PAST STORE EVENTS

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 upcoming Kelly Hughes Live! shows, click here.

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, 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, with music by DJ Damien Ferland

Set 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 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.

Rick Skene is the leading film stunt coordinator and stage fight choreographer in Manitoba. He has worked on over 130 film and television productions over the past 20 years and choreographed and directed fight sequences for all of Manitoba’s major theatres. He is also an accomplished playwright and director, having written three full-length plays. Rick teaches Stage Combat and Filmmaking at the U of Winnipeg department of Drama. Rick and his wife, Jan, founded Skene Stunts, where sons Daniel and Sean now work as stunt performers and coordinators. Rick has worked with everyone from Robin Williams to Jennifer Lopez. (He was her butt double.)

Nicholas 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.

Thursday, February 18/10 7pm

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

Over the last twenty-five years Jake MacDonald has produced ten books of both fiction and non-fiction and hundreds of articles for many of North America’s leading newspapers and magazines. Six of his books have been optioned by film producers and some were recognized with national awards. Houseboat Chronicles won three awards, including the Writers Trust of Canada prize for best non-fiction book of 2002. MacDonald divides his time between Winnipeg and Toronto and a rustic retreat in Minaki, Ontario.

Neil Besner has taught Canadian literature at the University of Winnipeg since 1987, where he was Chair of the English Department (1993-2000), Dean of Humanities (2002-05), Dean of Arts (2005-06), and is currently Deputy Provost and Associate Vice-President, International. He writes mainly on Canadian literature and is the general editor of a new series of volumes of contemporary Canadian poetry, the Laurier Poetry Series, with Wilfrid Laurier University Press.

Robert Enright is one of Canada's best-known cultural journalists. In addition to spending 25 years as an art critic for CBC, Enright is editor-at-large of Border Crossings. He is currently teaching art criticism at University of Guelph.

One of the leading DJs on the Canadian prairies, Mama Cutsworth is no stranger to making folks flip on the old school funk, soul, hip hop, reggae, latin and disco.

Friday, February 12/10 7pm

Kelly Hughes Live! DIY
Host Kelly Hughes interviews kids' performer Al Simmons, greyhound rescuer Michaela Lamoureux, plus Household Hints with Handyman Rod and music by Cluster All-Stars

Al 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.”

Michaela Lamoureux runs Hi-Speed Hounds, a non-profit, all-volunteer greyhound rescue organization. Every year, thousands of greyhounds are retired from racing with nowhere to go. Michaela rescues dogs from all over the U.S. (greyhound racing is illegal in Canada) and finds them loving homes.

Handyman Rod Kozak spent years working in the local schmatta industry before turning to a career as a handyman to fulfill his creative impulses. Rod has been Handyman-in-Residence at Aqua Books since March 2008.

Local composers/improvisers Luke Nickel and Heidi Ugrin are the co-creators of Cluster – a new festival committed to high integrity and risk-taking programming and determined to breathe new life and fresh ideas into the Winnipeg arts scene. Cluster is a platform for artists to create, to collaborate and to experiment. Watch for Cluster's debut March 18-20, 2010. In their spare time, Heidi and Luke compose operas, recycle music, deconstruct text, travel from Tofino to Slovenia, and enjoy fine wine.

Gordon Fitzell is a Winnipeg-based composer, performer and producer. His music has been performed internationally by a host of leading artists including Norwegian group BIT20, Ensemble contemporain de Montréal, and American sextet eighth blackbird, whose Grammy-winning album strange imaginary animals features two of his works (Fitzell also appears as co-producer and live electronics artist). An Assistant Professor of Music Theory and Composition at the University of Manitoba, Fitzell also leads the eXperimental Improv Ensemble (XIE) and serves as an Artistic Director of GroundSwell, Winnipeg’s premiere new music series.

Max Fleischman appears frequently on Winnipeg stages performing music for organ, harpsichord, clavichord, Briscoe Harmony Chord, and 'modern' and historical pianos. He studied early keyboard instruments with Malcolm Bilson, David Breitman and Peter Sykes, and holds degrees in music history and performance from the Eastman School of Music, Oberlin College and Harvard University.

