CURRENT EVENTS

  • An Aqua Books Winnipeg Exclusive
    Removing the Hutterite Kerchiefmore ]
  • Tuesday February 9/10
    6pm

    Winnipeg Girl Geek Dinner
    - guest speaker Coree Franciscomore ]
  • Wednesday February 10/10
    EAT!

    Gluten-Free Valentine's
    - reservation onlymore ]
  • Thursday February 11/10
    7pm
    $12
    Clarence Two Toes CD Fundraiser
    - comedian Ryan McMahon, hosted by My Brother Wab and My Other Brother Waubmore ]
  • Friday February 12/10
    7pm

    Kelly Hughes Live! DIY
    - kids' performer Al Simmons and VPW legend Natalie Pollock, with Household Hints from Handyman Rod and music by Cluster All-Starsmore ]
  • Friday February 12/10
    7:30pm

    Stone Soup Storytellers
    - featured tellers Kay Stone and Mary Louise Chownmore ]
  • Saturday February 13/10
    12pm

    The Deserter's Tale Launch
    - author Joshua Keymore ]
  • Saturday February 13/10
    2pm

    Pond Memories Launch
    - Kenora's Lil Anderson with Bardie the Owlmore ]
  • February 16-20/10
    Mondo!Kroetsch
    - Manitoba's only annual poetry festival celebrates the life and work of local icon Robert Kroetsch
  • Tuesday February 16/10
    7pm

    Soapbox Open Mic
    Mondo!Kroetsch Seed Catalogue Relay Reading

    - featuring Susie Moloney, Kerry Ryan, Rosie Chard, Leif Norman and many more [ more ]
  • Thursday February 18/10
    7pm

    Kelly Hughes Live! Mondo!Kroetsch
    - guests Jake MacDonald, Neil Besner and Robert Enright, with music by DJ Mama Cutsworthmore ]
  • Tuesday February 23/10
    7pm

    Poems of Manitowapow
    - poets Duncan Mercredi, Rosanna Deerchild, Katherena Vermette and Donna Beyer, hosted by David Robertson
  • Wednesday February 24/10
    7pm

    rEmiX MACHINA
    - author Jonathan Ball, with GMB Chomichuk, Patrick Short, John Toone and Colin Smithmore ]
  • Thursday February 25/10
    7pm

    Anthology Reading Series
    - Roewan Crowe, with Courtney Slobogian and Chandra Mayormore ]
  • Friday February 26/10
    7:30pm

    Magic of One presents
    Kiviuq

    - Vancouver storyteller Kira Van Deusen
  • Tuesday March 2/10
    7pm

    Speaking Crow Open Mic
    - featuring TBAmore ]
  • March 3, 4 and 6/10
    Aqua U. presents
    Writing Your Life Intermediate Level

    A workshop with Jake MacDonald
  • Friday March 5/10
    7pm

    Kelly Hughes Live! High Life
    - High Life star Stephen Eric McIntyre, stunt coordinator Rick Skene and storyboarder Nicholas Burnsmore ]
  • March 10, 11 and 13/10
    Aqua U. presents
    Writing Your Life Introductory Level

    A workshop with Jake MacDonald
  • Wednesday March 17/10
    7pm

    Aqua Books Lansdowne Prize for Poetry series
    - poet Deborah Schnitzer with guests Marika Prokosh and Kristian Enrightmore ]
  • Thursday March 18/10
    7pm

    How Many Jewish Mothers?
    A Night of Jewish Humour

    - storytellers Alix Sobler, Moishe Goldenberg and Nurit Drory, with the easy listening harmonica of Sam Knackermore ]
  • Saturday March 20/10
    7pm

    Manitoba Storytelling Guild and Cabbages and Kings Radio present
    World Storytelling Day

    - storytellers Mary Louise Chown, Jane Enkin, Justin Jaron Lewis, Ron Robinson, Rebecca Hiebert, Wayne Drury and Kay Stone, with music by Patrick Keenanmore ]
  • Friday March 26/10
    7pm
    $10
    Telling Tales Spoken Lit Series
    Whale Tales to Balaam's Ass: Bringing Out the Animal in the Old Testament

    - storytellers Anne Morton and Rebecca Hiebert, with the Mennonite Blues of Bush Wiebemore ]
  • Tuesday March 30/10
    7-9pm
    $30
    Aqua U. presents How To Sell Yourself Without Selling Out
    - a marketing/life seminar from Bookstore Owner Kelly Hughesmore ]
  • Tuesday May 11/10
    7pm

