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DTSTART;TZID=America/Edmonton:20251016T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Edmonton:20251016T133000
DTSTAMP:20260420T050520
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SUMMARY:Online Feature: The Silence of Falling Snow with Kristjana Gunnars
DESCRIPTION:Tickets: $5 (student/low income)\, $15 (regular)\, Available HERE (Use promo code “LITFEST2025” to access student rate) \n  \nOnline event featuring Kristjana Gunnars in conversation with University of Alberta’s 2025-26 Writer in Residence\, Cody Caetano\, to discuss her memoir\, The Silence of Falling Snow. \n  \nFrom an innovator of autofiction comes a meditation on grief\, care\, Buddhism\, and artmaking.  \n‘This is a story. It is a story about someone accompanying another to the last gate.’ \nYears ago\, Kristjana Gunnars took her husband back to his home in Oslo to die. Through the dark\, cold days\, she tends to his needs as she feels her own self disintegrating. Later\, as she looks back to this slow departure of the man she loved\, she weaves together threads from her own life\, reflections on the thoughts of Gautama Buddha\, discussions of Renaissance art\, and considerations of contemporary artists. \nEngaging with thinkers as varied as Ingmar Bergman and Jacques Derrida\, Henry David Thoreau\, and Ursula K. Le Guin\, Gunnars — one of the earliest practitioners of “autofiction” — crafts a new kind of hybrid text\, with elements of memoir\, lyrical essay\, Buddhist teachings\, poetics\, art theory\, and meditation. \nThe Silence of Falling Snow is a deep dive into grief\, the way we circle around it\, dipping in and out of the pain\, finding comfort in art and philosophy and religion where we can. It’s an intellectual cabaret\, a Buddhist primer\, and a pointillist portrait of grief – above all\, it’s the consoling and invigorating reflection we need in this moment. \n  \nKRISTJANA GUNNARS was born in Iceland and has lived in Canada since 1969. She served as Professor of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta\, and as Guest Professor at the University of Trier in Germany and the University of Iceland. She lived on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia for twenty years while pursuing a career in the arts (painting)\, as well as writing. She is the author of numerous books (see websiteskristjanagunnars.com and kristjanagunnarswritings.com for details). Her latest books are The Scent of Light (Coach House\, Toronto) and Ruins of the Heart (Angelico\, New York). She has published a number of chapbooks\, the latest being 112th Street Notebook (akinoga\, Baltimore) and At Home in the Mountains (Junction\, Toronto). Her work has appeared in numerous anthologies and journals in Canada\, the U.S.\,and Europe. \n  \nCODY CAETANO is the author of Half-Bads in White Regalia (Canada: Hamish Hamilton Canada\, 2022)\, winner of two Indigenous Voices Awards\, shortlisted for the Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction\, and longlisted for the Toronto Book Award\, the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour\, and Canada Reads. An off-reserve member of Pinaymootang First Nation\, his mother’s family is from the Manitoba Interlake and his father’s family emigrated to Canada from the Azores in the 1960s. He works as a literary agent at CookeMcDermid. \n  \n   \nThis event is presented in partnership with the Writers’ Guild of Alberta and the University of Alberta’s WIR program
URL:https://litfestalberta.org/event-1/the-silence-of-falling-snow-online-event-with-kristjana-gunnars/
LOCATION:Online
CATEGORIES:Feature
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Edmonton:20251016T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/Edmonton:20251016T183000
DTSTAMP:20260420T050520
CREATED:20250901T214850Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251008T151644Z
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SUMMARY:Showcase: Laberinto Press
DESCRIPTION:Tickets: $5 (student/low income)\, $15 (regular)\, Available HERE (Use promo code “LITFEST2025” to access student rate) \nJoin us for a journey through the anthologies from Edmonton-based Laberinto Press. \nIn a largely primarily anglophone and Anglo-centric publishing industry\, Laberinto Press has won the recognition of its peers for delivering outstanding works from writers whose first language is not English\, and World Literature in translation. Their books have received rave reviews. This “Little Press That Could” continues making strides. Meanwhile\, they continue tapping into diaspora authors living in Canada. \nFeaturing: Luciana Erregue-Sacchi\, Mila Philipzig\, Kathryn Lennon\, Sandro Silva\, Cedric Usman\, and Phany Peña T \nMila Bongco-Philipzig is a writer\, visual artist\, and community organizer. She has published five bilingual (Filipino-English) children’s books. She also translated two children’s books from Filipino to German\, which were included in the Frankfurter Buchmesse (2022)\, the largest book fair in the world. Mila has poetry\, short stories\, and essays published in various magazines\, anthologies\, and podcasts in the Philippines\, Canada\, and Germany. In 2021\, Mila was a featured artist for Edmonton Arts Council’s Asian Heritage Month\, and the first featured reader for Edmonton Public Library’s Multilingual Storytime. She is currently the coordinator for the Writer’s Guild of Alberta’s Horizon Writers Circle mentorship program for BIPOC writers and serves as the lead for the People of Colour Committee in Stantec. In addition to writing and painting\, Mila organizes cultural community events\, runs long distance\, and is an active advocate for inclusion\, human rights\, and social justice. \nLuciana Erregue-Sacchi is an award winning publisher (Laberinto Press)\, art historian\, translator\, author (Of Mothers and Madonna\, Polyglot 2023) and cultural worker. Luciana has presented at LitFest\, Edmonton Poetry Fest\, and Banff Centre. Her work and translations have appeared in academic publications\, Polyglot Magazine\, AGNI\, and others and she has been featured on CBC Edmonton\, Radio Canada\, Quill and Quire\, Literary Review of Canada\, Westword\, and Edmonton Journal. She is an activist for freedom to read and an advocate for hyphened Canadian literature. \nKathryn Lennon 君妍 is a poet\, community planner\, and the co-founder and co-editor of Hungry Zine. She was born and raised\, and resides in Edmonton/Amiskwacîwâskahikan. Her poetry has been published in Canthius\, Polyglot Magazine\, Living Hyphen\, and the Globe and Mail\, and included in anthologies: Reimagining Fire: the Future of Energy (Durvile & UpRoute)\, Back Where I Came From (Book*hug Press)\, and Beyond Touch Sites (Laberinto Press). \nSandro Silva is a Brazilian & Canadian citizen. Co-founder of Dona Ana Films & Multimedia\, he produced international award-winning documentaries and acted as a local producer for the Brazilian components of international productions. Before working in the arts\, Sandro worked as a copyright lawyer in São Paulo.  