Ingrid Gatin is inspired by gyspy violin, '60s soul, and trash can percussion. Playing on the piano and the accordion, as well as some of her other favourite instruments (the ukulele, the mandolin, the tambourine, violin, handclaps, foot stomps, snaps, and a stand-up bass), Ingrid will stir your emotions, and move your body.

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

Nick 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 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 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 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, January 29/10 7pm

Kelly Hughes Live! All-Stars
Host Kelly Hughes interviews legendary children's entertainer Fred Penner and former MP Tina Keeper, plus CRUMBS Improv and music by Rollin Penner and the Traveling Medicine Show

Tina Keeper, OM is an Aboriginal activist, actress and former member of the Canadian House of Commons. Tina is best known for her role as RCMP officer Michelle Kenidi in the CBC Television series North of 60, about the fictional aboriginal community of Lynx River. She is a member of the Norway House Cree Nation, and has been involved in a variety of social issues, such as suicide prevention and violence against women. Tina went through the U of W Theatre program with Bookstore Owner Kelly Hughes, and was clearly the one who got her money's worth.

Fred Penner, CM is a children's entertainer whose show, Fred Penner's Place, ran for twelve seasons on CBC. His nine albums have been nominated for eight Junos.

CRUMBS is a freestyle comedy duo that have been touring the world and blowing minds since 1997.

Exceptional vocals, tight three part harmonies and sparkling instrumentals are the hallmarks of Rollin Penner and the Traveling Medicine Show. Featuring Rollin Penner on guitar and harmonica, Brett Penner on guitar and banjo, John Gosselin on bass, and all three on vocals, this group will surprise you with it’s tremendously varied repertoire, wonderful sense of humour, and “prodigious skill” (Carillon News, Oct.2009). As their theme song says, it’s good for whatever ails you!

Friday, January 15/10 7pm

Kelly Hughes Live! The Women of Churchill Fest
Host Kelly Hughes interviews MTC's Churchill Fest's Mel Marginet, Chuck McEwen, Maggie Nagle, Lorraine James, Daria Puttaert and Sharon Bajer, plus the comedic stylings of Chickie Hughes and the music of Virgil Pauls

Chuck McEwen is the Executive Producer of the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival and the Master Playwright Festival, which are both presented by The Manitoba Theatre Centre. Chuck is a graduate of the University of Manitoba, where he majored in Drama and was heavily involved with the Black Hole Theatre Company. Chuck’s artistic and administration career began at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival more than 19 years ago, and after 10 years leading the Toronto Fringe, he is very happy to once again be back in Winnipeg supporting the local theatre community.

Mel Marginet, a graduate of the Honours program at the U of W, is co-founder/artistic head of Theatre by the River. She has performed in many theatre productions around the city. Favourites include: Saint Joan, The Bush Ladies, Oedipus Rex, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Ugly Ducks, Pretty Swans, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Eternal O, and The History of Theatre (Theatre by the River). See her on the big screen in Absurd Machine's Aegri Somnia, as well as Randy Guest's The Lady in Grey. She's excited to appear this season on City TV's Less Than Kind.

Chickie Hughes is a performer and director who has appeared on radio, screen and stage hundreds of times over the last six decades. As a performer, she is an alumnus of Rainbow Stage, MTC and the Hollow Mug. As a director, she has helmed dozens of musicals and plays in Winnipeg. A former Flin Flon Trout Queen, she's also the mother of Bookstore Owner Kelly Hughes.

Virgil Pauls grew up in Kansas before hitchhiking to New Orleans, where he cut his teeth on the blues, Cajun style. As vocalist and guitarist for seminal '80s reggae band, Velvet Touch, Virgil charmed audiences throughout Manitoba with his smokey vocals. As a visual artist, Virgil has lapsed into graphite and oils to fulfill his creative urges, and has only picked up his guitar again this year. After hiding away and honing his skills anew, Virgil is back and better than ever.

Friday, December 4/09 7pm

Kelly Hughes Live!
Gets Schooled for the Holidays
Host Kelly Hughes interviews Santa Claus expert Gerry Bowler and Kelly's Grade 11 English teacher Ed Mann, plus a Christmas story from storyteller Anne Morton and Neil Keep and the iPod Orchestra

Gerry Bowler received his Ph.D. in History from King's College, University of London, and now teaches medieval and early-modern history at the University of Manitoba. He has published on subjects such as Renaissance monarchy, theological justifications of violence, the religious content of The Simpsons and the relationship between Aristotle and professional wrestling. In addition to co-authoring Europe in the Sixteenth Century (Longman, 1989), Dr. Bowler is a leading authority on the history of Christmas and its cultural significance. His books The World Encyclopedia of Christmas (M&S, 2000) and Santa Claus: A Biography (M&S, 2005) have been translated into Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese and Russian.

