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DTSTART;TZID=America/Edmonton:20251019T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/Edmonton:20251019T143000
DTSTAMP:20260711T074419
CREATED:20250916T051054Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251008T151258Z
UID:4698-1760878800-1760884200@litfestalberta.org
SUMMARY:Panel: Memoir Hour - What an amazing story!
DESCRIPTION:This year’s memoir hour panel features three stories of incredible journeys. \nFeaturing: Vinh Nguyen\, Dan Rubinstein\, and Sarah Boon\nModerator: Jessica Truong\nTickets: $5 (student/low income)\, $15 (regular)\nPurchase tickets HERE (Use promo code “LITFEST2025” to access student rate) \n\nMeltdown: The Making and Breaking of a Field Scientist by Sarah Boon \nIn Meltdown\, Sarah Boon tells us about field adventures in snow and ice\, the tough decision of choosing an academic career over that of a writer\, and the challenges she faces as a woman in science. Her story blends adventure and academia as she traverses John Evans Glacier on Ellesmere Island\, builds weather stations in northern British Columbia\, samples proglacial rivers\, and scares away grizzlies with helicopters. Along the way\, Boon finds inspiration in the stories of historic female explorers like Mary Schäffer Warren and Phyllis Munday\, celebrating the tenacity of women in the field. But her path isn’t without obstacles. In addition to the physical and psychological rigors of fieldwork\, Boon faces gender bias\, departmental politics\, and job insecurity in academia. Her journey is also marked by injury\, struggles with imposter syndrome\, and a serious mental health diagnosis. Meltdown is an honest and reflective narrative about the process of finding your identity\, the need for open conversations around mental health and science\, and one woman’s pursuit of balance between her career and personal life. \n\nThe Migrant Rain Falls in Reverse: A Memoir by Vinh Nguyen \nAn inventive memoir about one family’s escape from Vietnam and the father’s mysterious disappearance along the way. This book is an intricate exploration of a searching mind\, shedding light on the psyche of a grieving son\, as he chases certainty and seeks elusive resolution. With the Fall of Saigon on April 30\, 1975\, the U.S. war in Vietnam ended\, but the refugee crisis was only beginning. Among the millions of people who fled Vietnam by boat was Vinh Nguyen\, along with his mother and siblings\, and his father\, who left separately and then mysteriously vanished. \nDecades later\, Nguyen goes looking for answers. What he discovers is a sea of questions drifting above sunken truths. To find his father—and anchor himself in the present—Nguyen must piece together the debris of history with family stories that have been scattered across generations and continents\, kept for years in broken hearts and guarded silences. \nAs the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War approaches\, The Migrant Rain Falls in Reverse takes readers on a poignant tour of disappeared refugee camps\, abandoned family homes\, and reimagined lives. Part fractured reminiscence\, part invented history\, and part fictional fabulation\, Nguyen’s story is about learning to live with what’s already lost and the memories of what might have been. \nWater Borne: A 1\,200-Mile Paddleboarding Pilgrimage bu Dan Rubinstein \nIn June 2023\, writer Dan Rubinstein lashed camping gear to his stand-up paddleboard and embarked on an improbable solo voyage from Ottawa to Montreal\, New York City\, Toronto\, and back to Ottawa along the rivers\, lakes\, and canals of a landlocked region. Over 1\,200 miles and 10 weeks\, he explored the healing potential of “blue space” — the aquatic equivalent of green space — and sought out others drawn to their local waters. But the farther Rubinstein paddled\, the more he realized that being in\, on\, or around water does more than boost our mental and physical health and prompt stewardship toward the natural world. He discovered that blue spaces are also a way to connect with the kaleidoscopic cross-section of people he met and the diverse geographies and communities he passed through. \nWeaving together research\, interviews\, and an unmacho\, malodorous\, anticolonial adventure tale\, Water Borne shows us that we don’t need an epic journey to find solutions to so many modern challenges. Repair and renewal may be close at hand: just add water. \n  \nSARAH BOON is a freelance writer and editor. She has published essays\, book reviews\, author interviews\, and articles in a range of magazines and journals\, including Science\, Nature\, Longreads\, Flyway Journal\, Electric Literature\, and others. She trained as an environmental scientist and held a tenured position in physical geography before returning to her writing and editing roots. She is a member of the Creative Nonfiction Collective Society and the Federation of