Welcome to the Brandon Aboriginal Literary Festival, Oct 25-27, at Brandon University!
http://www.brandonu.ca/news/article.asp?A_ID=1445
Brandon University is delighted to announce a three-day Aboriginal Literary
Festival at BU, taking place from Thursday evening, October 25, to Saturday
evening, October 27, featuring 25 spectacularly talented and award-winning
Aboriginal writers from across Canada!
Writers featured at the Festival will include the grandmother of Aboriginal
publishing in Canada, Maria Campbell, whose groundbreaking memoir Halfbreed
has become an international bestseller and literary classic: Tomson Highway,
internationally celebrated award-winning novelist and playwright (Dry Lips
Oughta Move to Kapuskasing) and cabaret performer, and 2007 Stanley Knowles
Distinguished Guest Professor in the Arts at BU: Beatrice (Culleton)
Mosionier, whose memoir In Search of April Raintree is taught in
universities around the globe: Louise Halfe, award-winning poet (Blue
Marrow) and Poet Laureate of Saskatchewan: Eden Robinson, award-winning
fiction writer (Monkey Beach): and Erroll Kinistino, playwright and actor
(North of 60, Corner Gas).
Other renowned and award-winning writers who will be appearing at the
Festival include Joanne Arnott, Marie Annharte Baker, Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm,
Warren Cariou, Rosanna Deerchild, Paul DePasquale, Marilyn Dumont, Kristina
Fagan, Emma LaRocque, Lorraine Mayer, Neal McLeod, Duncan Mercredi, Daniel
David Moses, Yvette Nolan, Armand Garnett Ruffo, Darrell Racine, Gregory
Scofield, Richard Van Camp, and Katherena Vermette.
Participating writers will be reading from their published works and talking
about their work. We will be selling books by the authors and also featuring
tables by Aboriginal organizations.
There will be four panel discussions at the Festival, on the following
topics: “Life and Writing (Women)” and “Life and Writing (Men),” “Seven
Porcupines into the Future,” and “The Bawdy of Humour.” Most of the writers
will be attending the whole Festival. Saturday evening will feature a
social with musical entertainment by Aboriginal People's Choice Award-winning
blues singer Billy Joe Green.
Brandon University is a small Liberal Arts University in southwestern
Manitoba, with numerous strong Aboriginal programs, including Native
Studies, Aboriginal Visual Arts, Aboriginal Counselling, Northern Teacher
Education (BUNTEP) and a Program for the Education of Native Teachers
(PENT). Our library holdings include the largest collection of Aboriginal
literature in the world. Twenty-five per cent of BU students are First
Nations and Métis. BU is thus ideally situated to host what promises to be
an important historic event, celebrating contemporary Aboriginal literary
culture in Canada.
The Festival is hosted by the BU Faculty of Arts (Native Studies, Creative
Writing) and the John E. Robbins Library. Our generous co-sponsors include
Brandon University, Christie Foundation, the Canada Council for the Arts,
the Manitoba Writers Guild, the Manitoba Association of Playwrights,
Manitoba Culture, Heritage and Tourism (Aboriginal Arts), the Brandon
Friendship Centre, and the Manitoba Métis Federation (Southwest Region), the
Brandon Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation, and Root Sky Productions.
Admission is free and everyone is welcome!
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