PAST STORE EVENTS - 2009 and Earlier
(go 2011 and newly old events)
(go 2010 events)
2006-2009 Readings, Launches and Workshops
Soapbox Open Mic
Tuesday, December 15/09 7pm
Soapbox Open Mic
Featured reader Carol Rose, hosted by Kelly Hughes
Every third Tuesday of the month, Aqua Books presents our new open mic series, Soapbox, hosted by Bookstore Owner Kelly Hughes.
Soapbox starts at 7pm and consists of two open-mic sets and a short break in between. This is Winnipeg's only cross-genre open mic series. Bring your fiction, memoirs, fragments, poetry, songs, and anything you've written, for your 4 minutes of fame.
 Carol Rose is a writer, educator, and counsellor. She has taught courses on Women and Spirituality in Canada, the US, Israel and Denmark. Her poetry collection Behind the Blue Gate was published by Beach Holme in 1997. She is the co-editor (with Joan Turner) of Spider Women: A Tapestry of Creativity and Healing (J. Gordon Shillingford, 1999) and the author of the creative colouring book A Free Hand (Wood Lake Books 1990). She is working on a new poetry collection, from the dream.
 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, from the kindergarten class at Kumsheen Elementary, to the Burnaby Correctional Centre for Women.
Fundraiser/Reading Marathon
Saturday, December 12/09 12-9pm $5
Manitoba Association of Playwrights presents
Holidays Around the World Reading Marathon
Readings by Bruce McManus, Margaret Sweatman, Sharon Bajer, and Ian Ross
The Manitoba Association of Playwrights presents a Marathon of Readings by local theatre luminaries. Drop in throughout the event to hear more than 25 local celebrities read from their choice of holiday traditions!
MAP is proud to present the Holidays Around the World Reading Marathon and Tea, with all proceeds going to support the ongoing efforts of MAP. Different traditions are highlighted during this amazing 9-hour continuous reading marathon. Every 15 minutes a new reader will take the place of honour and share in his or her unique way another worldview of the holiday season.
Celebrity readers during this marathon of fun include Ian Ross, Bruce McManus, and Sharon Bajer, joined by many, many more! Additional readers include Arne MacPherson, Ellen Peterson, Kevin Longfield, Trish Cooper, Bruce Sarbit, Eric Blais, Kevin Klassen, Celeste Sansregret, Cory Wojick, Daniel Thau-Eleff, Ross McMillan, Kenton Smith, Michelle Boulet, Kent Suss, Krista Jackson, Patrick Lowe, Joseph Aragon, and John B. Lowe, and many more! In addition there will be a reading of A Christmas Carol at the end of the evening (adapted by Veralyn Warkentin, who will host the event).
And of course we have the MAP Raffle with great prizes, and treats from EAT!.
Friday, December 11/09 7pm
An Evening With...
Edmonton poet Catherine Owen, with guests Ingrid D. Johnson and Lori Cayer, and an interview by Kelly Hughes
 Catherine Owen's work has appeared in periodicals such as The Dalhousie Review, The Fiddlehead and Poetry Salzburg. Titles include: Somatic – The Life and Work of Egon Schiele (Exile Editions 1998), nominated for the Gerald Lampert Award, The Wrecks of Eden (Wolsak and Wynn, 02), shortlisted for the BC Book Prize, and her recent collections, Shall: ghazals (Wolsak and Wynn, 06) and Cusp/detritus (Anvil Press, 06), both long-listed for the Relit Prize. DOG, a collaboration with Joe Rosenblatt on the sonnet form, appeared from Mansfield Press in 2008. Her new book is Frenzy, a compilation of muse-quests, from Anvil Press 2009.
Other works have been nominated/shortlisted for the CBC Literary Awards, Matrix Lit Pop award, and the Earle Birney Prize; and some have been translated into Italian, Turkish and Korean. She has a Masters degree in English (Simon Fraser University, 01 on Robinson Jeffers) and collaborates with multiple artists, including serving as bassist and singer in the bands INHUMAN and Helgrind.
 Ingrid D. Johnson is a Winnipeg-based poet, spoken word recording artist, singer-songwriter, producer, social entrepreneur, and filmmaker. Johnson’s first collection of poetry Little Black Butterfly in Iridescent Sunlight deals with the emotional trauma of childhood incest. Her second book of poetry, Wounded Souls was released alongside a compilation CD featuring 12 local artists.
 Born in Saskatchewan, Lori Cayer has made Manitoba her home since she was in grade 3. Her book of poems, Stealing Mercury (The Muses' Company, 2004), won the Eileen McTavish Sykes Award in 2004 and the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer in 2005. She is co-founder of the Aqua Books Lansdowne Prize for Poetry. Lori serves as a Poetry Editor for CV2 and is the Manitoba Representative for the League of Canadian Poets. Her second book of poetry, Attenuations of Force, is forthcoming from Frontenac in spring 2010.
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, from the kindergarten class at Kumsheen Elementary, to the Burnaby Correctional Centre for Women.
Wednesday, December 9/09 8pm $10
Amor por la vida /Love for the Living Launch
Singer/songwriter Hugo Torres-Cereceda
Doors open at 7:30. CD price is only $5 with admission fee. Reception to follow.
Tuesday, December 8/09 7pm
Tales from the Underworld
Authors Roland Penner and Norm Larsen, with guests Rollin Penner and the Traveling Medicine Show
 Tales from the Underworld is a unique and fascinating collection of more than 200 stories and anecdotes—some funny, some tragic, some bizarre, all based on interviews and correspondence with 80 Manitoba lawyers and retired judges. Included are chapters about the legendary Sam Freedman and Harry Walsh, the mysterious murder of a Winnipeg heiress in Florida, and a fatal duel in a blizzard in Northern Manitoba—as well as anecdotes on the often humorous and sometimes testy relationship between judges and lawyers, and lawyers and their clients.
 Roland Penner was Chairperson of Manitoba’s new legal aid system, former Attorney-General and Minister for Constitutional Affairs. He served as Dean at the Faculty of Law at the University of Manitoba 1989-1994, and for his accomplishments was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada in 2000. He is also the author of an award-winning memoir, A Glowing Dream.
Norm Larsen practised law for 30 years in Winnipeg, starting with Zuken, Penner and Larsen, then with Legal Aid Manitoba as its first staff lawyer, and finally with Manitoba Justice as a legislative drafter. He retired in 2000.
 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!
Thursday, November 26/09 7pm
Welcome to Canada Launch
Author David Carpenter, with guest Warren Cariou
David Carpenter’s stories often begin in a comic mode, and the voices of the characters, their accents, tones and peculiar vocabularies, are brilliantly caught. But what begins as comedy can frequently veer into fierceness, farce, regret or indignation. On these unpredictable journeys, we meet an amorous Texas millionaire and his native fishing guide, a cow named Turkle, a farm girl who talks to bears, a kokum who speaks with departed spirits, a German scholar with a taste for saskatoon berries, an all-Jewish football team that takes a chance on a goy, an aboriginal folksinger who finds love in a laundry dryer and loses it in a motel, a monster northern pike named Adolph, a shy roaring-twenties photographer who hates dogs and loves peppermints.
Most of Carpenter’s characters are city people who find themselves out in the bush with the bear, deer, elk and wolves, and sometimes even Windigo. Carpenter has a strong relationship with the wild country of the northern boreal forest, the Saskatchewan prairies and the Alberta foothills. His prose is protean. It shifts into the minds and the voices of his characters and gathers the reader along to unexpected destinations: grief, joy, or a nicely shaded triumph often involving love, escape or an unexpected kind of revelation.
 David Carpenter's Welcome to Canada (Porcupine's Quill) is the eleventh book and sixth work of fiction for this Saskatchewan-based author. A former Winnipegger, Carpenter is best known for Courting Saskatchewan, a salute to the seasons in his home province, and Banjo Lessons, both recent winners of literary prizes. Throughout the years he has always been a passionate outdoorsman and environmentalist. This abiding love of lakes, trails, streams and campsites translates into city life in Saskatoon as well, where he lives with his wife, artist Honor Kever, and their son Will.
 Warren Cariou has written fiction and nonfiction about his home community
in northwestern Saskatchewan, including Lake of the Prairies, which
won the Drainie-Taylor Prize and was nominated for several other
prizes. He teaches Aboriginal literature at the University of Manitoba
where he also directs the Centre for Creative Writing and Oral
Culture.
Wednesday, November 25/09 7pm VKF
Sally O Launch
Poet Charles Noble, with guest Colin Smith
In 1978 Press Porcepic published a slim volume by an emerging poet. The collection Haywire Rainbow was described as a collection in which “extravagant and exuberant language, brought together philosophy, emotion and lyricism.” For decades Charles Noble through his writing has wandered beyond the imagination’s limit, sallied from the safe language harbours, reveled in connotative abundance, immersed himself in philosophical phenomena, and earned his place in Canadian poetry. Strikingly original, explorer, subterranean, and farmer-philosopher are other words that critics have been used to describe Charles Noble and his oeuvre published over the past forty years. An album of his inimitable work from 1972-2007, Sally O is the first retrospective of Noble’s literary expeditions. Enlightened with extensive author notes and commentary, this selected showcases Noble’s ability to be anything but conventional and establishes his presence in the post-modern arguments.
 Charles Noble has been publishing poetry in a modest Canadian literary underground since 1972. A few of the titles that have emerged are Doubt’s Boots (U of C Press), hearth wild / post cardiac banff (Thistledown Press), and Wormwood, Vermouth, Warphistory (Thistledown Press), which won the 1996 Writers Guild of Alberta poetry award. Also a dedicated farmer, Noble works the land of his family’s farm in Nobleford, Alberta and spends a significant amount of time in Banff.
 Colin Smith is a poetry scalawag. Books = 8X8X7 (Krupskaya, 2008) and Multiple Poses (Tsunami, 1997). More current work pops up in CV2, The Collective Consciousness, and Dandelion. Rarely meets a curse he doesn't like.
Wednesday, November 4, 18 and 25/09 7:00–9:30 pm
Aqua U. presents
Writing Your Life
A Workshop with Jake MacDonald
Cost: $69 / 79 per session (early bird/full price).
Watch for details on a spring 2010 series.
In this three-part workshop, award-winning author Jake MacDonald will work with participants to solve the following riddles:
Where do stories come from? How can I turn my own memories into stories? What is a character? How do I develop my own literary voice? Where should a story begin? What is drama? Where does a story end? When should I tell the truth and when should I fictionalize? How can I make my stories more engaging for editors and readers? How do I get published?
The workshop will be split into three sections:
Conjuring up the Story (November 4)
In which we'll discuss all the elements of story craft, paying special attention to the techniques that successful writers use to convert their personal experiences into catchy fiction and non-fiction.
Perfecting Your Craft (November 18)
Stories succeed or fail in the finishing stages. In this workshop you'll learn how to make every sentence, paragraph, and page of your story come to life, attracting readers and keeping them intrigued until the last word.
Becoming a Writer (November 25)
In this session we'll examine writing as a career – how to develop effective work habits, improve your craft, work with editors, publishers and agents, find contracts in freelance journalism, TV and film, and build up enough income to make a stable living as a writer.
 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 or developed by film producers and some were recognized with national awards. The memoir Houseboat Chronicles, for example, won three awards across Canada, including the Writers Trust of Canada prize for best non-fiction book 2002, and about twenty-five of his magazine stories have won writing awards. MacDonald divides his time between Winnipeg and Toronto and a rustic retreat in Minaki, Ontario.
Tuesday, November 24/09 6pm VKF $5
New Media Manitoba presents
DemoCamp
This month's DemoCamp features an all gaming theme. There will be demos from Complex Games(Wii Curl), We Heart Games(Face Race), Nightshift Interactive(FlipiT) and Firedance Games(Salvation Prophecy). Presentations start at 6 pm, but you are welcome to join us for dinner on the main floor at 5 pm. Seating is limited, so you must pre-register.
DemoCamp, also known as BarCamp, originated in Palo Alto, California as a way for developers to share software, websites, and other new media products they've created or working on with one another. Presenters at DemoCamp will each do a 10 or 15 minute launch of a recent product or display/demo an early prototype of what they're building.
Tuesday, November 24/09 7pm
An Unexpected Break in the Weather Launch
Author Deborah Schnitzer, with guest DJ Mama Cutsworth
After fifty years together, Gertrude and Mildred are facing some serious life changes. The bridal dress shop they own, A Rose on Corydon, has been a meeting place for their small community of friends and customers, with whom they have long shared joys and sorrows, worries and triumphs. Unexpectedly, a series of events threaten the foundation of the life they have made together and test their relationship in new ways.
“Once I read an article on dying,” says Schnitzer. “A line absorbed me. The writer noted that hope was not contingent on cure.” While at first baffled by this, Schnitzer said she then felt reassured. “There is no cure for love and there is no cure for dying: there are, however, those who are resourceful enough to embrace the actual conditions of their daily lives, wise enough to care - and
that process includes the unexpected in all its manifestations, both concrete and intangible.”
 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) was released on September 15, 2009.
 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.
She has shared the stage with Alice Russell, DJ Day, DJ Huggs, MEN (JD and Jo of Le Tigre), Venetian Snares, DJ Champion, Kinnie Starr and more.
In 2006, she was the first and only female competitor in the annual DJ battle, Clash of the Titans (and she won). Recently, she played at Decibelle, the women’s music festival in Chicago, followed by the International Women’s Film Festival in St. John’s, Newfoundland.
She also hosts Stylus Radio, a weekly program on CKUW 95.9 FM that’s been giving the people what they want for over 8 years.
Saturday, November 21/09 7pm
Big Smash! Music Scene presents
Still Bill
Aqua Books Film W-i-R Kier-La Janisse introduces the Winnipeg premiere of this Bill Withers documentary, with special guest
DJ Greg Tonn from Into the Music
 Whatever happened to Bill Withers? Filmmakers Damani Baker and Alex Vlack made a decision eight years ago to find the answer. After dealing with some initial resistance, they found that Bill Withers was willing to open up to them. Still Bill, the final result of their collaboration, focuses on the life of the singer-songwriter, whose catalog includes such hits as Ain’t No Sunshine, Use Me, Lean on Me and Just the Two of Us. The documentary follows Withers to his birthplace of Slab Fork, West Virginia and to New York City, where a concert is given in his honor, but is mainly focused on Withers’ life in Los Angeles, where he resides with his family. Withers grew up an asthmatic stutterer, which led to some self-esteem/self-worth issues that he still deals with. Before he burst into the world of music, Withers spent time working in a factory and seemed to have no real hankering for fame. Perhaps that is why it wasn’t too difficult for him to stop releasing albums after his lousy experience with a big-name record label.
The documentary weaves together concert footage, as well as Withers’ past and current music, while Withers recounts his experiences in the business and why he gave it up (he hasn’t put out an album in over 20 years). Featuring appearances by Dr. Cornel West, Tavis Smiley, Jim James (of My Morning Jacket), Sting, and family friends, the film strives to shed some light on Bill Withers in his 70th year.
Tuesday, November 17/09 7pm
Soapbox
Featured reader Aqua Books Film Writer-in-Residence Kier-La Janisse, hosted by Kelly Hughes
Every third Tuesday of the month, Aqua Books presents our new open mic series, Soapbox, hosted by Bookstore Owner Kelly Hughes.
Soapbox starts at 7pm and consists of two open-mic sets and a short break in between. This is Winnipeg's only cross-genre open mic series. Bring your fiction, memoirs, fragments, poetry, songs, and anything you've written, for your 4 minutes of fame.
 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.
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, from the kindergarten class at Kumsheen Elementary, to the Burnaby Correctional Centre for Women.
Saturday, November 14/09 10am-4pm VKF $44
Aqua U. presents
Pocket Book Mini Album Workshop
Freckled Nest's Leigh-Ann Keffer
Let's spend the day together making a unique mini album from start to finish, learning album-making techniques and enjoying great craft supplies that will make your mouth water! This 5-hour class will allow you to take the project at your own pace, add your own artistic flare, chat with friends and classmates and enjoy a 1 hour lunch break (EAT! saved us a table). Email FreckledNest@gmail.com to pre-register and receive your class tools list. Maximum 10 Students.
 Leigh-Ann Keffer is a self-taught Winnipeg artist specializing in indie style. She started her company Freckled Nest as a hobby in 2003, mainly selling handmade mini-albums, hand-stitched tote bags, blog designs, and custom pieces. Word spread fast of her original artworks and unique style, and Leigh-Ann is now living her dream with Freckled Nest as her full time job and life's joy. On her fun, daily blog FreckledNest.com, Leigh-Ann lives her passion for all things handmade and shares her creative life through photos, moments, craft techniques, and completed works. Leigh-Ann says, When I realized my creative side, I felt empowered and alive. I love inspiring others towards that feeling of discovery and accomplishment!
