NORTH END LOVE
SONGS
*RED CARPET* LITERARY CELEBRATION
Brandon
University * January 10 & January 24
2014
IN CELEBRATION OF
NATIONAL AWARD-WINNING AUTHORS
& AUTHORS OF NEW BOOKS
&
Everyone Welcome, Free Admission, Books for Sale
~
NORTH END LOVE
SONGS
*Red Carpet* Literary Celebration
(revised program)
BLUE SWING Friday, January 10
11:00 – 12:00
Literary Readings BU Library Gathering
Area
Kim McCullough,
Laurelyn Whitt & Katherena Vermette
1:30 – 4:00 Creative Writing Master Class BU Library Archives
Kim McCullough
& Katherena Vermette
7:00 – 10:00 Literary
Readings and Panel BU Louis Riel Room
Welcome
Jazz by
Slow Spirit
Readings Kim
McCullough & Katherena Vermette
Literary
Panel “Literature as Love Song”
Reception
* *
* * *
* * *
CROW NEST Friday, January 24
10:30 – 12:00 Literary Readings BU Library Gathering Area
Joanne
Arnott & Staged Reading from Crow
Nest,
with Darrell Racine &
others
1:30 – 3:00
Creative Writing Master Class BU
Library Archives
Joanne
Arnott
***Creative Writing Master Classes: Open to anyone interested in honing creative writing skills. Please come to the BU Archives (2nd floor of
the BU Library) with paper & pen, an active
imagination & an open mind! Limited to the first 20 people. Please
tell your colleagues, students & friends.
** EVERYONE WELCOME ** FREE
ADMISSION ** BOOKS FOR SALE **
Joanne Arnott is a Canadian Métis/mixed-blood writer
& arts activist, originally from Manitoba, now nestled on the west coast.
Her first book Wiles of Girlhood won the League of Canadian
Poets’ Gerald Lampert Award for “best first book of poetry in Canada” (1992).
She has published essays and poetry in anthologies, and seven further books,
including My Grass Cradle (Press Gang 1992), Mother
Time: Poems New & Selected (Ronsdale 2007), and A Night
for the Lady (Ronsdale 2013). Active with the Aboriginal Writers
Collective West Coast, she volunteers with The Writers’ Union of Canada and The
Writers’ Trust, and is an active blogger. Watch for Halfling Spring: An
Internet Romance (poetry, Kegedonce, Spring 2014).
Kim McCullough has published reviews and commentary on a number of
literary websites. Clearwater is her first published book of
fiction, just out with Coteau Press. She is currently working towards her MFA
in Creative Writing at UBC. Originally from Regina, Kim now teaches junior high
language arts and drama in Calgary. She also leads various writing workshops
for students of all ages, including a writing class for women in recovery from
trauma.
Darrell
Racine is
Métis from the Turtle Mountains in Southwestern Manitoba. He learned to tell
stories from his father who was a trapper and hunter. He holds a Ph.d from
Oxford University and teaches in the Department of Native Studies at Brandon
University. He has published two plays with Dale Lakevold, Stretching
Hide and Misty Lake, which have received several awards; Stretching
Hide won the Theatre BC Canadian National Playwriting Competition, and
was produced by Theatre Projects Manitoba in Winnipeg, to a full house and
critical acclaim. His screenplay Crow Nest recently
won the prestigious Praxis National Screenwriting Award at SFU, which includes
an opportunity to develop the screenplay with directors and producers of
international repute. He was featured as the keynote speaker at the
Praxis Centre for Screenwriters in the School for Contemporary Arts at SFU; his
talk was titled “Oral Culture and Narrative Style: A Dialogue with Darrell
Racine.”
Katherena
Vermette is a
Métis writer of poetry, fiction and children's literature. Her first book of
poetry North End Love Songs (J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing
2012) won the Governor General’s Award for Poetry, and some of the poems landed
on the front page of the Winnipeg Free Press, surely a first in the
history of newspaper publishing in Canada!! She also received the
Lena Chartrand Poetry Award from Contemporary Verse 2.
Her upcoming project The Seven Teachings Stories is a
children’s picture book series (forthcoming 2014 with Portage and Main Press).
Her poetry and fiction have appeared in several literary anthologies and
literary magazines, including Manitowapow: Aboriginal Writings from the
Land of Water, edited by Warren Cariou and Niigonwedom Sinclair,
and the Exile Book of Native Fiction and Drama, edited by
Daniel David Moses. Katherena Vermette lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada,
where she is the mother of two teenage daughters, where she is also completing
a graduate degree in Creative Writing at UBC (long distance program) – the most
illustrious student in the history of the program ever!!
Laurelyn
Whitt is an
award-winning poet, whose poetry has appeared in numerous journals in Canada
and the US, including Nimrod International, The Tampa Review, Puerto
Del Sol, The Malahat Review, PRISM International, Rattle, Descant and The
Fiddlehead Review. Her poetry collection Interstices (Logan
House Press, 2006) received the Holland Prize for Poetry in the US. Words
for Relocation (Will Hall Books 2001) received the Norma O. Harrison
Chapbook Award. a long dream of difference (Frith Press 2001)
received 2nd prize in the Frith Open Chapbook
Competition. Her new collection is Tether, just
out from Seraphim Editions. Dr. Whitt is a professor of Native
Studies at Brandon University. She completed her doctorate at the
University of Western Ontario. Her academic monograph Science,
Colonialism, and Indigenous Peoples: The Cultural Politics of Law
and Knowledge was published by Cambridge University Press in New York
in 2009.
she wants to
open her arms
wide enough
stretch them out
like an elm’s long branches
to catch
a thousand birds
and hold them close
Katherena Vermette, “treegrr”
North End Love Songs (2012)
Thank
you most of all to our illustrious guest writers for coming to Brandon &
sharing your new writing & creative insights with us. Thank you to the Manitoba Writers Guild, the
Brandon University Dean of Arts, the BU Library, the Department of Native
Studies, the Department of English & Creative Writing, the Indigenous
Peoples Centre, the BU Bookstore, the BU Students’ Union, J. Gordon
Shillingford Publishing Co., Ronsdale Press, Seraphim Editions, Coteau Books,
Root Sky Productions, & our gracious community donors for generous
financial & in kind support. Thank
you for to the Manitoba Métis Federation (SW region), the Brandon Friendship
Centre & the Brandon Folk Music & Arts Society for promoting the
event. Thank you to the following people
for contributions & assistance of various kinds: Alex Beshara, Betty Braaksma, Amber Clark, Glen
Kirby, Trish Kotz, Dr. Della Lee, Roberta McKinnon, Lisa Murray, Darrell
Racine, Katie Solbeck, Bruce Strang, Audrey & Darrell Tiessen, Laurelyn
Whitt & Erlin Zurawski.
We
hope you enjoy our Celebration – & don’t forget to buy the books!!
Di Brandt and Dale Lakevold, BU
HAWKWEED Literary Forum
* * *
* * *
* *
The newly established
Brandon Works In Progress Cabaret is hosting its first biweekly cabaret evening
at the Park Community Centre on Friday, January 24, from 7:00 to 10:00. Both Joanne Arnott & Darrell Racine &
his actors will be featured at this event, along with musicians & other
performers, TBA. Please come to the
Brandon Works In Progress Cabaret for more adventurous literary & creative
arts fun!! Admission $8. Food & drinks available.