Supplied – Adrien GuyotFrom railway switchboards to illegal-immigrant marathon runners, Lawrence Hill can tell stories about almost anything.
Those are just some of the stories being told at the University of Alberta in the next few weeks, as four authors from different genres and linguistic backgrounds are participating in the 10th annual Brown Bag Lunch Lecture Series hosted by the Canadian Literature Centre. In their free talks, the authors read from their newly published works.
Hill, whose novel Book of Negroes won the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize in 2007 for best novel or short story collection and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for best book` in 2008, read from his new novel Illegal to a crowd of nearly 120 people in Rutherford Library South on Sept. 11.
Ying Chen, a Chinese-Canadian Francophone author, read at Campus St. Jean on Sept. 16. Winner of the Prix Quebec-Paris as well as the Prix Alfred-DesRochers, Chen read from her extensive collection.
Still upcoming are readings from Rosemary Sullivan on Oct. 21 and Ken Babstock on Nov. 18. Sullivan has been extensively awarded for her work in biography, and her new book, Stalin’s Daughter, is on stands now. Babstock is a Newfoundland-born poet whose 2012 collection, Methodist Hatchet, won the Griffin Poetry Prize.
Jason Purcell, communications officer for the Canadian Literature Centre, said the Brown Bag series fulfills the CLC’s non-academic mandate.
“We’re really trying to foster a discussion of Canadian literature outside of academia,” Purcell said.
“We certainly do want faculty and students to come to the talks, but a lot of our audience is just readers. People come in on their lunchbreak just to see an author they like, which is really cool.”
The CLC, which is also celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, is a Canada-wide initiative comprised of authors, academics and members of the public, and is meant to foster both academic research and community enrichment in Canadian literature.
“The U of A has so many talented writers in the ranks of its students and faculty,” Purcell said.
“I think the Brown Bags and other things we do make (Canadian literature) or the arts in general a bit more visible.”
In addition to the speaker series, the CLC publishes Eighteen Bridges, a magazine which celebrates and publishes the work of local authors several times per year. The CLC also runs student writing contests on a regular basis.
All of these lead into the Kreisel Lecture, taking place later this spring. The Kreisel Lecture is a yearly keynote event that has been given in the past by Canadian literature heavyweights such as Hill, Esi Edugyan, Joseph Boyden, and Tomson Highway. This year, Margaret Atwood will give the talk.
For Purcell, the Brown Bag Lunch series provides an opportunity to explore Canadian Literature for students and everyday people alike.
“I think there aren’t many places like this where you can have a small, intimate reading with some of the biggest names in Canlit,” Purcell said.
“It’s fun to come, scope out the room, grab a coffee and cookie and listen to a reading for an hour. Also, it lets you meet people in a way you normally might not.”
