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E. McGregor Book Launch

Thursday May 09 2024 7:00 pm - Grant Park in the Atrium, Streaming on YouTube, Winnipeg

Join E. McGregor for the launch of her debut poetry collection What Fills Your House Like Smoke (Thistledown Press) featuring a reading and a conversation hosted by Jennifer Still.

The launch will be hosted live in the Atrium of McNally Robinson Booksellers, Grant Park and also available as a simultaneous YouTube stream.

In this debut poetry collection, E. McGregor combines the lore of family history with personal memory, vividly parsing patterns of inheritance, particularly through the maternal line.

What Fills Your House Like Smoke begins and ends at the deathbed of the writer’s Métis grandmother. In between, McGregor composes an incomplete and wildly imaginative biography of her grandmother, interrogated by family photographs, stories, and the scant paper trail she left behind. As these poems unfold, they move us toward an understanding of maternal inheritance, shifting identities, forgiveness, and finally love.

E. McGregor is a Euro-Settler/Métis writer currently living in Winnipeg. Her poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction have appeared in numerous magazines including Room, The Dalhousie Review, CV2, The Fiddlehead, and others. She obtained a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia in 2022.

Host Jennifer Still composes poems with physicality in the Red River Valley, Treaty 1 territory, the heart of the Metis Nation. She is the author of three poetry books, Comma, Girlwood, and Saltations and several handmade chapbooks including her most recent, legs, a limited-edition with Baseline Press. She recently collaborated with Winnipeg artists Christine Fellows and Chantel Mierau to adapt her long poem legs into an award-winning filmpoem and gallery installation.

An Evening with Matthew R. Anderson

Saturday May 11 2024 7:00 pm - Grant Park in the Atrium, Streaming on YouTube, Winnipeg

Join Matthew R. Anderson as he visits Winnipeg to speak on his book The Good Walk: Creating New Paths on Traditional Prairie Trails (University of Regina Press). Co-presented by Camino Manitoba. A book signing will follow the presentation.

This event will be hosted live in the Atrium of McNally Robinson Booksellers, Grant Park and also available as a simultaneous YouTube stream.

The Good Walk is a memoir, travelogue, and manifesto, recounting how a growing group of dreamers instigated prairie pilgrimages on foot, starting in 2015 and continuing almost every year since. The story is steeped in Treaty Four and Treaty Six history and edged with Canadian, nêhiyaw, and Métis stories and poetry. It braids Indigenous perspectives together with rural Saskatchewan characters along routes increasingly emptied of the family farms and small towns that once defined a province. It doesn’t shy away from the clearing of the plains in the 1870s and 1880s nor the 2016 killing of Colton Boushie that again separated the rural communities from the Indigenous communities. Travel with the author through prairie storms, family histories, and humorous encounters, and bear difficult witness to the evolving politics of ownership and of racialized land access.

Readers will share the real-life adventures of a group of Indigenous and settler walkers, trekking thousands of kilometres on swollen feet along the Traders’ Road, the Battleford Trail, the Frenchman and the Fort Qu’Appelle Trails—prairie paths that haven’t been walked in over a century.

Matthew R. Anderson was born to settlers on Treaty 4 territory near the Cypress Hills area. He now teaches part-time at both St. Francis Xavier and Concordia universities. Anderson is the author of several books, including Prophets of Love: The Unlikely Kinship of Leonard Cohen and the Apostle Paul, and Our Home and Treaty Land (with Raymond Aldred). His pilgrimage podcast is “Pilgrimage Stories from Up and Down the Staircase,” and more of his work can be found at SomethingGrand.ca and UnsettledWords.com.

*Rescheduled* Philipp Schott Book Launch

Wednesday May 15 2024 7:00 pm - Grant Park in the Atrium, Streaming on YouTube, Winnipeg

Please note that the launch of Philipp Schott's Eleven Huskies: A Dr. Bannerman Vet Mystery (ECW Press) has been moved to Wednesday May 29.

An Evening with Robert J. Sawyer

Tuesday May 21 2024 7:00 pm - Grant Park in the Atrium, Streaming on YouTube, Winnipeg

Join us as we welcome acclaimed science fiction author Robert J. Sawyer back to Winnipeg to discuss and sign his new novel, The Downloaded (Shadowpaw Press).

The event will be hosted live in the Atrium of McNally Robinson Booksellers, Grant Park and also available as a simultaneous YouTube stream.

In 2059 two very different groups have their minds uploaded into a quantum computer in Waterloo, Ontario. One group consists of astronauts preparing for Earth’s first interstellar voyage. The other? Convicted murderers, serving their sentences in a virtual-reality prison. But when the astronauts and prisoners download back into physical reality, they’re shocked to find that 500 years have passed, technological civilization has fallen, and the only other survivors are the members of the local Mennonite community.

