A book club for conservatives and liberals who want to get out of their echo chambers and bridge the great divide. Buy the book, read it, and come join us for a lively discussion.
 

We’ve all felt it: Whether we’ve argued pointlessly with someone on social media, felt our blood pressure rise as we’ve fought over politics with family members, or simply veered delicately away from certain topics, it’s hard to ignore the chasm between those who hold opposing political views. And it feels like it’s getting worse, that politics are getting uglier, and that reasonable discussion is falling by the wayside.
 

What can ordinary people do to bridge the great divide? We can read books that smart and reasonable people have written in defense of their views and we can talk about these books with others who may or may not wear the political stripes we do.
 

Come to Shelf Life Books for a monthly book club that does just that. Ideally, participants will have read the book assigned for that day, and will come prepared to discuss it. All of the books on our list will be made available by Shelf Life. We will meet from 10 am to noon on the last Saturday of every month.
 

The discussions will be led by Julie Sedivy, a local scholar and writer. Julie has taught linguistics and psychology at the University of Calgary and is the lead author of Sold on Language: How Advertisers Talk to You and What This Says About You. Her articles have appeared in magazines such as Politico, Nautilus, and Scientific American, and she has been a frequent guest on radio stations such as CBC and NPR.

August 25: Notley Nation by Don Braid
 

If you would like to join the Facebook group, click here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/778733788972927/

 

Fiction is worth caring about. Why? Because it can reconnect us to our communities, move us, and challenge us.
Join us for the first meeting to discuss The Emissary by Yoko Tawada (WW Norton 2018). In this dystopian novel, Tawada offers tender insight into the lives of its nuanced characters, delving deeply into the topic of mortality. 
Come on down to Shelf Life Books for a lively discussion.

For more information, visit whyshouldicareaboutfiction.wordpress.com

Join us for the Calgary launch of Stephanie Warner's debut poetry collection, A Violent Streak (Fitzhenry and Whiteside 2018). Stephanie will be joined for her reading by local poets John Creary and Natalie Simpson.

In A Violent Streak, Warner's poems travel along a ragged b-line from the banks of the frozen Yukon River to the sun-blasted hinterlands of Barcelona, and all the way to the ring-roads in Beijing. Anxiety, ritual, the inertia of family trauma, expatriatism and sexual politics collide, testing the virtue of flight, haste and distraction. 

Stephanie Warner was born in 1987 in Kamloops was raised in British Columbia, Alberta and The Yukon. Her poetry has appeared in numerous Canadian literary journals, including the Montreal Poetry Prize Global Anthology, and was awarded second place in the 2015 Prism international poetry contest. She was awarded a faculty studentship at The University of Manchester in 2016, and is working toward a PhD in poetry. She divides her time between England and Spain.
 

John Creary’s debut collection of poetry, Escape from Wreck City, was published in May 2017 (Anvil Press). His poetry has been widely published in Canadian literary journals (The Best Canadian Poetry in English 2011, Arc, Event, CV2, Grain, Fiddlehead, subTerrain, etc), and won 2nd place in Kootenay Mountain Culture’s writing contest (Summer 2016). Additionally, John was awarded the Calgary Literary Kaleidoscope Undergraduate Award for Creative Writing at the University of Calgary. He currently teaches Graphic Design and Digital Arts in Calgary, AB.

Natalie Simpson is the author of accrete or crumble (LINEbooks 2006) and Thrum(Talonbooks 2014). Her poetry has appeared in several anthologies, including The Best Canadian Poetry in English and most recently The Calgary Renaissance. She practices pro bono law and serves on the Calgary Distinguished Writers Program Steering Committee.

 

 

Come to Shelf life Books to hear Pae Veo read from his debut book, Searching for Marilyn Monroe. Pae will be joined for his reading by musician, Jen Heizer on keyboard. Local author Eugene Stickland will be the host.

Hemingway once said, "There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit at a typewriter and bleed." That may be true, but a bottle of wine won’t hurt, and that is essentially what’s to be found in this slim volume of unique and powerful stories and parables. Author Pae Veo explores the life lessons to be learned in his often-Kafkaesque realms: isolation, failure, addiction, moral dilemmas and the absurdities of everyday life. In places where hope rarely ventures, imagination usually does; take it lightly, and drink as much as necessary—but by all means, excuse the blood.

