A series of readings from writers whose works will be featured at the Vancouver Writers Festival, October 19-25, 2020.
Aug 24: The Cat’s Table
The Cat’s Table is a novel by Canadian author Michael Ondaatje first published in 2011. It was a shortlisted nominee for the 2011 Scotiabank Giller Prize. The novel is a coming of age story about an 11-year-old boy’s journey on a large ship’s three-week voyage from Columbo to England, via the Suez Canal and Mediterranean.
Aug 17: Wild Dogs
Multi-award winning Canadian author Helen Humphries will be presenting Rabbit Foot Bill at this year’s Festival, but Francesca is reading from her fourth novel, Wild Dogs.
” … Sure to be a hit with canine lovers everywhere, launches with a bold and poetic narrative voice. It is Alice, describing the circumstances of six strangers who’ve bonded over the loss of their dogs, now roaming as a pack in the woods. She readies us for one of the novel’s extended metaphors – ‘Love is like those wild dogs.’”
“This ‘club’ of abandoned pooch owners – a farfetched idea – is described beautifully by Humphreys. Their individual rituals of calling out for their dogs, the way they introduce themselves to each other (“Our name. The name of the dog. The breed. Who sent the dog away”), and the unique walks each of them used to take with their respective best friends help make these people and their predicament somehow real, and fascinating … ” – Quill and Quire
Listening In
Listening In is broadcast over Cortes Radio, CKTZ 89.5 FM, on select Mondays at 6:30 PM
“My radio show Listening In is my way of carrying on the rich oral tradition of using the breath to animate* the written word off the page and into the air, in our case into the airwaves, and into the omniscient ear of the Universe. Because the Universe is always listening in. Myself and my special guests will be reading brief sample passages of books written by BC authors, published listed by our smaller presses, with notable exceptions to that rule. So we invite you to stick an ear out and listen in. After all, in all probity, reading is a small political act.” – Francesca Gesualdi
Francesca is a resident of Quadra Island, by way of Italy, Montreal, California and Hawaii. She is member and treasurer of the BC Federation of Writers, www.bcwriters.ca, and has been a contributor to both Cortes Radio and Cortes Currents. Listening in is broadcast on Cortes Radio, CKTZ 89.5 FM.