BC Writers\, and a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. She was a co-founder of the Canadian science blogging network Science Borealis. She blogs at https://watershednotes.ca/ and lives and works on southern Vancouver Island\, traditional unceded territory of the Quwut’sun people. \nVINH NGUYEN is a writer and educator whose work has appeared in Brick\, Literary Hub\, The Malahat Review\, PRISM international\, Grain\, Queen’s Quarterly\, The Criterion Collection’s Current\, and MUBI’s Notebook. He is a nonfiction editor at The New Quarterly\, where he curates an ongoing series on refugee\, migrant\, and diasporic writing. He is the author of the academic book Lived Refuge: Gratitude\, Resentment\, Resilience. His writing has been short-listed for a National Magazine Award and has received the John Charles Polanyi Prize in Literature. In 2022\, he was a Lambda Literary Fellow in Nonfiction for emerging LGBTQ writers. \nDAN RUBINSTEIN is a National Magazine Award winning writer and editor\, a contributor to publications such as Outside\, The Walrus and the Globe and Mail\, a former editor at Canadian Geographic\, and prior to moving to Ottawa he lived in Edmonton for a decade\, where he worker as an editor at several publications\, including Alberta Views\, Vue Weekly and unlimited magazine. His first book\, Born to Walk: The Transformative Power of a Pedestrian Act\, was a finalist at the Ottawa Book Awards and Kobo Emerging Writer Prize. He’s on Instagram at danrubnsteinsup and his website is www.waterborne.ca \nJESSICA TRUONG (she/her/hers)\, (Moderator) is a co-producer of the docuseries EATING EDMONTON\, which uses food\, the people who make it\, and experience as a second-generation immigrant to tell richer stories about Edmonton communities. Her experiences as a second generation Vietnamese Canadian can also be found online at @aspoonfordad and her writing featured in Hungryzine. She is the co-founder of Chúng Ta Cùng Nhau\, (We are Together) an initiative aimed at building a community that explores the generational identity as Canadian children of immigrants\, through shared stories\, experiences\, and events that connect the Vietnamese diaspora. \nThis event is presented in partnership with Chúng Ta Cùng Nhau
URL:https://litfestalberta.org/event-1/panel-memoir-hour-what-an-amazing-story/
LOCATION:Zeidler Hall\, 9828 101A Ave\, Edmonton\, AB
CATEGORIES:Panel
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Edmonton:20251019T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Edmonton:20251019T133000
DTSTAMP:20260711T074419
CREATED:20250916T062759Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251012T171422Z
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SUMMARY:Brunch & Learn Panel: On Wholeness\, Wellness and Healing
DESCRIPTION:This year’s Brunch and Learn features a panel of books each focusing on ideas and themes related to wellness\, well-being\, recovery and healing. \nThis event will be catered by Edmonton’s own Chef Holly Holt (@shecooksyeg) \nFeaturing: Chyana Marie Sage\, Quill Christie-Peters and Kate J. Neville\nModerator: Naomi McIlwraith\nTickets: $30\, Available HERE \n\nSoft As Bones\, by Chyana Marie Sage \nA poetic memoir as intricately woven as a dreamcatcher about overcoming the pain of generational trauma with the power of traditional healing. \nIn candid\, incisive\, and delicate prose\, Chyana Marie Sage shares the pain of growing up with her father\, a crack dealer who went to prison for molesting her older sister. In revisiting her family’s history\, Chyana examines the legacy of generational abuse\, which began with her father’s father\, who was forcibly removed from his family by the residential schools and Sixties Scoop programs. Yet hers is also a story of hope\, as it was the traditions of her people that saved her life\, healing one small piece in the mosaic that makes up the dark past of colonialism shared by Indigenous people throughout Turtle Island. \n\nOn Wholeness\, by Quill Christie-Peters \nA brilliant exploration of the body as a site of settler colonial impact\, centring embodied wholeness as a pathway to our collective liberation. \nThrough reflections on childbirth\, parenting\, creative practice\, and expansive responsibility as pathways to wholeness\, Anishinaabe visual artist Quill Christie-Peters explores how reconnecting with the body can be an act of resistance and healing. She shows that wholeness—despite pain and displacement—is not just possible but essential for liberation\, not only for Indigenous people but for all of us. \nIn poetic and raw storytelling\, Quill shares her own experiences of gendered violence and her father’s survival of residential school\, revealing how colonialism disconnects us from ourselves. Yet\, through an Anishinaabe lens\, the body is more than just flesh—it extends to ancestors\, homelands\, spirit relations\, and animal kin. \nThis