Pae Veo has published many articles in local magazines on topics from education to poetics. He has facilitated a writer’s workshop at St. Mary’s University. 

Jen Heizer has been a member of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra in the choral ensemble. She has achieved a performer’s ARCT level with the Royal Conservatory of Music, and has worked alongside Grammy award winner, Perry Kibble.

Eugene Stickland, born and raised in Saskatchewan, is an author and playwright. His works include Queen Lear, The Piano Teacher, Two Plays, and several others. Visit his website at https://eugenestickland.com/

A safe space to honour and to express the feminine in us all through Poetry, Music, Art, Spoken Word, Comedy, Dance Performance Art, etc. Everyone Welcome!

Event details and performers TBA.

Visit their Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/woolfsvoices/

Join us at Shelf Life Books for an evening with Barbara Pelman as she reads from her latest book, Narrow Bridge (Ronsdale Press 2018). Barbara will be joined for her reading by Joan Shillington.

"All the world is a narrow bridge," states Rabbi Nachman of Bresnov. "The important thing is not to be afraid at all." These poems, Barbara Pelman's third collection, explore bridges both real and metaphoric: the bridge connecting Denmark to Sweden where her family lives; the bridges she has travelled across Europe; and the bridges we build through words and actions to overcome our separateness from one another. The poet writes about lovers, mothers, daughters, ex-husbands, grandchildren, and her attempts to construct solid foundations for the heart to travel easily across time and space. Pelman writes of her love of landscapes and the things in them, and the everyday epiphanies that happen in one's backyard. These are poems that explore the tension between living in one place but wanting to be in another, the losses and freedoms contained in solitude, the process of learning to age gracefully. The act of writing, Pelman says, is itself a talisman against fear, a mantra of boldness and courage to live con spirito.
 

Barbara Pelman is a retired high school English teacher and poet. Her poems have appeared in many literary journals, including Malahat Review, Event, Fiddlehead, Descant, Arc, and Freefall. Her glosa, “Nevertheless” won the 2017 Malahat Open Season Poetry Contest, and previous poems have won Federation of BC Writers’ poetry contests in 2005 and 2014. She has three books of poetry, One Stone (Ekstasis Editions 2005), Borrowed Rooms (Ronsdale Press 2008), and her most recent, Narrow Bridge (Ronsdale Press 2017), as well as a chapbook, Aubade Amalfi, published by Rubicon Press (2016). She lives in Victoria, where she is an active member of the literary community, assisting at Planet Earth Poetry weekly venue, and organizing poetry workshops in her home. 

Joan is a Calgary poet who has been published in numerous literary magazines across Canada. She is the poetry editor for FreeFall Magazine. Her latest book of poetry Folding the Wilderness Within was published by Frontenac House in 2014 and was short-listed for The City of Calgary WO Mitchell Book Prize. 
Visit her website at https://joanshillington.com/
 

Reflections of a Reluctant Memoir Writer: Angie Abdou and Samantha Warwick in Conversation about the Pleasures and Pitfalls of Writing Creative Nonfiction 

(Angie's first nonfiction book (Home Ice: Reflections of a Reluctant Hockey Mom) is forthcoming with ECW Press in September 2018)

This is an offsite event taking place at the Rose & Crown Pub | Private room - top floor
FREE 

Shelf Life Books will act as a bookseller for the event with a pop up shop set up in the reading alcove. 

WGA SOCIAL - You are invited to arrive as early as 6pm to enjoy dinner and drinks with friends in advance of the main program!


EVENT DESCRIPTION:

Join author Angie Abdou and WGA's Samantha Warwick for a conversation about writing creative nonfiction, how to approach writing family life (marriage, parenthood), and how to generate an open and honest narrative without exploiting family members or friends in the process. How can we best navigate the tricky balance between sharing enough personal detail without going too far? And: how can we use our own experiences to arrive at deeper truths about contemporary life in a universally compelling way? Why choose to write memoir instead of fictionalizing life’s fodder in the form of a novel, anyway?! Join us for this honest and practical interview. Angie's first nonfiction book (Home Ice: Reflections of a Reluctant Hockey Mom) is forthcoming with ECW Press in September 2018.