Friday, November 13/09 7pm
Aqua Books and Portage and Main Press present
The Life of Helen Betty Osborne/Come Walk With Me
Authors David Robertson and Beatrice Mosionier
On the 38th anniversary of the death of Helen Betty Osborne, we present a double launch of two of this year's most important books: David Robertson's graphic novel The Life of Helen Betty Osborne, and the brand new memoir, Come Walk With Me, by iconic Métis writer Beatrice Mosionier (In Search of April Raintree).
Helen Betty Osborne dreamed of becoming a teacher. Sadly, her dream never came true. Helen left her home in Norway House, Manitoba, to attend Guy Hill Residential School in 1969. In September 1971, she entered Margaret Barbour Collegiate in The Pas, Manitoba. Two months later, on November 13, 1971, she was brutally murdered by four young, white men. Years later, the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry concluded that her murder was the result of racism, sexism, and indifference.
The Life of Helen Betty Osborne is a graphic novel about Betty’s life up to that tragic November day. Her story is told by a young boy named Daniel. The events in Betty’s story are true. The events in Daniel’s story represent our ability to change, learn, and grow.
 In 1983, Beatrice Mosionier (then Culleton) blazed onto the stage of Canadian literature with the publication of her first novel, In Search of April Raintree. With searing clarity, Mosionier explored the struggle of two Métis sisters as they tried to make sense of the powerlessness, racism, and loss that loomed so large in their lives. For years, readers have asked: How much of April Raintree’s story is from the author’s own life? Come Walk With Me, A Memoir is the answer to that question.
In Come Walk With Me, A Memoir, Beatrice recounts a life that often parallels that of her most memorable fictional character. Like April, Mosionier confronts great loss – of family, of innocence, and of dignity. However, whereas April is just beginning her quest for self-realization, Mosionier shares with us how she has found fulfillment – artistically, politically, and personally. She also includes the recovery of her powerful bond with her mother, a bond nearly destroyed by the family’s separation in 1952.
 David Robertson is an Aboriginal writer who lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba, with
his wife and three children. As he was growing up, David became
acutely aware of the lack of accurate, comprehensive, Aboriginal
history being taught in schools. For this reason, he wrote The Life of
Helen Betty Osborne - to engage and educate youth about an integral
event in Canada's Aboriginal history.
 Beatrice Mosionier was born in St. Boniface, Manitoba. The youngest of four children, she grew up in foster homes. After a short time living in Toronto, where she attended college, she returned to Winnipeg. Following the death of two sisters to suicide, Beatrice decided to write In Search of April Raintree. First published in 1983, it has become a Canadian classic. Beatrice has also written several children's books, including Spirit of the White Bison, Christopher's Folly, and Unusual Friendships: A Little Black Cat and a Little White Rat. Her second novel, In the Shadow of Evil, was published in 2000.
Saturday, November 7/09 1:30-4:30pm
$10 (members)/$20 (non-members)
Manitoba Editors' Association
Tales from the Mark(ed) Side
Authors Margaret Sweatman and Joan Thomas with Goose Lane editor Bethany Gibson
Award-winnining authors Joan Thomas and Margaret Sweatman join with their editor, Bethany Gibson, to discuss manuscripts, editors' marks and the often unique relationships that exist between fiction writers and their editors.
RSVP to meaworkshops@gmail.com for your spot.
Thursday, November 5/09 6:30-9:30pm VKF
$10 (inc. coffee/tea, trEAT!)
Aqua U. presents
Look Who’s Talking About Your Art, Too
Former Aqua Books Writer-in-Residence Amy Karlinsky
Looking for a dialogue about art? Join former Aqua Books Arts Writer in Residence Amy Karlinsky for part two of Talking About Your Art. We will spend the evening looking, thinking and talking about art. Artist participants are asked to bring a work of art or a work in reproduction, and to talk to the group about their interests and concerns...and we will talk back. Be prepared for a lively discussion and an enriched viewing experience.
Note: Bring a work of art or a work in reproduction or send a jpeg to ariel@aquabooks.ca. Registration is limited to 15 people.
 Amy Karlinsky is a writer, curator, and teacher. She has curated exhibitions for Nunatta Sunaqutangit in Iqaluit, The Winnipeg Art Gallery, Gallery 111, and St. John’s College; and has undertaken art education programs for Canadian galleries, museums and universities. She writes about artists on behalf of galleries and artist-run centres and has taught Theory, Writing, and Canadian and Inuit Art History in western Canada.Her writing has been shortlisted twice for the Manitoba Book Awards and she has received an innovation award in teaching at the U of M where she was a Sessional with the School of Art, Visiting Fellow at St. John’s College and Adjunct Professor in Native Studies. She has mentored artists for MAWA and has taught for the private and public school systems in rural, urban and remote locations. She currently teaches for the Winnipeg School Division.
Thursday, November 5/09 7pm
Turnstone Press presents
Meteor Storm Launch
Author Wayne Tefs with guest David Annandale
Meteor Storm, released from Turnstone Press in October, is Tef's first short-story collection, following his nine novels and one non-fiction memoir. Gripping and brutal, the stories leave readers on a razor’s edge, catching the moments where hard-edged men crash into the limits of their power, where their absolute authority is challenged, their self-control shaken, and their manhood threatened.
 Wayne Tefs was born in Winnipeg and grew up in northwestern Ontario. He has edited a number of anthologies and published eight novels and a work of non-fiction. His novel Moon Lake received the Margaret Laurence Award for 2000, and in 2007, he won the 2007 McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award for Be Wolf. His latest book, Meteor Storm (Turnstone Press, 2009), is his first collection of short stories. He lives in Winnipeg with his wife and son.
 David Annandale did his MA on the Marquis de Sade at the University of Manitoba, and his PhD on horror fiction and film at the University of Alberta. His novels are the thrillers Crown Fire and Kornukopia, and he is working on the third entry in
the Jen Blaylock series: The Valedictorians. His short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies of horror fiction. His Fringe plays include The Switchblade Oratorio, Phantom Limb and The Smiling Crematorium. He teaches literature and film at the University of Manitoba.
Tuesday, October 20/09 7pm
Soapbox
Featured reader Prairie Fire Writer-in-Residence Kate Bitney, hosted by Kelly Hughes
Every third Tuesday of the month, Aqua Books presents our new open mic series, Soapbox, hosted by Bookstore Owner Kelly Hughes.
Soapbox starts at 7pm and consists of two open-mic sets and a short break in between. This is Winnipeg's only cross-genre open mic series. Bring your fiction, memoirs, fragments, poetry, songs, and anything you've written, for your 4 minutes of fame.
Katherine Bitney is the author of three critically acclaimed books of poetry: While You Were Out (Turnstone Press, 1981), Heart and Stone (Turnstone Press, 1989) and Singing Bone (The Muses Company, 1997), and is currently working on a fourth collection of poems. With Andris Taskans, she co-edited A/Cross Sections (MWG, 2007). She has worked as an editor, mentor, and creative writing instructor, as well as arts juror and creative director for literary events for over 30 years in Manitoba.
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, from the kindergarten class at Kumsheen Elementary, to the Burnaby Correctional Centre for Women.
Friday, October 16/09 1pm
send + receive: A Festival of Sound
Long Distance Collaborating: An Artists' Talk
Sound artists Machinefabriek and Stephen Vitiello
These two seasoned and prolific sound artists met through email and began a dialogue that led to a long distance collaboration based on a common enthusiasm for exchange. Turning the collaborative exchange more typical to electronic artists on its ear, they chose to send each other a box of objects to work with rather than simply sending each other audio files. This endeavor culminated in the beautiful 12k release Box Music, released in 2008. Rutger Zuydervelt (Machinefabriek) and Steven Vitiello will discuss the trials, tribulations and benefits of collaborating in this way. Their collaborative project and individual practices will both be discussed. Attendees will be invited to provide objects to be incorporated into the evenings performance.
Thursday, October 15/09 7pm
Bons mots serie litteraire
Les écrivains Anne Sechin, Lise Gaboury-Diallo et J.R. Léveillé
organisée par Bertrand Nayet
Bons mots c’est une nouvelle série de lectures publiques par des auteurs franco-manitobains à «l’hôtel de ville culturel» de Winnipeg, la librairie Aqua Books, 274, rue Garry. Bons mots c’est une initiative de la librairie Aqua Books et du Collectif Post-néo-rieliste organisée par Bertrand Nayet et Ariel Gordon dont le but est de faire rayonner la littérature franco-manitobaine sur les deux berges de la rivière Rouge.
Bons mots c’est trois auteurs, trois voix dans le vent, trois voies dans la villes.
Bons mots c’est une occasion de voir et d’entendre des écrivains donner vie à leurs mots. Bons mots, c’est une salle au plancher craquant, c’est un bruit diffus de circulation, c’est une voix qui nous envoûte, ce sont des rencontres, des surprises, des retrouvailles.
 Anne Sechin est née en France. Elle s’est installée au Manitoba en 1992 et elle y a terminé ses études en littérature. Elle enseigne la traduction au Collège universitaire de Saint-Boniface. Diapason (Les Editions Du Ble, 2009) est son premier roman.
 Née à Saint-Boniface (Manitoba), Lise Gaboury-Diallo est professeure de langue française et des littératures francophones au Collège universitaire de Saint-Boniface (MB). Elle est l'auteure de 6 recueils de poésie : Subliminales(1999), transitions (2002), tous deux en lice pour le Prix Rue-Deschambault; Poste restante : cartes poétiques du Sénégal (2005) en lice pour le Prix Landsdown pour la poésie; Homestead, poèmes du coeur de l'Ouest(2005), oeuvre pour laquelle elle a remporté le premier prix, catégorie poésie française, des Prix littéraires Radio-Canada 2004; L’endroit et l’envers (2008) et Parchemins croisés: la Genèse en peinture et en poésie/Crossworlds: a Genesis in painting and in poetry, en collaboration avec la peintre Monique Larouche, traductions de Mark Stout (2008).
 Auteur originaire de Winnipeg, au Manitoba, où il réside toujours, J.R. Léveillé a publié des romans, des essais, de la poésie et est lauréat de plusieurs prix. Journaliste et réalisateur à Radio-Canada pendant 25 ans, il a largement écrit sur la littérature, le théâtre et les arts contemporains au Manitoba français (Anthologie de la poésie franco-manitobaine, Parade ou les autres) et il a collaboré avec des artistes comme Tony Tascona. Un colloque international sur son œuvre a eu lieu en 2005. À THIN AIR, il lance un livre préparé en collaboration avec l’artiste Lorraine Pritchard (Litanie).
Thursday, October 8/09 7pm
Destination Mutable Launch
Poet John Baillie with Marjolaine Hébert and Ron Romanowski
When experience pushes life to extremes, poetry results. John Baillie spent five years with a tumor growing in his heart that could have dropped him dead with one wrong heartbeat at any moment, and in the process turned to his imagination as his primary focus on staying connected with the world. Reporting on what he considers to be not so much as John having a near-Death experience as Death having a near-John experience, he discovers in Destination Mutable that neither the poet nor the goal he is trying to attain is ever the same as what he originally imagined once he arrives there.
 John Baillie has been active on the Winnipeg writing scene for the past 25 years. John is the creator of North End schizophrenic detective Jason Midnight, whose first book of fantasy/mystery adventures, Midnight’s Delight, was published by Zumaya Publications in 2005. John’s fiction and poetry has also been seen in The NewWest Review; A Time of Trial; land/space: An Anthology of Prairie Speculative Fiction; and 2000% Cracked Wheat. His work has been described by critics on The Mystery Site as: “Quirky characters, unusual events, and shadowy figures slipping between this reality and the next while the mundane morphs into the strange and fascinating or back into the dull and ordinary. … John H. Baillie is an interesting, unconventional author who does not write by the rules.”
 Marjolaine Hébert is a learner, a teacher, a narrator, and a published writer who fills her creative well in the rich prairie land she calls home.
 Ron Romanowski is a Winnipeg writer whose first collection of poetry, Sweet Talking, was published in 2004. Ron's latest book, Insurrection, is a poetic commemoration on the 90th anniversary of the Winnipeg General Strike. In 1919 Winnipeg shook the world with an event that polarized our city forever and touches the lives of Canadians to this day. Ron uses the imagery of spring and its symbolism of change and resistance to change to create a lyrical representation of the strike's impact, a gateway to common experience with the strikers and a way forward.
Saturday, October 3/09 2pm VKF
Storytelling for Kids
presented by the U of M Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture
Storyteller Jan Andrews
Jan will be telling stories of quests and journeys, of paupers and princesses, of the wise and the foolish, of adventures large and small. This event is suitable for ages 6 and up. Snacks to follow.
 Writer and storyteller Jan Andrews was born in the U.K., and now makes her home outside of Ottawa. Currently the 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.
Friday, October 2/09 7pm
Passenger Flight Launch
Montreal poet Brian Campbell with Lori Cayer
Passenger Flight takes us on a harrowing but exhilarating ride through the heavy turbulence of the twenty-first century. In this collection of free-wheeling, elegantly crafted prose poems, the reader is exposed to scenes of tenderness, random violence and phantasmagorical dreams evocative of the chaos of this post-911 world.
 Poet, singer-songwriter, editor, and translator Brian Campbell is the author of Guatemala and Other Poems (1994) and Undressing the Night (2007), a translation of the selected poems of Nicaraguan-Canadian poet Francisco Santos. A finalist in the 2006 CBC Literary Award for Poetry, he is also the co-founder/editor of Sky of Ink Press, which prints quality chapbooks by emerging poets. His independent music CD, The Courtier’s Manuscript, was released in 2002. Brian Campbell teaches English as a Second Language to adults, and lives in Montreal with his partner, Jocelyne, and two cats.
Born in Saskatchewan, Lori Cayer has made Manitoba her home since she was in grade 3. Her book of poems, Stealing Mercury (The Muses Company), won the Eileen McTavish Sykes Award in 2004 and the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer in 2005. She is co-founder of the Aqua Books Lansdowne Prize for Poetry. Lori serves as a Poetry Editor for CV2 and is the Manitoba Representative for the League of Canadian Poets. Her second book of poetry, Attenuations of Force, is forthcoming from Frontenac in spring 2010.
Wednesday, September 30/09 7pm
A Comedy MennoNight
presented by Turnstone Press
Mennonite writers Maurice Mierau, Douglas Reimer, and John Weier, with the Mennonite blues of Bush Wiebe and hosted by Rollin Penner
Some of Manitoba's most humourous writing has come from Mennonite authors. Come and discover what it is about being raised in a serious religious community that causes some Mennonites to commit written acts of hilarity. Presented in conjunction with the University of Winnipeg's Mennonite/s Writing: Manitoba and Beyond conference.
 Maurice Mierau was born in Indiana and grew up in Nigeria, Manitoba, Jamaica, Kansas, and Saskatchewan. His first book of poems, Ending with Music was a finalist for the Eileen McTavish Sykes Award, and Mierau was a finalist for the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Author. More recently, his second collection of poems, Fear Not, was short-listed for the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award, the Aqua Books Lansdowne Prize for Poetry, and the ReLit Awards. Serving as the 2009-2010 Writer-in-Residence for the Winnipeg Public Libraries, he lives with his family in Winnipeg.
 Douglas Reimer is a lecturer in English at the University of Manitoba. He was born and raised in southern Manitoba, and spent ten years teaching in northern Manitoba before eventually settling in Winnipeg. With Turnstone Press, he has published a collection of stories, Older Than Ravens, and Surplus at the Border: Mennonite Writing in Canada, a collection of essays.
 John Weier has studied history of religions and works part-time as a luthier. He is the author of a number of books, including Marshwalker and the poetry collection, The Violinmaker's Lament. An avid birder and traveler, he was born in Manitoba and grew up on a peach farm in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. He lives in Winnipeg.
 Bush Wiebe plays a style of blues that slides, stomps and thumps. From playing slide on his resonator guitar and pounding on his homemade stompbox stage he creates a sound that is exciting and unique. Digging into his Mennonite roots, he references a culture that is often misunderstood and puts it on display in all its strange glory. It’s an electrifying mix of a conservative culture and sweaty blues. Bush Wiebe’s first ever live performance was at his father’s funeral. From that auspicious beginning he now plays at all kinds of festivals, coffeehouses and parties.
 Host Rollin Penner is a performer, writer and musician. For the past twenty-five years he has performed throughout Western Canada in the areas of musical theatre, drama, children’s music, magic, live radio comedy and standup comedy. He has written over 150 short comic pieces for CBC Radio One, and writes a bi-weekly column called The Jacksons for the Farmer’s Independent Weekly. In 2002, Rollin published a collection of short stories and radio columns titled The Greenfield Chronicles, which was nominated for the Eileen Mctavish Sykes Award.
THIN AIR 2009, the Winnipeg International Writers Festival
September 20-27, 2009
In September each year, Winnipeg welcomes writers from Canada and around the world for a week of readings, lectures, interviews, conversations, book launches, and other events. That week of literary feasting (which reaches out into the rural areas of the province as well), is THIN AIR, the Winnipeg International Writers Festival. With programming for adults and children, in English and French, THIN AIR is an infusion of energy into the thriving literary culture of this city. For more information, visit the THIN AIR website.
