Jane Urquhart, officer of the Order of Canada and Governor General’s Award winner, is just one of eight distinguished members of the Canadian literary scene who will visit Peterborough this fall as part of the 26th annual Writers Reading Series, hosted by Trent University’s department of English Literature.
Beginning on Wednesday, October 1, the free weekly series will bring award-winning and world-class authors to Traill College in downtown Peterborough for literary readings, critical and practical discussions, and casual conversation. All members of the community are invited to take advantage of this opportunity to see, hear, and meet these celebrated writers.
As befits the range and scope of Canada’s literary landscape, the authors featured in the Writers Reading Series represent a wide range of styles and genres, and cover extensive emotional and intellectual ground. The reading events showcase the writers’ talent and stimulating work within a laid-back, humorous environment.
Each of the readings begins at 7:00 PM in the Scott House Junior Common Room at Catharine Parr Traill College, 310 London Street, to be followed by snacks and witty banter at The Trend Pub. The Writers Reading events are part of the Barbara Rooke Lecture Series, and have been made possible with additional support from the Frost Centre for Canadian & Indigenous Studies, the departments of Canadian Studies, English Literature and Cultural Studies, the Public Text program, and the Nind Fund.
Please visit www.trentu.ca/english or www.facebook.com/writersread for more information about the Writers Reading series. The full listing of events and authors is as follows:
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Jane Urquhart is an officer of the Order of Canada. She has won The Governor General’s Award, the Trillium Prize (in Canada), and the Prix de Meiller Livre Etranger (in France). That probably means she’s won things you can’t even pronounce! She’s been on the shortlist and/or the jury for just about every prize available to a Canadian Writer. What can we say? A true Can-Lit icon.
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
Craig Davidson knows what it feels like to be on the Giller shortlist, as well as what it feels like to do a cycle of steroids. It’s a rare double; usually, you have to pick one or the other. According to The National Post, his most recent novel¸ Cataract City, is “superb, thoughtful and thoroughly entertaining.” All this from a guy who’s devoted his life to “boxing and dog fights and zombies and werewolves and lunatic prison inmates.” Would you be surprised to learn he also went to Trent?
Tuesday, October 14, 2014
Jane Bow grew up in Canada, the USA, Spain, England and the Czech Republic. Her latest novel, Cally’s Way, is set in Crete. That’s a lot of territory. She covers it with “romantic yet tough-minded” prose, evoking both a stunning landscape and a tragic history. How do individual and collective sins come to be committed, and how can they be forgiven?
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Michael Winter’s most recent novel, Minister Without Portfolio, “is a masterful examination of the very marrow of life.” The Globe and Mail called an earlier book, The Architects Are Here, a “flamboyant gem of a novel,” at once “wide-angled and crowded with dramatic incident.” Michael will draw a crowd; come see what kind of incidents we can muster.
Wednesday, November 5, 2014
Steven Heighton’s fiction and poetry has been translated into 10 languages. He’s the winner of numerous awards and prizes, and has taught creative writing in places as diverse as Banff, Alberta and St. Petersburg, Russia. Come if you feel like being part of a “big, ambitious, literary adventure full of blood, gristle and soul.”
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
KD Miller’s new collection of short stories, All Saints, is a “quietly astonishing book.” Her previous book, Brown Dwarf, involved a serial killer, a missing girl, childhood guilt and “larval lesbianism.” Interested?
Wednesday, November 19, 2014 - Peterburgher Double Header
Michelle Berry’s latest novel, Interference, is a “dark-humoured glimpse behind neighbourhood doors” in a town very like Peterborough. Jonathan Bennett’s latest novel, Colonial Hotel, is about a civil war in an unnamed foreign country. His book is “devastatingly beautiful.” Hers is “suspenseful, compassionate and awesomely creepy.” We’ve got violence, intrigue, humour and heartache in exotic and homegrown varieties. You don’t even have to choose.
Posted on Monday, September 29, 2014.