fierce and enlightening book reimagines the way we understand settler colonialism—through the body itself. On Wholeness takes us on a journey that begins before birth\, in a realm where ancestors and spirits swirl like smoke in the great beyond. \n\nGoing to Seed: Essay on Idleness\, Nature and Sustainable Work\, by Kate J. Neville \nAn abandoned place\, a disheveled person\, a shabby or deteriorating state: we describe such ruin colloquially as “going to seed.” But gardeners will protest: going to seed as idle? No\, plants are sending out compressed packets filled with the energy needed to sow new life. A pause from flowering gives a chance for the seeds to form. In a time of urgent environmental change\, of pressing social injustice\, and of ever-advancing technologies and global connections\, we often respond with acceleration—a speeding up and scaling up of our strategies to counter the damage and destruction around us. But what if we take the seeds as a starting point: what might we learn about work\, sustainability\, and relationships on this beleaguered planet if we slowed down\, stepped back\, and held off? \nGoing to Seed explores questions of idleness\, considering the labour both of humans and of the myriad other inhabitants of the world. Drawing on science\, literature\, poetry\, and personal observation\, these winding and sometimes playful essays pay attention to the exertions and activities of the other-than-human lives that are usually excluded from our built and settled spaces\, asking whose work and what kinds of work might be needed for a more just future for all. \n  \nKATE NEVILLE is an associate professor in Political Science and the School of the Environment at the University of Toronto\, where she studies global energy and resource politics\, and community resistance. When not in Toronto\, Kate can be found in a cabin in northern British Columbia\, on the territory of the Taku River Tlingit First Nation. \n\nQUILL CHRISTIE-PETERS is an Anishinaabe educator and self-taught visual artist from Lac des Mille Lacs First Nation located in Treaty 3 territory. She is the creator and director of the Indigenous Youth Residency Program\, an artist residency for Indigenous youth that engages land-based creative practices through Anishinaabe artistic methodologies. She holds a master’s degree in Indigenous governance on Anishinaabe art-making as a process of falling in love. She has spoken at Stanford University\, the University of Toronto\, and California College of the Arts\, and her written work can be found in GUTS magazine and Canadian Art. She is also a mother\, beadwork artist\, and traditional tattoo practitioner following the protocols of her community. All of her work can be found at @raunchykwe. \n\nCHYANA MARIE SAGE is a Cree\, Métis\, and Salish writer from Edmonton\, Alberta. She has an MFA in creative nonfiction from Columbia University and lives in New York City. Chyana loves to travel and be with nature. \nHOLLY HOLT (Chef/Caterer) is an award-winning Chef based in Edmonton\, Alberta. She has 15 years experience in the culinary arts and over 20 years of experience in hospitality. She is a proud graduate of NAIT’s Culinary Art’s program and loves to continue learning everyday. Holly is the In-House Chef for the Yellowhead Tribal Council and collaborates with EPL as an instructor in The Kitchen. She is also the owner of SheCooks\, which offers catering\, instructional and consulting services. Her expertise is in contemporary Indigenous cuisine\, nutrition and plant-forward cooking. Holly takes pride in her professional\, friendly and dynamic approach when working with the community. Holly Holt is a proud Syilx Okanagan woman (SnPink’tn or the Penticton Indian Band) and connects with her culture through food and art. When she is not in the kitchen\, she enjoys beading\, reading\, walking her dogs\, self care\, hiking\, camping\, yoga\, plants\, travelling\, art\, film and learning.  \n\nNAOMI McILWRAITH (Moderator) Naomi recently moved from the Indigenous Peoples Experience at Fort Edmonton Park to City Operations to work as the Indigenous Framework Operations Coordinator. A writer\, poet\, essayist\, storyteller\, and peacemaker\, Naomi is delighted to lead Indigenous Framework workshops as one way that she can contribute to a larger effort to foster better healthier relationships between Indigenous Peoples and non-Indigenous Peoples in the City of Edmonton. She leads land acknowledgement workshops\, reads poetry publicly in Edmonton and area\, and is frequently asked to speak on matters not just of the heart but also of justice. She is smiling a lot these days because after a lifetime of learning how\, she has finally found her voice — and all this talking is exciting for a shy girl who loves to hear stories and loves to tell a story too! In her work and her life\, Naomi honours her parents\, her family\, and her community.