    Through the Window of a Train
    A Railway Anthology

    - editor Barbara Langemore ]
  • July 14-24/10
    2010 Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival
    Psycho Bitch

    - starring Tamara Lynn Robertmore ]
  • July 14-24/10
    2010 Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival
    TJ Dawe's Tired Cliches

    - starring Alex Eddingtonmore ]
  • Meet Aqua Books Film Writer-in-Residence Kier-La Janissemore ]
  • Rosanna Deerchild wins the 2009 Aqua Books Lansdowne Prize for Poetry/Prix Lansdowne de poésie
    more ]

274 Garry St.
(Between Portage
& Graham)

Winnipeg, MB
Canada  R3C 1H3
204-943-7555

OPEN
Tues-Sat 11am-9pm
Sun-Mon Closed

EMAIL
kelly@aquabooks.ca

We accept Interac, Visa and Mastercard too

What people are saying:

As usual, I am sitting at Tim Horton's sipping a coffee on a Sunday morning and grinning from ear-to-ear from the shots you take in TWAB. Too funny. I hope I never end up looking like Ted Nugent... LOL! Grinning wildly and laughing by yourself in public can be a problem, so I better stifle it. - GK, Winnipeg

Kelly Hughes Live!


Winnipeg's only live talk show, Kelly Hughes Live! brings you all the trappings you've come to expect from the television talk show: comedy, music and celebrities. The only difference is that you haven't heard of any of my guests, and you'll have to leave your house. So it's not that much like TV after all. For past Kelly Hughes Live! shows, click here.

Kelly Hughes Live!Bookstore Owner Kelly Hughes has worked as an actor (Pacific Theatre), a pre-teen TV star (Let's Go!), an arts administrator (Winnipeg Cultural Alliance), and an operations manager (WHERE Winnipeg). He founded Aqua Books a decade ago, and is somewhat infamous as the writer of This Week at Aqua Books. He does dozens of media interviews each year, and has done hundreds of speaking/hosting engagements over the last two decades, from the kindergarten class at Kumsheen Elementary, to the Burnaby Correctional Centre for Women.


Friday, February 5/10 7pm


Kelly Hughes Live! Gets His Geek On
Host Kelly Hughes interviews Kids in the Hall legend Kevin McDonald, SciFi writer Nick DiChario, X-Men colourist Lovern Kindzierski and UFO expert Chris Rutkowski, plus the otherworldly music of Al Conroy (aka not half)

Kevin McDonaldKevin McDonald is a comedian and actor best known as a founding member of Kids in the Hall.


Nick DiCharioNick DiChario's short stories have appeared in many magazines and anthologies including The Year’s Best Science Fiction, The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, and The Best Alternate History Stories of the 20th Century. He has been nominated for two Hugo Awards and a World Fantasy Award. His first two novels were published by Robert J. Sawyer Books: A Small and Remarkable Life (2006) and Valley of Day-Glo (2008), and both books were nominated for the prestigious John W. Campbell Memorial Award.


Lovern KindzierskiLovern Kindzierski's colours have appeared in many comic books, magazines and animation, including The X-men, Star Trek, Dr. Who, The New Yorker, Wired, and Sesame Street. He has been nominated as best colourist for the Eisner Awards, Harvey Awards, and Schuster Awards. He has won best colourist in the Wizard Fan Awards (twice), as well as the Comic Buyers’ Guide Fan Awards. As a writer he has worked on many titles, such as Spiderman, Wolverine, and The Victorian. His writing on Tarzan garnered him a nomination for best writer in the Harvey Awards.


Chris RutkowskiChris Rutkowski is a science writer with degrees in astronomy and education. Since the mid-1970s, he has been one of Canada's leading UFO experts. In addition to publishing eight books on the subject, Rutkowski has appeared on numerous TV programs, including Unsolved Mysteries, Sightings, Undercurrents and The Unexplained.


Al ConroyAl Conroy has been making a racket under the guise of not half since 1983, using nearly everything he can get his hands on to make a sound. He is also the lead synth-blaster in local Space-Rawk legends Breath Grenades. Al has appeared on a few records, a few CDs (real, burned and even imaginary), many cassettes and has done quite a few remixes for quite a few people from quite a few countries. He composes soundtracks for local filmmaker Nik Nova and is responsible for the weekly radio show Wrongly Wired on CKUW 95.9 FM (Wednesdays, 8-10pm). Otherwise, he lives quietly in a house with his wife and three cats.



