This February, we’ve got three separate events and such an array of talent, there truly is an author or book that will soon be a favourite!
On Sunday February 11, we go on line for a conversation and reading from Emelia Symington-Fedy an international theatre creator and the co-founding co-artistic director of The Chop, with over twenty-five playwriting credits spanning her career. She joins us from the Shuswap, where she lives with her family.
Her memoir (reconstruction of memory and experience), SKID DOGS from Douglas & McIntyre, tells the story of best girl friendships and their growing sexuality in the 1990s, that offers a “bold and often darkly humorous first-hand account of nineties rape culture and the sexual coercion that still permeates girlhood” with the backdrop of a more recent murder in Symington’s home town. (6:00PM ET, on ZOOM, event details coming soon).
On Thursday February 15, I will be joined by Shane Nielson, a self-described mad, autistic poet/scholar physician, who will talk about the challenges he faced (as a doctor) navigating the medical system with his young children, and himself. If a doctor has this much trouble, how challenging must it be for the rest of us? His memoir, SAVING: A Doctor’s Struggle to Save his Children published by Great Plains Press last year, is a compelling and often scary personal account. Join us on Instagram Live at 7:00pm!
On Sunday February 25 at TYPE Books in the Junction, we welcome Safia Fazlul, Amy Jones and Anuja Varghese for our second in-person event of the year and our fourth of the seaon (it is still surreal we get to do this in person!
Fazlul’s THE RED ONE is a super-compelling story about a woman trying to escape the torment of childhood trauma, while stuck married to a domineering man. When she meets “the mysterious Red One, an archetypal strong man to whom she’s instantly and dangerously attracted, who promises her release from her pain. But is he real or a figment of her fervid imagination? In a thrilling denouement to the novel, she finds the answer.” Published by Mawenzi House.
Jones’ PEBBLE AND DOVE is a novel about family secrets and dysfunctions, mothers and daughters and a love story with a thousand-pound manatee named Pebble. “Darkly funny and sharply observed, Pebble & Dove is a moving novel about the complicated relationship between mothers and daughters, and learning how to choose between what’s worth saving and what needs to be let go.” Published by Penguin Random House Canada.
Varghese’s CHRYSALIS is a Governor General Award and Writers Trust Dayne Ogilvie Prize winning collection of stories that are described as “drawing on folklore, fairy tales, and magical realism in genre-blending stories that centre women of colour and tackle the complex intersections of family, community, sexuality, and cultural expectations through a feminist lens.” Published by Anansi Press.
Follow us on Instagram and Facebook for more details. You can also follow us on Eventbrite to get updates on the events as they’re posted.
Junction Reads 
Leave a comment