URL:https://litfestalberta.org/event-1/brunch-learn-panel-on-wholeness-wellness-and-healing/
LOCATION:Rice Theatre Lobby\, 9828 101A Ave\, Edmonton
CATEGORIES:Panel
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Edmonton:20251018T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Edmonton:20251018T133000
DTSTAMP:20260711T074419
CREATED:20250915T225459Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251008T151428Z
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SUMMARY:Panel: Publishing Multilingual\, Multicultural & Hyphenated Authors
DESCRIPTION:This panel discussion brings together the founders of The Polyglot\, Laberinto Press\, Hungry Zine and Living Hyphen to discuss the need for and the challenges of publishing multicultural\, multilingual\, and hyphenated authors in the ever-evolving landscape of Canadian publishing. This panel will be moderated by translator and Edmonton’s 11th Poet Laureate\, Medgine Mathurin. \nFeaturing: Justine Abigail Yu (Living Hyphen)\, Maria Barbu (The Polyglot)\, Luciana Erregue-Sacchi (Laberinto Press)\, and Kathryn Lennon (Hungry Zine)\nModerator: Medgine Mathurin\nTickets: $5 (student/low income)\, $15 (regular)\, Available HERE (Use promo code “LITFEST2025” to access student rate) \n  \nJUSTINE ABIGAIL YU (she/her) is the founder of Living Hyphen\, a community and multimedia platform that explores what it means to live in between cultures as a hyphenated Canadian – that is\, an individual who calls Canada home but who has roots elsewhere. She is an award-winning workshop facilitator whose work with Living Hyphen has been featured on national and local media outlets including the Globe & Mail\, the Toronto Star\, CTV National News\, and the CBC. She was also named a “Changemaker” by the Toronto Star in October 2021. Justine Abigail is a fierce advocate for equity and anti-oppression. Her mission is to stir the conscience and spur social change. Learn more at www.justineabigail.com and www.livinghyphen.ca. \nSocial Media: You can find Justine across all social media platforms at @justineabigail and/or Living Hyphen at @livinghyphen. \n  \nMARIA BARBU (ARTISTA) is a multidisciplinary artist and poet who weaves language\, sound\, and performance into living experiences of consciousness exploration and homecoming. As an Innovation Catalyst with The Polyglot\, she is part of a volunteer-led team imagining a collective future that uplifts international\, multilingual\, and cross-cultural creativity through publications\, programs\, and community-rooted events. Author of the chapbook The Circle’s Cycle\, her work has been published in The Polyglot Magazine and Stroll of Poets Anthologies\, featured at the Edmonton Poetry Festival\, and supported through a partial scholarship to the Disquiet International Literary Program in Lisbon\, Portugal. \nWeb: ThePolyglotMagazine.com IG: @the.polyglot.magazine \n\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. \n\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). \n  \nMEDGINE MATHURIN (Moderator): Haitian-born spoken word artist and advocate\, Medgine is someone for whom the love of language and the alchemy of words comes naturally. Her multilingual upbringing (French\, Creole\, and English) not only encouraged her to explore the potential and magic of language but also nurtured a deep love of poetry.  \nOver the years\, Medgine has been diagnosed with Lupus (SLE)\, CIDP\, Polymyositis\, and Raynaud’s — experiences that have fueled her commitment to merge storytelling with patient advocacy\, particularly for those living with chronic illnesses. She currently serves as Chair of the Patient and Family Advisory Committee with Health Quality Alberta\, a provincial committee that promotes patient-centered care across the health system. \nHer work has been featured on CBC\, Global TV\, at SkirtsAfire Festival\, and the Edmonton Poetry Festival. Medgine is a two-time recipient of awards from the National Black Coalition of Canada (NBCC)\, having received the Fil Fraser Award for outstanding contributions to the literary and performing arts\, and the Dr. John Akabutu Award for demonstrating resilience in the face of significant challenges. \nMedgine was selected as a participant in the 2022 Mentorship Program with the Writers’ Guild of Alberta and became a mentor in the 2022 Horizon Writers Circle\, a mentorship program for Black\, Indigenous\, and People of Colour (BIPOC)\, ESL\, and underrepresented writers living in Edmonton. \nIn 2023\, she received the Edmonton Artist Trust Fund Award from the Edmonton Arts Council and the Edmonton Community Foundation — an award granted to exceptional local artists to support their creative work and encourage their continued presence in the community.She is the author of the multilingual chapbook Waiting in the Land of the Living / Attendre dans le monde des vivants. She has recently been named the Edmonton 11th Poet Laureate. \n  \n   \nThis event is proudly presented in collaboration with Living Hyphen\, Laberinto Press\, The Polyglot and Hungry Zine.
URL:https://litfestalberta.org/event-1/panel-publishing-multilingual-multicultural-hyphenated-authors/
LOCATION:Muttart Theatre\, 7 Sir Winston Churchill Square\, Edmonton\, AB
CATEGORIES:Panel
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Edmonton:20251017T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/Edmonton:20251017T183000
DTSTAMP:20260711T074419
CREATED:20250903T000534Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251008T151604Z
UID:4588-1760720400-1760725800@litfestalberta.org
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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