Anne Morton is a native Winnipegger, born on the banks of the Assiniboine. Anne worked for 25 years in the Hudson’s Bay Company Archives, and is now Archivist of the Diocese of Rupert’s Land.

Neil Keep has been singing for 43 years, 27 of those at a semi-professional level. As a solo act and with various bands, he sings at weddings, receptions, banquets, customer and volunteer appreciation events, fundraisers, coffee houses, churches, big parties, small parties, private parties, milestone parties and anywhere else. As well as his solo show with the iPod Orchestra, he performs with local big band, Ricky Bogart and the New Casbah Band.

Friday, November 27/09 7pm

Kelly Hughes Live!
Rocks!
Host Kelly Hughes interviews legendary Chocolate Bunnies from Hell frontman P.J. Burton, Twang Trust host Stu Reid and rock writer John Einarson, with the Darren Day Is Band

P.J. Burton is lead singer of seminal '80s rock band Chocolate Bunnies From Hell. He also teaches high school English. PJ's life has followed the typical "prairie circuitous" pattern; somewhat similar to, say a dizzy Canada Goose or the wandering drunken buffalo. (Winnipeg to Dauphin to Saskatoon to Edmonton and back to Winnipeg.) The cycle is now complete. P.J. believes that he will now metamorphosize into a beautiful butterfly or at least get a face lift.

Meanwhile, the Chocolate Bunnies From Hell are enjoying yet another exhumation and are writing, rehearsing, performing and recording their third CD. P.J. rarely uses the old Emo Phillips line: "Winnipeg: it sounds like a cheap contest for pirates", unless forced into it by flamboyant talk show hosts out for cheap laughs.

As well as co-hosting Mud Puddle Radio with his 5 year old daughter Britt, graphic designer and professional music-nerd Stu Reid (right, with Little Steven) is the weekly host of TwangTrust, CKUW's #1 most downloaded and fund-drive supported radio show. Just because Stu has seen Bruce Springsteen in concert over 40 times doesn't make him a geek. There are other reasons, too. Music writer Dave Marsh called Stu's early 80's Springsteen fanzine "Bruceness", "the best (Springsteen fanzine) of them all, by far". Dave hates Stu now. Come find out why.

John Einarson is a widely-respected rock music historian and writer. He is the author of thirteen biographies on subjects including Neil Young, Randy Bachman, the Guess Who, John Kay/Steppenwolf, and Buffalo Springfield. His critically-acclaimed book Mr. Tambourine Man was acknowledged among the best books of 2005 by both Uncut and Record Collector in the UK and nominated for a 2006 ARSC (Association for Recorded Sound Collections) Award for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research. His most recent book Hot Burritos: The True Story Of The Flying Burrito Brothers was again shortlisted by Uncut as among the ten best music books of 2008. He has written for television and radio, hosting his own CBC radio series and contributing to television specials on Canadian music history. A Winnipeg resident and retired teacher, John continues to organize a popular annual rock 'n' roll revue at St. John's-Ravenscourt school involving over one hundred students. He is currently writing a biography of enigmatic '60s cult figure Arthur Lee of the band Love, whose Forever Changes ranks among the top albums of all time.

Darren Day Is Band is Darren Day, Curtis Brandt, and Tim Postma. Their unique brand of music, a concoction informed by Sam Phillips, Scott Walker, Prefab Sprout, John Cale, Starflyer 59, Go-Betweens, The Replacements, Hank Williams, Graham Greene and Sam Shepard, has won over a wide array of audiences in festivals and clubs in Manitoba and in Western Canada. Day hosts CKUW's Same Train, Different Time, a weekly radio show that brings a mix of Cosmic Americana, Classic Country, Indie Rock, Power Pop, and '70s Singer-Songwriters to airwaves on Tuesday nights in Winnipeg. Darren's background in theatre has resulted in many local productions as well as appearances at The Winnipeg Fringe Festival and MTC's Brechtfest. This winter sees a new record in the works as well as soundtrack work for Day in New York in the Spring. Bartley Kives of the Free Press called their music "easily the most fully-formed, darkly-rich melodies to come out of the city this year".

