| As the strife-plagued Caribbean country of Haiti prepares to vote for a new government this fall, Yves Engler and Anthony Fenton come to Calgary to present their new book, Canada in Haiti – Waging War on the Poor Majority. The work discusses the role that Canadian companies and mining interests play in the country’s economy, and the Canadian International Development Agency’s aim in creating policies in the Haitian government to promote Canadian business interests. Engler and Fenton are joined by filmmaker Kevin Pina, who’ll be showing excerpts from his new documentary, Haiti: The Untold Story. The event is on Friday, October 14 at 7:30 p.m. at the Carpenters’ Hall in Kensington.
Douglas Victor Janoff is also coming to town to promote his new book, Pink Blood: Homophobic Violence in Canada. Janoff, who works as a policy manager for the federal government, spent 10 years researching the litany of homicides and gay-bashings that make up this book. He’ll be at McNally Robinson on Saturday, October 15 at 3 p.m. More details are available at www.pinkblood.ca.
The Oolong Tea House in Kensington introduces Calgary to three foreign talents on Sunday, October 16 at 7:30 p.m. Shady Cosgrove, a creative writing professor and journalist from Australia, here on exchange, will be presenting her new novel, The Golden Courtesan, another book that, like Wide Sargasso Sea, answers back to Jane Eyre – this time telling Charlotte Brontë’s story through the eyes of Rochester’s mistress, Celine Varens. Robyn Read and Caleb Zimmerman will be along to give their first public readings since recently entering the University of Calgary’s creative writing program.
Pages is hosting two events this week, the first at the Hillhurst United Church on Monday, October 17 at 7:30 p.m., with Governor General’s Award-winning author and Calgary native Karen Connelly reading from her new novel, The Lizard Cage, about a Burmese prisoner and the effects he has on the others around him. The next night, Tuesday, October 18 at 7:30 p.m., Pages is back at the bookstore with Barbara Sapergia reading from her new novel, Dry, and Terrence Heath from his new work, Casualties.
On the spoken word poetry scene, Vancouver’s Brendan McLeod, winner of the 2004 Canadian Spoken Wordlympics, and member of spoken word collective The Fugitives, heads a lineup of poets at Soda (211 - 12 Ave. S.W.) on Monday, October 17at 8 p.m. Joining the poets will be musicians Smithjosh, Jaimie Carrick and members of the Russian Artists Factory. A portion of the night’s proceeds will go to the Kids Cancer Care Foundation.
Another poet, former Calgarian (and now Californian) Zaid Shlah, visits Annie’s Book Company on Tuesday, October 18 at 7 p.m. to read from his first full-length book of poetry, Taqsim. The long poem, drawing from rich Iraqi and Arabic poetic traditions, is said to be political, sensual and poetical, and has been featured on CBC Radio’s Alberta Anthology.
Local publisher Brindle & Glass is finding great success with Max Foran’s The Madonna List. The novel, which recently topped the Edmonton Journal’s bestseller list, is being compared to The Da Vinci Code (although it seems everything in the historical vein is being compared to that book right now). The Madonna List follows two men during the 19th century, each of whom has had contact with women visited by the Virgin Mary. To hear what all the buzz is about, catch Foran at McNally Robinson on Thursday October 20 at 7:30 p.m. He’s accompanied by Gayleen Froese with her debut novel, Touch, a thriller about a woman with a Dead Zone-like ability to see the past. |
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