Saturday, September 26/09 10am-12pm $25
THIN AIR 2009 Winnipeg International Writers Festival
The Writing Craft Workshop: Writing for Kids
Writer Tim Wynne-Jones
 With over thirty titles, Tim Wynne-Jones is one of Canada’s most respected writers for children and teens. He has received two Governor General’s Awards, the Ruth Schwartz Award, the Arthur Ellis Award, the Edgar Award, and the Vicky Metcalf Award for significant contributions to the field of children’s literature. His new titles are the picture book, Pounce De Leon (Fitzhenry & Whiteside 2008); Rex Zero, the Great Pretender (Groundwood 2009), a third instalment in a series for middle readers; and The Uninvited (Candlewick 2009), a haunting senior teen novel. Wynne-Jones is on faculty at Vermont College, but continues to live in Perth ON.
Saturday, September 26/09 4pm/VKF Licensed
THIN AIR 2009 Winnipeg International Writers Festival
A Pint of Bitter Murder
Mystery writer Terry Griggs, hosted by Michael Van Rooy
 Terry Griggs is a fiction writer with several titles to her credit. Her short story collection, Quickening, which was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award, was followed by two novels, The Lusty Man, and Rogues’ Wedding, which was nominated for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. Her Cat’s Eye Corner trilogy for young readers has been equally well-received; the first of them was a Canadian Children’s Book Centre Our Choice Selection. Her new novel, a darkly witty mystery, is Thought You Were Dead (biblioasis). In 2003, Griggs won the Marian Engel Award. She lives in Stratford ON.
Saturday, September 26/09 10:30pm-11:30pm/VKF Licensed
THIN AIR 2009 Winnipeg International Writers Festival
After Words Performance Series
Slam poet T'ai Pu, hosted by Kelly Hughes
 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.
Friday, September 25/09 10:30pm-11:30pm/VKF Licensed
THIN AIR 2009 Winnipeg International Writers Festival
After Words Performance Series
Poet George Elliott Clarke, hosted by Kelly Hughes
 George Elliott Clarke was born in Windsor NS, a seventh-generation Africadian. He is a poet, playwright, novelist, and critic, with a Governor General’s Award for Poetry and a Martin Luther King Achievement Award among his many honours. His works include several acclaimed collections of poetry, including Whylah Falls and Execution Poems, the libretto for the jazz opera Beatrice Chancy, the novel George and Rue, and several plays. His newest work is a vibrant verse novel, I & I (Goose Lane 2009). Clarke lives in Toronto where he is the EJ Pratt Professor of Canadian Literature at University of Toronto.
Thursday, September 24/09 10:30pm-11:30pm/VKF Licensed
THIN AIR 2009 Winnipeg International Writers Festival
After Words Performance Series
Storyteller Jan Andrews, hosted by Kelly Hughes
Writer and storyteller Jan Andrews was born in the U.K., and now makes her home outside of Ottawa. Currently the 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.
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.
 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.
 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.
Thursday, September 17/09 6:30-9pm VKF $23
Aqua U. presents
DIY Handmade Notebook Workshop
Freckled Nest's Leigh-Ann Keffer
You will have fun learning to make a unique notebook using patterned and textured paper, handstitching and a signature design! Grab a bite to EAT! beforehand and join us from 6:30sharp-9pm on Thursday, September 17th. Bring a friend! Class taught by local artist and business owner, Leigh-Ann Keffer of FreckledNest.com. This class is great for beginners and advanced crafters. Please bring Scissors, Paper Cutter and Tape-Runner Glue or GlueStick. Notebook Supplies are provided
 Leigh-Ann Keffer is a self-taught Winnipeg artist specializing in indie style. She started her company Freckled Nest as a hobby in 2003, mainly selling handmade mini-albums, hand-stitched tote bags, blog designs, and custom pieces. Word spread fast of her original artworks and unique style, and Leigh-Ann is now living her dream with Freckled Nest as her full time job and life's joy. On her fun, daily blog FreckledNest.com, Leigh-Ann lives her passion for all things handmade and shares her creative life through photos, moments, craft techniques, and completed works. Leigh-Ann says, When I realized my creative side, I felt empowered and alive. I love inspiring others towards that feeling of discovery and accomplishment!
Tuesday, September 15/09 7pm
Soapbox
Featured reader Aqua Books Writer-in-Residence Carolyn Gray, hosted by Kelly Hughes
Every third Tuesday of the month, Aqua Books presents our new open mic series, Soapbox, hosted by Bookstore Owner Kelly Hughes.
Soapbox starts at 7pm and consists of two open-mic sets and a short break in between. This is Winnipeg's only cross-genre open mic series. Bring your fiction, memoirs, fragments, poetry, songs, and anything you've written, for your 4 minutes of fame.
 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.
 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, from the kindergarten class at Kumsheen Elementary, to the Burnaby Correctional Centre for Women.
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
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.
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, from the kindergarten class at Kumsheen Elementary, to the Burnaby Correctional Centre for Women.
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.
 Southpaw axeman 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.
Thursday, Sept 10/09 and Saturday, Sept 12/09 7pm
Live Comedy DVD Taping
Comedian Aaron Merke and friends
 Award-winning comedian Aaron Merke was born in Winnipeg and started his career training with the late Del Close at Improv Olympics while visiting Chicago.
Upon his return to Canada, Aaron became part of the Second City Touring Company where he performed on five revues.
As Artistic Director of the False Idle Factory Theatre Company, Aaron created, wrote and directed the "Shobu Show" and "World Supremacy Wrestling". Both have been featured in the Globe and Mail and on City TV's late night show "Ed The Sock's Night Party". Aaron is the founder, director and performer of KUNG F-U, the "2006 Canadian Cage Match Champions", and competed as Team Canada at the 2006 Chicago Improv Festival. Aaron has performed stand-up alongside many great performers, including Robin Williams, Lewis Black, Scott Thompson (Kids in the Hall), Sean Cullen and many more.
Aaron has appeared in the feature "Make it Happen", the TV pilot "Retail", and in the Comedy Network's "House Party". In addition to this, Aaron has had a number of appearances on Canada’s top music television station, Much Music, where he has been featured on its top rated show “Video on Trial” and hosted, wrote and performed on the comedy/animation special "LOL".
Saturday, September 5/09 11am-6pm Parking Lot/EAT! bistro
September Long BBQ/Garage Sale
Burgers, fries, and 1000s of cheap books
On Saturday, September 5, at 11am, our back lot turns into a classic Winnipeg garage sale, with thousands of books at 3/$1. (Including several hundred fresh rejects.) And once again, EAT! throws away the menu for the day and serves BBQ food. This will be your last chance to enjoy our summer comfort food, including pulled pork sandwiches, farmer sausage burgers, fresh coleslaw and baked beans.
The bookstore itself, will of course also be open, and everything will shut down at 6pm, so our staff can enjoy the rest of the long weekend.
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
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. Watch a preview clip 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, from the kindergarten class at Kumsheen Elementary, to the Burnaby Correctional Centre for Women.
 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."
Wednesday, August 26/09 7pm
An Evening With
Author Gillian Sze, interview by Kelly Hughes
Please join us in welcoming former Winnipegger Gillian Sze to Aqua Books as she reads from her debut book of poetry and chats with bookstore owner Kelly Hughes.
 Gillian Sze was born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Her poetry has appeared in such venues as CV2, Prairie Fire, pax americana (U.S.), Crannog (Ireland), Cha: An Asian Literary Journal (Hong Kong), and as a featured “Parliamentary Poem of The Week” selection.
She is the author of two chapbooks, This is the Colour I Love You Best (2007) and A Tender Invention (2008), as well as the full collection Fish Bones (DC Books, 2009). She resides in Montreal.
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, from the kindergarten class at Kumsheen Elementary, to the Burnaby Correctional Centre for Women.
Tuesday, August 18/09 7pm
Soapbox
Featured reader Aqua Books Designer-in-Residence Julia Michaud, hosted by Kelly Hughes
Every third Tuesday of the month, Aqua Books presents our new open mic series, Soapbox, hosted by Bookstore Owner Kelly Hughes.
Soapbox starts at 7pm and consists of two open-mic sets and a short break in between. This is Winnipeg's only cross-genre open mic series. Bring your fiction, memoirs, fragments, poetry, songs, and anything you've written, for your 4 minutes of fame.
 Julia Michaud started off her fledgling design career in the 80s, drawing book report covers with smelly markers for her artistically-challenged classmates at St. Ignatius School. This made her very popular. Julia joined the illustrious ranks of highly talented illustrator and designer graduates from RRC in 1999. Her first full job in the industry, doing black and white car ads at the Auto Trader, gave her the motivation to go after a more colourful position.
Her first taste of design fame came via Brad Hughes at Fanfare Magazine Group, which produces publications with the highest hip factor anywhere – Ciao! and WHERE Magazines. Life was exciting and unpredictable. After five years creating glamorous retail and restaurant ads, art-directing photoshoots at Amici and eating chef-created cuisine, it was time for new opportunities.
Her company, Instant Noodles Design, serves clients like The Garden Room, the Folk Arts Council and the illustrious Aqua Books.
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, from the kindergarten class at Kumsheen Elementary, to the Burnaby Correctional Centre for Women.
Saturday, August 1/09 11am-6pm Parking Lot/EAT! bistro
August Long BBQ/Garage Sale
Burgers, fries, and 1000s of cheap books
On Saturday, August 1, at 11am, our back lot again turns into a classic Winnipeg garage sale, with thousands of books at 3/$1. (Including several hundred fresh rejects.) And once again, EAT! throws away the menu for the day and serves BBQ food. The EAT! burgers were a big hit on Canada Day, and here's another chance to sample our summer comfort food.
The bookstore itself, will of course also be open, and everything will shut down at 6pm, so our staff can enjoy the rest of the long weekend.
Tuesday, July 14/09 7pm
Soapbox
Featured reader Aqua Books Emerging Writer-in-Residence Marika Prokosh, hosted by Kelly Hughes
Every third Tuesday of the month, Aqua Books presents our new open mic series, Soapbox, hosted by Bookstore Owner Kelly Hughes.
Soapbox starts at 7pm and consists of two open-mic sets and a short break in between. This is Winnipeg's only cross-genre open mic series. Bring your fiction, memoirs, fragments, poetry, songs, and anything you've written, for your 4 minutes of fame.
 Marika Prokosh is a Winnipeg writer and English Literature undergraduate. Her poetry has appeared in juice, the University of Winnipeg's creative writing journal. She was an apprentice writer in the Sheldon Oberman Emerging Writers Mentorship Program (2004), and is currently a volunteer organizer for the Speaking Crow open mic poetry series.
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, from the kindergarten class at Kumsheen Elementary, to the Burnaby Correctional Centre for Women.
Wednesday, July 1/09 11am-6pm Parking Lot
First Annual Canada Day BBQ/Garage Sale
Burgers, fries, and 1000s of cheap books
We'll be closed on Tuesday, June 30, so our staff can have an actual long weekend. (They have to work on Saturday.) On Wednesday, July 1, at 11am, our back lot will turn into a classic Winnipeg garage sale, and EAT! will throw away the menu for the day and serve BBQ food. This will be your one and only chance to have an EAT! burger. (The bookstore will be open too, but you don't care about that.)
Garage sale items will include some furniture, bookshelves, a Boba Fett book display (cardboard), dozens of cheap audiobooks (tape), and thousands of VERY cheap books (mostly romance and pop fiction, plus a bunch of things we're tired of looking at). If you haven't taken the whole week off, you need somewhere to go. So go here.
Tuesday, June 2,9,16 and 23/09 $25 per 30 min
Aqua Books presents: Coaching Sessions
with Aqua Books Songwriter-in-Residence Jaylene Johnson
Award-winning singer/songwriter Jaylene Johnson will be Aqua Books' Songwriter-in-Residence for the month of June.
As a part of her term as Songwriter-in-residence, Jaylene will be offering one-on-one coaching sessions during the first three Tuesdays in June.
Sessions can include everything from feedback on individual songs to advice on the music industry to voice lessons. Call 943-7555 to register.
 Jaylene Johnson has a deep passion for songwriting and the power of music and lyrics. Since releasing her first record (Not Forgotten) in 2000, she has worked and traveled all over North America. She has received nominations and awards and her music has used for notable television shows like Dawson’s Creek (CBS/Sony) and Being Ericka (CBC Television). Jaylene's latest project, Happiness, will be released this year, and is her first record to feature a majority of co-written songs.
Sharing knowledge and skills is important to Jaylene, and with over ten years in the performing, creative and administrative sides of the music industry, she has much to share. She currently resides in Winnipeg, teaching high school English and preparing to launch her new record.
Wednesday, June 17/09 12:00-1:00pm FREE
Aqua U. presents: *Lunch Poems
A lunch hour poetry writing workshop with Vancouver poet Warren Dean Fulton of pooka press and the pookapalooza tour
Notes: Registration is limited to 10 people. Contact Aqua Books at 943-7555 to sign up for one of ten spots in this free workshop!
* lunch poems, being a tip of the hat to Frank O'Hara
 Warren Dean Fulton is pooka press. Warren is someone who plays w/ words, the way a six yr old boy plays w/ lego. Writing and reading and publishing here and there , now and then. He has read on stages, as a feature and at open mics, in Vancouver, Ottawa, Toronto, Kamloops, San Francisco, Edmonton, Winnipeg, and many other cities. He currently sits on the Board of Directors of Vancouver Poetry House, and in the past was the festival director of the Vancouver Videopoem Festival, and the events coordinator of the Edgewise ElectroLIT centre Society. Through his micro press, pooka press, he has published a number of award winning poets, and has been mentioned in these books. Recently Warren won the Vancouver Celtic Festival’s Battle of The Bards, as Robbie Burns, and was a member of the winning Bingo Slam team ‘Team Awesome’.
Tuesday, June 16/09 7pm
Soapbox
Featured reader Aqua Books Songwriter-in-Residence Jaylene Johnson, hosted by Kelly Hughes
Every third Tuesday of the month, Aqua Books presents our new open mic series, Soapbox, hosted by Bookstore Owner Kelly Hughes.
Soapbox starts at 7pm and consists of two open-mic sets and a short break in between. This is Winnipeg's only cross-genre open mic series. Bring your fiction, memoirs, fragments, poetry, songs, and anything you've written, for your 4 minutes of fame.
Jaylene Johnson has a deep passion for songwriting and the power of music and lyrics. Since releasing her first record (Not Forgotten) in 2000, she has worked and traveled all over North America. She has received nominations and awards and her music has used for notable television shows like Dawson’s Creek (CBS/Sony) and Being Ericka (CBC Television). Jaylene's latest project, Happiness, will be released this year, and is her first record to feature a majority of co-written songs.
Sharing knowledge and skills is important to Jaylene, and with over ten years in the performing, creative and administrative sides of the music industry, she has much to share. She currently resides in Winnipeg, teaching high school English and preparing to launch her new record.
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, from the kindergarten class at Kumsheen Elementary, to the Burnaby Correctional Centre for Women.
Thursday, June 11/09 7pm
$2 for students/$4 regular admission
Show Me What You're Made Of
An evening featuring contest winners plus an open mic
 A reading designed for students to share their writing with an audience.
Three featured readers will be chosen from the Show Me What You're Made of poetry contest on www.writerscafe.org. An open-mic set will follow.
This event was put together as a part of a English final project of Glenlawn Collegiate student Noelle Roy, who is a writer and active member of www.writerscafe.org
Wednesday, June 10/09 5:00-8:00pm EAT!
FREE for MEA members, $15 for non-members
Manitoba Editors' Association 2008-2009 Windup Party
 Come spend a relaxing evening with friends who share your passion for editing.
EAT! Bistro will be closed to the public for the evening, and chef Candace Hughes will be offering a fabulous buffet dinner of lemon chicken, roast potatoes, grilled vegetables, salad and cupcakes.
Enter to win great prizes! And if you renew your MEA membership for the 2009-10 year, you'll have an additional chance to win.
Feel free to bring guests, but remember that they will have to pay admission unless they are MEA members or they register as new members that evening. Please RSVP for your guests as well.
Please RSVP by Friday, June 5 to meaworkshops@gmail.com if you plan to attend.
Thursday, June 4/09 7pm
One night in June
An evening of poetry with Sharon Caseburg and Ariel Gordon
Please join Sharon and Ariel and their guests Tim Schouten and Neil Besner as they launch chapbooks from presses in Edmonton, Saskatoon, and Montreal.
In addition to the readings, the event will feature visual art by Tim Schouten [whose artwork "Untitled #117 (In the Absence of Horses)" is the cover of Guidelines] and Debbie Caseburg Tyson.
There will ALSO be one of EAT! Bistro's splendid cakes and refreshments!
