Meet the Author Series
This is an opportunity to interact with three exciting, contemporary authors in an intimate setting and an open-ended discussion format so as to embrace the interests of all participants. Be prepared for a series of evenings rife with intellectual stimulation and social camaraderie!
Our Meet the Author Series Seminars
Summer Seminars
Heather Burt, author of Adam's Peak (June 19th, 2008)
Steven Galloway, author of The Cellist of Sarajevo (July 26th, 2008)
Claire Mulligan, author of The Reckoning of Boston Jim (August 23rd, 2008)
Summer Seminar: Claire Mulligan (August 23rd, 2008)
Claire Mulligan
currently lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and three children.
She began writing fiction after graduating from the University of
British Columbia in 1994. Her award-winning short stories have appeared
in many literary publications. Her novel,
The Reckoning of Boston Jim, was shortlisted for the 2008 Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize and long listed for the Giller Prize.
“The
writing is lush and vivid in its detail. It carefully evokes a world
precariously poised between old and new, civilization and savagery. It
is a world in flux, and oftentimes out of balance. In fact, Boston
Jim’s struggle for reckoning is but a microcosm for the larger problems
of humanity, and, as such, his tragic attempt to restore that balance.”
- Backwater Reviews.This is an impeccably researched
historical novel, written with a contemporary hand that will engage
readers from many walks of life. Boston Jim Milroy has lived a life
indelibly scarred and choses to cope by exiling himself to a trappers
life. A simple kindness from Dora Hume affects him deeply and he
becomes obsessed with the notion of recompensing her for the deed.
Time: 7:00 - 10:00 PM
Cost: $35.00 + gst
Summer Seminar: Steven Galloway (July 26th, 2008)
Steven Galloway
was born in Vancouver and raised in Kamloops, BC. He teaches creative
writing at UBC and SFU and lives with his wife and two young daughters
in New Westminster. He is the author of
Finnie Walsh (2000), but is perhaps best known for his novel
Ascension (2003). His most recent novel,
The Cellist of Sarajevo, has been received with rave reviews.
A
wayward shell lands on a bread line and kills twenty-two people. A
cellist witnesses the incident from a window in his flat. He vows to
sit in the hollow where the mortar fell and play once a day for
twenty-two days, in honour of the victims. In this beautiful, haunting
novel, Steven Galloway creates a story that does homage to the dignity
and generosity of the human spirit under extraordinary duress.
“Indelible
imagery and heartbreaking characters give authority to this chilling
story and make human a crisis typically overlooked in literature.” - Kirkus Reviews
Time: 7:00 - 10:00 PM
Cost: $35.00 + gst
Summer Seminar: Heather Burt (June 19th, 2008)
Heather Burt grew up between Montreal and Vancouver. She teaches English and creative writing at Langara College and works as a volunteer mentor for the Vancouver School Board. Her novel,
Adam's Peak, was published in 2007 and was shortlisted for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. She is currently working on her second novel,
Driving, and has recently completed a stage play titled
Olympians.
Adam's Peakis a riveting comedy/tragedy set against compelling landscapes. Readers are sure to recognize friends and neighbours in the complex characters that jump off the pages of this book. The Vantwest and Fraser families have little to do with each other as neighbours, until an accident and an act of terror force them together irrevocably.
Lesley Hughes of the Winnipeg Free Press writes,
“The plot deftly leaps several decades, from the 1940s to the present, longer than that if you count memories, and bridges Great Britain, Sri Lanka, and Canada with a political sophistication worthy of a much more mature writer.”
Time: 7:00 - 10:00 PM
Cost: $35.00 + gst