Friday, November 6/09 7pm

Kelly Hughes Live!
Goes to the Movies
Host Kelly Hughes interviews incoming Film W-i-R Kier-La Janisse and screenwriter Chris Charney, featuring the folk music of Alexander McCowan

Kier-La Janisse is a writer and film programmer who hosts music-related and cult film screenings under the moniker Big Smash! Productions. She was head programmer for the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Austin, Texas from 2003-2007, founded the CineMuerte Horror Film Festival and the Big Smash! Music-on-Film Festival (both in Vancouver). She's curated programs at the Blinding Light!! Cinema and the Criminal Cinema in Vancouver, as well as the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. She has written for Filmmaker, Rue Morgue and Fangoria magazines, has contributed to The Scarecrow Movie Guide (Sasquatch Books, 2004) and Destroy All Movies!! (forthcoming from Fantagraphics), and is the author of A Violent Professional: The Films of Luciano Rossi, published by FAB Press in 2007. She is the Administrative Coordinator for Winnipeg's send + receive: a festival of sound and Special Events Coordinator for independent record store Into the Music. Currently, Ms. Janisse is co-producing a feature documentary called Eurocrime! The Italian Cop and Gangster Films that Ruled the 70s and working on a new book about female neurosis in horror and exploitation films entitled House of Psychotic Women.

Chris Charney is a Winnipeg screenwriter whose high school comedy Wild Cherry starring Rob Schneider (Deuce Bigalow) and Rumer Willis (The House Bunny) was nominated for a 2009 Canadian Comedy Award for film writing. Throughout the years he has written and produced television documentaries about boxers, Sitting Bull, exotic dancers, and serial killers for Winnipeg's Farpoint Films. He is currently working on a feature screenplay entitled Senior Year.

Alexander McCowan's name is as heavy as a brickster. His music is sharp and playful like a new-age hipster. A former student of history turned troubadour, Alexander McCowan will release Thief, a seven song EP produced by Dale Penner of Paradise Alley Studios, on November 17, 2009. It is his first independent release.

Friday, October 23/09 7pm

Kelly Hughes Live!
Goes to the Theatre
Host Kelly Hughes interviews actor Graham Ashmore, director Arne MacPherson and Aqua Books W-i-R Carolyn Gray, featuring the Broadway music of Chickie Hughes

Carolyn Gray has worked in local theatre as a writer, actor, director, dramaturge, designer, educator,and puppeteer for over twenty years. Her play The Elmwood Visitation (Scirocco) was produced by Theatre Projects Manitoba in February 2007. The play won the Manitoba Day Award from the Association of Manitoba Archives, for excellence in archival research and being a creative work that celebrates Manitoba. She won the 2008 John Hirsch Most Promising Writer Award. Recently, her short story, The Stains, took first prize in the Marie Barton Postcard Fiction contest. She has written her first young adult novel, and is preparing her new play, North Main Gothic, for its world premiere with Theatre Projects in April 2010.

Arne MacPherson is a Winnipeg-based director and actor. Arne’s work as a freelance director includes productions for the Manitoba Theatre Centre, Shakespeare In the Ruins, Theatre Projects Manitoba, Prairie Theatre Exchange, and the Manitoba Theatre for Young People. At the 2006 Winnipeg Fringe and 2005 Edmonton Fringe festivals, he performed with his two kids Gislina and Solmund in Candy From a Baby, penned by his partner Debbie Patterson. He was a founding member of Shakespeare In the Ruins (where he played Hamlet and Richard III), and acted as Artistic Chair for that company for six years. He also works with Icelandic art festival Nuna(now), and has taught acting at the University of Winnipeg, PTE school and the MTYP school.

Graham Ashmore is a member of the theatre companies Adhere and Deny, Winnipegger Ensemble, Tom Tom, and Little Theatre of the Grey Goose. He got his start in the seminal 80s theatre company Rude Players, whose work was based on the methods of Mike Leigh and Hull Truck. He has performed in Hamlet, Measure for Measure, The Tempest, Troilus and Cressida, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It, and King Lear, for the Manitoba Theatre Centre, Shakespeare in the Ruins, Tom Tom, English Suitcase, and University of Winnipeg, and he has studied Shakespeare under a number of tutors.

