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X-WR-CALDESC:Events for LitFest Alberta
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Edmonton:20251017T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/Edmonton:20251017T183000
DTSTAMP:20260420T032934
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SUMMARY:Panel: On Language and Meaning (a.k.a. The Smartypants Panel)
DESCRIPTION:What is conscious and unconscious in how we utilize language? How do we use language to create meaning? For anyone who has a love for the construction and utilization of language\, this panel is a must-attend at this year’s festival! Lovingly referred to as The Smartypants Panel\, this event brings together language scientists and poets to talk all things related to language. \nFeaturing: Joel Katelnikoff\, Canisia Lubrin\, and Julie Sedivy\nModerator: Alice Major\nTickets: $5 (student/low income)\, $15 (regular)\, Available HERE (Use promo code “LITFEST2025” to access student rate) \n  \nJOEL KATELNIKOFF holds a PhD in literary theory from the University of Alberta. His book Recombinant Theory is a new approach to critical writing that applies cut-up techniques to the complete works of ten contemporary poet-theorists: Annharte\, Charles Bernstein\, Christian Bök\, Johanna Drucker\, Lyn Hejinian\, Steve McCaffery\, Erín Moure\, Sawako Nakayasu\, Lisa Robertson\, and Fred Wah. These cut-ups are then compiled into new essays\, each refracting the concepts of the original text while producing new lyrical and theoretical formulations. \nCANISIA LUBRIN’s work has been recognized with accolades including the Griffin Poetry Prize\, Windham-Campbell Prize\, and the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. Born in St. Lucia\, Lubrin now lives in Whitby\, and is the poetry editor at McClelland & Stewart. \nJULIE SEDIVY is a writer and linguist whose work straddles scientific and literary worlds. Her book Memory Speaks (Harvard University Press) was shortlisted for two Alberta Literary Awards and was named by The Economist as one of the top five books about language in a “golden age” of language writing. She has contributed writing to outlets such as Nautilus\, Discover\, Scientific American\, the Literary Review of Canada\, LA Review of Books\, EuropeNow\, Aeon + Psyche\, and Politico. She is the co-editor (with Rona Altrows) of Waiting\, a collection of personal essays (University of Alberta Press)\, and the co-author (with Souad Shehab) of Ayah and the Big World Outside\, a forthcoming children’s book to be published by Orca Books in 2026. Her most recent book\, Linguaphile: A Life of Language Love (Farrar\, Straus & Giroux)\, was named by The New Yorker as one of the best books of 2024 and won the W. O. Mitchell City of Calgary Book Prize. Julie is a citizen of three countries.  \n Bluesky: @juliesedivy.bsky.social \nALICE MAJOR (Moderator) has published 12 collections of poetry and the essay collection: Intersecting Sets: A Poet Looks at Science. Among other creative projects\, she has been a participant in “Reimagining Fire”\, a project to bring visual artists\, writers and scientists together to create work related to climate change\, and was invited to read at the UN’s COP15 conference on biodiversity in Montreal.  \n Alice’s previous work has been recognized by the Pat Lowther and Stephan G. Stephansson poetry awards as well as a National Magazine Award Gold Medal. She also served as the City of Edmonton’s first poet laureate and has received the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Distinguished Artist Award as well as an honorary doctorate from the University of Alberta. Her work with the writing community has included founding the Edmonton Poetry Festival. \nWebsite: alicemajor.com\nIG: @alicemajor_poet 
URL:https://litfestalberta.org/event-1/panel-on-language-and-meaning-a-k-a-the-smartypants-panel/
LOCATION:Muttart Theatre\, 7 Sir Winston Churchill Square\, Edmonton\, AB
CATEGORIES:Panel
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Edmonton:20251017T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Edmonton:20251017T203000
DTSTAMP:20260420T032934
CREATED:20250915T213304Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251008T151509Z
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SUMMARY:Feature: Curling Rocks! with John Cullen
