Powerful poets featured at trio of launches
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 27/09/2025 (382 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Poetry fans have plenty to look forward to this week at McNally Robinson Booksellers’ Grant Park location, with a trio of launches highlighting a range of potent local poets.
Winnipeg members of the Land and Labour Poetry Collective launch I’ll Get Right On It: Poems on Working Life in the Climate Crisis at 7 p.m. tonight as part of Thin Air. A number of contributors, including Hanako Teranishi, Cole Osiowy, Marjorie Poor, Ron Romanowski and Myla Chartrand, will read at the event.
On Wednesday, Winnipeg poet and writer George Amabile launches his latest poetry collection, Seeing Things, at 7 p.m., where he’ll be joined by fellow scribe Kristian Enright. Amabile’s latest takes the reader on a journey through wonder, memory, grief and more.
Then on Thursday at 7 p.m., award-winning poet and novelist katherena vermette launches her latest collection of poems, Procession.
Vermette won the Governor General’s Literary Award for poetry in 2013 for her collection North End Love Songs. In Procession, she explores notions of nostalgia, ceremony, ancestry, family and more.
Joining vermette for the launch will be fellow Manitoba poets and Governor General’s Literary Award winners Hannah Green (who won for poetry in 2023 for Xanax Cowboy) and Canadian parliamentary poet laureate Chimwemwe Undi (who won the same award in 2024 for Scientific Marvel).
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Four years after his untimely passing in 2021 at age 67, a book paying tribute to longtime Cinematheque programmer Dave Barber is being released tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. at the theatre (100 Arthur St.).
Scrapbook: From the Archives of Dave Barber was edited by University of Winnipeg English professor Andrew Burke and Montreal writer/visual artist Clint Enns and features a collection of Barber’s posters, photographs, personal artifacts, press clippings and more.
Tickets to the launch are $13 ($7.50 for Cinematheque members); for tickets and more information see wfp.to/iJd.
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The last day of Thin Air sees the annual Niizhotay Stories event, named in honour of the late community builder Theodore Niizhotay Fontaine, take place Sunday at 1:30 p.m. at McNally Robinson’s Grant Park location.
This year’s featured author is Bruce McIvor, who penned Indigenous Rights in One Minute: What You Need to Know to Talk Reconciliation, published in May by Nightwood Editions.
McIvor will be joined in conversation on Sunday afternoon by Indigenous author and adviser Sheila North.
(See the 49.8 section of today’s Free Press for an interivew with McIvor by Ariel Gordon.)
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Alberta author Thomas Wharton wants to see you at his book launch — and your dog can come too.
Wharton’s new novel Wolf, Moon, Dog follows a dog named Wolf who reincarnates through the ages — from Alexandrian Greece to ancient Egypt, a climate change-riddled future and more.
The author of Icefields, Salamander and The Book of Rain launches his latest on Friday at 7 p.m. at McNally Robinson’s Grant Park location. At the event, co-presented by Plume Winnipeg, he’ll be joined in conversation by Free Press literary editor (and noted cat guy) Ben Sigurdson.
And yes, this is really a dog-friendly event.
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The six-book short list of this year’s Booker Prize has been released, with one Canadian-born author making the cut.
Montreal-born David Szalay, who lived in Lebanon and then London before moving to Budapest, is a finalist for the £50,000 prize (around $93,400) for his novel Flesh, published in March by McClelland & Stewart.
The other five finalists are Flashlight by Susan Choi, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai, Audition by Katie Kitamura, The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits and The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller.
The winner will be announced on Monday, Nov. 10 at a ceremony in London.
books@freepress.mb.ca
Ben Sigurdson
Literary editor, drinks writer
Ben Sigurdson is the Free Press‘s literary editor and drinks writer. He graduated with a master of arts degree in English from the University of Manitoba in 2005, the same year he began writing Uncorked, the weekly Free Press drinks column. He joined the Free Press full time in 2013 as a copy editor before being appointed literary editor in 2014. Read more about Ben.
In addition to providing opinions and analysis on wine and drinks, Ben oversees a team of freelance book reviewers and produces content for the arts and life section, all of which is reviewed by the Free Press’s editing team before being posted online or published in print. It’s part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Ben Sigurdson
Literary editor, drinks writer
Ben Sigurdson is the Free Press‘s literary editor and drinks writer. He graduated with a master of arts degree in English from the University of Manitoba in 2005, the same year he began writing Uncorked, the weekly Free Press drinks column. He joined the Free Press full time in 2013 as a copy editor before being appointed literary editor in 2014. Read more about Ben.
In addition to providing opinions and analysis on wine and drinks, Ben oversees a team of freelance book reviewers and produces content for the arts and life section, all of which is reviewed by the Free Press’s editing team before being posted online or published in print. It’s part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
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