It is with great sadness that we share news of the passing of long-time WGA member Vanna Tessier on July 31, 2018. Vanna was a poet and short story writer whose book of short stories Gypsy Drums (Snowappple Press, 1997) was shortlisted for the Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize and the Howard O’Hagan Award for Short Story. Vanna was a devoted patron of the arts who supported the WGA’s Jon Whyte Memorial Essay prize (2006-211) and the Howard O’Hagan Short Story Award (2012-2018).
There will be a Memorial Service at Santa Maria Gorretti Church, 11052 – 90 Street at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, August 25, 2018.
Read Vanna’s full obituary here.
From Vanna’s artist bio on Amazon.ca:
Vanna Tessier writes about the world we live in today. She believes reason and modern technology can enrich the quality of life allowing us to face changes affecting modern society. Her fiction is at times broadcast on CBC Radio and her book reviews appear in The Edmonton Journal and The Edmonton Sun.
Gypsy Drums, her collection of short stories, was a finalist for the Howard O’Hagan Award. Another collection of short fiction, Thistle Creek, appeared before her book Sandweaver. She translated from Italian, The Last Waltz of Chopin, a novel by Gilberto Finzi. In 2002, Peppermint Night won The Poets’ Corner Award.
Her latest book is Shooting Picasso focusing on the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York in 2001. She examines the challenge of survival within a forever mutating environment influenced by the onerous demands of our civilization coping with the threat of terrorism.
The author agrees we could find a refuge within the realm of our imagination leading us to discover a balance between reality as is and as we would like it to be.