Book Launch with Puppets, Cake: Bruce Rice and Barbara Kahan

Bruce Rice with book-like birthday cake, 
celebrating the launch of 
Dorothy McMoogle. © SB 

Regina poet Bruce Rice launched his latest with a birthday cake earlier this month, complete with puppet show fixings on the side.

Bruce's new book, Dorothy McMoogle with Kumquat and Bugle, is aimed at a slightly younger audience than his other four collections of poetry... This one is a story in rhyme aimed at those aged four to nine.

Artist Wendy Winter and Kaira Barabanoff Lund (the model for Winter's drawings of Dorothy) were on hand to share in the readings.

The event also featured a second picture book, Goldeneye and Funnyfin and a puppet show starring those two fish, produced by staff at Regina's Connaught Library where the launch was held.

Both books are published by Barbara Kahan's Wild Sage Press.

Artist Wendy Winter, Dorothy model Kaira Barabanoff Lund, and poet Bruce Rice,
in front of the Goldeneye and Funnyfin puppet show backdrop. © SB 

Wendy Winter holds up an illustration of Dorothy McGoogle, while Kaira looks on.
(Yes, I can see the resemblance!)  © SB 

~~~~~

Regina's Giller Light Bash with Gail Bowen

Earlier this week, Regina mystery writer Gail Bowen read an excerpt from her latest novel, The Gifted, at the Giller Light Bash, held at the Artesian to celebrate the 2013 Giller Prize (won by Lynn Coady for her short story collection Hellgoing).

Regina writer Gail Bowen reads from The Gifted. 

The Regina event, held November 5, 2013, was a fundraiser for the literacy organization Frontier College. And The Gifted is the 14th novel in Bowen's Joanne Kilbourn mystery series, a tale of art, infidelity, addiction, independence and manipulation...

Gail Bowen is also the current (2013-14) Writer in Residence at the Regina Public Library.

~~~~~

Congrats to the Fiction Winners of the 2013 John V. Hicks Award!

2013 John V. Hick Manuscript Award winner
Linda Biasotto  © SB

Three great fiction writers — Linda Biasotto, Lisa Guenther and Marlis Wesseler — were honoured this weekend as winners of the 2013 Saskatchewan Writers' Guild's John V. Hicks Manuscript Awards.

(Past Hicks Awards have also honoured writers of poetry, memoir, drama and literary non-fiction.)

Jurors Christine Pountney and Trevor Cole awarded Regina's Linda Biasotto first place with her short story collection, Sweet Life, in recognition of what Pountney calls her "shining talent." Among the jurors' comments on Linda's manuscript:

• Rare and startling (CP);
• Flashes of brilliance (TC); 
• A writer who can thoroughly perform the magic of fiction (CP); 
• A deep empathy for marginalized characters (TC); 
• The writing possesses the same anarchic energy and randomness of real events, and is at once perceptive and wise (CP); 
• Stories that are surprising and illuminating on the level of the sentence, rich in images, and capable of offering compassionate insight into human psychology (CP). 

Linda Biasotto's collection, Sweet Life, has already been picked up by Coteau Books, and is slated for publication in Spring 2014. (Yeah, Linda!!!)

Lisa Guenther of the Turtle Lake area was selected for second place with her manuscript, Friendly Fire, and among the comments offered were the following: 

• Intelligent, insightful work, providing a vivid description and realistic depiction of a small, rural community (TC); 
• Steeped in the culture and geography of rural Saskatchewan, this novel impressed us with how well the story is sustain, with a consistency and believability that novels require (CP). 

And Marlis Wesseler, a Regina writer with four published books (Life and Skills, Imitating Art, Elvis Unplugged and South of the Border), in addition to short stories and plays, was selected in third place for the manuscript of her novel, Pleasant Manor, which is set in a seniors' home. 

• A well-told story with scenes that feel true to the experience and mindset of the elderly residents of a nursing home (TC);
• We found the setting of this novel to be ... compelling (CP); 
• It provides great insights into the vulnerability and the feeling of powerlessness these residents must endure, and also to the complacency that ultimately envelops powerless people (TC).    

Congrats to all three talented Saskatchewan writers — Linda Biasotto, Lisa Guenther, and Marlis Wesseler! 

Lisa Guenther (centre) with Saskatchewan Writers Guild
Executive Director Judith Silverthorne (left) and Lisa Bird-Wilson (right) 
(just out of range, far right, SWG photographer, Danica Lorer...)  © SB

Marliss Wesseler (centre) with Saskatchewan Writers Guild
Executive Director Judith Silverthorne (left) and Lisa Bird-Wilson (right) © SB

~~~~~

Saskatchewan Writers' Guild 2013 Fall Conference

Poets, novelists, playwrights, editors, creative non-fiction writers, spoken word performers, storytellers and more turned out for the Saskatchewan Writers' Guild 2013 Fall Conference on the weekend.

This composite photo features some of the great authors from Saskatchewan and across Canada who took to the microphone to present their work, introduce guests, and talk about writing during the three-day event in Regina.

A few of the many writers at the Saskatchewan Writers' Guild's 2013 Fall Conference. © SB 

The left column features (top to bottom) the following writers:

• Former Saskatchewan Poet Laureate Louise Halfe, Chris Fisher, Kelly-Anne Riess, Ken Mitchell (also the founding editor of Grain, 40 years ago), and Allison Kydd. 

The right column features:

• Regina writers Katherine Lawrence, Bruce Rice, Anne McDonald, and B.D. Miller, with Sarah Taggart, (current manager of Grain). 

And, just to confuse any linear thinkers, the writers (left to right) down the middle four lines are:

1. Linda Biasotto, Lisa Guenther and Marlis Wesseler (winners in this year's John V. Hicks Writing Awards); 
2. Visiting guest presenters Richard Van Camp, Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm and Tim Wynne-Jones; 
3. Byrna Barclay of the Saskatchewan Arts Board, and Linda receiving her first place award (with SWG executive director Judith Silverthorne and now-former-president Lisa Bird Wilson); 
4. Mitch Spray and Gerald Hill, and Andréa Ledding.  

~~~~~

Joanne Weber: The Deaf House - The Regina Launch

Joanne Weber signs copies of The Deaf House.

The launch of Joanne Weber's new book, The Deaf House (Thistledown Press), in Regina, Saskatchewan, this week was a bilingual, bi-cultural experience, with presenters speaking in both English and American Sign Language to an audience of both deaf and hearing readers and supporters.

The Deaf House is Joanne's life story, a creative memoir billed as a "fable of a heroic quest where a woman overcomes the most profound obstacles to find herself."

The sections she read Wednesday at The Artful Dodger revealed an engaging story of work, passions, friendships, family and identity.

The book and Joanne were introduced by Regina artist (puppeteer, film-maker, designer, and more) Chrystene Ells.

Presentations were simultaneously translated to ALS or English (depending which language was being used at the podium) by ASL/English instructor Karen Nurkowski.

Congrats, Joanne!

For more on The Deaf House, see Thistledown Press.

Joanne Weber, dramatizing the challenge of determining how to communicate
with a deaf student who had no language - neither ASL nor any verbal form.

Joanne Weber

Karen Nurkowski

Chrystene Ells

~~~~~