Helen Humphreys(July 8), Darren Greer(July 22) and Ami McKay(Aug 5).
The reading series begins on July 8 with award winning novelist and poet Helen Humphreys. Her last novel, The Evening Chorus, was nominated for a Governor General’s Award and was a national bestseller. Nocturne, her very moving memoir about her brother, was a Trillium Book Award finalist. Her previous novels include Coventry, a New York Times Editors’ Choice and Globe and Mail Best Book of the Year; Afterimage, which won the Rogers Writers’ Trust Prize for fiction; Leaving Earth, which won the Toronto Book Award; and The Lost Garden, which was a Canada Reads selection. For more information on Helen and her work, visit her website at www.hhumphreys.com
On July 22 we welcome Thomas Raddall Award winning Darren Greer. His latest novel, Advocate, has been compared to To Kill A Mockingbird; both books look at the effects of a social and historical injustice through the eyes children coming of age. Harper Lee wrote about racial inequality in Depression era Alabama; Greer writes about homophobia during the AIDS crisis in small town Nova Scotia, and he presents a wonderful mix of anger and compassion. Quill and Quire: “Greer patiently elaborates on guilt, regret, and the possibility of forgiveness. And at this, he is wholly successful.” More reviews and information can be found at www.darrenshawngreer.com
Bestselling author Ami McKay is no stranger to the festival, and will read on August 5. Ami has called her latest novel, Witches of New York, “part Victorian fairy tale, part penny dreadful, part feminist manifesto”, and in it she continues to explore women and sexual politics through her own particular historical lens. “Her women go calmly about their business in a hostile world,” writes the Globe and Mail reviewer, “circumventing the system wherever they can, getting up every time they’re knocked down.” With co-writer and director Ken Schwartz, Ami is currently working on Nothing Less!, a play about suffragettes during the First World War, for Two Planks and a Passion Theatre. The play will premiere at Ross Creek Centre for the Arts in July. Readers can find more information about the play and her books at amimckay.com
We look forward to welcoming you at the Meeting House in Port this summer.