Angie Abdou has a PhD in Creative Writing and is an Associate Professor at Athabasca University. She has published five books of fiction, including the Canada Reads finalist The Bone Cage. Her most recent novel, In Case I Go, was a fiction category finalist for the Banff Mountain Book Award and made "best of 2017" lists by CBC Books and the Writers' Trust. The Vancouver Sun called it "a spectacularly successful novel."

Poetry and Performance – The Single Onion is Calgary’s longest-running poetry reading series, bringing Canada’s finest poets to our dedicated audience at Shelf Life Books.

Readers TBA.

Visit the Single Onion website here: https://thesingleonion.wordpress.com/

 

TALES (The Alberta League Encouraging Storytelling) has operated since 1982 as a non-profit organization promoting the tradition of oral storytelling. Support the art of storytelling today and donate.

This month:
Homecoming: Sail into the Landscape of Homer
Storyteller: Cathie kernaghan
Host: Cassy Welburn

Visit the TALES website for information: http://www.talesalberta.org/

You're invited to the Calgary launch of Neil Surkan's debut poetry collection, On High (McGill-Queen's University Press 2018). Neil will be joined for his reading by Laura Ritland.

All songs have skin, / all skin has holes. On High, Neil Surkan's debut collection of poetry, searches for spirits in myriad places. Wondering how, why, and when to act with a conscience, speakers try out steep hikes, strong drugs, and earnest meditations as they attempt to make meaning in a divided and distracting world. Careful and tense, On High balances on all kinds of tightrope-like lines: a trout fisher revels after riding a moose, a buzzed lover speculates about human connection, new condo owners toast from balcony to balcony, a young woman kicks a hornet's nest into her hometown library's erotica/poetry/religion section. Reaching for the sprigs of our shared humanity, Surkan's poems offer courage and compassion in violent times. As the speaker in "The Branch Breaker" muses, "sarcasm won't dissolve our enemies." On High is a book for the contemporary moment.
 

Neil Surkan’s debut poetry collection, On High, was published by McGill-Queen’s University Press (Fall, 2018). His chapbook, Super, Natural, was published by Anstruther Press (March 2017). His most recent poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Fiddlehead, EVENT, The Antigonish Review, Riddle Fence, CV2, Grain, CAROUSEL, and Prairie Fire. He lives in Calgary, where he’s working on a PhD in English. 

 

Laura Ritland's poems have appeared in magazines across Canada, including The Fiddlehead, CNQ, The Walrus, Maisonneuve, Arc Poetry Magazine, and The Malahat Review. Her debut poetry collection, East and West, was published with Vehicule Press in 2018. A recipient of the 2014 Malahat Far Horizons Award for Poetry, she currently divides her time between Vancouver and the California Bay Area, where she is a PhD student in English at UC Berkeley.
 

A book club for conservatives and liberals who want to get out of their echo chambers and bridge the great divide. Buy the book, read it, and come join us for a lively discussion.

We’ve all felt it: Whether we’ve argued pointlessly with someone on social media, felt our blood pressure rise as we’ve fought over politics with family members, or simply veered delicately away from certain topics, it’s hard to ignore the chasm between those who hold opposing political views. And it feels like it’s getting worse, that politics are getting uglier, and that reasonable discussion is falling by the wayside.

What can ordinary people do to bridge the great divide? We can read books that smart and reasonable people have written in defense of their views and we can talk about these books with others who may or may not wear the political stripes we do.

Come to Shelf Life Books for a monthly book club that does just that. Ideally, participants will have read the book assigned for that day, and will come prepared to discuss it. All of the books on our list will be made available by Shelf Life. We will meet from 10 am to noon on the last Saturday of every month.

The discussions will be led by Julie Sedivy, a local scholar and writer. Julie has taught linguistics and psychology at the University of Calgary and is the lead author of Sold on Language: How Advertisers Talk to You and What This Says About You. Her articles have appeared in magazines such as Politico, Nautilus, and Scientific American, and she has been a frequent guest on radio stations such as CBC and NPR.

September 29: Kingdom of Olives and Ash by Michael Chabon and Eyelet Waldman

October 27: The Patch—by Chris Turner

November 24: Debunking Utopia: Exposing the Myth of Nordic Socialism by Nima Sanandaji


January 26: Winning Power: Canadian Campaigning in the 21st Century by Tom Flanagan

February 23: Shopping for Votes: How Politicians Choose Us and We Choose Them by Susan Delacourt


If you would like to join the Facebook group, click here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/778733788972927/