Robert J. Sawyer has won both the Hugo and the Nebula Awards for best science-fiction novel of the year as well as more Canadian Aurora Awards than anyone else in history. The ABC TV series FlashForward was based on his novel of the same name. Rob is a member of both the Order of Canada and the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. The Downloaded is his 25th novel, following such previous bestsellers as Quantum Night and The Oppenheimer Alternative.

An Evening with Jeff Rubin

Wednesday May 22 2024 7:00 pm - Grant Park in the Atrium, Streaming on YouTube, Winnipeg

Join economist and bestselling author Jeff Rubin as he returns to Winnipeg to discuss and sign his new book A Map of the New Normal: How Inflation, War, and Sanctions Will Change Your World Forever (Penguin Canada). More information TBC.

The event will be hosted live in the Atrium of McNally Robinson Booksellers, Grant Park and also available as a simultaneous YouTube stream.

Bestselling economist Jeff Rubin warns that the shock inflation of 2021 is the front of a perfect storm of war, supply-chain disruption, geopolitical realignment, domestic upheaval, and energy scarcity that will change everything.

Tracking trade wars and kinetic wars, central banks and runs on banks, pipelines blown up and startups knocked down, A Map of the New Normal gives us a glimpse of a near future that will look very different from the recent past. It reminds us that our mortgage rates and job security, our grocery bills and investments, are all tied to events set in motion by governments, corporations, and black swans around the world.

Jeff Rubin is a Canadian economist and bestselling author. A world-leading expert on trade and energy, and former chief economist and chief strategist at CIBC World Markets, he recently served as a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance founded by Jim Balsillie. His first book, Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller, was an international bestseller, and was favourably reviewed in both TIME and Newsweek. It was the number-one-selling non-fiction book in Canada and won the National Business Book Award, and was longlisted for the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award. Since then, he has written multiple bestsellers, including The End of Growth, The Carbon Bubble, and The Expendables.

An Evening with Billy-Ray Belcourt

Thursday May 23 2024 7:00 pm - Grant Park in the Atrium, Streaming on YouTube, Winnipeg

Join us for a special evening with Billy-Ray Belcourt as he returns to Winnipeg to discuss and sign his new collection Coexistence: Stories (Penguin Canada). Featuring a reading and a conversation hosted by katherena vermette, followed by a book signing. Co-presented by the Winnipeg International Writers Festival.

The event will be hosted live in the Atrium of McNally Robinson Booksellers, Grant Park and also available as a simultaneous YouTube stream.

Across the prairies and Canada’s west coast, on reserves and university campuses, at literary festivals and existential crossroads, the characters in Coexistence are searching for connection. They’re learning to live with and understand one another, to see beauty and terror side by side, and to accept that the past, present, and future can inhabit a single moment.

Bearing the compression, crystalline sentences, and emotional potency that have characterized his earlier books, Coexistence is a testament to Belcourt’s mastery of and playfulness in any literary form. A vital addition to an already rich catalogue, this is a must-read collection and the work of an author at the height of his powers.

Billy-Ray Belcourt (he/him) is a writer from the Driftpile Cree Nation. He won the 2018 Griffin Poetry Prize for his debut collection, This Wound Is a World, which was also a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award. His bestselling memoir, A History of My Brief Body, won the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize and was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award and the Governor General's Literary Award. A recipient of the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship and an Indspire Award, Belcourt is Assistant Professor of Indigenous Creative Writing at UBC.

Host katherena vermette (she/her) is a Red River Métis (Michif) writer from Treaty 1 territory, the heart of the Métis Nation, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. vermette received the Governor General’s Literary Award for Poetry for her first book, North End Love Songs. Her first novel, The Break, won several awards including the Amazon First Novel Award, and was a bestseller in Canada. Her second novel, The Strangers, won the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, named Indigo’s 2021 Book of the Year, and was a #1 national bestseller. Her work in children’s literature includes the graphic novel series A Girl Called Echo. vermette lives with her family in a cranky old house within skipping distance of the temperamental Red River.

An Evening with Susan Blacklin

Friday May 24 2024 7:00 pm - Grant Park in the Atrium, Streaming on YouTube, Winnipeg

Join us for an evening with Susan Blacklin, author of Water Confidential: Witnessing Justice Denied-The Fight for Safe Drinking Water (Caitlin Press). All royalties from Susan's memoir will be donated equally to The Safe Drinking Water Foundation and Keepers of the Water.