Chickie Hughes is a performer and director who has appeared on radio, screen and stage hundreds of times over the last six decades. As a performer, she is an alumnus of Rainbow Stage, MTC and the Hollow Mug. As a director, she has helmed dozens of musicals and plays in Winnipeg. A former Flin Flon Trout Queen, she's also the mother of Bookstore Owner Kelly Hughes.

Friday, October 9/09 7pm

Kelly Hughes Live!
Host Kelly Hughes interviews Malahat Review editor John Barton, featuring former Aqua Books W-i-R Anita Daher plus the music of Kevin Scott

John Barton has published nine books of poetry and five chapbooks, including Designs from the Interior, Sweet Ellipsis, Hypothesis, and Hymn, which was released by Brick Books in August. A third and bilingual edition of West of Darkness: Emily Carr, a self-portrait, his third book, was published by Buschek Books in 2006. Co-editor of Seminal: The Anthology of Canada's Gay-Male Poets, he has won three Archibald Lampman Awards, an Ottawa Book Award, a 2003 CBC Literary Award, and a 2006 National Magazine Award. He lives in Victoria where he is the editor of The Malahat Review.

Award-winning young adult writer Anita Daher was Aqua Books' inaugural writer-in-residence. Anita Daher has been writing and publishing in Canada for well over a decade, often drawing inspiration from the many places she's been fortunate to spend time in. After being named recipient of the 2007 John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer, she buckled down and wrote three more novels for juveniles and young adults. Two of them, Racing for Diamonds (Orca) and Spider's Song (Penguin/Puffin) were finalists for the 2008 Arthur Ellis Award for best juvenile crime novel. Racing for Diamonds was also been named a finalist for the 2009 Hackmatack East Coast Reader's Choice Award. Anita lives in Winnipeg, and will always accept invitations for dim sum.

Kevin Scott is a local musician with several irons in several fires at all times. A multi-instrumentalist, his interests range from solo classical piano (he has a Grade X Royal Conservatory diploma) to early music (he plays harpsichord and recorder in local early music ensemble Amindra Consort) to folk/rock bands (he is one of the co-founders of local psych-folk group Mr. Pine, in which he plays assorted guitars, keyboards and other sundry instruments). Since 1998 Kevin has been a DJ at UMFM (101.5FM) in Winnipeg, hosting two shows of great musical diversity, and he also works as a church organist.

Friday, September 18/09 7pm

Kelly Hughes Live!
Into THIN AIR
Host Kelly Hughes interviews writer Margaret Sweatman, slam poet T'ai Pu and THIN AIR Director Charlene Diehl, with the roots music of Virgil Pauls

Kelly Hughes Live! takes you on the road to THIN AIR 2009, the Winnipeg International Writers Festival. Winnipeg's only live talk show, KHL! 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.

Charlene Diehl is the dynamo at the hub of THIN AIR. She's also a hard-working poet, and the author of the full-length lamentations (Trout Lily Press, 1997) and the chapbook mm (disOrientation press, 1992).

T’ai Pu, aka PuConA, was born in rhyme cyphas, groomed in drum circles, nourished by DJs and bands. His word/sound power is expressed through verbals (lyrics, written pieces), spitz (extemporaneous spoken word), voxbox (beatboxing, chants), and percussion. T’ai Pu has performed at jazz and folk festivals, radio-shows, nightclubs, special events, and community projects, and has recorded with several artists. His lively poetry and music show for kids, “Keep Sweepin’!” has made him equally adept young and old, mesmerizing audiences with his verbal virtuosity and genuine warmth. T’ai Pu lives in Winnipeg.

Margaret Sweatman is a playwright, poet, performer and novelist. Her plays have been produced by Prairie Theatre Exchange, Popular Theatre Alliance and the Guelph Spring Festival. She has performed with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra and the National Academy Orchestra, as well as with her own Broken Songs Band. Margaret Sweatman is the author of the novels Fox, Sam and Angie and When Alice Lay Down with Peter, which won the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction, the Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic, the Carol Shields Winnipeg Award and the McNally Robinson Book of the Year. Her long-awaited new novel, The Players, has just been released by Goose Lane Editions.

