** Update: Saturday, 7pm. I just finished watching Thomas King on the Writers Fest. Wow...he is so amazing and his big thing is humour for everything and especially addressing Indigenous issues. Yep, humour is what is needed for just about everything.
I really enjoyed this event and very interested in reading more of these poets and possibly the memoires although so much to read...so little time! I was interested because of Lorna Crozier whose poetry I like a lot although since I've stopped teaching I don't seem to be reading poetry. Perhaps time to start again. I arranged for Lorna to come to read at Esquimalt Secondary and she was a tremendous hit. with the students.
In the world of memoir, there is nothing quite like the precision, intimacy and beauty of a poet’s words. In this panel of Governor General Award winners and finalists, masters of their craft join moderator, friend of the Festival and multi-award winning author Aislinn Hunter. Billy-Ray Belcourt reminisces on his kokum and memories of his early life, as well his earliest loves, revelations and grief in A History of My Brief Body; Lorna Crozier discusses her long and devoted marriage to Patrick Lane (and their cats) in Through the Garden; Steven Heighton recounts his time volunteering on the frontlines of the Syrian refugee crisis in Reaching Mithymna. A trifecta of exceptional memoirs bound by the skill of the poets that penned them, this is sure to be a life and love-affirming event with meaningful messages for our modern world.