The event will be hosted live in the Atrium of McNally Robinson Booksellers, Grant Park and also available as a simultaneous YouTube stream

In Water Confidential, Susan Blacklin recounts her decades-long dedication alongside her late ex-husband, Dr. Hans Peterson, to secure safe drinking water for First Nations and rural communities in Canada. Beginning with Peterson's pioneering research in 1996, they established the Safe Drinking Water Foundation (SDWF), developing innovative water treatment technology and educational programs. Despite progress, many communities still lack access to safe water. Blacklin advocates for federal regulations and transparent science-based policies to address the ongoing crisis. In this timely memoir, Blacklin reflects on her fundraising, activism, and negotiations with governments, while underscoring the urgent need for equitable access to clean water.

“Dr. Hans Peterson was an ally to the nation. Our message to other First Nations Leaders is to search for those allies, not just consultants, but experts that care because they will go the distance for your people. Our message to Canadians is to be those allies because if First Nations communities thrive, so does Canada." —Chief John Machiskinic, Yellow Quill First Nation

“That Hans and Sue had to undertake what they did is an indictment of Canada’s attitude to Indigenous communities, even when it comes to basic human rights.” —Dr. John O’Connor, family physician, and health advocate, Northern Alberta

Susan Blacklin was born near London, UK, and later moved to Canada. She supported her late ex-husband, Dr. Hans Peterson, in founding the Safe Drinking Water Foundation; they devoted fifteen years of their lives to bringing safe drinking water to First Nations and rural communities.

Philipp Schott Book Launch

Wednesday May 29 2024 7:00 pm - Grant Park in the Atrium, Streaming on YouTube, Winnipeg

Join Philipp Schott for the launch of Eleven Huskies: A Dr. Bannerman Vet Mystery (ECW Press) featuring a conversation hosted by Joanne Kelly.

The launch will be hosted live in the Atrium of McNally Robinson Booksellers, Grant Park and also available as a simultaneous YouTube stream.

Peter Bannerman, veterinarian and amateur detective, deserves a summer vacation. Peter and his family head to a remote fishing lodge in northern Manitoba for a canoeing trip with his champion sniffer dog, Pippin. But a series of incidents color their plans. The lodge’s sled team of huskies has been poisoned and, at the same time, a floatplane crashes into the lake, killing the pilot and both passengers. While Peter works to save the huskies, it is discovered that the plane crash wasn’t an accident. It was murder.

It’s been a hot and dry summer, and one morning the Bannerman family wakes up to find a forest fire spreading quickly. They manage to dodge the conflagration, making it back to the lodge before it becomes cut off from the outside world. Peter soon figures out that the murderer, who probably also poisoned the huskies, must be among the other guests or staff trapped with them at the lodge. The power fails. The now-enormous fire draws nearer. Can Peter discover the culprit in time?

Philipp Schott lives in Winnipeg where he practices veterinary medicine, writes, and shares a creaky old house on the river with his wife, kids, cats, and dog. His first book, The Accidental Veterinarian, was a bestseller and was translated into five languages. Six other books have followed. This is his third Dr. Bannerman Vet Mystery.

Niigaan Sinclair Book Launch

Thursday May 30 2024 7:00 pm - Grant Park in the Atrium, Streaming on YouTube, Winnipeg

Join Niigaan Sinclair for the launch of Wînipêk: Visions of Canada from an Indigenous Centre (McClelland & Stewart). 

The launch will be hosted live in the Atrium of McNally Robinson Booksellers, Grant Park and also available as a simultaneous YouTube stream.

Niigaan Sinclair has been called provocative, revolutionary, and one of this country's most influential thinkers on the issues impacting Indigenous cultures, communities, and reconciliation in Canada. In his debut collection of stories, observations, and thoughts about Winnipeg, the place he calls "ground zero" of Canada's future, read about the complex history and contributions of this place alongside the radical solutions to injustice and violence found here, presenting solutions for a country that has forgotten principles of treaty and inclusivity. It is here, in the place where Canada began—where the land, water, people, and animals meet— that a path "from the centre" is happening for all to see.

Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair is Anishinaabe (St. Peter’s/Little Peguis) and an Assistant Professor at the University of Manitoba. He is a regular commentator on Indigenous issues on CTV, CBC, and APTN, and his written work can be found in the pages of The Exile Book of Native Canadian Fiction and Drama, newspapers like The Guardian, and online with CBC Books: Canada Writes. Niigaan is the co-editor of the award-winning Manitowapow: Aboriginal Writings from the Land of Water (HighWater Press) and Centering Anishinaabeg Studies: Understanding the World Through Stories (Michigan State University Press), and is the Editorial Director of The Debwe Series with Portage and Main Press. Niigan obtained his BA in Education at the University of Winnipeg, before completing an MA in Native- and African-American literatures at the University of Oklahoma, and a PhD in First Nations and American Literatures from the University of British Columbia.

