Bonnechere Authors Festival
Plans are shaping up for the 7th Annual Bonnechere Authors Festival in July. This year, all four evenings will once again be held in Eganville, at St. James Church Hall. We have four interesting and accomplished authors lined up for this year's festival. Although recognized with prizes and reviewers' praise, they are still on the edge of being well known. You can see them here first!
July 8: Anthony Da Sa July 15: Andrew Pyper July 22: Glenda Ferguson Tippins July 29: Priscila Uppal
Anthony Da Sa's first book, Barnacle Love, was a finalist for the 2008 Giller prize. The book is a collection of interlinked stories described as “moving between folk tale, myth and narratives of contemporary displacement”. They follow the story of a Portuguese fisherman who washes up half-drowned on the shores of Newfoundland and goes on to build a life in Toronto's Little Portuegal. The stories are resonant tales of fathers and sons and parental expectations, and “have immense emotional and truthful powers”.
Award-winning Toronto author Andrew Pyper
treads the fine line between mystery genre and
literary fiction. His fourth
book, The Killing Circle,
follows a reporter who
joins a writers'group after his wife
dies. As he struggles to find the book he feels
has within him, a string of unsolved murders
takes place, all seeming to lead back to him.
The New York Times said it could be “either a
classy ghost story or the tale of one man's
mental breakdown…a terrific yarn”.
www.andrewpyper.com
Glenda Ferguson Tippins was born and raised in Renfrew, the third youngest in a family deeply rooted in the Ottawa Valley. Her novels The Simple Hand of Fate, A Time of Reckoning and Keeper of the Dream (Spring 2009) follow the Wieland family through good and hard times, starting with Cantly, a young girl who defies her family when she falls in love with an “unsuitable” boy. (www.glendafergusontippins.com)
Priscila Uppal is a novelist, poet and professor of English at York University, with five books of poetry (one a finalist for the prestigious 2007 Griffin Prize) and two novels published. Her most recent novel, To Whom It May Concern, has been likened to a “modern, multicultural retelling of King Lear”, exploring the comedies and tragedies of miscommunications and betrayals within a colourful family. (www.priscilauppal.ca)
Single tickets are $15, available at the door the night of the reading. Series passes for all four readings are $55, available from the Literacy Plus office till the end of June, and at the door July 8. Come at 7:30 p.m. for dessert and coffee, and to browse the author's books. Readings start at 8:00 p.m.
Clear Language and Essential Skills Workshops
On Tuesday, May 5, the Renfrew County Literacy Service Planning (LSP) committee will host two workshops for Employment Ontario agencies in Renfrew County, one on Clear Language and the other on Essential Skills.
The workshops follow up on an information meeting the LSP held last September for other Employment Ontario agencies. At that time, agencies asked for more information about identifying and serving people who may have problems with reading. Making printed materials easier to read is one effective way to do this. As well, knowledge of Essential Skills will help agencies better understand the needs of their clients.
Lesley Hamilton, coordinator of the LOCS network, will lead both workshops. Agencies will bring samples of their own printed information for a hands-on experience in using Clear Language principles.