.).

The event will be quarterbacked by Angeline Schellenberg, while the featured poet is Paul Friesen. Those who want to participate in the open mic portion of the event can sign up at the event. Incentive: there will be a door prize as well as tea and holiday cookies.

For more on this and future events, see wfp.to/6jP.

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Métis/French-Canadian author Matthew Tétreault will explore how and why writers might incorporate languages and dialects other than standard English in prose in an online workshop tomorrow.

The Winnipeg International Writers Festival is presenting the free virtual Writing Craft workshop, titled Writing Multilingual Fiction, which takes place from 2-3:30 p.m. Tétreault is the author of the short-story collection What Happened on the Bloodvein and, more recently, the novel Hold Your Tongue. For more details and to register, see wfp.to/6jm.

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Tétreault will also read from and discuss Hold Your Tongue as part of the Free Press Book Club on Feb. 27, 2024. For more information see wfp.to/bookclub.

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Waterloo, Ont. Grade 11 student Kyo Lee has become the youngest ever winner of the CBC Poetry Prize.

The queer Korean-Canadian student’s poem lotus flower blooming into breasts was awarded the top prize in the competition on Nov. 23, for which she’ll also receive $6,000.

For more on Lee and to read her poem (as well as those of the four runners-up, who each receive $1,000), see wfp.to/6jw.

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British writer Omid Scobie’s new book Endgame: Inside the Royal Family and the Monarchy’s Fight for Survival, published on Nov. 28, was temporarily pulled from shops in the Netherlands and Belgium after an apparent translation error.

The passage in question talked about how two senior members of the British Royal Family had been speculating on the skin colour of then-unborn Prince Archie, son of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

The Dutch version named the family members as King Charles and Catherine, Princess of Wales, although according to the Guardian, Scobie said to ITV he had “never submitted a book that had their names in it,” and that “journalists across Fleet Street have known those names for a long time. We’ve all followed a sort of code of conduct when it comes to talking about it.”

The new version was slated to have been published Dec. 8.

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Kate Beaton’s 2022 graphic novel Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands, published by Montreal’s Drawn and Quarterly, was this year’s top-selling book written by a Canadian and published by a Canadian publisher among the country’s independent bookstores, according to Quill & Quire.

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Data was gathered by Bookmanager from nearly 250 booksellers on sales between Jan. 1 and Nov. 25 of 2023.

Many of the top sellers were published the year prior to the list and 2023 was no different; only two books published this year, Patrick deWitt’s The Librarianist (House of Anansi Press) and Iona Winshaw’s mystery To Track a Traitor (TouchWood Editions), cracked the top 10.

Suzette Mayr’s Giller Prize-winning novel The Sleeping Car Porter came was the second-highest selling book, with by Bob Joseph’s 21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act, Cherie Dimaline’s The Marrow Thieves and Waubgeshig Rice’s Moon of the Crusted Snow rounding out the top five.

For more of the list see wfp.to/6jq.

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Know someone in the literary community (or other arts) who deserve recognition? The Manitoba Arts Council is accepting nominations for the Manitoba Arts Award of Distinction in three categories — professional artist, Indigenous knowledge keeper and arts/cultural professional.

Last year’s recipient of the $30,000 prize was Di Brandt, who served as Winnipeg’s inaugural poet laureate from 2018-2020.

Nominations are due Friday, Dec. 15 — see wfp.to/6jU for details.

books@freepress.mb.ca