Thammavongsa launches debut novel Tuesday
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/10/2025 (353 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Award-winning poet and fiction writer Souvankham Thammavongsa brings her debut novel to Winnipeg on Tuesday, when she’ll launch Pick a Colour at McNally Robinson Booksellers’ Grant Park location at 7 p.m. in an event co-presented by Plume Winnipeg.
The slim novel chronicles a day in the life of Ning, a nail salon owner and former boxer whose emotional range (and loneliness) are revealed to the reader through the course of her doting on clients.
The author of four books of poetry, Thammavongsa’s short-story collection How to Pronounce Knife won a number of awards, including the 2020 Giller Prize. (Pick a Colour is also shortlisted for the Giller.) She’ll be joined in conversation by Winnipeg author Lindsay Wong.
For an interview with Thammavongsa, see Tuesday’s Free Press.
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The book-launch scene really gets cooking on Wednesday night, as well-known baker Anna Olson launches her new book Anna Cooks: 125+ Delicious & Achievable Recipes for Every Meal of the Day at McNally Robinson’s Grant Park location at 7 p.m.
Olson pivots from sweet to savoury in her new book, offering quick and easy ideas for breakfast, lunch, dinner and everything in between. She’ll be joined by Free Press food, arts and culture writer Eva Wasney, author of Homemade: Recipes and Stories from Winnipeg and Beyond.
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It’s a two-for-one book launch on Thursday at McNally Robinson’s Grant Park location when Winnipeg’s David Elias and Calgary’s Ben Zalkind join forces at 7 p.m., bringing a pair of books published by Regina’s Radiant Press.
Elias’ Into the D/ark is set in early-1960s Manitoba and sees a woman’s sons disfigured by a fire, the boys’ father making strange metallic creations and the woman’s brother building a mysterious ark-like edifice.
In Zalkind’s debut novel Honeydew, a woman joins forces with a trio of young rebels to subvert a tech CEO with a space station, where passengers may or may not be forced to work of debts.
Hosting the pair will be McNally Robinson co-founder and literary radio host Ron Robinson.
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The connections between Cubans and Canadians are explored in a new book by Karen Dubinsky, which launches Friday at 7 p.m. at McNally Robinson’s Grant Park location in an event co-presented by the University of Manitoba’s Centre for Human Rights and Research.
Strangely, Friends: A History of Cuban-Canadian Encounters spans the days of the Cuban Revolution to today to examine personal and cultural links between the two nations. Dubinsky will be joined in conversation by U of M history professor Jorde A Nállim.
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Winnipeg clinical and consulting psychologist Rehman Abdulrehman, author of Developing Anti-Racist Cultural Competence and the Different People podcast, is launching his debut novel Sunday at 1 p.m. in the Contemplation Garden at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, where he’ll be joined in conversation by Terry MacLeod.
Published by Lead With Diversity Press, a publishing house co-founded by Abdulrehman to amplify voices of marginalized people of colour, Jinn in the Family follows a Western-trained psychologist who returns to Zanzibar, only to find creatures thought to be from myth rising up to meet him.
Those attending the launch are encouraged to wear black or green. To RSVP and for more information, see leadwithdiversity.com/oct19.
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After 35 years of publishing Canadian speculative fiction, editors of the Edmonton quarterly literary journal On Spec: The Canadian Magaine of the Fantastic have announced it is ceasing operations.
In an editorial in issue 133, managing editor Diane Walton wrote that the December 2025 issue (issue 134) of On Spec will be the last, noting the workload of sustaining a journal when all involved have other jobs.
Among those published in the most recent issue is Winnipeg writer and Free Press copy editor David Jón Fuller, whose story Two Voices, One Song appears in issue 133.
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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