The Books
 Ariel Gordon’s Guidelines: Malaysia & Indonesia, 1999 (Rubicon Press), explores what it means to ground oneself in landscape and family. These prose poems vividly chronicle the journey undertaken by two sisters to reconcile with their family’s past, and, over the course of their travels, with each other. A truly beautiful collection by a talented writer, this chapbook strikes a delicate balance between understanding the past and moving forward with strength into the future.
sleepwalking - poetry by Sharon Caseburg, jacket design and handwork by Debbie Caseburg Tyson - is a long elegy, elegant and other-worldly, wrapped in silk. With care and caution, sleepwalking considers what’s left when one is left behind. Published by JackPine Press.
Rutting Season, published by Montreal’s Buffalo Runs Press, is an engaging and accessible mini-anthology that features the poetry of three fresh voices in Canadian poetry and places these poets into a critical conversation with each other. Ariel Gordon, Michael Lithgow, and Linda Besner put their heads together in this unique collection.
Poet Biographies
Sharon Caseburg is a Winnipeg-based writer, editor and book designer who splits her time between producing other people’s books and writing her own. Her poetry and critical writing have appeared in numerous Canadian publications.
Ariel Gordon is a Winnipeg-based writer and editor. Her poetry has recently appeared in fine lit mags such as Carousel, QWERTY, and PRISM International and even circulated on buses in Manitoba and Alberta. After a handmade limited-edition chapbook with Kingsville’s Palimpsest Press sold out in fall 2008, Ariel's first full collection of poetry, Hump, is slated for publication with Palimpsest in spring 2010.
Artist Biographies
Debbie Caseburg Tyson is an Edmonton-based fibre artist and instructor who indulges her passion for colour and texture in both contemporary quilt art and embroidery disciplines. Her work resides nationally in both private and public collections.
Tim Schouten is a Winnipeg-based artist who maintains a studio on his ranch near Petersfield, Manitoba where he lives with his wife, dogs and five horses. He has shown his work in solo and group exhibitions in Canada and the U.S. and his work can be found in private, corporate and public collections.
Saturday, June 6/09 10:00am-3:30pm $60
Aqua Books presents: From Words to Music
A songwriting workshop by Aqua Books Songwriter-in-Residence Jaylene Johnson
Notes: Registration is limited to 20 people. Bring a notebook and pen (or laptop); the ability to play music is not required, but musicians may bring their instruments; recording devices are encouraged though not necessary.
Phone 943-7555 to register by May 29, 2009.
Are you a musician who wants to compose original material but you aren’t sure where to start? Do you have a poem or idea tucked away that you think could make a great song?
Join Jaylene Johnson, Aqua's Songwriter in Residence for the month of June, as she shares from her own experiences as a songwriter and acts as your guide through the process of co-writing songs.
Jaylene Johnson has a deep passion for songwriting and the power of music and lyrics. Since releasing her first record (Not Forgotten) in 2000, she has worked and traveled all over North America. She has received nominations and awards and her music has used for notable television shows like Dawson’s Creek (CBS/Sony) and Being Ericka (CBC Television). Jaylene's latest project, Happiness, will be released this year, and is her first record to feature a majority of co-written songs.
Sharing knowledge and skills is important to Jaylene, and with over ten years in the performing, creative and administrative sides of the music industry, she has much to share. She currently resides in Winnipeg, teaching high school English and preparing to launch her new record.
Wednesday, June 3/09 5:30-7:30pm $5 (plus dinner)
Aqua U. presents
The Immigrant Women's Association of Manitoba Diversity series
Culturally Speaking: Culture or Cultured?
The Spanish Institute's Jesús Ángel Miguel-García
What does culture really mean? What’s cultural capital? Can a culture be learnt? How good are you at it? How do you see culture from a personal and professional perspective? What are the best strategies to succeed in a particular culture? Do you need to be cultured to do well in a culture, or do you need culture to be cultured? Is cultural capital the key to succeed in a culture?
Acclaimed lecturer and director of the Spanish Institute, Jesús Ángel Miguel García, will try to deal with these questions and other thought provoking issues.
Thursday, May 28/09 7:30pm $5/FREE for MCC members
Aqua U. presents
The Manitoba Crafts Council Salon Series: I Heart Craft
Artists Robert Archambeau, Janet Carroll, Helen Delacretaz, Roy Liang and Kerri-Lynn Reeves
 A salon* featuring a trans-generational love letter to craft...its processes, materials, makers.
A Manitoba Crafts Council event with readings, reflections and performance by Robert Archambeau, Janet Carroll, Helen Delacretaz, Roy Liang and Kerri-Lynn Reeves.
Free to Manitoba Crafts Council members, and $5 for everyone else.
Janet Carroll is a Winnipeg book artist who has marbled paper for 30 years. She teaches workshops for adults and works with children in the Learning Through the Arts program in Winnipeg schools. She received a Manitoba Arts Council grant in 1991 and served as Bookbinder-in-Residence at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts in 2000.
Kerri-Lynn Reeves, an interdisciplinary Canadian artist, explores her relationships with her family, peers, and communities that she encounters through immediate collaborative works and contemplative personal works. Along with creating textile, video, and installation works, she has orchestrated large and small group community projects, locally, nationally, and internationally.
Robert Archambeau, professor emeritus at the U of M, has been making pots for over 50 years. He has taught, since 1964, at the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence and at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg. He has travelled, exhibited and shared his experience widely and generously over the years and was honoured by the Canada Council with The Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts in 2003.
Roy Liang has actively been involved in the arts and craft scene for a number of years. Building on his sewing and apparel design skills, Roy now combines silk-screening and other media to create his unusual and humorous pieces. Roy is a coordinator of the annual This Ain't Your Grandma's Craft Sale held at the Park Theatre in December which invites an ever-changing group of emerging crafters to show and sell to Manitoba's "alternative" and "edgy" crowd. Roy finds inspiration in the things that are immediately available to him such as road signs, vintage club jackets, music, and a bit of satire.
Helen Delacretaz is the Chief Curator at The Winnipeg Art Gallery. She holds Masters of Arts degrees in Fine and Decorative Arts (Manchester University/Sotheby's Institute 1996) and Art History (University of Victoria 1997). She joined the WAG in 1998 as a Young Canada Works Student and has worked there in various positions since then. She is Adjunct Professor at the University of Winnipeg where she teaches a course on Islamic, Hindu, and Buddhist arts and religions. She curated Grace Nickel: A Quiet Passage (2002) and Robert Archambeau: Artist, Teacher, Collector (2004). Helen's love affair with craft began in her early 20s and has increased voraciously since.
* A salon is a gathering of stimulating people of quality under the roof of an inspiring hostess or host, partly to refine their taste and increase their knowledge through conversation and readings, often consciously following Horace's definition of the aims of poetry, “either to please or to educate.”
Tuesday, May 26/09 7pm
Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture presents
Poet Jeanette Lynes
The Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture presents an evening with award-winning poet, novelist, and educator Jeanette Lynes from Antigonish, NS. Reception to follow. Co-sponsored by The University of Manitoba's Department of English, Film and Theatre and Summer Session Visiting Scholars' Program.
 Jeanette Lynes has published half a dozen collections of her poetry - the most recent being spring 2009's The New Blue Distance (Wolsak and Wynn) - as well as both appearing in and editing several anthologies. The Factory Voice (Coteau Books, 2009) is her first published work of fiction.
She has served in writer-in-residence positions in Saskatoon and Dawson Creek, BC. She holds a Ph.D in English from York University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Southern Maine. Jeanette spent six years working in Thunder Bay before taking her current position as an English professor at St. Francis Xavier University.
Friday, May 22/09 7pm $10
Journeys to Nowhere
An Evening of Stories and Music
Storytellers Beverley Grace and John Buchanan, with music by Sing Anishinaabe
Thursday, May 21/09 7pm
Heartland Players present
Nice Women Do
A readers' theatre production featuring Liz Higgins, Marion Martin and Aqua Books Writer-in-Residence Tim Higgins
Nice Women Do is an often-irreverent look at the first half of the 20th century, with a distinctly feminine twist. Featuring Liz Higgins, Marion Martin and the playwright, Tim Higgins, it takes the form of a dramatic reading with theatrical and musical interludes. Scenes include ‘The Strange Lives of Victorian Women’, ‘Nellie McClung, the WCTU and the Vote’, ‘Flappers or Judges, We’re Persons, Too,’ and ‘What Did You Do in the War, Mommy?’
Running time is about 50 minutes.
Nice Women Do is a play based on Dancing Backwards: A Social History of Canadian Women in Politics, co-authored by Sharon Carstairs and Tim Higgins. Dancing Backwards is the story of women’s determined and often difficult assault on the male-dominated citadel of Canadian politics. Published in 2004, this immensely readable history reveals the progress women have made in political life in a way that can be painful – or painfully funny.
"Dancing Backwards is an original and interesting book…it is also a spirited and honourable attempt to engage readers in an account of recent history that puts women in the centre, rather than on the margins, of life.", Charlotte Grey (National Post, May 28/05).
 Tim Higgins was born into a Canadian Forces family during a posting to Washington, DC, and has lived in Winnipeg since 1952. His B.Sc. in zoology and graduate work in human genetics naturally led him to a thirty-year career in acting, directing and writing for television.
In addition to screenplays about the Northwest Rebellion, the Plains Cree and, most recently, the history of the Manitoba Telephone System, he was principal Canadian researcher for the nationally televised series, Empire of the Bay.
Tim has received two Manitoba Motion Picture Industry Blizzard nominations for screenwriting; one for an historical documentary, the other for drama. His first book, Dancing Backwards: A Social History of Canadian Women in Politics, co-authored with Senator Sharon Carstairs, was nominated for both the Margaret McWilliams and Alexander Isbister Awards for popular non-fiction.
His most recent book is the best selling Bears on Broadway: A Love Affair in Concrete. He has written and staged five Manitoba historical plays in the last decade and has taught a writing course on Creative Non-Fiction for the Manitoba Writer’s Guild.
Wednesday, May 20/09 6:30-9pm $20
Aqua U. presents
DIY Bookmaking
Freckled Nest's Leigh-Ann Keffer
Learn to take a vintage book and turn it into an awesome journal/mini-book filled with vintage pages, buttons, tags and tabs. Perfect for thoughts and reflections, writing, list making, drawing and dreaming. Grab a bite to EAT! beforehand and join us from 6:30-9pm on Wednesday, May 20th. Bring a friend! This class will be lots of fun, and you will love the journal you bring home!
Please bring: Scissors, PaperCutter, Ruler, Stapler, 1 Foam Paint Brush, Glue and (optional) Bone Folder.
Leigh-Ann Keffer is a self-taught Winnipeg artist specializing in indie style. She started her company Freckled Nest as a hobby in 2003, mainly selling handmade mini-albums, hand-stitched tote bags, blog designs, and custom pieces. Word spread fast of her original artworks and unique style, and Leigh-Ann is now living her dream with Freckled Nest as her full time job and life's joy. On her fun, daily blog FreckledNest.com, Leigh-Ann lives her passion for all things handmade and shares her creative life through photos, moments, craft techniques, and completed works. Leigh-Ann says, When I realized my creative side, I felt empowered and alive. I love inspiring others towards that feeling of discovery and accomplishment!
Tuesday, May 19/09 7pm
Soapbox
Featured reader Aqua Books W-i-R Tim Higgins, hosted by Kelly Hughes
Every third Tuesday of the month, Aqua Books will present our new open mic series, Soapbox, hosted by Bookstore Owner Kelly Hughes.
Soapbox starts at 7pm and consists of two open-mic sets and a short break in between. This is Winnipeg's only cross-genre open mic series. Bring your fiction, memoirs, fragments, poetry, songs, and anything you've written, for your 4 minutes of fame.
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, from the kindergarten class at Kumsheen Elementary, to the Burnaby Correctional Centre for Women.
Friday, May 15/09 7pm $10
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 $10
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 $10
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
Aqua Books is proud to present a brand new concept in ripping off other people's concepts: Kelly Hughes Live!. Winnipeg's
only live talk show, KHL! will bring 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.
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, from the kindergarten class at Kumsheen Elementary, to the Burnaby Correctional Centre for Women.
Tuesday, May 12/09 7pm
An Evening With
Author Margaret Sweatman, interview by Kelly Hughes
Award-winning writer Margaret Sweatman will grace us with a very special preview reading of her long-awaited new novel The Players (due this fall), followed by a sit down interview with Bookstore Owner Kelly Hughes.
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 forthcoming novel, The Players, will be published by Goose Lane Editions in fall of 2009.
It is 1665, and young Lilly Cole must learn to act, to be one of the King’s players – for her it’s a question of survival. At the same time, two French explorers arrive in Court to charm two ships from the English King. Set in the libertine era of Restoration England, The Players takes us on a voyage of discovery.
This is a tale of beginnings, and of invention. And while The Players is set in the 17th Century, the world it evokes is remarkably contemporary.
Lilly Cole is playing a delicate and ruthless game. If she fails she’s perfectly free to starve. The people in this novel value freedom above all. Sexual and economic liberty. And to that end, they favour satire; they are tender characters cutting themselves on their own wit.
The Players is premised on an historical situation, but Margaret Sweatman is more interested in its fiction.
This is the Court of King Charles II, a monarch who loved theatre and women, and loathed moralists. In this story, he is impressed by Lilly’s genius on stage; he enjoys her many skills. He also fosters a self-destructive young playwright, Bartholomew. Bartholomew is in love with liquor, and with Lilly Cole.
The historical characters – King Charles, Prince Rupert, Radisson, Des Groseilliers – come alive in this novel’s own fantastical terms: just as they were marvelous figures in their own time, they are exquisite characters in this story. They are in an encounter with the merchants, very rich men, the retired pirates of the Civil War, in a project that will launch lucrative trade in the vast landholding of Rupert’s Land. The Players is set in a moment of great change, when the Old World yields the stage to the New.
The novel begins in Oxford England, moves to London, and then sets sail for Hudson Bay. The characters on this journey must learn to apply their skills in survival through all the many transformations of their environment, from Plague-riddled London, to a small ship crossing the Atlantic, enduring the extreme cold at Rupert’s River in James Bay, and to return, utterly changed, if they’ve managed to live. Beyond these challenges, they will learn the central ability, which is to love.
The Players suggests that we are all performing our own lives. In The Players the ability to perform – in Court, on stage, in private quarters and in the brutal cold of James Bay – this talent might save your life.
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, from the kindergarten class at Kumsheen Elementary, to the Burnaby Correctional Centre for Women.
Tuesday, May 5/09 7:30pm VKF
Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture presents
Writer Richard Van Camp
An evening with renowned storyteller and best-selling author Richard Van Camp from the Dogrib (Tlicho) Dene First Nation from Fort Smith, NWT.
 Richard Van Camp is the author of the acclaimed novel The Lesser Blessed, a collection of short stories, Angel Wing Splash Pattern, and several children’s books. His new novel, Blessing Wendy, will be released in the fall of 2009 through Orca Book Publishers and his new collection of short stories, The Moon of Letting Go, will be released through Enfield and Wizenty. His first comic book, On the Path of Honour, about gang violence and physical fitness, will be published in June with Cree artist Steve Sanderson. Richard was awarded Storyteller of the Year for both Canada and the US by the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers in 2007.
Wednesday, April 29/09 7pm
Bons mots serie litteraire
Les écrivains Laurent Poliquin, Bathélémy Bolivar et Jean Chicoine
organisée par Bertrand Nayet
Ah, le passage de l’équinoxe! On ose espérer le printemps. De biens Bons mots, équinoxe, printemps. Dans ces Bons mots, est-ce un ruissellement d’eau sous la glace que j’entends, le retour des oies, les pas des écrivains dans la bouette des trottoirs? Oui, ils sortent de leurs studios et laissent essaimer leurs Bons mots porteurs d’espoirs solaires.
Bons mots c’est une nouvelle série de lectures publiques par des auteurs franco-manitobains à «l’hôtel de ville culturel» de Winnipeg, la librairie Aqua Books, 274, rue Garry. Bons mots c’est une initiative de la librairie Aqua Books et du Collectif Post-néo-rieliste organisée par Bertrand Nayet et Ariel Gordon dont le but est de faire rayonner la littérature franco-manitobaine sur les deux berges de la rivière Rouge.
Bons mots du 26 mars 2009, c’est Bathélémy Bolivar (lauréat du Prix Rue-Deschambault 2007, Manguier têtus), Jean Chicoine (finaliste du Prix des lecteurs de Radio-Canada 2008, Les Galaxies nos voisines), Laurent Poliquin (lauréat du Prix Alliance française des Rencontres internationales de Molsheim, 2002) auteur de La métisse filante. Bons mots c’est trois auteurs, trois voix dans le vent, trois voies dans la villes.
Bons mots c’est une occasion de voir et d’entendre des écrivains donner vie à leurs mots. Bons mots, c’est une salle au plancher craquant, c’est un bruit diffus de circulation, c’est une voix qui nous envoûte, ce sont des rencontres, des surprises, des retrouvailles.
