Let’s all go to the fair

West Winnipeg

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This article was published 17/04/2024 (511 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The spirit of the Scholastic book fairs of old is alive and well.

On Sunday, May 5, Little Brown Jug Brewing Co. (336 William Ave.) is hosting a queer book fair featuring local booksellers, authors, and more. The fair runs between noon and 4 p.m. and entry is free.

Local booksellers Whodunit? (163 Lilac St.), Raven’s End Books (1859 Portage Ave.), and Willow Press (214 Osborne St.) will be on hand alongside representatives from the Winnipeg Public Library and Pride Winnipeg. Sunshine House’s drag queen story time will be reading every hour on the hour.

“I’m super-excited,” said Meghan Malcolm, founder of Willow Press. “It’s everything that we love. We’re planning just to be the gay Scholastic book fair option. We’ll have books and stickers and lots of stuff. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”

“These events not only support local authors and publishers like myself, but also bring the community to this event,” said Craig Gibb, a Brooklands-based author. “It can connect them with local authors and publishers and books that can mean something to them.”

“The biggest thing here is we want to keep building a presence in our community, to say ‘hi’ to our community and make face with them, and let them know we’re here in support,” said Sean Irvine, executive director of Pride Winnipeg. “Our values align with being at these kind of public events. Additionally, it’s a great event. It’s such a creative idea to come up with. The big thing is we’re trying to be present.”

Along with being a prolific author, Gibb and his husband run a publishing house with a number of imprints, including Deep Hearts YA, which specializes in gay young adult romance. He will be tabling at the event, as well as doing a reading, likely from his forthcoming paranormal queer YA novel, Defeating Demons and Breaking Up With My Boyfriend, which is written as Dylan James, a pseudonym.

“My original drive to write, and I’m sure a lot of authors say this, but I had stories that needed to get out,” Gibb said. “About eight years ago I transitioned to writing more gay YA romance, largely because I felt we needed more in that genre. I want more books with happy endings. There are a lot of books out there with sad endings, and I don’t want that. If I’m a queer teenager struggling with who I am, I want to read a book with a happy ending.”

“Stories are such a beautiful way to learn about your identity while also escaping from the real world,” said Malcolm, who is also a writer and sex educator. “Bringing queer stories to the forefront is super-important to us. I’m queer. I have a family who, when we go out we have people trying to figure out who we are to each other, and a lot of that is from lack of representation. Having kids growing up and identifying that through books is so important.”

Malcolm added: “I hope people know that because it’s a queer book fair, you don’t have to be queer to attend.”

“The more the merrier, the more the welcome,” Irvine said.