Friday, February 12/10 7pm


Kelly Hughes Live! DIY
Host Kelly Hughes interviews kids' performer Al Simmons and VPW legend Natalie Pollock, with music by Cluster All-Stars

Al SimmonsAl Simmons is a creative genius whose highly original performances of profound wackiness and off-the-wall inventions take the arts of Music and Comedy to unparalleled heights of hilarity. Something’s Fishy at Camp Wiganishie Al’s first album became an instant hit. Al’s 1995 release, Celery Stalks at Midnight won a Juno Award and his 1997 CD, The Truck I Bought From Moe earned a Parent’s Choice Award. In 2005 Al created a one-hour DVD movie called I Collect Rocks, which the Los Angeles Times describes as combining “…education with off-the-wall humor and a New Vaudevillian sense of the absurd.”


Natalie PollockNatalie Pollock was a '60s recording star, and the host, with her brother Ron, of the classic VPW public access series Pollock and Pollock Gossip Show. She gained further fame running for mayor of Winnipeg, and for her unsuccessful lawsuit against actor Larry Linville (MASH's Frank Burns). Natalie has appeared on Donahue, Jenny Jones and the Joan Rivers Show.



Thursday, February 18/10 7pm


Kelly Hughes Live! Mondo!Kroetsch
Host Kelly Hughes interviews Jake MacDonald, Neil Besner and Robert Enright, with music by DJ Mama Cutsworth


Friday, March 5/10 7pm


Kelly Hughes Live! High Life
Host Kelly Hughes interviews High Life star Stephen Eric McIntyre, stunt coordinator Rick Skene and storyboarder Nicholas Burns

High LifeSet in 1983, just after the birth of Automated Teller Machines, Winnipegger Gary Yates' High Life is a story of kinship, loyalty, and honour among thieves. In a busy downtown hospital, a visit from his former socio-pathic cellmate Bug (Stephen Eric McIntyre) has just gotten Dick fired from his job as a hospital janitor. Unemployed and in need of fast cash Dick gets the idea to rob one of the day’s brand new ATM machines, to “buy a little self-respect”, announces Dick to Bug and the team. Enter the charismatic, criminally-minded Donnie, (Joe Anderson) and the front-man, the sexy, sleepy-eyed charmer Billy, (Rossif Sutherland) and all of the pieces are in place. “It’s a precision job,” says Dick the night before the heist: “No violence.” You think?

Naturally things don’t go according to plan and the unfolding catalogue of disasters that confronts Dick is enough to test any friend’s loyalties as the lovable losers bungle their way toward a pipe-dream of quick riches. Alternately tragic and hysterical, High Life’s perfect plan ends up anything but when one of the bank’s employees double-crosses them all. Set against the nostalgic back-beat of Three Dog Night, Creedence Clearwater Revival and a raft of April Wine, High Life’s highwire tension unfolds with calamitous results.


Stephen Eric McIntyreStephen Eric McIntyre is an actor/writer/improviser born in Regina, raised in Winnipeg and happily spending altogether too much time in Toronto. In addition to his theatre and comedy work, his credits include the films The Innate and Small Town Murder Scenes. Stephen walked away with Gary Yates' High Life as psycho ex-con Bug.


Nicholas BurnsNicholas Burns is a Winnipeg writer and artist. He has storyboarded many locally shot music videos, independent shorts, TV movies, and feature films including: The Stone Angel, The Haunting in Connecticut, The Lookout, and High Life. In addition to film work, he has written and done colouring for comics publishers such as DC, Kitchen Sink, and Marvel Comics. He has also created educational comics such as: Super Shamou, Arctic Comics, New North, and You Can Do It Too! Currently, Nicholas is creating an online educational graphic novel and several graphic novels for print.



Friday, April 9/10 7pm


Kelly Hughes Live! CBC Winnipeg Comedy Fest
Host Kelly Hughes interviews [insert comedians here], with music by The Paperbacks

The PaperbacksThe Paperbacks are Doug McLean, Jaret McNabb, Kevin Andrechuk, Corey Biluk and Kevin McLean. Lit From Within was released in January 2010.



Friday, June 25/10 7pm


Kelly Hughes Live! Director's Cut
Host Kelly Hughes interviews director Noam Gonick, with music by Jaylene Johnson

Noam GonickNoam Gonick's film and installation work has investigated street gangs of Winnipeg, queer hippie cults, TV psychics, apocalyptic stockbrokers and prison semaphore. He has presented work at the Venice, Berlin, Toronto and Sundance Film Festivals, the Museum of Modern Art and the Serpentine Gallery in London.


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Aqua Books Tumblelog Telling Tales Teenage Rampage Writer-in-Residence Writer-in-Residence 2009 Aqua Books Lansdowne BookWalk