 Laurent Poliquin poursuit des études doctorales à l’Université du Manitoba portant la littérature pour la jeunesse au Canada français. Il est l’auteur de quatre recueils de poésie, dont le plus récent, La Métisse filante, est paru l’an dernier aux Éditions de l’Harmattan, à Paris. Ses poèmes ont aussi été publiés dans plusieurs revues et anthologies au Canada, au Québec, en France et en Italie. Il est membre du comité de rédaction de la revue de poésie Contemporary Verse 2. Depuis 2003, il est aussi éditeur aux Éditions des Plaines.
 Né en Haïti en 1975, Bathélémy Bolivar vit à Winnipeg où il enseigne le français et l'informatique. Depuis la publication de manguiers têtus (Les Editions du Blé), paru en 2005, et honoré par le prix littéraire Deschambault, l'écriture est, pour lui, une vie parallèle où son projet esthétique se cristallise un mot à la fois. Son dernier livre est Re-bondir, (Editions d'art Le Sabord, 2007).
 Jean Chicoine est né à Montréal en 1952 et s'intéresse depuis toujours aux langues. Enfant, il rêvait d'être un agent secret et écrivait des messages codés avec l'alphabet phonétique qu'il avait découvert dans le Larousse. Bachelier en linguistique de l'université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, il vit au Manitoba depuis 1989. Son premier livre, le roman les galaxies nos voisines, a été publié aux éditions du Blé en 2007 et a été finaliste pour le Prix des Lecteurs de Radio-Canada en 2008.
 Né à Auxerre (France) en 1962, Bertrand Nayet arrive au Manitoba à 13 ans lorsque sa famille s’établit sur une ferme à Dufrost. Il termine ses études secondaires à Sainte-Anne-des-Chênes (Manitoba) puis il obtient un baccalauréat spécialisé en traduction et un baccalauréat en éducation au Collège universitaire de Saint-Boniface. Professeur de français et de théâtre au Collège Louis-Riel, il dirige la troupe de théâtre de cette école secondaire franco-manitobaine. Après des haïkus, il publie en 2003 des récits épistolaires en collaboration : Voyages en papier (Blé). Également illustrateur d’un livre pour enfants, il prépare plusieurs ouvrages variés.
Wednesday, April 22/09 7pm
2009 Manitoba Book Awards Nominee Reading
Le Prix littéraire Rue-Deschambault
Candidats Tatiana Arcand, Louise Duguay et Lise Gaboury-Diallo
Saturday, April 18/09 7pm
2009 Manitoba Book Awards Nominee Reading
The Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction
Nominees David Bergen, Joan Thomas and Miriam Toews
CLASSICS WEEK April 14-18/09
Friday, April 17/09 7:30pm $15
Saturday, April 18/09 2pm $15
The Wine Dark Sea: Tales from Homer's Odyssey
storytellers Jane Cahill, Kay Stone and Mary Louise Chown, with flutist Chad Cornell
Thursday, April 16/09 7pm $5/FREE for MCC members
Aqua U. presents
The Manitoba Crafts Council Salon Series: A Cambodian Experience
Ceramic artist Alan Lacovetsky
The Manitoba Crafts Council has come up with an exciting new salon series that is not to be missed. First up is a front row seat to a world of Cambodian ceramics through the eyes of Manitoba ceramic artist and educator Alan Lacovetsky. Free to Manitoba Crafts Council members, and $5 for everyone else.
 Alan Lacovetsky has worked creatively with clay for more than 25 years in places as disparate as Thailand, Australia and Canada. The ceramist (and past president of the MCC) considers the material he molds sacred due to its lengthy and complex geological history. His hand-built and wheel-thrown wall pieces, vases, and bowls reflect the sensual shapes and calming colours of the natural world. Unlike many other ceramic artists, Lacovetsky labours over a carefully tended wood burning kiln to transform the malleable clay into a sturdy rock-like state. This traditional firing method is in keeping with the artist's desire for a close relationship with nature. Having built a studio on his property in the country near Stonewall, he continues to create functional stoneware vessels which he fires in the new wood kiln that he and David Krindle built in the fall of 2006.
Wednesday, April 15/09 7pm
Aqua U. presents
The Gadgets of Hero of Alexandria
U of W Classics prof Dr. Milo Nikolic
Hero of Alexandria was an ancient Greek mathematician who was a resident of a Roman province (Ptolemaic Egypt); he was also an engineer who was active in his hometown of Alexandria. He is considered the greatest experimenter of antiquity and his work is representative of the Hellenistic scientific tradition.
Among his most famous inventions were the first documented steam-powered device, the aeolipile [right], and a windwheel, constituting one of the earliest instances of wind harnessing. He is said to have been a follower of the Atomists. Some of his ideas were derived from the works of Ctesibius.
 Milo Nikolic has been the Crake Doctoral Fellow in Classics at Mount Allison University, an engineering project manager, a sales engineer, and an R+D engineer. He attended Coventry Polytechnic (UK), Fachhochschule Osnabrück (Germany), Carl-von-Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg (Germany), and the University of Calgary and the University of Victoria. Milo has participated in archaeological excavations in Jordan, Sicily, Turkey, and Calgary, and specializes in ancient water technology, Roman art and architecture, ancient technical texts, lead in antiquity, and renewable energies. Milo is currently assistant professor at the U of W.
Tuesday, April 14/09 7pm
It Came from the Vault
The Adventures of Prince Achmed
1926, animated, 65 min.
 The Adventures of Prince Achmed is a 1926 feature-length animated film by the German animator Lotte Reiniger. It is the oldest surviving animated feature film (two earlier ones were made in Argentina by Quirino Cristiani, but they are considered lost), and it featured a silhouette animation technique Reiniger had invented which involved manipulated cutouts made from cardboard and thin sheets of lead under a camera. The technique she used for the camera is similar to Wayang shadow puppets (though hers were animated frame by frame, not manipulated in live action). The original prints featured color tinting. The story is based on the elements taken from the collection 1001 Arabian Nights, specifically The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanou featured in Andrew Lang's The Blue Fairy Book. With the assistance of Aladdin, the Witch of the Fiery Mountain, and a magic horse, the title character battles the evil African sorcerer to win the hand of Princess Peri Banu.
Saturday, April 11/09 2pm
2009 Manitoba Book Awards Nominee Reading
Alexander Kennedy Isbister Award for Non-Fiction
Nominees Cecil Rosner, Amy Karlinsky, Patricia Bovey and more
Thursday, April 9/09 7pm
Aqua Books Lansdowne Prize for Poetry Series
2009 Nominees Rosanna Deerchild, Maurice Mierau, Laurent Poliquin, and Kerry Ryan
In celebration of Manitoba's largest poetry prize, the Aqua Books Lansdowne, we present the 2009 nominees. Hosted in conjunction with the Writer's Collective.
For the history of the Aqua Books Lansdowne Prize for Poetry/Prix Lansdowne de poésie, click here.
Wednesday, April 8/09 7pm
2009 Manitoba Book Awards Nominee Reading
Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book
Nominees Jan Guenther Braun, Andrew Davidson, Christina Penner, Daria Salamon and Joan Thomas
Saturday, April 4/09 2pm
2009 Manitoba Book Awards Nominee Reading
Best Illustrated Book of the Year / Manuela Dias Book Design of the Year
Nominees Patricia Bovey, Louise Duguay and Jane Heinrichs
Wednesday, March 25/09 7-9pm
Manitoba Editors' Association Workshop
Grammar for Editors
Editors Susan Huebert and Bev Phillips
$20 for members; $25 for non-members; $10 for students
RSVP by e-mail at meaworkshops@gmail.com
Friday, March 20/09 7pm
Saturday, March 21/09 3pm/7pm
$10
The Vagina Monologues
Featuring Jennifer Lyon, Jan Skene, Kay Stone, Hilary Carroll, Sarah Roche, Barbra Berven, Marlo Rhoda, Lynn Rhoda, Andrea Del Campo, Sandy Bissoon, Lise McMillan, Giana Sherbo, Aisha Alfa, Michelle Alfa, Veronica Ternopolski, Noma Sibanda, Noelle Depape and Pauline Nemard
 The Vagina Monologues is an award-winning episodic play written by Eve Ensler. In 1998, Ensler launched V-Day, a global non profit that has raised over $50 million for women's anti-violence groups.
In 2008, over 4000 V-Day benefit events were produced by volunteer activists in the U.S. and around the world, educating millions of people about the reality of violence against women and girls. To date, the V-Day movement has raised over $60 million and educated millions about the issue of violence against women and the efforts to end it, crafted international educational, media and PSA campaigns, launched the Karama program in the Middle East, reopened shelters, and funded over 6000 community-based anti-violence programs and safe houses in Democratic Republic Of Congo, Haiti, Kenya, South Dakota, Egypt and Iraq.
From this production of The Vagina Monologues, 90% of funds raised will be donated to Osborne House here in Winnipeg, with the balance going towards the V-Day global campaign Stop Raping our Greatest Resource: Power to Women in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Wednesday, March 11/09 7:30pm
CBC Poetry Face-Off 2009
Poets Andrea von Wichert, Di Brandt, Marie Annharte Baker, Skip Stone, and T'ai Pu
Listen to winner Skip Stone.
This event is hosted by Wabanakwut Kinew of CBC Radio One's The (204), and will feature a special non-competitive set by Chandra Mayor. The CBC Poetry Face-Off will be recorded for broadcast on CBC Radio.
Andrea von Wichert paints, writes and performs, but rarely simultaneously. For the last three years she has been a member of the Winnipeg Poetry Slam team at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word in Toronto, Halifax and Calgary. Her work has appeared in Prairie Fire and Mic Check: An Anthology of Spoken Word in Canada. She is the creator and producer of Girls!Girls!Girls! an annual women's art show and cabaret and is one of the organizers of the Winnipeg Poetry Slam. She prefers to spend her time at home playing with her cat and contemplating the state of Humanity.
Di Brandt is the author of a dozen books of poetry, fiction and essays. Her poetry has been adapted for video, film, installation art, music and dance. Her poetry titles include questions i asked my mother, Agnes in the Sky, Jerusalem, beloved, and Now You Care. She has received numerous awards and recognitions for her poetry, including the Gerald Lampert Award for best first book of poetry in Canada, the Canadian Authors Association National Poetry Prize, a Silver National Magazine Award and the Foreword Magazine Gold Medal for General Fiction (with Annie Jacobsen and Jane Finlay-Young, for the collaborative novel, Watermelon Syrup). Di Brandt holds a Canada Research Chair in English and Creative Writing at Brandon University.
Marie Annharte Baker (Little Saskatchewan First Nation) is Anishinaabe and a Winnipeg born/based writer, advocate/organizer for people with disabilities and member of the Aboriginal Writer's Collective. Her published books are Being on the Moon, Coyote Columbus Cafe and Exercises in Lip Pointing. A current project is a memoir as she bases creativity and inspiration from journal writing. She has also written essays, book reviews and plays besides being a storyteller in the Manitoba Public Schools. Consequently, she finds a real profession as being a grandmother.
Skip Stone is a Winnipeg born writer who lives his civilian life under the alias Jonathan Surla. He is a member of Winnipeg B-boy crew Dangerous Goods under many aliases, and tried to be an actor in Toronto for what he feels may have been waaaaaay too long. He's been a member of the Winnipeg Poetry Slam Team twice and competed in Toronto and Halifax. He raps, wears hats, teaches kids how to boogie, and in his spare time he likes to write short bios for his various other aliases.
T'ai Pu has worked as a verbal-percussionist with bands, DJs, poets, painters, healers, dancers, children and seniors in schools and extra curricular programs, in clubs and at festivals. Perfroming as PuConA, the intent at a gathering is to join with the audience in a celebration of that moment and the purpose of that gathering. Using chants, drums and beatboxing in combination with verbalz, spitz and spok'n werd to commune and to 'call-out' cats, performances tend to turn into circles with audiences becoming participants. Free up on the fire of word-sound power.
Tuesday, March 10/09 7pm
Aqua U. presents
Video Chapbook - Beyond Words
Lecture/screening by multi-media artist Elvira Finnigan
Elvira will begin her presentation by talking about some of the ideas and impetus for her work, which includes poetic images. The talk will be followed by a screening of Video Chapbook (12 minutes) and a Q and A.
About Video Chapbook
The first of the series of five short video poems that make up Video Chapbook, called Cup of Sadness, began with a personal response to a child’s drawing entitled Cup of Sadness which was based on the drawing of the same name by Canadian artist Betty Goodwin, exhibited at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. The four videos poems that followed explored the internal world of mid-life, confusing the boundaries of the internal and the external and weaving a narrative of images and sound. The five poems were published in 2004 as a DVD collection, Video Chapbook.
 Elvira Finnigan is a Winnipeg based multi-media artist whose video work has been shown most recently in the WNDX festival in Winnipeg in October 2008. Her work has also been included in video programs that have been screened in the “From The ‘Peg” festival at the Harbourfront in Toronto in 2007 as well as in Halifax and Japan. Her current work involves photographing and uploading time-lapsed images of salt brine crystallization experiments in a web-based exhibition, Saltwatch: Timelapse.
Thursday, March 5/09 7pm
Aqua Books Lansdowne Prize for Poetry Series
Catherine Hunter, Méira Cook and Sarah Klassen
In celebration of Manitoba's largest poetry prize, the Aqua Books Lansdowne, we present our new series of readings. Hosted in conjunction with the Writer's Collective, the series features winners, nominees, and other
notable local poets.
 Sarah Klassen's sixth poetry collection, A Curious Beatitude (The Muses' Company, 2006) was short-listed for the Lansdowne Poetry Prize and received the Canadian Author's Association Poetry Award. Her second short story collection, A Feast of Longing (Coteau, 2007), received the High Plains Fiction Award. Sarah was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and currently resides there.
 Méira Cook's most recent book of poetry, Slovenly Love, was published by Brick Books in 2003. She is the editor of Field Marks, a selection of poetry by Don McKay published in the Wilfred Laurier University Press Poetry Series in 2006.
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).
Saturday, February 28/09 7pm
Aqua Books Lansdowne Prize for Poetry Series
Laurie Block, with Di Brandt and Colin Smith
In celebration of Manitoba's largest poetry prize, the Aqua Books Lansdowne, we present our new series of readings. Hosted in conjunction with the Writer's Collective, the series features winners, nominees, and other
notable local poets.
This fourth installment in the series, offered in partnership with the Writers' Collective, includes 2007 Lansdowne winner Laurie Block and his guests.
Colin Smith is the author of two books of poems: 8 x 8 x 7 (San Francisco: KRUPSKAYA Books, 2008), and Multiple Poses (Vancouver: Tsunami Editions, 1997). Exists in Winnipeg, and is one of the organizers for the Speaking Crow poetry series. Was a contributor to and survivor of August 2008's N 49 15.832 -- W 123 05.921 Positions Colloquium, a week-long avant-garde poetics extravaganza put on by the Kootenay School of Writing in Vancouver, and for which there is thus far no t-shirt emblazoned with a catchy slogan.
 Di Brandt has published a dozen books of poetry, creative essays and a novel. Her most recent book of essays is So this is the world & here I am in it (NeWest Writers as Critics X, 2007) and her latest book of poetry is Now You Care (Coach House, 2003). Watermelon Syrup (WLUP, 2007), a novel she co-wrote with Annie Jacobsen and Jane Finlay-Young received the international Foreword Magazine Gold Medal for General Fiction. Di recently completed an opera libretto, Emily, The Way You Are, about the life and work of Emily Carr, which was set to music by Jana Skarecky and premiered at the McMichael Gallery in Toronto last spring. Di Brandt holds a Canada Research Chair at Brandon University.
 Laurie Block is an award-winning writer and storyteller from Brandon Manitoba. His work has been produced on the professional stage, published in anthologies and magazines throughout Canada and in three volumes of poetry including Governing Bodies; the bilingual collection, Foreign Graces / Bendiciones Ajenas; and, most recently, Time Out of Mind, published in 2006 by Oolichan Books, which was awarded the inaugural Lansdowne Prize for Poetry. His stories have won Prairie Fire's Fiction Contest, the 2004 National Magazine Gold Medal Award and a 2008 Western Magazine Award Gold Medal.
Thursday, February 26/09 7pm
An Invitation to Simplicity
Mark Burch, Simplicity Practice and Resource Centre
This free public presentation introduces
the philosophy and practice of voluntary
simplicity as an alternative to the debt,
stress, rush, and anxiety of consumer culture.
What is ‘consumer culture’ and do we live in one?
What is voluntary simplicity?
Isn’t living simply just a way of making the best of
living in poverty?
How are people taking up the practice of simple
living and what can I do to learn more?
February 17-21/09
Mondo!Purdy 2009
Armin Wiebe, Neil Besner, Dennis Cooley, David Arnason, Ron Robinson, Catherine Hunter, Deborah Schnitzer, Charlene Diehl, Rosanna Deerchild, plus our own Tim Higgins, Kate Bitney, Chandra Mayor, and our sort-of-own Colin Smith. More to come
For the complete schedule, visit the Mondo!Purdy website.
