See Peter Norman read at Calgary Blow-Out, September 14 to 15

Peter Norman arrived in Calgary in August 2005, moving from Ottawa with his wife Melanie Little and their cat, Catso. Little was starting her stint as the 2005-06 Markin-Flanagan writer-in-residence, and her writer husband was along for the ride. Upon their arrival, they immediately sought out literary events to get them acquainted with the local community, and they ran across something called the Calgary Blow-Out!
    “The first Blow-Out! was at The New Gallery,” Norman recalls, “and that was my first taste of the hardcore appreciativeness of Calgary audiences. When a writer was called up to the stage, it was like the star Stampede bull-rider had just been announced over the PA — people went crazy.”
    The Calgary Blow-Out!, run by filling Station magazine, is a festival dedicated entirely to Calgary writers. “You see a real variety of writers at the Blow-Out!,” says Norman. “I’ve seen experimental poets, prose writers, slam poets, and it seems really open to writers at the beginning stages of their careers. Writers who just have a couple chapbooks, who are still finishing school — it’s a ground-level, accessible event that also features some superstars.”
    Two years after his arrival in Calgary, Norman is the associate editor of Alberta Views magazine and well-entrenched in the local writing community. At this year’s Blow-Out!, he makes the transition from heckler to performer, and you can catch him on Saturday night. The Calgary Blow-Out! runs September 14 to 15, and all three events are at the Carpenters’ Union Hall (310 10 St. N.W.), and free:
    • September 14, 7 p.m.: Natalie Simpson hosts, with readings by Brea Burton, Emily Elder, Jani Krulc, Helen Hajnoczky, Mark Hopkins, Robert Majzels, Shane Rhodes and Jaspreet Singh. Music by the Lonely Hunters.
    • September 15, 1 p.m.: ryan Fitzpatrick hosts, with readings by Weyman Chan, Chris Ewart, Ian Kinney, Kevin McPherson-Eckhoff and Ross Priddle. Music by Heather Blush.
    • September 15, 7 p.m.: derek beaulieu hosts, with readings by Emily Carr, Laurie Fuhr, Aaron Giovannone, Bronwyn Haslam, Peter Norman, Sina Queyras and William Neil Scott and a film by Garth Whelan.
    Wouldn’t it explain a lot if the characters in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice were autistic? That’s Phyllis Ferguson Bottomer’s theory, which she lays out in So Odd a Mixture: Along the Autistic Spectrum in Pride and Prejudice. She shares her thoughts at McNally Robinson on September 13, 7 p.m.
    William Roy Brownridge is the son of a station agent, and grew up on the tracks. As the prairie railway began to disappear, Brownridge set out to preserve this piece of Canadian history in oil paintings. In Tracking the Iron Horse, he reveals his artwork and a series of interviews with CNR and CPR workers from the past century. He presents his work at McNally Robinson on September 18, noon.
    When two well-planned murders in Toronto and Edmonton have the local police departments stumped, Detectives Collins and Thorpe team up on an international trail of death and destruction. Randall Sawka reads from Rough Business at McNally Robinson on September 19, noon.
    Fernando Spina was born in Italy, but now the sculptor splits his time between Alberta and the Arctic. He collects his work in a new book, Arctic Notes & Prairie Places, a combination of verse and abstract visual art. Join him at McNally Robinson on September 20, noon.
    Susan Scott has travelled across Canada to interview over 60 homeless women. Their stories illustrate not only their personal histories but systemic social problems across the country. All Our Sisters is full of addiction, violence, gentrification and social criticism — an honest look at the conditions of Canada’s homeless women. Find out more at McNally Robinson on September 20, 7 p.m.
    The Single Onion Poetry Series returns for its fall season with a special Bring Your Own Chair event. With readings by Nancy Holmes, Josh Smith and freshly-peeled Onion Scott Alderson, alongside music by Laurie Fuhr, it promises to be a memorable evening of poetic lunacy. (And, for serious, bring your own chair.) The action starts at the Dean Stanton Studio (#102-1215 13 Street S.E.) on September 20, 7 p.m.
    He’s won two Giller Prizes, and now M.G. Vassanji comes to Calgary with The Assassin’s Song. The book’s protagonist, Karsan Dargawalla, is destined to be the next guardian of the Shrines of the Wanderer, but he wants a different life. He leaves India to study at Harvard, then becomes a professor in British Columbia. When tragedy strikes 30 years later, he is drawn back to the life he abandoned. Vassanji reads from his new work at Pages on September 20, 7:30 p.m.