 

Diane Morrisseau & Elisabeth Brannigan Book Launch

Wednesday Jun 05 2024 7:00 pm - Grant Park in the Atrium, Streaming on YouTube, Winnipeg

Join Diane Morrisseau and Elisabeth Brannigan for the launch of One Second at a Time: My Story of Pain and Reclamation (UBC Press / Purich Books).

The launch will be hosted live in the Atrium of McNally Robinson Booksellers, Grant Park and also available as a simultaneous YouTube stream.

For almost two decades, Diane Morrisseau was chained to a brutal husband who abused not only her, but their children. By threatening Diane with their death and hers should she ever try to leave, he ensured that she would continue to endure his cruelty. Despite this, Diane found the strength to walk away. This book is the story of how she did so, and how she rebuilt a life beyond her abuser. Through Al-Anon, Anishinabe traditional healing ceremonies, counselling, and care for others, Diane found a new path illuminated by compassion and purpose.

Diane Morrisseau recounts her traumatic history with one aim: to help other victims of violence know they are not alone, and that escape is possible. The author’s entire career, and this book, testify to her desire to extend to others the hope that eluded her in the depths of her desperate circumstances. All royalties from sales of this book will be donated to Archway Community Services.

Diane Morrisseau is a proud Anishinabe woman from Sagkeeng First Nation. She is a mother and a grandmother and is looked up to by many in the community as a respected Elder, dedicated to helping others. She began her career in Health Sciences by advocating passionately for First Nations patients. In the early eighties, Diane returned to school for diplomas in addictions and social work. During her employment as a youth worker, she helped formerly homeless, vulnerable, and at-risk youth who had grown up in the child welfare system. Diane worked as a counsellor for several treatment centres until her retirement in 2011. She continues to be asked to counsel clients, speak at events, facilitate sharing and healing circles, and participate in traditional ceremonies. She also continues to work in the field of domestic violence in an abuse shelter as a counsellor to First Nations women and their children. For the past thirty-five years, Diane has dedicated herself to the well-being of Anishinabe women, children, and men. She resides in Winnipeg.

Elisabeth Brannigan is a mother and elementary school teacher. She holds a bachelor of arts in Indigenous studies and a bachelor of education. Elisabeth began her career teaching at Sagkeeng Mino Pimatiziwin Treatment Centre (now the Mikaaming Mino Pimatiziwin Healing Lodge) in Sagkeeng First Nation. Inspired by Diane’s story of resilience and strength, Elisabeth was determined to help Diane achieve her vision of seeing her story written and published for the world to read. It has been her great honour to work with Diane in telling her story. Elisabeth lives with her husband and children in Toronto, Ontario.

Ariel Gordon Book Launch

Thursday Jun 13 2024 7:00 pm - Grant Park in the Atrium, Streaming on YouTube, Winnipeg

Join Ariel Gordon as she celebrates the Winnipeg launch of Fungal: Foraging in the Urban Forest (Wolsak & Wynn). There will be a conversation hosted by Kerry Ryan, an opportunity for audience Q&A, and a book signing with the author. The event will also feature a display by Tom Nagy of River City Mushrooms.

The launch will be hosted live in the Atrium of McNally Robinson Booksellers, Grant Park and also available as a simultaneous YouTube stream.

Fungal is a wide-ranging collection from Ariel Gordon where she explores her fascination with all mushrooms, not just those you can eat. In these engaging essays she takes the reader through ditches and puddles in search of morels, through the hallways of a mushroom factory, down city sidewalks and beside riverbanks as she considers things found and fungal. Smart, funny and poetic, Gordon moves seamlessly from the natural world to the personal in these essays, examining the interconnectedness of all things and delighting in the rich variety of the world around her.

Ariel Gordon (she/her) is a Winnipeg/Treaty 1 Territory-based writer, editor, and enthusiast. In 2019, Treed: Walking in Canada’s Urban Forests, a collection of essays that combines science writing and the personal essay, was published by Hamilton’s Wolsak & Wynn. It received a honourable mention for 2020 Alanna Bondar Memorial Book Prize for Environmental Humanities and Creative Writing from ALECC. Gordon’s essays have recently appeared in Canadian Notes and Queries, FreeFall, Canthius, and the Winnipeg Free Press. Fungal is her sixth book.

Host Kerry Ryan is the author of three poetry collections: The Sleeping Life (The Muses’ Company), Vs. (Anvil), and Diagnosing Minor Illness in Children (Frontenac House). Her poems and essays have appeared in journals and anthologies across Canada. She lives and writes in Winnipeg.

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