So, if you're in Winnipeg et environs, please join us at one/some/all of the events!
If you're a web-denizen, visiting this blog from far off lands, then: Pbbt! Sucks to be you!
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Manitoba's only annual poetry festival celebrates the life and work of local icon Robert Kroetsch, Feb. 16-20.
Renowned poet, novelist, essayist, and teacher, Robert Kroetsch is one of Canada's most accomplished authors. With a career spanning well over 40 years, Kroetsch has received numerous honours, including the prestigious Governor General's Literary Award for his book The Studhorse Man. He has penned 9 internationally acclaimed novels, 14 books of poetry, and 5 books of non-fiction, essays, and exploration. Celebrated as a leading creator of contemporary Canadian literature, his writing, teaching, and critical vision have helped shape Canadian literature and culture. His works have been translated, published, and studied extensively worldwide, and he has given readings in countries as various as China, Japan, Finland, Italy, and Australia. Kroetsch has taught and mentored countless writers throughout the world. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, he was short-listed for the Governor General's Literary Award in 2000 for The Hornbooks of Rita K. A Distinguished Alumnus of the University of Alberta, his most recent award is the Manitoba Arts Council Arts Award of Distinction. Robert Kroetsch currently lives in Leduc, Alberta. * * *
Mondo!Kroetsch
Aqua Books and Turnstone Press present:
Seed Catalogue MARATHON READING
Date: Tuesday, February 16, 7 pm
Location: Aqua Books (274 Garry Street, between Graham and Portage)
Cost: FREE
Please join Aqua and Turnstone Press as we kick off Mondo!Kroetsch with a MARATHON READING of Robert Kroetsch's Seed Catalogue. (Twenty six pages = twenty six readers!)
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(More Kroetch-ly goodness after the turn...)
Mondo!Kroetsch
Staged Reading of The Words of My Roaring
Directed by Carolyn Gray and featuring Tim Higgins, Kelly Hughes & others.
Date: Wednesday, February 17, 7 pm
Location: Aqua Books (274 Garry Street, between Graham and Portage)
Cost: FREE
We've unearthed the theatrical adaptation of Robert Kroetsch's novel The Words of My Roaring (Toronto and London, Macmillan & New York, St. Martin's Press, 1966) from the Robert Kroetsch Papers at the University of Calgary Library. With Kroetsch's permission, we'll be mounting a one-night-only staged reading of the play featuring former Writers-in-Residence Carolyn Gray and Tim Higgins.
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Mondo!Kroetsch
Kelly Hughes Live! gets Kroetsched
Date: Thursday, February 18, 7 pm
Location: Aqua Books (274 Garry Street, between Graham and Portage)
Cost: FREE
Host Kelly Hughes interviews Jake MacDonald, Neil Besner and Robert Enright, with music by DJ Mama Cutsworth.
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Mondo!Kroetsch: Movie Night!
A screening of The Impossible Home: Robert Kroetsch and his German Roots
When: Friday, February 19, 7 pm
Location: Aqua Books (274 Garry Street, between Graham and Portage)
Cost: FREE
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Mondo!Kroetsch: Making it Right
A workshop with Victor Enns
When: Saturday, February 20, 10:30 am - 3:30 pm
Location: Aqua Books (274 Garry Street, between Graham and Portage)
Cost: $60
Notes: Phone 943-7555 / email ariel@aquabooks.ca to register. Registration is limited to 12 people. Bring a notebook and pen. There will be a one hour break for lunch.
This workshop is for those who have written more than a few poems, but have been afraid to show them to anyone except their closest friends, and understand that revision is an important part of the writing process. This is the chance to learn how to give constructive advice - and how to receive it. Participants will become more familiar with the workshop method and will get constructive help with individual poems that could be "made right" with a little work.
The instructor
Victor Enns was a member of the landmark 1978-79 Robert Kroetsch advanced creative writing class at the University of Manitoba that also included Sandra Birdsell, Margaret Shaw-MacKinnon, Jake MacDonald, and Armin Wiebe – twelve students finished the class and six were published within 18 months. Turnstone Press published Enns’ Jimmy Bang Poems in 1979. Saskatoon's Fifth House published his next collection, Correct in this Culture (1985) after he moved to Regina to be the Executive Director of the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild. Returning to Winnipeg, he was the Executive Director of the Manitoba Arts Council from 1993-1997 and helped to found Rhubarb magazine. He is currently employed as the Publishing and Arts Consultant of the Manitoba Department of Culture, Heritage and Tourism. Enns' most recent collection Lucky Man (Hagios, 2005) was nominated for the McNally Robinson Manitoba Book of the Year. He is currently at work on a collection of poems about the war in Afghanistan, where he travelled in May 2008.
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Mondo!Kroetsch: Class Reunion
Featuring Dennis Cooley, David Elias, Margaret Shaw-MacKinnon, Brian MacKinnon, & Victor Enns. Music by The BEAT! Deejays.
Date: Saturday, February 20, 7 pm
Location: Aqua Books (274 Garry Street, between Graham and Portage)
Cost: FREE
The final event of Mondo Kroetsch will feature colleagues and students of Robert Kroetsch sipping cocktails, swaying to tinkly mingling music, and reading works inspired by Robert Kroetsch. Think roast-in-absentia. Think fun.
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