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DTSTART;TZID=America/Edmonton:20251025T130000
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SUMMARY:Feature: Ekphrastic Writing\, with David Garneau and Wendy McGrath
DESCRIPTION:This event is free to attend\, but please pre-register as space is limited \nThis event\, which takes place at The Art Gallery of St. Albert\, brings together two beautiful collections of ekphrastic writing: Dark Chapters: Reading the Still Lives of David Garneau\, and The Beauty of Vultures by Wendy McGrath. \nFeaturing: David Garneau and Wendy McGrath\nModerator: Luciana Erregue-Sacchi \n  \nDark Chapters: Reading the Still Lives of David Garneau\nDark Chapters brings together 17 poets\, fiction writers\, curators\, and critics to engage with the works of David Garneau\, the Governor General’s Award-winning Métis artist. Featuring paintings from Garneau’s still life series “Dark Chapters” alongside poetry\, fiction\, critical analysis\, and autotheory\, the book includes contributions from Fred Wah\, Paul Seesequasis\, Jesse Wente\, Lillian Allen\, Billy-Ray Belcourt\, Larissa Lai\, Susan Musgrave\, and more. \nA nod to the Reports of Truth and Reconciliation Commission\, in which Justice Murray Sinclair describes the residential school system as “one of the darkest\, most troubling chapters in our nation’s history\,” Garneau’s still life paintings combine common objects (books\, bones\, teacups\, mirrors) and less familiar ones (a Métis sash\, a stone hammer\, a braid of sweetgrass) to reflect the complexity of contemporary Indigenous experiences. Provocative titles like “Métis in the Academy” and “Smudge Before Reading” invite consideration of the mixed influences and loyalties faced by Indigenous students and scholars. Other paintings explore colonialism\, vertical and lateral violence\, Christian influence on traditional knowledge\, and museum treatment of Indigenous belongings. Rooted in Garneau’s life-long engagement at the intersections of visual art and writing\, Dark Chapters presents a multifaceted reflection on the work of an inimitable\, unparalleled artist. \nIncludes contributions from Arin Fay\, Billy-Ray Belcourt\, Cecily Nicholson\, David Howes\, Dick Averns\, Fred Wah\, Jeff Derksen\, Jesse Wente\, John G. Hampton\, Larissa Lai\, Lillian Allen\, Paul Seesequasis\, Peter Morin\, Rita Bouvier\, Susan Musgrave\, Tarene Thomas\, and Trevor Herriot. \n  \nThe Beauty of Vultures\nThe interplay between photography\, nature and poetic form is on full display in Wendy McGrath’s and Danny Miles’ collaborative new work The Beauty of Vultures. This innovative collection takes readers into the surprisingly chatty world of birds\, whose avian artistry and poignant plumage mimics the formally and structurally inventive tones found in each poem. The language wings its way between funny and serious\, poignant and morbid\, while always drawing parallels between the poets thoughts and the cameras eye. From peahens telling off their elaborately festooned romantic partners\, robins empty eggs recalling air raid tests after WWII\, to seagulls serving as harbingers of humanity’s ongoing crimes against nature\, each unit of photography melds seamlessly with its poetic doppelgänger. \n  \nDAVID GARNEAU (Métis Nation of Saskatchewan) is a Professor of Visual Arts at the University of Regina. He is a painter\, curator\, and writer who engages creative and critical expressions of Indigenous contemporary ways of knowing\, being\, and doing. He received the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Art: Outstanding Achievement\, is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada\, and received The Order of Gabriel Dumont Silver Medal. Garneau has curated more than two dozen exhibitions in Canada and internationally (including the Museum of the American Indian\, NYC). He has given keynotes in Australia\, New Zealand\, and throughout Canada and written numerous articles and book chapters on re/conciliation\, museums\, Indigenous contemporary and public art\, and numerous other topics. His performance\, Dear John\, featuring the spirit of Louis Riel meeting with John A. Macdonald statues\, was presented in Regina\, Kingston\, and Ottawa. David recently installed a large public artwork\, the Tawatina Bridge paintings\, in Edmonton and designed the Riel Commemorative Silver Dollar for the Canadian Mint. His painting exhibition\, Dark Chapters is currently touring Canada\, and is supported by Chapters: Reading the Still Lives of David Garneau\, a collection of poems and essays by seventeen authors (University of Regina Press\, 2025). \nWENDY McGRATH (she/her) is a Métis poet\, writer\, and artist living in amiskwacîwâskahikan (Edmonton). Winner of the inaugural Prairie Grindstone Prize\, McGrath’s writing embraces multiple genres. Her latest poetry collection\, The Beauty of Vultures\, (NeWest Press April 2025) is inspired by and includes the bird/wildlife photography of Danny Miles\, drummer for the band ‘July Talk.’ Her most recent chapbook/artist’s book\, The Orange Scribbler (Jack Pine Press 2023) is a hybrid work inspired by heirloom family recipes. She has collaborated with visual artists and musicians\, exploring the relationships between genres. McGrath has published four novels\, two poetry collections\, and two chapbooks/artist’s books which explore a range of forms and approaches. Broke City\, the final book in her Santa Rosa Trilogy\, continues her exploration of the prairie gothic. She is an established member of the writing community\, enriching it through mentoring\, teaching\, and engaging in literary events. \nLUCIANA ERREGUE-SACCHI (Moderator) is a Canadian-Argentinian immigrant settler residing in Amiskwaciwâskahikan\, art historian (MA UofA ’16)\, an award winning publisher (Laberinto Press)\, translator\, author (Of Mothers and Madonna\, an ekphrastic poetry collection published by Polyglot in 2023) and cultural worker. Luciana has presented at LitFest\, Edmonton Poetry Fest\, and Banff Centre. Her work and translations have appeared in her blog SpectatorCurator\, 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 hyphenated Canadian literature. \n  \n This event is presented in partnership with The Art Gallery of St. Albert
