Writers’ fest program packed with prose pros

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This article was published 21/09/2024 (708 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Thin Air, Winnipeg’s long-running writers festival, hits the ground running with a full slate of events in the coming days.

At 7 p.m. tonight at McNally Robinson’s Grant Park location, the festival’s Signature series kicks off with the launch of Jenny Heijun Wills’ book Everything and Nothing at All, a collection of essays on beauty, language, reading, love and family that serves as a companion piece of sorts to her 2019 memoir Older Sister. Not Necessarily Related. She’ll be joined in conversation by fellow author and University of Winnipeg professor Lindsay Wong. The launch is free, and will be streamed on McNally Robinson’s YouTube channel.

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The fest’s first MainStage event in some years takes place Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Ilipvik at WAG-Qaumajuq (300 Memorial Blvd.). MainStage events typically bring a range of writers together under an overarching theme — in this case relationships. Featured authors are 2024 Giller longlisters Caroline Adderson and Shashi Bhat as well as E. McGregor and Oonya Kempadoo. Admission is $15, with tickets available at wfp.to/CbI.

On Thursday from 3:30-4:30 p.m. at the Bill and Helen Norrie Library (15 Poseidon Bay), Free Press columnist Niigaan Sinclair will discuss themes and ideas in his book Wînipêk: Visions of Canada from an Indigenous Centre as part of the festival’s Big Ideas series. The event is free, although registration (at wfp.to/Cbz) is recommended.

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There are plenty more Thin Air workshops, readings and other events this coming week; for details (including on French events presented under the Livres en fête arm of the festival), see thinairwinnipeg.ca/all-events.

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Former judge and senator Murray Sinclair will launch his new book Who We Are: Four Questions for a Life and a Nation on Thursday at 7 p.m. at the RBC Convention Centre (375 York Ave.).

The book, which publishes Tuesday, sees Sinclair look at history, resistance and resilience and their relationship to Indigenous identity, justice and human rights in Canada — and how they are the bedrock of conversations about a move towards reconciliation. He’ll be joined in conversation at the launch by Matt Galloway, host of CBC’s The Current. Tickets are $50 per person plus fees and include a copy of Who We Are, or $65 plus fees for two tickets and one copy of the book, at mcnallyrobinson.com.

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Winnipeg author Nora Decter will serve as Winnipeg Public Library’s writer in residence from Oct. 1 through to the end of April 2025.

Decter’s debut adult novel What’s Not Mine, published in April 2024 by ECW Press, is a coming-of-age story about a 16-year-old girl in the midst of environmental crises and a fentanyl addiction ravaging her hometown. Decter will read from and discuss her novel at the October 2024 meeting of the Free Press Book Club; for more info see wfp.to/bookclub. Her previous work includes the 2018 young adult novel How Far We Go and How Fast.

In the meantime, up-and-coming writers can submit their work for Decter to review between Oct. 1 and March 15; for more information, see wfp.to/CbR.

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Zilla Jones, a Winnipeg writer (and Free Press reviewer) is, and was, in contention for another pair of literary prizes.

Jones’s story When the Wind Blows is among 17 authors on the long list for the New Quarterly’s Peter Hinchcliffe short fiction award, which would come with a $1,000 prize.

And Jones was in contention for the CBC non-fiction prize, where she made the 30-author long list for her piece Talking for a Living, along with Tay Aly Jade, also from Winnipeg, for Mitigoog Call Me Home. Unfortunately, neither author was able to crack the five-book short list, announced Sept. 19.

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Winnipeg author (and Free Press book reviewer) Sheldon Birnie is hosting a few of his writerly pals at Sookram’s Brewing Co. (479 Warsaw Ave.) on Wednesday for some readings and a frosty beverage.

Birnie, who most recently released the story collection Where the Pavement Turns to Sand, will quarterback what’s being dubbed “A Wednesday of Wild and Wonderful Words,” and will read some of his own work along with readings by Gonzalo Riedel, Anna Leventhal and Lisa Michelle Moore. Things get underway at 7 p.m. and admission is free.

books@freepress.mb.ca