Michael Winter (2)

Dispatches From the Front by David Halton, Paddlenorth by Jennifer Kingsley, Creatures of the Rock by Andrew Peacock, Into the Blizzard by Michael Winter

Brunch takes place in the Vanity Fair Ballroom on the 2nd floor of the King Edward Hotel. Tickets are $50.00 each (taxes included).

Please call 416-361-0032 with your credit card information to reserve a ticket.

Dispatches From the Front by David Halton
As senior war correspondent for the CBC during the Second World War, Matthew Halton reported from the front lines and became “the voice of Canada at war.” His gripping, passionate broadcasts chronicled the victories and losses of Canadian soldiers and made him a national hero. In Dispatches from the Front, acclaimed former CBC correspondent David Halton, Matthew’s son, also examines his father’s often tumultuous personal life. He unravels the many paradoxes of his person­ality: the war correspondent who loathed bloodshed yet became addicted to the thrill of battle; the loner who thrived in good company; and, in some ways most puzzling of all, the womanizer with a deep and enduring love for his wife.

Paddlenorth by Jennifer Kingsley
Paddlenorth tells the riveting story of Jennifer Kingsley’s 54 day paddling adventure on the Back River, in the northern wilderness of the subarctic, as she and her five companions battle raging winds, impenetrable sea ice, and treacherous rapids. The perils include rising tensions among the group, but these are tempered by grizzly sightings, icy swims, and the caribou’s summer migration. Woven through this spellbinding narrative are the harrowing accounts of earlier explorers, some of whom perished, but whose traces along the river warn us against romantic notions of the wild. Paddlenorth paints an indelible portrait of the spectacular northern landscape and eloquently explores what wilderness means to us.

Creatures of the Rock by Andrew Peacock
When Andrew Peacock made the move from Ontario to Newfoundland, he thought he was kicking off his career as a newly qualified veterinarian with an adventure in a temporary location. It was certainly an adventure--a whole series of adventures--but there was nothing temporary about it. He practised in Newfoundland for nearly 30 years and is still living there. In fact, he has lived there so long, the locals are starting to think of him as one of them.

Into the Blizzard by Michael Winter
“In June a few years ago I set out to visit some of the World War One battlefields of Europe – the slope and valley and river and plain that the Newfoundland Regiment trained on, and fought over and through and under.” So begins Michael Winter’s extraordinary narrative that follows two parallel journeys, one laid on top of the other. The first journey is that of the young men who came from Newfoundland’s outports, fields, villages and narrow city streets to join the storied regiment that led many of them to their deaths at Beaumont-Hamel during the Battle of the Somme on July 1, 1916. The second journey is the author’s, taken a century later as he walks in the footsteps of the dead men to discover what remains of their passage across land and through memory. (Jenni_Canuck)… (more)

Three award-winning writers weigh in on the WWI Canadian experience, both on the homefront and across the ocean. Charlotte Gray hosts and moderates.

J.L. Granatstein is Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus in the department of History at York University. His scholarship has won numerous awards, including the J.B. Tyrrell Historical Medal, the Vimy Award and the Pierre Berton Award. In 1996, he became an Officer of the Order of Canada. Granatstein has received honorary degrees from the University of Western Ontario, the University of Calgary and McMaster University, among others. He presents The Greatest Victory: Canada’s One Hundred Days, 1918. This fascinating narrative tells the story of the Canada-led offensive that began on August 8, 1918 and ended with Armistice on November 11.

Charlotte Gray is one of Canada’s preeminent biographers and historians. She is the recipient of many awards and is a Member of the Order of Canada. Gray presents her latest work of non-fiction, The Massey Murder: A Maid, Her Master and the Trial that Shocked a Country, which was shortlisted for the RBC Taylor Prize. The book tells the sensational true story of Carrie Davies, the maid who shot a member of one of Canada’s wealthiest families in 1915.

David Macfarlane has won numerous National Magazine and National Newspaper Awards. His novel Summer Gone was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and won the Chapters/Books in Canada First Novel Award. His most recent novel, The Figures of Beauty, was met with great acclaim. He currently writes a weekly column in the Toronto Star. Macfarlane presents his memoir, The Danger Tree: Memory, War, and the Search for a Family's Past, which won the Canadian Authors Association Award for Non-Fiction. Weaving together the major events of the 20th century in Newfoundland, Macfarlane brings this storied region to life with wit, insight and affection.

Michael Winter is the author of numerous acclaimed novels, including The Architects are Here, which was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and The Death of Donna Whalen, which was nominated for the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. He is also the recipient of the Writers' Trust Notable Author Award. Winter presents his non-fiction debut, Into the Blizzard: Walking the Fields of the Newfoundland Dead, a uniquely gripping account of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment who were all but annihilated 100 years ago during the Battle of the Somme in World War I.

Saturday, November 1, 2014 - 4:00 PM
Brigantine Room, 235 Queens Quay West, Toronto M5J 2G8

Cost: $18/$15 supporters/FREE students & youth 25 and under (Jenni_Canuck)… (more)

The past and the present. Fiction and fact. The told and the untold. All have ways of merging and blending, of blurring the landscapes of our modern Canadian life. From the Battle of the Somme to the reflections of an elderly athlete, Canadian storytellers remind us how we’re shaped not only by our contemporary lives, but by the past of our country. Hosted and moderated by Brian Francis.

