SPRING READINGS 2024
Come one; come all to the Marda Loop Community Association Hall for the illuminating book talks below. Doors open at 9 for coffee, cookies, and conversation. Presentations begin at 9.30am (with the exception of Wednesday May 15 --start time 9am). Admission $15 at door.
Wednesday April 17, start time 9.30am
Book: Claire Keegan's "Small Things Like These"
Presenter: Sharon Butala
Keegan's short but by no means small tale of an ordinary man haunted as much by his ghosts as by his desire to do the right thing was shortlisted in 2022 for the Booker and Rathbone Folio Prizes and awarded the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction. A story both intensely particular and powerfully universal, told with exquisite precision, "Small Things Like These" reminds us that individual acts can challenge oppressive social institutions.
Sharon Butala, born in Nipawin, Saskatchewan, is the author of twenty books of fiction and nonfiction, numerous essays and articles, some poetry, and five produced plays. She published her first novel in 1984, Country of the Heart, which was nominated for the Books in Canada First Novel Award, followed closely by a collection of short stories, Queen of the Headaches (shortlisted for the Governor General's Award). After graduating from the University of Saskatchewan, she taught English in Saskatchewan, British Columbia, and Nova Scotia. She eventually returned to Saskatoon, before moving near Eastend, Saskatchewan, to live on her husband, Peter Butala’s ranch. Since her husband's death in 2007 and after 33 years on the land, Sharon now lives and writes in Calgary, Alberta. Literary Kaleidoscope is honoured to have her speak to us about Keegan's "Small Things Like These"
Wednesday May 15: NOTE START TIME WILL BE 9am***Doors open at 8.30**
Book: Daniel Innes and Christina Wong's "Denison Avenue"
Presenter: Dr. Sarah Banting
Championed by Naheed Nenshi on Canada Reads, Denison Avenue combines visual art, fiction, and the endangered Toisan dialect to create a book like none other. Set in Kensington Market, Toronto, following the aging bottle-collector, Wong Cho Sum, Denison Avenue asks readers to contemplate loss, gentrification, and the barriers that Chinese Canadian elders in particular confront in big cities.
A member of Mount Royal University's English department, with research and teaching interests in Canadian literature and academic writing in literary studies, Dr. Banting returns to Literary Kaleidoscope to illuminate for us the distinctive features of Innes and Wong's hybrid text.
Literary Kaleidoscope, Calgary is a longstanding volunteer organisation of and for book-lovers that supports reading, discussion and writing through monthly meetings, guest speakers, and by offering annual awards to graduate and undergraduate students who have produced the best creative and critical work at Calgary and Mount Royal universities.
There are no membership requirements; there is no need to sign up. Just show up at the
Marda Loop Community Centre, 3130 16th St SW, the third Wednesday of the month, from September through November, and January through May. Doors open at 9.00am. Come early; have some coffee or tea, and cookies. Feel free to bring your friends, partners, and kin. Presentations, including Q and A, begin at 9.30 and run for approximately an hour. Admission is $15, the proceeds of which fund student scholarships, speaker honoraria, hall rental, insurance, and libations.
Books under discussion are available for purchase at Owl's Nest Books, Britannia Plaza, 803 49 Ave SW., as well as at each Literary Kaleidoscope gathering.
Literary Kaleidoscope, Calgary is brought to you by Rosemary Buckland, Jane Galway, Kelly Hewson, Kally Krylly, Hope Smith, and Brigid Stewart
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