URL:https://litfestalberta.org/event-1/feature-ekphrastic-writing-with-david-garneau-and-wendy-mcgrath/
LOCATION:Art Gallery of St. Albert\, 19 Perron St\, St. Albert
CATEGORIES:Feature
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Edmonton:20260426T103000
DTEND;TZID=America/Edmonton:20260426T123000
DTSTAMP:20260525T084204
CREATED:20260407T190229Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260407T190720Z
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SUMMARY:Kill the Critic: Getting Out of Your Own Way and Back to the Page
DESCRIPTION:Kick your inner critic to the curb and get your creative flow back with this fun\, no-pressure writing workshop! \n\n\n\n\nBrought to you in partnership with LitFest. Through guided prompts\, discussion\, and generative exercises\, participants will explore practical ways to quiet the inner critic and generate new work. The session focuses on shifting perspective\, loosening habitual thinking\, and discovering unexpected paths into language. Writers of all levels and genres are welcome. (No critics will be harmed). \nFacilitators: Ellen Kartz and Lisa Mulrooney\nDate/Time: Sunday\, April 26th\, 10:30am-12:30pm\nLocation: Jasper Place Library\, 9010 – 156 Street\, Edmonton\nCost: FREE\, but please pre-register HERE \nDonations will be accepted for Parkland Poets Society & Stroll of Poets Society
URL:https://litfestalberta.org/event-1/kill-the-critic-getting-out-of-your-own-way-and-back-to-the-page/
LOCATION:Jasper Place Library\, 9010 - 156 Street\, Edmonton\, AB
CATEGORIES:Partnered Event,Workshop
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Edmonton:20260505T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Edmonton:20260505T203000
DTSTAMP:20260525T084204
CREATED:20260410T214636Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260410T214901Z
UID:4844-1778007600-1778013000@litfestalberta.org
SUMMARY:LitFest Presents: Kim Echlin
DESCRIPTION:Tuesday\, May 5\, 2026\n7:00 pm\nTickets ($5-$15) available HERE \nCatch Kim Echlin\, internationally bestselling author of The Disappeared\, in conversation with Rayanne Haines. \n\n\n\nFrom the internationally bestselling author of The Disappeared comes a profound meditation on the cultural impact of storytelling and testimony in five intimate and illuminating essays. \nIn this moving collection\, critically acclaimed novelist Kim Echlin examines how we turn to literature to measure our lives against the darknesses of our time. Tell Others explores how literature resists silencing and repression with truth and imagination. \nEchlin skillfully blends her lived experience in different parts of the world—teaching in post-revolutionary China\, researching war crimes in the former Yugoslavia\, studying under one of Canada’s most respected Elders\, Basil H. Johnston—with wide-ranging reading that offers solace and highlights the possibility to transform outrage into understanding and resistance. \nLooking to her favourite writers—Milan Kundera\, Salman Rushdie\, Ma Jian\, Toni Morrison\, Margaret Atwood\, and Haruki Murakami\, to name a few—Echlin grapples in fresh ways with tyranny\, war\, sexual violence\, and censorship to bear witness to the past and look to the future. Written in characteristically unsparing and evocative prose\, Tell Others is an invitation to all readers to acknowledge histories that are difficult to see and to make meaning from the stories that buried bones tell. \nKIM ECHLIN is the award-winning author of Elephant Winter\, Dagmar’s Daughter\, Under the Visible Life\, and Speak\, Silence\, winner of the Toronto Book Award. Her novel The Disappeared won the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award and is published in 20 countries. She serves on the board of PEN International. \nRAYANNE HAINES is a producer\, podcaster\, educator and award-winning poet. Her third collection\, Tell The Birds Your Body Is Not A Gun (Frontenac House 2021)\, won the 2022 Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry and was shortlisted for both the BPAA Robert Kroetsch Award and the ReLit Award. Her poetic memoir\, What Kind of Daughter? (Frontenac House 2024)\, was shortlisted for the 2024 Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry. Rayanne hosts the Crow Reads podcast\, is the President of the League of Canadian Poets\, and an Assistant Professor at MacEwan University. She teaches and writes with vulnerability as a guiding force. \nPlease note: This event utilizes tiered pricing in an effort to reduce barriers to attendance
URL:https://litfestalberta.org/event-1/litfest-presents-kim-echlin/
CATEGORIES:Feature
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