DESCRIPTION:Tickets: $5 (student/low income)\, $15 (regular)\, Available HERE (Use promo code “LITFEST2025” to access student rate) \nIn conversation event with curling legend John Cullen to discuss his latest book\, Curling Rocks!: Chronicles of the Roaring Game. \nDrawing on author John Cullen’s years of experience as both a stand-up comic and an elite curler\, Curling Rocks! offers a lighthearted\, expertly detailed look at a unique sport and its history\, from the most absurd curling fashions to the most sublime matches ever played. \nThe sport of curling continues to expand its global reach\, attracting new players and fans far beyond traditional strongholds. Yet\, even in Canada—a country with a long curling history and fifteen hundred clubs of its own—the game is often dismissed as an eccentric pastime. \nAccording to author John Cullen\, this is because curling is both inherently funny and chronically underestimated as a battle of skill and strategy. And Cullen is perfectly qualified to make this double-edged claim: not only is he a stand-up comic with many years of experience at the mic\, but he’s had years on the ice as an elite curler. \nBecause most previous books on curling have been either how-to guides or standard biographies of prominent players\, there has long been space for a reader-friendly overview of the “roaring game” (a nickname inspired by the sound of the forty-pound stone en route to its target). Curling Rocks! sets out to fill this gap with a lighthearted\, expertly detailed account of the sport\, ranging from the absurd to the sublime. Next to his observations on ill-fitting fashions and odd scandals—among them “Broomgate\,” when controversial new sweeping technology almost took out the curling world—Cullen offers insights on everything from the greatest matches ever played to the peculiar heartbreak that comes with losing. \nIn these inviting\, irreverent and often deeply personal essays\, Cullen finally gives the perplexing\, beloved game its due. \n  \nJOHN CULLEN has been a medal-winning semi-professional curler for more than twenty years. He has also worked as a teacher\, writer\, comedian and curling analyst\, earning acclaim from such outlets as Vulture\, Forbes\, The Economist and Esquire for hosting the highly popular podcast Broomgate: A Curling Scandal. He has made televised appearances as a stand-up comedian and is a returning guest on CBC Radio’s The Debaters. Cullen lives in Calgary\, AB.
URL:https://litfestalberta.org/event-1/feature-curling-rocks-with-john-cullen/
LOCATION:Muttart Theatre\, 7 Sir Winston Churchill Square\, Edmonton\, AB
CATEGORIES:Feature
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Edmonton:20251017T193000
DTEND;TZID=America/Edmonton:20251017T210000
DTSTAMP:20260420T032934
CREATED:20250901T221522Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251008T151445Z
UID:4576-1760729400-1760734800@litfestalberta.org
SUMMARY:Feature: A Necessary Distance\, with Julie Salverson
DESCRIPTION:Tickets: $5 (student/low income)\, $15 (regular)\, Available HERE (Use promo code “LITFEST2025” to access student rate) \nIn conversation event with Julie Salverson to talk about her book\, A Necessary Distance: Confessions of a Scriptwriter’s Daughter. \nGeorge Salverson had written over a thousand radio plays for the CBC before he became the first television drama editor for the corporation. He wrote scripts for such beloved series as The Beachcombers and The Littlest Hobo\, but he kept very little of his writing\, being decidedly unsentimental about his work. So when his daughter Julie found a series of notebooks from a round-the-world trip he’d taken in 1963 to work on a documentary about world hunger\, she knew she’d found something important. But the writer of these notebooks is not the father she thought she knew. From there Julie Salverson traces a fascinating web of personal and political history\, of storytelling\, of culture and it’s shaping and of a man caught in a time of great change. \n  \nJULIE SALVERSON is a nonfiction writer\, playwright\, editor\, scholar and theatre animator. She is a fourth-generation Icelandic Canadian writer: her father\, George\, wrote early CBC radio and television drama and her grandmother Laura won two Governor General’s Awards (1937\, 1939). Julie’s theatre\, opera\, books and essays embrace the relationship of imagination and foolish witness to risky stories and trauma. She works on atomic culture\, community-engaged theatre and the place of the foolish witness in social\, political and interpersonal generative relationships. Salverson offers resiliency and peer-support workshops to communities dealing with trauma and has many years of experience teaching and running workshops. Recent publications include the book When Words Sing: Seven Canadian Libretti (Playwrights Canada Press\, 2021) and Lines of Flight: An Atomic Memoir (Wolsak & Wynn\, 2016).
URL:https://litfestalberta.org/event-1/feature-a-necessary-distance-with-julie-salverson/
LOCATION:Zeidler Hall\, 9828 101A Ave\, Edmonton\, AB
CATEGORIES:Feature
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