Otter Books is hosting a series of six readings and book-signing events entitled “Take a Local Author Home for Christmas.” With so much amazing talent right in our backyard, why look any further when searching for your next read or that perfect Christmas gift?
The signings kick off with a double billing poetry and prose night with Tom Wayman and Ernest Hekkanen on Friday from 7 to 8:30 p.m.
Wayman’s recent books include a poetry collection Dirty Snow and a novel Woodstock Rising. Dirty Snow focuses on how Canada’s military participation in the Afghan War has impacted daily life in southeastern BC. It looks at how the presence and absence of the war in our daily lives — after more than a decade of combat — has affected our relationships, landscapes, and social and personal hopes for the future.
His 2007 collection of stories, Boundary Country, was a contender for the 2012 One Book One Kootenay competition.
Wayman taught English and writing locally at Nelson’s David Thompson University Centre and the Kootenay School of the Arts, as well as at a number of other universities and colleges, most recently the University of Calgary. He has been writer-in-residence at the University of Toronto, University of Alberta and the University of Windsor, among other institutions. Wayman has lived in Winlaw since 1989.
Ernest Hekkanen is editor-in-chief of The New Orphic Review and co-curator of the home-based New Orphic Gallery. In addition, he is a poet, short story writer, novelist, essayist, playwright, anthologist, reviewer, publisher, printmaker, painter, sculptor and carver. He has published 44 books. The latest include Flesh and Spirit: The Rasputin Meditations, All Night Gas Bar, and Of a Fire Beyond the Hills (a finalist for the George Ryga Award, 2008).
The authors will be reading from their works and refreshments will be served, so come out and enjoy an evening of literary delights.
Further events include an evening with authors Deryn Collier and Shelley Adams.
This promises to be a lot of fun, with Collier reading from her acclaimed mystery novel, Confined Spaces, and Adams talking about the creation of her three runaway bestselling Whitewater Cooks cookbooks. There will be a sampling of delectable treats from her recipes, and altogether this will be an evening not to be missed (7 to 8:30 p.m. December 7).
On December 8 from 1 to 3 p.m., Blaise Enright will be at Otter Books signing copies of 111 West Coast Literary Portraits, a gorgeous new coffee table book featuring rare portraits of well-known and emerging writers who have lived in BC, accompanied by excerpts of their writing.
The third evening event will be on December 14, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. when Rosa Jordan, author of Far From Botany Bay, will read from her books, the latest two being a novel, The Woman She Was, and a travelogue, Cuba Unspun, both set in Cuba. This may be accompanied by slides, and will definitely involve refreshments.
The final author event will take place on December 15 at 3 to 5 p.m. when Anne DeGrace will be in the store signing copies of all her books, including the fresh-off-the-press paperback edition of her latest novel Flying with Amelia.
Otter Books is located at 398 Baker Street, Nelson.