Al Purdy has been called Canada's unofficial poet laureate. Charles Bukowski once said of Purdy: "I don't know of any good living poets. But there's this tough son of a bitch up in Canada that works the line." Since his death in 2000, his wife has been taking care of their home, a cabin that "was the product of two months' worth of amateur carpentry and drunken squabbling between Purdy and fellow poet Milton Acorn". Now 84, Eurithe Purdy is putting it up for sale. We've posted a link to last summer's Globe story about the house on the Aqua Books Tumblelog. (Check out the pic of the octogenarian on the roof.) Since the article, a grass-roots movement to preserve the fifty year-old cottage where Purdy wrote his best work has been launched. Jean Baird (wife of poet George Bowering) and publisher Howard White founded the A-Frame Trust with the intent of preserving the house as a memorial to Purdy and a possible writing retreat for other writers. Fundraisers have been happening all over the country. It may seem a small thing to some, but as Canadians, we need to celebrate our heroes, just like the Americans do, no?
Heeding the call (and as Winnipeg's Poetry Hub), Aqua Books has declared a week of Al Purdy. February 17-21, 2009, Aqua Books will be presenting Mondo!Purdy, a week-long festival celebrating the life and work of Al Purdy. Mondo!Purdy will be the inaugural rendition of Mondo!Poetry, Manitoba's only annual poetry festival, which will happen every February. Mondo!Purdy will feature a performance workshop, Open Road Open Mic, a writing workshop, The Boxcar Chat panel discussion, and on closing night, the Mondo!Purdy Video Dance Party. The MDVDP will have a sweet silent auction where we will raise loads of money for Purdy House, but it will also be way fun and feature actual poets dancing. The list of confirmed writers is above, some of whom will be creating brand new work for this orgy of words. We're very excited to be hosting what will be the literary event of the season, so start talking amongst yourselves. Click this link for the day-by-day schedule.
 Al Purdy was born in Wooler, Ontario. Purdy went to Albert College in Belleville, Ontario, and Trenton Collegiate Institute in Trenton, Ontario. He dropped out of school at 17 and rode the rails west to Vancouver. He served in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II. Following the war, he worked in various jobs until the 1960s, when he was able to support himself as a writer, editor and poet.
In the late 1950s, Purdy moved to Roblin Lake in Ameliasburg, Ontario, (South of Trenton in Prince Edward County) and this became his preferred location for writing. In his later years, he divided his time between North Saanich, British Columbia, and his cottage at Roblin Lake.
In addition to his poems and novel, Purdy's work includes two volumes of memoirs, the most recent of which was Reaching for the Beaufort Sea. He also wrote four books of correspondence, including Margaret Laurence - Al Purdy: A Friendship in Letters and radio and television plays for the CBC. He was writer-in-residence at several Canadian universities, and edited a number of anthologies of poetry.
He wrote the introduction to the last book of poetry by his friend Milton Acorn, The Whiskey Jack. Purdy was also a long-time friend of American author Charles Bukowski. Bukowski once said: "I don't know of any good living poets. But there's this tough son of a bitch up in Canada that works the line."
Al Purdy died in North Saanich, B.C., on April 21, 2000. His final collection of poetry, Beyond Remembering: The Collected Poems of Al Purdy, was released posthumously in the fall of 2000.
Thursday, February 5/09 7pm
Cypress Launch
Brick Books authors Barbara Klar and Barbara Schott
 Barbara Klar lives northwest of Saskatoon. Her first book, The Night You Called Me a Shadow, won the Gerald Lampert Award. The Blue Field, her second book, was nominated for the 1999 Saskatchewan Book Award for Poetry. Klar is also the author of the chapbook, Tower Road, from JackPine Press. Cypress is her third collection.
Cypress is a series of linked meditative poems focusing on the Cypress Hills of southwestern Saskatchewan, a remarkable landform that Barbara Klar has come to know intimately. Moving with grace between the perceptual moment and its visionary dimension, Klar opens numinous avenues of reconnection to place.
Wind is Pine for listen.
Snap means wait.
And the shadow word
dangles from the witch's hair
and fights the old war of deadfall and pours
from the one-toothed gargoyles in the eaves of the forest,
in the gardens of the giants, their woody flowers creaking,
the word leaning west, west, growing vertical
against the wind's disorder, the raven trees planted
by one wingtip and flying.
From "Not Speaking for One Week"
Intensely moving, courageous in their utter dedication, eager for the roots of being, the poems in Cypress carry us to a unique landscape that is also a place of transformation.
Barbara Schott was born and raised in Winnipeg. Her work as a fashion stylist in the garment industry frequently takes her to the Orient. She also edits poetry with Sarah Klassen for Prairie Fire magazine.
She is the author of The Waterlily Pickers (Turnstone, 1990) and Memoirs of an Almost Expedition (Brick Books, 1999).
Saturday, January 31/09 10am-3pm
Aqua U. presents
Help! I Think I Have a Book Inside Me!
A workshop by Chandra Mayor
Cost: $40
Do you have stories, memories, and ideas clamouring for attention inside your head? Have you secretly been working on stories at your kitchen table, late at night, but you've never shown anyone?
Do you keep thinking that if you could only find the time (this summer at the cottage...when you retire...every weekend, starting January 1st...) you could get that book written? If so, this day long workshop is for you.
Geared toward brand-new writers, with little or no experience, but with lots of ideas, Chandra Mayor will help you find the non-surgical book-extraction methods you've been searching for.
Never taken a writing class before? Perfect. No real manuscript, but lots of ideas? Excellent.
 Chandra Mayor is a Winnipeg writer and editor. She is the author of August Witch: poems (short-listed for four Manitoba book awards, and the recipient of the Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book), Cherry: a novel (shortlisted for the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction, and winner of the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award), and her new short-story collection, All the Pretty Girls. The recipient of the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Writer, the former Writer-in-Residence at the Winnipeg Public Library, and a mentor in the Sheldon Oberman Apprentice Program, she has widely published fiction, memoir, non-fiction, and poetry in magazines and anthologies. She has taught writing workshops for all age groups and at all levels, in multipurpose rooms, university classrooms, and VIA Rail smoking cars.
Thursday, January 29/09 7pm
Boreality Launch
Katherine Bitney, Prairie Fire W-i-R January-October 2009
Katherine Bitney is the author of three critically acclaimed books of poetry: While You Were Out (Turnstone Press, 1981), Heart and Stone (Turnstone Press, 1989) and Singing Bone (The Muses Company, 1997), and is currently working on a fourth collection of poems. With Andris Taskans, she co-edited A/Cross Sections (MWG, 2007). She has worked as an editor, mentor, and creative writing instructor, as well as arts juror and creative director for literary events for over 30 years in Manitoba.
Boreality is a multi-year collaboration between Prairie Fire Press and the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra which involves a writer (Katherine Bitney), composer (Sid Robinovitch), photographer (Mandy Malazdrewich), sound recording artist (Ken Gregory) and project coordinator (Janine Tschuncky) going out into the boreal forest in each season to listen to the forest and the people who live there. The purpose of this project is to celebrate the boreal forest of Manitoba through a multidisciplinary approach involving writing, music, soundscape and photography which will result in a musical performance, a writer-in-residence program at Aqua Books, and a special issue of boreal forest writing to be published by Prairie Fire Press. "Boreality" is made possible in part by the Winnipeg Arts Council¹s New Creations Fund.
The winter trip was completed in December 2008 and the Boreality creative team members would love to share some of their adventures with you. Come and learn more about the manuscript evaluation service from Prairie Fire¹s first writer-in-residence at Aqua Books!
Click here for more details on The Boreality Project.
Thursday, January 15/09 7pm
Aqua Books Lansdowne Prize for Poetry Series
Lise Gaboury-Diallo, with Chandra Mayor and Rosanna Deerchild
In celebration of Manitoba's largest poetry prize, the Aqua Books Lansdowne, we present our new series of readings. Hosted in
conjunction with the Writer's Collective, the series features winners, nominees, and other
notable local poets.
This third installment in the series, offered in partnership with the Writers' Collective, features 2007 Lansdowne nominee Gaboury-Diallo.
The evening will feature a bilingual reading from Gaboury-Diallo. Both Deerchild and Mayor's performances will include a poem translated into French specifically for the event by Charles Leblanc.
 Rosanna Deerchild is Cree from South Indian Lake, Manitoba. Her poetry has appeared in a number of literary magazines including Prairie Fire and CV2. She is the co-founder and remains a member of the Aboriginal Writers Collective, established in 1999. Rosanna currently works a broadcaster with NCI-FM and is a regular columnist with CBC. This is a small northern town, Deerchild's long-awaited full-length collection of poems, was published by The Muses' Company in fall 2008.
Chandra Mayor’s writing has appeared in several anthologies, including Interruptions: 30 Women Tell the Truth about Motherhood, Breathing Fire 2: Canada’s New Poets, and Post-Prairie. Her first book, August Witch: poems, was short-listed for four Manitoba book awards and won the Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book. She received the 2004 John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Writer, and the following year her novel, Cherry, won the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award. The title story from her most recent book, All the Pretty Girls (conundrum, 2008), was shortlisted for a 2008 CBC Literary Award. Chandra Mayor lives in Winnipeg.
Née à Saint-Boniface (Manitoba), Lise Gaboury-Diallo est professeure de langue française et des littératures francophones au Collège universitaire de Saint-Boniface (MB). Elle est l'auteure de 6 recueils de poésie : Subliminales(1999), transitions (2002), tous deux en lice pour le Prix Rue-Deschambault; Poste restante : cartes poétiques du Sénégal (2005) en lice pour le Prix Landsdown pour la poésie; Homestead, poèmes du coeur de l'Ouest(2005), oeuvre pour laquelle elle a remporté le premier prix, catégorie poésie française, des Prix littéraires Radio-Canada 2004; L’endroit et l’envers (2008) et Parchemins croisés: la Genèse en peinture et en poésie/Crossworlds: a Genesis in painting and in poetry, en collaboration avec la peintre Monique Larouche, traductions de Mark Stout (2008).
Born in Saint-Boniface, Lise Gaboury-Diallo is a professor of French and French literature at the Collège universitaire de Saint-Boniface. She is the author of six collections of poetry: Subliminales (1999), transitions (2002), both short-listed for the Prix Rue-Deschambault, Poste restante : cartes poétiques du Sénégal (2005), short-listed for the Landsdowne Poetry Award; Homestead, poèmes du cœur de l'Ouest (2005), which won the first prize in the French poetry category of the 2004 CBC Literary Awards; L’endroit et l’envers (2008) and Parchemins croisés: la Genèse en peinture et en poésie /Crossworlds: a Genesis in painting and in poetry, in collaboration with the painter Monique Larouche, translations by Mark Stout (2008).
Friday, January 2/09 7-11pm
Mr. Pine CD Launch
Folk-rockers Mr. Pine with opening act Kerri Woelke.
Admission: $8 at the door.
 In 2003, Matt McLennan of the Winnipeg band Cone Five met Kevin Scott who was serving as Music Director and DJ at local University station UMFM. They had many discussions about music, both being interested in varying styles, and decided to start a recording project under the name Mr. Pine. As Matt was on the brink of leaving for Ottawa to pursue a master’s degree, the work would be conceived largely via mail, with recording sessions taking place on Matt’s frequent visits home.
In 2006, they debuted their first CD, The Gift of Wolves. Two years in the making, it was a distillation of ideas and influences loosely bound by the phrase "chamber folk." As much an experiment in combining different instruments/ideas as it was a collection of memorable and melodic songs, the modest project received unanimous accolades from the local Winnipeg music press and made several impressive showings on college radio stations across Canada.
2008 sees the release of the band's followup disc, and the word "band" should be underscored – Mr. Pine has expanded to a sextet, which has allowed them the luxury of further developing their musical ideas as a tight, cohesive unit. Several of the players who guested on "The Gift of Wolves" are now full-fledged members, including vocalist Leslie Oldham (formerly of Matt's previous band Cone Five) and violinist Richard Caners. Also from the Cone Five ranks are guitarist Jason Peters and bassist Ken Phillips. Kevin and Matt continue to write the songs.
The results of two more years' work, the new album Rewilding is, as Kevin puts it, "more of the same, but different" – in other words, a dizzying array of styles and influences. From the shimmering, echo-laden introduction of "Ace of Cups I" to the folk-pop of "Streets of York," from the pastoral fable "The Enclave" to the chilling folk-metal (!) tale "Glass Petals," and from the stripped back acoustic simplicity of "Robin's Breast" to the full-on quasi-orchestral instrumental "Ace of Cups II," Mr. Pine continues to confound expectations and enchant listeners with its timeless music.
Enhanced with several guest players on strings, woodwinds and even banjo, Rewilding is a tour de force for Mr. Pine and a continuation of their fascinating mystical vision.
 Manitoba born Kerri Woelke taught herself to play guitar while attending college. Relegated to the tiny dorm bathroom to practice, she emerged from this experience determined to offer her growing repertoire of originals with a wider audience. The next years were spent honing her craft with the bands Dirty Old Hank and Gretchen, playing at Manitoba festivals and on the CBC. In 2005, Kerri switched to a solo singer/songwriter format, won the Manitoba Christian Talent Search, and recorded her first solo album (selftitled – released February, 2007). Kerri is presently an Artist In Development with Canadian indie label Signpost Music.
Thursday, December 18/08 7:30pm
Contemporary Verse 2
Poetry Party
poets JR Léviellé, Laurent Poliquin, Stacy Doiron, Jan Horner, Sharon Caseburg, Lori Cayer, Maurice Mierau, and Colin Smith
Né à Winnipeg, J.R. Léveillé est l'auteur d'une vingtaine de livres : romans, poésie, essais littéraires. Il dirige le comité éditorial des Éditions du Blé et il siège au conseil du Festival international des Écrivains de Winnipeg. Il est lauréat de divers prix dont le Manitoba Lifetime Writing and Publishing Award en 2007. Un colloque international sur son œuvre a eu lieu en 2005. Il a récemment fait paraître PARADE ou les autres, essais sur la littérature, le théâtre et les arts au Manitoba français. Dans ses temps libres, il est le Grand Inquisiteur du Collectif post-néo-rieliste.
Laurent Poliquin a publié trois recueils de poésie aux Éditions des Plaines. Titulaire d'un baccalauréat en philosophie de l'Université du Québec à Trois Rivières, d'une maîtrise en études françaises de l'Université de Colombie Britannique et d'un baccalauréat en éducation du Collège universitaire de Saint Boniface, il enseigne le français et la littérature à l'Université du Manitoba et est éditeur adjoint aux Éditions des Plaines. Il participe régulièrement à des récitals de poésie, notamment au Marché de la poésie de Montréal (2007) et au Salon du livre de Paris (2007). Membre du comité de rédaction de la revue CV2, il collabore au magazine culturel Liaison. Il prépare un prochain recueil intitulé La métisse filante.
Stacy Doiron has dabbled as a middle school teacher, reporter, law student, bagpiper and softball player in various locales. Now living in downtown Winnipeg, this Bluenoser would like to find poetry in the prairies, and maybe even pay off some student loans. This is her first time her work has appeared in print.
Jan Horner has published two books of poetry and a chapbook. Her first book of poems, Recent Mistakes, (Turnstone, 1988) won the McNally Robinson Manitoba Book of the Year Award. In 2001/2002 she was writer-in-residence at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario. Her latest book of poems, Mama Dada (or songs of the Baroness's dogs), will be coming out from Turnstone Press in spring 2009. She works as a librarian at the University of Manitoba, is a fan of English football, and is trying to learn German.
Sharon Caseburg is a Winnipeg-based poet, critical writer, and editor. Her work has appeared in several Canadian literary journals, including Room of One's Own, Prairie Fire, Contemporary Verse 2, and The Antigonish Review. Sleepwalking, a long poem, is forthcoming from JackPine Press in 2009.
Born in Saskatchewan, Lori Cayer has made Manitoba her home since 1969. Her book of poems, Stealing Mercury (The Muses’ Company), won the Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book in Manitoba in 2004 and was nominated for the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer and the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award the same year. Lori won the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer in 2005. She is currently one of the two Poetry Editors for CV2 and is co-founder of the Lansdowne Prize for Poetry, now part of the Manitoba Writing and Publishing Awards. She works by day as an Editorial Assistant for a National Research Council scientific journal.
Maurice Mierau was born in Indiana and grew up in Nigeria, Manitoba, Jamaica, Kansas, and Saskatchewan. His newest collection of poetry, Fear Not, was released by Turnstone this fall. His first book of poems, Ending with Music (Brick Books, 2002), was a finalist for the Eileen McTavish Sykes Award, and Mierau was short-listed for the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Author that same year. Memoir of a Living Disease, his non-fiction book, won a Margaret McWilliams Award. His work has been published in Arc, The Malahat Review, The New Quarterly, Prairie Fire and other magazines. He is one of the two Poetry Editors for CV2. He lives with his family in Winnipeg.