After moving to Canada\, Sandro has written\, directed\, and produced various documentary shorts for CBC’s Creator Network since the fall of 2021. He was part of the 2021 Hot Docs DOC Accelerator program\, the 2023 Hot Docs Podcast Creators Lab\, and a selected protégé for the 2021 Own Voices Alberta mentorship designed by the Alexandra Writers’ Centre Society. Sandro was also selected as part of the Telus Storyhive 2021 Black Creators Edition\, where he wrote\, directed\, and produced his latest documentary short “Retraining the Brain” (2023). Sandro is working on his first memoir book and has several podcasts and feature documentary projects in production for 2025. \nCedric Usman is a Filipino-Canadian self-taught contemporary abstract artist from Sherwood Park\, Alberta. He draws deep inspiration from nature\, particularly bodies of water. His art invites viewers to reflect\, feel inspired\, and perhaps even meditate on the fluid movements and flow within his creations. Cedric loves to make colours blend and dance by harnessing the forces of air and gravity. He is also a self-taught musician\, intuitively exploring the handpan to create space for contemplation\, reflection\, and emotional self-expression. \nEstephanía Peña-Torres (she/her): Phany\, an Edmonton-based artist\, immigrant\, and member of the BIPOC community\, is determined to immerse herself in her dancing skills and artistic creation. She has practiced several dance techniques\, prominent among them are: Polynesian dance\, classical ballet\, and a few contemporary styles. She understands art as a communication channel that the artists use to express themselves\, make a point\, or encourage the audience to wonder about a topic. Having said this\, she is committed to using her artistic knowledge and talents to tell stories and draw attention to topics that are important in today’s context.
URL:https://litfestalberta.org/event-1/laberinto-press-showcase/
LOCATION:Muttart Theatre\, 7 Sir Winston Churchill Square\, Edmonton\, AB
CATEGORIES:Showcase
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Edmonton:20251016T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Edmonton:20251016T203000
DTSTAMP:20260420T050520
CREATED:20250901T215037Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251008T151632Z
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SUMMARY:Feature: Bloodied Bodies\, Bloody Landscapes\, with Laura Hall
DESCRIPTION:Tickets: $5 (student/low income)\, $15 (regular)\, Available HERE (Use promo code “LITFEST2025” to access student rate) \nIn Conversation event featuring Laura Hall speaking with University of Alberta associate professor Jordan Abel about her book Bloodied Bodies\, Bloody Landscapes: Settler Colonialism in Horror. \nTurning a lens on the dark legacy of colonialism in horror film\, from Scream to Halloween and beyond \nHorror films\, more than any other genre\, offer a chilling glimpse—like peering through a creaky attic door—into the brutality of settler colonial violence. While Indigenous peoples continue to struggle against colonization\, white settler narratives consistently position them as a threat\, depicting the Indigenous Other as an ever-present menace\, lurking on the fringes of “civilized” society. Indigenous inclusion or exclusion in horror films tells a larger story about myths\, fears\, and anxieties that have endured for centuries. \nBloodied Bodies\, Bloody Landscapes traces connections between Indigenous representations\, gender\, and sexuality within iconic horror classics like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Friday the 13th. The savage killer\, the romantic and doomed Indian\, the feral “mad woman”—no trope or archetype escapes the shadowy influence of settler colonialism. In the end\, horror both disrupts and uncovers colonial violence—only to bury its victims once more. \n  \nLAURA HALL grew up in N’Swakamok (Sudbury\, Ontario). Laura’s parents\, Shirley (Mohawk) and Dave Hall (English-Canadian) instilled in her a deep love for spooky storytelling. After moving to different cities in Ontario for University and graduate studies\, Laura now resides in Ottawa with their children and partner and works as a professor in Sociology at Carleton University. Currently\, Dr. Hall is working on horror fiction and storytelling workshops with support from federal grants and a general focus on arts-based research and Indigenous wellbeing.  \n  \nJORDAN ABEL (Host) is a queer Nisga’a writer from Vancouver. He is the author of The Place of Scraps (winner of the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize)\, Un/inhabited\, and Injun (winner of the Griffin Poetry Prize). NISHGA won both the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize and the VMI Betsy Warland Between Genres award\, and was a finalist for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction\, the Wilfrid Eggleston Award for Nonfiction\, and the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize. Abel’s latest work–a novel titled Empty Spaces–  was published by McClelland & Stewart and Yale University Press\, and was the winner of the Governor General’s Award for fiction as well as the winner of a Banff Mountain Book Award. Abel completed a Ph.D. at Simon Fraser University in 2019\, and is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta where he teaches Indigenous Literatures\, Research-Creation\, and Creative Writing.