Virgil Pauls grew up in Kansas before hitchhiking to New Orleans, where he cut his teeth on the blues, Cajun style. As vocalist and guitarist for seminal '80s reggae band, Velvet Touch, Virgil charmed audiences throughout Manitoba with his smokey vocals. As a visual artist, Virgil has lapsed into graphite and oils to fulfill his creative urges, and has only picked up his guitar again this year. After hiding away and honing his skills anew, Virgil is back and better than ever.

Friday, September 11/09 7pm

Kelly Hughes Live!
Into THIN AIR
Host Kelly Hughes interviews writers Deborah Schnitzer and Jan Andrews, with Bluegrazz musician Ben Wytinck

Deborah Schnitzer teaches Literature at the University of Winnipeg and has written the long poem loving gertrudestein Loving Gertrude (Turnstone 2004) and the novel gertrude unmanageable (Arbeiter Ring 2007). Her latest novel An Unexpected Break in the Weather (Turnstone) breaks on September 15, 2009. (Debbie is also a force of nature - in a good way.)

Writer and storyteller Jan Andrews was born in the U.K., and now makes her home outside of Ottawa. The incoming Storyteller-in-Residence at the Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture at the University of Manitoba, she’s been delighting readers and listeners for over thirty years. Recent books include Stories at the Door, The Twelve Days of Summer, and Winter of Peril: The Newfoundland Diary of Sophie Loveridge.

Silky-voiced Ben Wytinck got his start at age nine, playing drums in his father's band at a rural Manitoba bar. He moved to Winnipeg in 2001, to play what he calls Bluegrazz (Bluegrass and Jazz). His eponymous debut CD contains ten of his finest self-penned songs.

Friday, September 4/09 7pm

Kelly Hughes Live!
Into THIN AIR
Host Kelly Hughes interviews writers Catherine Hunter and Michael Van Rooy, with the Mennonite Blues music of Bush Wiebe

Catherine Hunter teaches English and Creative Writing at the University of Winnipeg. For ten years she was the poetry editor of The Muses' Company Press. She is also the author of seven books, including the poetry collection Latent Heat (Signature Editions, 1997), which won the Manitoba Book of the Year Award in 1998. Her most recent work is the crime novel Queen of Diamonds (Turnstone Press, 2006).

Michael Van Rooy's debut, An Ordinary Decent Criminal, won the 2006 Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book by a Manitoba Writer, and has been recently optioned by Big Mind Films. Before settling on a writing career, Michael studied history at the University of Manitoba and was a restaurant manager, bartender, fishing guide, card dealer, news editor, cheesemaker, and federal prisoner. He uses all this experience to inform his writing. A former Aqua Books Writer-in-Residence, Michael lives in Winnipeg with his wife and three children.

Bush Wiebe is a Mennonite musician from Steinbach Manitoba who specializes in Mennonite blues. In the first 32 years of his life, he moved 32 times all over Canada and Paraguay. He says, "I am very proud of my Mennonite heritage. Being forced out of our homes and land 500 years ago and being on the move ever since, we've been persecuted and misunderstood for generation. I want to celebrate our culture, and to give modern day Mennonites a voice and a place in the greater culture."

Friday, May 15/09 7pm

The Manitoba Writers' Guild presents
Three Days in May:
Kelly Hughes Live!
Host Kelly Hughes interviews writers Brenda Hasiuk, Chandra Mayor, Struan Sinclair, Duncan Thornton and Armin Wiebe with music by the Manitoba Classical Guitar Duo

Thursday, May 14/09 7pm

The Manitoba Writers' Guild presents
Three Days in May:
Kelly Hughes Live!
Host Kelly Hughes interviews writers Kate Bitney, Rob Keough, Bruce McManus, Christina Penner and Barbara Romanik with music by Todd Hunter

Wednesday, May 13/09 7pm

The Manitoba Writers' Guild presents
Three Days in May:
Kelly Hughes Live!
Host Kelly Hughes interviews writers David Annandale, Clarise Foster, Tim Higgins, Anna LaPointe and Mike McIntyre with music by Lyle E. Style

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