Colin Smith is the author of two books of poetry, 8x8x7 (Krupskaya, 2008) and Multiple Poses (Tsunami Editions, 1997). He works tirelessly for poetry on so many levels, mostly as a volunteer for a number of writing organizations in Winnipeg. Colin currently works for CV2 in the capacity of submissions honcho and general all around poetry wrangler.
Saturday, December 13/08 12-9pm
Manitoba Association of Playwrights Presents
The 12 Hours of Christmas Fundraiser
playwrights Bruce McManus, Armin Wiebe, Brian Richardson, Carolyn Gray, Ian Ross and more
Cost: $5
Over 30 Manitoba playwrights, actors and personalities present 12 hours of festive literary readings culminating in an ensemble reading of Charles Dickens' seasonal classic A Christmas Carol.
The event begins at Aqua Books at noon and finishes at Artspace at midnight, and includes a special message from Ian Ross as Joe from Winnipeg.
Help raise yuletide cheer and funds for MAP - A year round resource for Manitoba's emerging, existing, and award-winning playwrights
Saturday, December 6/08 2pm
Pemmican Press Launch
children's authors Linda Ducharme, Elaine Lariviere Chaput, Brenda Wastasecoot, and Bonnie Murray
Please join Aqua Books in welcoming four children's authors from Winnipeg's Pemmican Publications, Canada's only dedicated Métis press.
The readings by Ducharme and Lariviere Chaput will be suitable for preschool-aged children, while the readings by Wastasecoot and Murray are meant for elementary school-aged children.
 Author and illustrator Linda Ducharme was born in Saskatchewan and lives in St. Ambroise, Manitoba. Her first book for Pemmican, Pepere Played the Fiddle (2006), is a lively and warm account of a Métis house party in the 1940s. In 2007, Pemmican published her new illustrated work, The Bannock Book. When a young Metis girl helps her mother bake bannock for the family, they have to change the recipe for Pepere (grandfather), who is diabetic and can no longer eat the rich kind of bannock he once enjoyed.
 Author and illustrator Elaine Lariviere Chaput was born in Ste. Rose du Lac, Manitoba, as the ninth in a family of 11 children. She's worked happily with children for most of her life as a teacher's assistant and art instructor, and the connection continues now with her work in the Ste. Rose du Lac library. Elaine and her husband, Leo, have three grown children, three grandsons and one granddaughter. What Would You Do? is her first book.
 Brenda Wastasecoot is from a small community in Churchill, Manitoba that was known as The Flats. While her older siblings went away to residential school she was fortunate enough to be raised by two Cree-speaking parents. Brenda has worked mostly in the area of counseling and healing with Aboriginal communities, and since 2000 has been a professor at Brandon University in the First Nations and Aboriginal Counselling degree program. She is working currently on a doctorate in Adult Education and Community Development. Granny's Giant Bannock is Brenda's Pemmican debut.
 Bonnie Murray has lived in Winnipeg for most of her life and is married with two sons. When she looked for stories to share with her children she found a shortage of books reflecting her own Métis history and culture. Inspiration led her to create the Michif Children's Series – a set of illustrated books that not only celebrate Métis tradition in a modern context, through the experiences of a Métis youth named Thomas, but also present the English text simultaneously in Michif, the traditional language of the Metis. Thomas and the Métis Cart (Tumaas ekwa li Michif Sharey) is the fourth and final book in the series. When Bonnie is not sharing her stories with schools and the public during readings, she works as a Human Resource Consultant with the Province of Manitoba.
Friday, December 5/08 7pm
On The Same Page: Manitoba Reads!
In Search of April Raintree 25th Anniversary
April Raintree author Beatrice Culleton Mosionier, with writers Jennifer Storm and Rosanna Deerchild
On The Same Page: Manitoba Reads! is a mass reading project that invites readers of all ages to read a Manitoba authored book. The project is about encouraging a life long love of reading; celebrating books by Manitoba authors and encouraging Manitobans (and others) to participate in fun and interactive ways to celebrate a Manitoba book.
Beatrice Mosionier, whose novel In Search of April Raintree is celebrating its 25th anniversary, was unanimously selected for the first edition of On The Same Page.
Mosionier will be joined by Jennifer Storm, author of Deadly Loyalties, and poet Rosanna Deerchild, author of this is a small northern town.
 Beatrice Mosionier was born in St. Boniface, Manitoba. The youngest of four children, she grew up in foster homes. After a short time living in Toronto, where she attended college, she returned to Winnipeg. Following the death of two sisters to suicide, Beatrice decided to write In Search of April Raintree. First published in 1983, it has become a Canadian classic. Beatrice has also written several children's books, including Spirit of the White Bison, Christopher's Folly, and Unusual Friendships: A Little Black Cat and a Little White Rat. Her second novel, In the Shadow of Evil, was published in 2000. Beatrice is currently working on a memoir which draws the parallels between her own life and the life of April Raintree.
Jennifer Storm is an Ojibway from the Couchiching First Nation in Northwestern Ontario. Born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Jennifer completed Deadly Loyalties (Theytus Books, 2007), her first novel, at the age of 14. In 2006, Jennifer received the Manitoba Aboriginal Youth Achievement Award as well as the Helen Betty Osborne Award. Jennifer is completing her second year of Native Studies at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg.
Rosanna Deerchild is Cree from South Indian Lake, Manitoba. Her poetry has appeared in a number of literary magazines including Prairie Fire and CV2. She is the co-founder and remains a member of the Aboriginal Writers Collective, established in 1999. Rosanna currently works a broadcaster with NCI-FM and is a regular columnist with CBC. this is a small northern town, Deerchild's long-awaited full-length collection of poems, was published by The Muses' Company in fall 2008.
Thursday, December 4/08 7pm
Aqua Books Lansdowne Prize for Poetry Series
poets Dennis Cooley, John Toone and Jan Horner
In celebration of Manitoba's largest poetry prize, the Aqua Books Lansdowne, we present our new series of readings. Hosted in
conjunction with the Writer's Collective, the series features winners, nominees, and other
notable local poets.
 John Toone's first book of poetry, From Out of Nowhere, will be published by Turnstone Press in 2009. Two children's books that he wrote will be published in the U.S. by Bluewater Productions. John is the President of the Manitoba Writers' Guild, and father to two rambunctious kids.
 Jan Horner has published two books of poetry and a chapbook. Her first book of poems, Recent Mistakes, (Turnstone, 1988) won the McNally Robinson Manitoba Book of the Year Award. In 2001/2002 she was writer-in-residence at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario. Her latest book of poems, Mama Dada (or songs of the Baroness's dogs), will be coming out from Turnstone Press in spring 2009. She works as a librarian at the University of Manitoba, is a fan of English football, and is trying to learn German.
 Dennis Cooley, a native of Saskatchewan, has lived for many years in Winnipeg where he teaches, edits, and writes. His latest book is correction line (Thistledown, 2008).
Thursday, November 27/08 7pm
Aqua Books Lansdowne Prize for Poetry Series
2008 Prize Winner Alison Calder, plus special guests Sally Ito and Kerry Ryan
In celebration of Manitoba's largest poetry prize, the Aqua Books Lansdowne, we present our new series of readings. Hosted in
conjunction with the Writer's Collective, the series features winners, nominees, and other
notable local poets.
 Alison Calder is the author of one poetry collection, Wolf Tree (Coteau Books, 2007), for which she won the
2008 Aqua Books Lansdowne Prize for Poetry. Ghost Works, a chapbook that she co-authored with Jeanette Lynes, was launched by JackPine Press in December 2007. She teaches Canadian literature and creative writing at the University of Manitoba.
 Kerry Ryan lives and writes in a blue house in Winnipeg. Her poems have appeared in a number of journals and in the anthology Exposed, published by The Muses’ Company in 2003. The Sleeping Life is her first collection of poetry. She is an avid sleeper and a birdwatcher by association.
 Sally Ito's two books of poetry are Frogs in the Rain Barrel (Nightwood, 1995) and A Season of Mercy (Nightwood, 1999). She is also the author of an accomplished book of short fiction, Floating Shore, which came out from Mercury in 1998. Sally teaches English and creative writing at Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg.
Wednesday, November 19/08 7pm
Writer-in-Residence Reading
Michael Van Rooy, Aqua Books W-i-R September-December 2008
Michael will be reading from his work-in-progress, his most recent release, or really anything else he cares to share with us. (Have you seen the size of him? He can do whatever he likes.)
Michael Van Rooy writes for documentaries, magazines, newspapers, and the Internet, and has been short-listed for the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer. His first book, An Ordinary Decent Criminal, won the 2006 Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book by a Manitoba Writer, was a finalist for the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction and has been recently optioned by Big Mind Films to make a full-length feature film.
Recently Michael released his second novel in the Monty Haaviko series, Your Friendly Neighbourhood Criminal. He is currently writing the third instalment in the series (upstairs at 274 Garry Street).
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. Michael was born in Kamloops, BC, and grew up in Winnipeg, MB, where he lives with his wife and three children.
Thursday, November 13/08 7pm
Some Day Your Witch Will Come
Folklorist Kay Stone
Join us for a reading from Kay Stone's new book, Some Day Your Witch Will Come.
In this enjoyable volume, Kay Stone has selected writings from her scholarly articles and books spanning 1975–2004 that contain reflections on the value of fairy tales as adult literature.
The title Some Day Your Witch Will Come twists a Walt Disney lyric to challenge the typical fairy-tale framework and is a nod to Stone’s innovative and sometimes unconventional perspective. As a whole, this collection is a fascinating look at both the evolution of a career and the recent history of fairy-tale scholarship.
 As a trained folklorist and storyteller, Kay Stone writes about oral tales, traditional and non-traditional, as well as reworking traditional tales. She was born in Detroit, Michigan, grew up in Miami, Florida, and came of age as a performer/writer in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She's lived in Winnipeg since 1969. She has BA and MS degrees in cultural geography (BA from University of Miami, MS from Florida State U.) and a PhD in Folklore from Indiana University. She has taught folklore and mythology, folklore in literature, children's literature, and techniques of storytelling, in the English Department at the University of Winnipeg from 1971 until she retired in 1998. While most of her writing has been academic, she has also published several "original" folktales (a complicated topic).
Thursday, October 23/08 8pm
Coach House Launch
Margaret Christakos, Maurice Mierau
 Margaret Christakos is a poet and fiction
writer living in Toronto. She has published nine collections
of poetry and
one novel, and has been giving readings and
seminars from her work since 1989.
Themes include subjectivity, gender,
desire, technology, parenting and
autobiographical narrative strategies.
Maurice Mierau was born in Indiana and grew up in Nigeria, Manitoba, Jamaica, Kansas, and Saskatchewan. His first book of poems, Ending with Music, was a finalist for the Eileen McTavish Sykes Award, and his second, a non-fiction book called Memoir of a Living Disease, won the Margaret McWilliams Award from the Manitoba Historical Society. His new book, a poetry collection called Fear Not, is just out from Turnstone Press. Also a busy teacher and editor of both poetry and fiction, and the past president of the League of Canadian Poets, Maurice Mierau lives with his family in Winnipeg.
Tuesday, October 14/08 4pm
Winnipeg launch of Anything But Hank!
Zachariah Wells
What's in a name? Would a rose by any other name still smell as sweet? Is there really any special significance to a baby's name? Does a baby really need "a word, a quiet space / that he can call his own?" In Anything But Hank! Rachel Lebowitz and Zachariah Wells combine the whimsical humour of Lewis Carroll with the adventure-narrative balladeering of Robert Service to spin an unforgettable tale of a baby—and a pig!—in search of a name. Their quest takes them from the city to the mountains, as they seek an audience with the Wizard and his baby-naming Mexican beaded lizard. The story, accompanied by the gorgeously lush paintings of Eric Orchard, is a delight for readers of all ages.
 Eric Orchard is an illustrator living on the East coast of Canada. This is his second book.
Rachel Lebowitz is the author of Hannus, which was shortlisted for the BC Book Prize and for the Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction.
Zachariah Wells is the author of Unsettled, a collection of poems about his experiences in the Canadian Arctic. He and Rachel live in Vancouver, British Columbia. Anything But Hank! is their first book for children.
Wednesday, October 1/08 7pm
Nightowls and Newborns Western Tour
Ariel Gordon, Kerry Ryan
Kerry Ryan and Ariel Gordon launch their super-nifty fall poetry tour of Western Canada, right here in Winnipeg. Plus, Ariel's launching her limited-edition, hand-crafted, long-awaited chapbook, The Navel Gaze.
Kerry Ryan lives and writes in a blue house in Winnipeg. Her poems have appeared in a number of journals and in the anthology Exposed, published by The Muses’ Company in 2003. The Sleeping Life is her first collection of poetry. She is an avid sleeper and a birdwatcher by association.
Ariel Gordon is a Winnipeg-based writer and editor. Her poetry has recently appeared in PRISM International, The Fieldstone Review, and Prairie Fire. In addition to being Events Coordinator at Aqua Books, Ariel also contributes to the Winnipeg Free Press' Books Section and Prairie books NOW.
Thurs, Sept. 25 - Sat, Sept. 27/08 10:30pm-11:30pm/VKF
THIN AIR 2008 Winnipeg International Writers Festival
After Words Poetry Series
Paul Quarrington (Thu.), Shane Koyczan (Fri.), Winnipeg's Poetry Slam Team (Sat.)
 Paul Quarrington is the GG and Leacock-winning author of twenty books, and also the lead singer/guitarist with “northern blues” band Porkbelly Futures. We get to hear him on his own—he’s a self-deprecating and sharp-witted lyricist with a voice to match.
 Shane Koyczan was born in Yellowknife and grew up in Penticton, British Columbia. In 2000, he became the first Canadian to win the Individual Championship title at the National Poetry Slam.
Together with Mighty Mike McGee and C. R. Avery, he is the co-founder of spoken word, "talk rock" trio, Tons of Fun University (T.O.F.U.).
Shane Koyczan’s We Are More and Ivan Bielinski’s La première fois, commissioned by the Canadian Tourism Commission were unveiled at Canada Day festivities on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on July 1st, 2007.
The poetry slams have winnowed away the playing field over the last months, and this year's Poetry Slam Team
is in place — and they're good. Paul Friesen, Bonnie Holmes, Leif Norman, T'ai Pu, and Andrea von Wichert will show
you what they're taking to the National Spoken Word Festival in Calgary this fall.
For
more info, go to the official THIN AIR 2008 site.
Saturday, September 27/08 4-5:30pm/VKF
THIN AIR 2008 Winnipeg International Writers Festival
A Pint of Bitter Murder
Michael Van Rooy, Phyllis Smallman
Michael Van Rooy writes for documentaries, magazines, newspapers, and the Internet, and has been short-listed for the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer. His first book, An Ordinary Decent Criminal, won the 2006 Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book by a Manitoba Writer, was a finalist for the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction and has been recently optioned by Big Mind Films to make a full-length feature film.
Recently Michael released his second novel in the Monty Haaviko series, Your Friendly Neighbourhood Criminal. He is currently working on a third instalment in the series.
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. Michael was born in Kamloops, BC, and grew up in Winnipeg, MB, where he lives with his wife and three children.
 Phyllis Smallman’s love of books led to various library jobs after which she became a production potter who dreamed of being a writer. Her debut mystery, Margarita Nights (McArthur and Company), was shortlisted for the British Debut Dagger Award for the Best First Novel, and won Canada’s Unhanged Arthur Award for Best Unpublished Crime Novel. Lindor Reynolds recently gave it a glowing review in the Winnipeg Free Press, commenting on “the snappy dialogue, rapid pacing and characters you’d hope to meet in a beach bar.” Depending on the time of year, Smallman can be found on Salt Spring Island BC, Hamilton ON, or on a beach in Southwest Florida.
For
more info, go to the official THIN AIR 2008 site.
Sunday, September 14/08 2pm
2008 Sheldon Oberman Emerging Writers Mentor Program Reading
Manitoba Writers' Guild apprentices
Thursday, August 7/08 7:00pm
Spell it Out! Summer Writing Camp for Youth final reading
Manitoba Writers' Guild students
Thursday, June 19/08 7:30pm
Winnipeg Launch of Jailbreaks: 99 Sonnets
Zachariah Wells, George Amabile
Editor Zachariah Wells and Winnipeg contributor George Amabile will read poems from Jailbreaks and sign books afterwards.
 In 1910 Lawrence J. Burpee published an anthology of 100 Canadian Sonnets. Poet and critic Zachariah Wells figured it was high time for an update on that dusty tome. In Jailbreaks, Wells has gathered 99 of his favourite sonnets written by Canadians, from the 19th century to the present day. Jailbreaks does much to question the standard assumption that the best Canadian poetry is written in free verse, while showcasing the enormous versatility of the sonnet and of the poets who use it as a vessel for their thoughts and feelings. It just might change the way we think about Canadian poetry.