Dionne Brand is a poet and novelist and was Toronto’s third Poet Laureate from 2009–2012. Her most recent book of poetry, Ossuaries, won the Griffin Poetry Prize, and her literary honours include the Governor General’s Literary Award, the Trillium Book Award and the 2006 Harbourfront Festival Prize for her contribution to the world of books and writing. She presents her latest novel, Love Enough, about the love between lovers, friends and for the places we live in. It is a profoundly modern work that speaks to the most fundamental questions of how we live now.

Brian Francis’ most recent novel, Natural Order, was selected by the Toronto Star, Kobo and Georgia Straight as a Best Book of 2011. His first novel, Fruit, was a 2009 Canada Reads finalist.

Joseph Kertes was born in Hungary, but escaped with his family to Canada after the revolution of 1956. His first novel, Winter Tulips, won the Stephen Leacock Award for Humour. His third novel, Gratitude, won a Canadian Jewish Book Award and the U.S. National Jewish Book Award for Fiction. Kertes founded Humber College’s distinguished creative writing and comedy programmes, and is currently the dean of creative and performing arts. He presents The Afterlife of Stars. An intimate and compelling novel of revolution and family, it is about fathers and sons and the tearing down of idols.

Carrie Snyder is the author of two books of short fiction. Her first, Hair Hat, was shortlisted for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award for short fiction, and her second, The Juliet Stories, was a finalist for the 2012 Governor General's Literary Award. Snyder lives in Waterloo, Ontario and blogs as Obscure CanLit Mama. She presents Girl Runner. Part historical page-turner, part contemporary mystery, it is an engaging and endearing story about family, ambition, athletics and the dedicated pursuit of one’s passions.

Michael Winter is the author of numerous acclaimed novels, including The Architects are Here, which was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and The Death of Donna Whalen, which was nominated for the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. He is also the recipient of the Writers' Trust Notable Author Award. Winter presents his non-fiction debut, Into the Blizzard: Walking the Fields of the Newfoundland Dead, a uniquely gripping account of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment who were all but annihilated 100 years ago during the Battle of the Somme in World War I.

Sunday, November 2, 2014 - 2:00 PM
Fleck Dance Theatre, 235 Queens Quay West, Toronto M5J 2G8

Cost: $18/$15 supporters/FREE students & youth 25 and under (Jenni_Canuck)… (more)

Monday October 21st at Alix Goolden Hall
7:30pm, doors open at 7pm
Tickets $5 from Munro's Books

We are delighted to welcome Joseph Boyden, the Giller Prize-winning author of Three Day Road and Through Black Spruce. His new novel, The Orenda, is a devastating yet hauntingly beautiful portrait of an idealistic Jesuit missionary caught between warring Huron and Iroquois tribes.

Joining Joseph Boyden is Michael Winter, author of The Architects are Here and The Death of Donna Whalen. In this new novel, Minister Without Portfolio, Winter explores the very personal effects of war on a civilian who ends up in Afghanistan. (starfishian)… (more)

Michael Winter discusses The Death of Donna Whalen.; Steven Hayward discusses Don't Be Afraid.

Michael Winter returns to the Festival with The Death of Donna Whalen , a mesmerizing work of documentary fiction. In her home on Empire Avenue, Donna Whalen was stabbed 31 times. Her friends, family and neighbours believed it was her abusive boyfriend, Sheldon Troke. But all the evidence is circumstantial, providing a daunting challenge for police and prosecutors—and the course of justice takes many unpredictable twists and turns before the truth is finally revealed. We welcome Steven Hayward to the Festival with Don’t Be Afraid , a darkly comic novel of adolescent anxiety about an unforgettable family caught in a state of mourning. We meet Jim Morrison—not the lead singer of the Doors, but a chubby seventeen-year-old born days after the singer’s death, whose life changes the night the library explodes. With generous humour and characteristic energy, Steven weaves a story of the undercurrents of family life and the unpredictable ways our paths can unfold. A free event. (thebookpile)… (more)

Michael Winter discusses The Death of Donna Whalen.

Newfoundland comes to Kingston! Michael Winter, best known for his Trillium–nominated The Big Why, presents his fifth novel, The Death of Donna Whalen, a “documentary fiction” based on a real–life St. John’s murder. February, by Lisa Moore, takes as its starting point the sinking of the Ocean Ranger off the coast of Newfoundland in 1982. In conversation with fellow Newfoundlander, novelist, and recent Parliamentary Poet Laureate John Steffler. Venue: Islandview Room, Holiday Inn. Tickets: $12.50. (thebookpile)… (more)

Michael Winter

Truman Capote called it a nonfiction novel. Michael Winter calls it documentary fiction. Whatever it’s called, adapting found material to fictional forms is fraught with challenges. What’s appropriate? What’s allowed? Is everything up for grabs? Michael Winter traces the use of the real in his novels and reveals the techniques he’s discovered for converting experience and factual documents into engaging, dramatic story. Venue: Martello Room, Holiday Inn. Tickets: $25.00. (thebookpile)… (more)