Poetry project seeks words about Winnipeg

Organizers behind a new citywide poetry project are hoping Winnipeggers will share lyrical and literary interpretations of the city in a project called, fittingly, The Story of Winnipeg.

The project is being spearheaded by Winnipeg poet laureate Jennifer Still, the Winnipeg Arts Council and the Winnipeg Public Library. Potential participants can stop by a library branch and pick up City of Winnipeg map books created by Still from city archival materials, then fill in the blanks provided with their thoughts.

Once completed, map books can then be kept or dropped at mailboxes at each library branch — submissions will make their way back to Still, who will collect, read and share entries through a mini book installation slated to be launched next year.

Materials are available now at library branches; the initiative runs through to Dec. 1. For more on The Story of Winnipeg see wfp.to/iXt and Tuesday’s Free Press.

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A poetry collection with a Winnipeg connection has nabbed the top prize for women writers at the annual High Plains International Book Awards.

Alberta-born poet Trisia Eddy Woods took the award for her collection A Road Map for Finding Wild Horses, published in May 2024 by Winnipeg’s Turnstone Press. Woods spent time growing up in both Alberta and Manitoba.

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In more equine-related High Plains award news, Timothy C. Winegard’s The Horse took the top spot in the non-fiction category, while other winners included James Lee Burke for short stories for Harbor Lights and Joe Wilkins for fiction for The Entire Sky.

The High Plains Book Awards celebrates literary works which reflect life in the Canadian Prairies and American plains states. For a complete list of winners see highplainsbookawards.org.

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McNally Robinson Booksellers’ Grant Park location’s fall schedule barrels ahead this week, with a range of award-winning authors launching books in a number of genres.

Winnipeg poet Melanie Dennis Unrau kicks things off at 7 p.m. tonight with the launch of her poetry collection Goose, which draws from found text and images in S.C. Ells’ book Northland Trails and explores our relationship to animals and the land. She’ll be joined in conversation by Ariel Gordon.

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On Tuesday at 7 p.m., McNally Robinson hosts lauded author and longtime journalist Linden MacIntyre, who launches his latest book of non-fiction An Accidental Villain: A Soldier’s Tale of War, Deceit and Exile, when he’ll be joined in conversation about the book by Reg Sherren.

The book chronicles the life of Sir Hugh Tudor, who after the First World War was appointed by Winston Churchill to lead the British police force in Ireland during the Irish War of Independence, and who eventually absconded to Newfoundland for the latter half of his life.

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For an interview with MacIntyre, see Tuesday’s Free Press.

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Thursday sees the return of beloved Manitoba-born, Toronto-based novelist Miriam Toews to McNally Robinson (where she once worked) to launch A Truce That Is Not Peace, a work of non-fiction about the writing process, memory, the loss of her sister and more.

Toews will be joined in converation at 7 p.m. by local artists and cultural workers Christine Fellows and John Samson Fellows. For an interview with Toews, see Thursday’s Free Press.

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On Friday Ariel Gordon is back at McNally Robinson, this time as co-creator of the book Blood Letters, with GMB Chomichuk, who will also be in at the 7 p.m. launch.

The book, featuring illustrations by Chomichuk, takes the form of letters, sketches, poems and more, detailing three siblings caught up in a world war with flesh-eating fog and robotic monstrosities. The pair will be joined in conversation by Susie Moloney.

Note: The launch of Thomas King’s Aliens on the Moon on Wednesday at 7 p.m. has been cancelled.

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