Jailbreaks: 99 Canadian Sonnets includes poems by:
Milton Acorn, Margaret Avison, Ken Babstock, Elizabeth Bachinsky, Tim Bowling, George Elliott Clarke, Fred Cogswell, Leonard Cohen, Don Coles, Mary Dalton, Ralph Gustafson, Steven Heighton, Daryl Hine, George Johnston, A.M. Klein, Archibald Lampman, Irving Layton, Malcolm Lowry, Gwendolyn MacEwen, Don McKay, John Newlove, Alden Nowlan, George Murray, Eric Ormsby, Richard Outram, Molly Peacock, E.J. Pratt, Steven Price, Stuart Ross, Robyn Sarah, Goran Simic', Karen Solie, Raymond Souster, Carmine Starnino, Peter Van Toorn, Phyllis Webb, and many others.
 George Amabile's work has appeared in numerous periodicals, journals and anthologies in Canada, the USA, the UK, Europe, South America, Australia and New Zealand. He has edited two poetry magazines, published eight books and won half a dozen national and international prizes. His most recent book is Tasting the Dark: New and Selected Poems (The Muses' Company 2001).
 Zachariah Wells is the Reviews Editor for Canadian Notes and Queries and the author of Unsettled, a collection of poetry about Canada's Eastern Arctic, and Anything But Hank!, a verse story for children, co-written with Rachel Lebowitz and illustrated by Eric Orchard. Wells was born and raised on Prince Edward Island and has since lived in many parts of Canada, working in a variety of occupations in the transportation sector and as a freelance writer. He is also, sometimes, a sonneteer.
Wednesday, June 18/08 7:30pm
Inaugural Writer-in-Residence Reception and Reading
Anita Daher, Aqua Books Writer in Residence May-August 2008
 Award-winning young adult writer Anita Daher was Aqua Books' inaugural writer-in-residence. Anita wrote,
reviewed manuscripts, taught and spread joy for four glorious months this summer. A truly delightful person.
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 has 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.
There is a nice interview with Anita on our Articles page (7.19.08).
Thursday, May 15/08 7pm
Winnipeg's Italian-Canadian Poets
Saveria Torquato, Carmine Coppola, and Carmelo Militano
Aqua Books and the League of Canadian Poets present an evening of poetry reading in English and Italian.
 Saveria Torquato has taught Italian at the University of Manitoba for the past 7 years. She is also a literary translator (having translated all of Carmine Coppola's works) and in 2006, she won the special jury prize for her translation of the poem, "La mia sera" by Giovanni Pascoli, a 19th century Italian poet, in the Settimana Italiana National Literary Competition sponsored by the Italian Embassy in Ottawa.
 Carmine Coppola was born in Pompeii, Italy and has resided in Winnipeg since 1991. He is a poet, writer and an Instructor of Italian at the University of Manitoba as well as the producer/announcer of Radio Italian on CKJS Radio in Winnipeg. His works include Poesie per Giulia (Poems for Julia) (MIHC, 1996) and Il tempo e le sue cose (The Many Facets of Time) (MIHC, 1998). He has won several international literary prizes, among them the Rocca di Montemurlo International Literary Prize, the Eugenio Montale Literary Prize for Poetry from Genoa, Italy and, most recently, the Arden Borghi Santucci Literary Prize.
 Carmelo Militano is a Winnipeg poet and writer who born in the village of Cosoleto in the province of Reggio di Calabaria, Italy. His latest book, The Fate of Olives, was short-listed for the Eileen McTavish Sykes Award in 2007. In 2004, his first collection of poems, Ariadne's Thread, won the F.G. Bressani award for poetry.
Thursday, May 1/08 7:30pm
Rue the Day book launch
Tanis MacDonald
 In her third collection, Tanis MacDonald - Canada’s premier poet of bibliophilic chaos - digs into concepts of time and consciousness to scrutinize “what plagues us/what snaps our heads to/rights and won’t let us look/at look over look alive.”
Rue the Day is a tale told by a Fury’s apprentice: part elegy, part argument about knowledge, and part conversation about contemporary femininity, shuttling between the frame of form and the long declarative line in the tradition of Jay Macpherson and Elizabeth Smart.
Thursday, April 24/08 7pm
The Voice Behind the Mask
Audrey Guiboche, M.D. Meyer, Desirée Gillespie, and students from the Helen Betty Osborne Ininiw Education Resource Centre in Norway House
 Students from the Helen Betty Osborne Ininiw Education Resource Centre in Norway House join their voices with other Aboriginal authors in an evening of readings at the new Aqua Books.
The students will be launching The Voice Behind the Mask, a collection of poems, tributes, fantasy, facts and fun co-edited by teacher Audrey Guiboche and Manitoba author M. D. Meyer.
Originally from the Interlake region of Manitoba, Metis author Desirée Gillespie will also read from her new book A Journey through the Circle of Life.
Come out and enjoy the rich variety of styles and genres reflected in the unique talents of these Manitoba authors!
Wednesday, April 23/08 7pm
Just the Facts M’am…
Mike McIntyre, Alison Preston, Michael Van Rooy
Mike McIntyre, author of To the Grave: Inside
a Spectacular RCMP Sting (Great Plains Publications),
Alison Preston, author of Sunny Dreams
(Signature Editions), and Michael Van Rooy,
author of An Ordinary Decent Criminal (Turnstone Press)
will be on hand to give you details on the serious business of researching for accuracy. Mystery, Crime Fiction or True Crime, the story is in the details.
Monday, April 21/08 7:30pm
Aqua Books Lansdowne Prize for Poetry / prix Lansdowne de poésie Nominees
Charles LeBlanc, Alison Calder, Christian Violy
Aqua Books will celebrate the inaugural Aqua Books Lansdowne Prize for Poetry / prix Lansdowne de poésie with readings in both official languages. Aqua Books is very excited to be the
sponsor of Manitoba's biggest poetry prize, which will be given out at the Manitoba Book Awards on April 26. EAT! bistro will be providing nourriture.
 Né à Montréal où il a grandi, Charles Leblanc a passé plus de la moitié de sa vie à Winnipeg. La traduction lui permet de manger, le théâtre et la poésie lui permettent de vivre. Il a co-publié un récit, Voyages en papier, et publié six recueils de poèmes aux Éditions du Blé, dont l'appétit du compteur, qui a remporté le Prix littéraire Rue-Deschambault en 2005, et le tout dernier, heures d'ouverture (2007).
Alison Calder was born in London, England, grew up in Saskatoon, and lived in London, Ontario and Vancouver before moving to Winnipeg. She has edited several scholarly collections, including an edition of Tim Lilburn's poetry, and a poetry chapbook that she co-authored with Jeanette Lynes. Her first poetry book, Wolf Tree, is a finalist for the Gerald Lampert Award for best first poetry book by a Canadian, and for the Pat Lowther Award for best poetry book by a Canadian woman. She teaches Canadian literature and creative writing at the University of Manitoba.
 Poète Christian Violy a fait ses études à l'Université Laval (Québec), où il a obtenu un baccalauréat en littérature d'expression française en 1996 et une maîtrise en littérature québécoise en 1999. Il a remporté l'un des Grands Prix des saisons littéraires (catégorie essai) par Guérin éditeur en 1996 pour une œuvre intitulée Du rire à l'enchantement – d'après l'œuvre de Francis Jammes. Il est également l'auteur de Les silences immobiles (2000), Avant la chute (2002) et Exaucée (2007), recueils de poésie publiés au Éditions des Plaines.
Sunday, April 20/08 2pm
A/Cross Sections: New Manitoba Writing
Manitoba Book Week Book Bash at Aqua Books
Kate Bitney, Martha Brooks, Lori Cayer, Clarise Foster, Catherine Hunter, Sarah Klassen, George Amabile, Talia Pura
Hosted by Chandra Mayor
 To celebrate its silver anniversary, the Manitoba Writers’ Guild recently released A/Cross Sections: New Manitoba Writing, edited by founding members Andris Taskans and Kate Bitney.
This event spotlights readings in a new and surprising way. There's even food, bevvies, and prizes. Who could say no to that?
Thursday Jan 24/08 7:30pm 89 Princess St
Aqua Books Lansdowne Prize Celebratory Readings
- Members of the Manitoba Poetry Endowment Fund Initiative
Sharon Caseburg is a poet, critical writer, and editor. She is co-founder of the Aqua Books Lansdowne Prize for Poetry. Her work has appeared in several Canadian literary journals, including Room of One’s Own, Prairie Fire, and The Antigonish Review.
Winnipeg poet Lori Cayer's first collection of poetry Stealing Mercury was published by The Muses Company in 2004. She was the recipient of The Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book in 2004 and The John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer in 2005. Lori is currently co-editor of poetry for the literary journal CV2 and is the Manitoba Representative for the League of Canadian Poets. She is co-founder of the Aqua Books Lansdowne Prize for Poetry. By day Lori works as an Editorial Assistant for a National Research Council Scientific Journal. She is presently compiling her second poetry manuscript.
Karen Clavelle is a literary writer, poet, and publisher (Atelier 78), who looks forward to spending part of the summer looking for poems from the back of a big black motorcycle. In addition to writing motorcycle poems, she has written long poems, several series of shorter poems, and several chapbooks (pachyderm press), as well as critical articles on prairie writers. With Atelier 78, she produced and published Three Days in Spain (2005), a small anthology of international writers' work. She is also the producer of The Archaeology of Water (2004), a print project that brings together five prairie poets and two print-makers. Besides teaching at the University of Manitoba, Karen is nearing completion of a large archival project, working on a collection of miscellaneous poems, and producing hand-made books. She is honoured to have been a member of the steering committee for the Lansdowne Poetry Prize.
Clarise Foster is the Managing Editor of CV2, one of Canada's premier poetry quarterlies and the author of two collections of poetry, Flame Tree and most recently The Way Boys Sometimes Are and Other Poems.
Ariel Gordon is a writer and editor. This past fall, Ariel was the blogger-in-chief of HOT AIR, the official blog of THIN AIR, Winnipeg International Writers Festival. Her poetry has recently appeared in Canadian magazines and anthologies and circulated on buses in both Manitoba and Alberta. She is also a regular contributor to the Winnipeg Free Press' Books Section.
Bev Greenberg is a regular contributor to the book pages of the Winnipeg Free Press and Prairie Fire. Her poetry has appeared in Diviners, Inversions: The Female Grotesque, Outreach Connections, Poetry in Motion and Visual Poetry II. She recently completed a novel manuscript about an immigrant family in crisis during the late 1960's.
Chandra Mayor is the award-winning author of three books, August Witch: poems, Cherry (a novel), and All the Pretty Girls, a collection of short stories to be released this March. She was the 2006/07 Writer in Residence at the Winnipeg public library, and is the Poetry Co-Editor for Prairie Fire Magazine.
Maurice Mierau's second book of poems, Where to Find Help When..., will appear with Turnstone in the fall. Maurice recently became associate editor for a new Winnipeg-based fiction imprint, Enfield & Winzenty. He is the president of the League of Canadian Poets.
An editor, writer, teacher and activist, Deborah Schnitzer is most recently circulating in the long poem lovinggertrudestein Loving Gertrude and the novel gertrude unmanageable. She is a professor in the Department of English at the University of Winnipeg.
Tuesday Nov 13/07 7:00pm 89 Princess St
NeWest/Snare Book Tour
- Ryan Fitzpatrick, Natalie Zina Walschots, and William Neil Scott
 Born and raised in Calgary, Ryan Fitzpatrick is a founding editor of (orange) magazine and a past editor and board member of filling Station magazine. His poetry has been published across Canada, most notably the anthologies Post-Prairie (2005, Talonbooks, Eds. Robert Kroetsch and Jon Paul Fiorentino) and Shift and Switch: New Canadian Poetry (2005, Mercury Press, Eds. derek beaulieu, Jason Christie, and a. rawlings). FAKE MATH is his first full-length collection of poems.
 Natalie Zina Walschots just finished her MA in Creative Writing at the University of Calgary. Her first book, Thumbscrews, has just been published by Snare Books (Fall 2007). She is the current Managing Editor of filling Station and former Editor of dANDelion. She is also the co-organizer of the flywheel reading series. Her work has appeared in The Capilano Review, FOURSQUARE, and Matrix. Sections of Thumbscrews have appeared as the No Press chapbooks Passion Play and Christening. She lives in Calgary with her husband, who is a Systems Analyst and a very good sport.
 William Neil Scott was born in
Aberdeen, Scotland, but has spent the majority of his life
in Calgary, Alberta. Scott completed a BA Honours Degree
in English with a Concentration in Creative Writing, at the
University of Calgary. Wonderfull is his first novel.
Wednesday July 11/07 7:00pm 89 Princess St
Prairie Writers Vol.3 Readings
- Dorene Meyer, editor
 Dorene Meyer teaches writing in Winnipeg, Manitoba and is the award-winning author of Colin’s Choice and Get Lost! and the editor of the Prairie Writers anthologies. Her many other writing credits include editorial, reviews, news, feature articles, profiles, script-writing and poetry. Using this wide variety of writing experience, Ms. Meyer teaches classes that provide encouragement and practical help to writers of all genres. Dorene has recently announced her move to Norway House, MB, where she hopes to continue writing and teaching.
Monday April 16/07 7:30pm 89 Princess St
Prairie Writers Vol.2 Book Launch
Dorene Meyer, editor
 Dorene Meyer teaches writing in Winnipeg, Manitoba and is the award-winning author of Colin’s Choice and Get Lost! and the editor of the Prairie Writers anthologies. Her many other writing credits include editorial, reviews, news, feature articles, profiles, script-writing and poetry. Using this wide variety of writing experience, Ms. Meyer teaches classes that provide encouragement and practical help to writers of all genres. Dorene has recently announced her move to Norway House, MB, where she hopes to continue writing and teaching.
Thursday, January 25/07 7:30pm 89 Princess St
Prairie Writers Vol.1 Book Launch
Dorene Meyer, editor
 Dorene Meyer teaches writing in Winnipeg, Manitoba and is the award-winning author of Colin’s Choice and Get Lost! and the editor of the Prairie Writers anthologies. Her many other writing credits include editorial, reviews, news, feature articles, profiles, script-writing and poetry. Using this wide variety of writing experience, Ms. Meyer teaches classes that provide encouragement and practical help to writers of all genres. Dorene has recently announced her move to Norway House, MB, where she hopes to continue writing and teaching.
Wednesday, November 29/06 7:30pm 89 Princess St
Children's authors Helen Toews and Dorene Meyer
 Helen Toews is a Winnipeg author and artist who is also a past president of Rhythmic Gymnastics Manitoba. As an artist she designed two of the posters for the 1999 Pam Am Games, and you can see her Bear on Broadway, off-Broadway at River and Osborne. Helen’s first book Supernatural Childbirth was co-authored with her friend, Gisele Fontaine, and her solo kids' book, Emma's Corner, is hot off the press.
 Dorene Meyer teaches writing in Winnipeg, Manitoba and is the award-winning author of Colin’s Choice and Get Lost! and the editor of the Prairie Writers anthologies. Her many other writing credits include editorial, reviews, news, feature articles, profiles, script-writing and poetry. Using this wide variety of writing experience, Ms. Meyer teaches classes that provide encouragement and practical help to writers of all genres. Dorene has recently announced her move to Norway House, MB, where she hopes to continue writing and teaching.
Tuesday, November 21/06 7:30pm 89 Princess St
Poets rob mclennan, Karen Clavelle, Ariel Gordon
 rob mclennan lives in Ottawa, even though he was born there. The author of a dozen trade collections of poetry, his most recent are named anerrant (Stride UK, 2006) and aubade (Broken Jaw Press, 2006). A collection of literary essays is due to appear in fall 2007 with ECW Press, and he is currently putting the finishing touches on There Is No Mountain: Andrew Suknaski New & Selected Poems for Chaudiere Books, a new publishing house he has co-founded in Ottawa. He often posts reviews and rants at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com.
Photo by Christina Riley
Karen Clavelle is a writer, poet, and publisher (Atelier 78), who dreams of summer rides in prairie sun, wind, rain, grasshoppers and honey bees, from Manitoba to Montana, on the back of a big black motorcycle. In addition to writing critical articles on prairie writers and a monograph on Dennis Cooley, she has written two long poems and several chapbooks (pachyderm press). Producer and publisher of Three Days in Spain (a small anthology of international writer's work), and The Archaeology of Water(2004) (a collaborative print project), Karen recently completed her PhD dissertation on the garden in prairie literature at the University of Manitoba, where she teaches Prairie and English Literature. In addition, she is sifting through a collection of Mother Goose letters found in a tin box retrieved from an old granary; collaborating on a blind print project with print-maker Gordon Trick; and occasionally producing hand-made books. A new chapbook of her poetry is perpetually forthcoming with above/ground press.
 Ariel Gordon is a Winnipeg-based poet and editor. Recent projects include a collaboration with new music composer David Raphael Scott called Tranquility and Order that had its premiere simultaneously in Westminster United Church as a part of WSO's 2006 New Music Festival and via the airwaves as part of CBC Radio's Two New Hours. Palimpsest Press will publish a chapbook of Ariel's poetry in 2007.
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