URL:https://litfestalberta.org/event-1/feature-bloodied-bodies-bloody-landscapes-with-laura-hall/
LOCATION:Rice Theatre Lobby\, 9828 101A Ave\, Edmonton
CATEGORIES:Feature
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Edmonton:20251016T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Edmonton:20251016T203000
DTSTAMP:20260420T050520
CREATED:20250901T215225Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251008T151618Z
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SUMMARY:Feature: Precarious: The Lives of Migrant Workers\, with Marcello Di Cintio
DESCRIPTION:Tickets: $5 (student/low income)\, $15 (regular)\, Available HERE (Use promo code “LITFEST2025” to access student rate) \nAward-winning author Marcello Di Cintio in conversation with LitFest board treasurer Danielle Paradis to talk about his latest book\, Precarious: The Lives of Migrant Workers. \nWinner of the 2024 Dave Greber Freelance Writers Book Award \nA series of profiles of foreign workers illuminates the precarity of global systems of migrant labor and the vulnerability of their most disenfranchised agents. \nIn 2023\, after weeks of investigation\, United Nations Special Rapporteur Tomoyo Obokata came to a scathing conclusion: Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker program is “a breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery.” Workers complained of excessive hours and unpaid overtime; of being forced to perform dangerous tasks or ones not specified in their contracts; of being physically abused\, intimidated\, and sexually harassed; and of overcrowded\, unsanitary living conditions that deprived them of their privacy and dignity. \nIn Precarious: The Lives of Migrant Workers\, Marcello Di Cintio ranges across the country speaking to those who have come from elsewhere to till our fields\, bathe our elderly\, and serve us our Double Doubles\, uncovering stories of tremendous perseverance\, resilience\, and humanity\, but also of precarity and vulnerability. He shows that vast swathes of our economy depend on the work of people we don’t see\, while expanding our awareness of what migrant work now entails\, and revealing that our mistreatment of the most vulnerable among us diminishes our own dignity. \n  \nMARCELLO DI CINTIO is the author of six books\, including Walls: Travels Along the Barricades\, Pay No Heed to the Rockets: Palestine in the Present Tense\, and Driven: The Secret Lives of Taxi Drivers. He has also written for the Globe and Mail\, The Walrus\, The International New York Times\, and Canadian Geographic\, among others. He lives in Calgary. \nIG: @marcello.di.cintio\nBluesky: @marcellodicintio.bsky.social\nTwitter: @DiCintio \nDanielle Paradis (Host) is an Indigenous (Métis) magazine writer\, journalist\, editor\, educator\, and podcaster who lives in Treaty 6 (Edmonton\, Alberta). She has written for both local and international audiences. You can read (or hear) her work at Canadaland\, Chatelaine\, Toronto Star (Edmonton)\, Gig City\, BUSTLE\, Canadian True Crime Podcast\, and The Sprawl. Danielle covers politics\, arts and culture\, and Indigenous Issues. Danielle loves a good FOIP story and studied investigative journalism\, story-based inquiry method\, at the Centre for Investigative Journalism out of the UK. She teaches journalism\, focusing on advanced reporting and reporting on diverse communities at MacEwan University and Humber College. She also works for a non-profit\, Indigenous Friends Association\, that focuses on connecting traditional knowledge and digital technology for Indigenous youth. She also has a background as a literary editor for Other Voices\, and in-depth media experience on both television and radio.
URL:https://litfestalberta.org/event-1/feature-precarious-the-lives-of-migrant-workers-with-marcello-di-cintio/
LOCATION:Muttart Theatre\, 7 Sir Winston Churchill Square\, Edmonton\, AB
CATEGORIES:Feature
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