Thursday, April 13, 7:00 pm
ShelfLife Books, 1302 4 Street SW, Calgary
Free to attend.
Join us for readings from the three finalists of the City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize: Suzette Mayr, Vivek Shraya (joining virtually), and Joshua Whitehead.
Along with readings from these three fantastic authors, you can expect bar service and light snacks.
Free. No registration required. All are welcome.
This prize is part of the annual Calgary Awards, honouring incredible Calgarians in 13 categories. The final recipient will be announced June 14, 2023, during The Calgary Awards ceremony.
Read the announcement from The Calgary Newsroom about the book prize finalists HERE.
Meet the Authors
SUZETTE MAYR is the author of six novels including her most recent, The Sleeping Car Porter, winner of the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Award, and nominee for the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, and the Republic of Consciousness Prize. Mayr’s other novels have won the ReLit Award and City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize, and been nominated for the Commonwealth Prize for Best Book in the Canada-Caribbean Region, the Writers’ Guild of Alberta’s Best First Book and Best Novel Awards, and the Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBT Fiction. Mayr has done inter-disciplinary work with Calgary theatre company Theatre Junction, and visual artists Lisa Brawn and Geoff Hunter. Mayr teaches Creative Writing at the University of Calgary.
VIVEK SHRAYA is an artist whose body of work crosses the boundaries of music, literature, visual art, theatre, and film. Her album Part-Time Woman was nominated for the Polaris Music Prize, her music on HBO Max’s Sort Of is nominated for a Canadian Screen Award, and her best-selling book I’m Afraid of Men was heralded by Vanity Fair as “cultural rocket fuel.” She is also the founder of the award-winning publishing imprint VS. Books, which supports emerging BIPOC writers. A seven-time Lambda Literary Award finalist, Vivek has been a brand ambassador for MAC Cosmetics and Pantene. She is a director on the board of the Tegan and Sara Foundation, and is currently adapting her debut play, How to Fail as a Popstar, as a digital series with CBC.
JOSHUA WHITEHEAD is a Two-Spirit, Oji-Cree member of Peguis First Nation (Treaty 1). He is the author of full-metal indigiqueer (Talonbooks 2017), Jonny Appleseed (Arsenal Pulp 2018), Making Love with the Land (Knopf Canada 2022), and the forthcoming Indigiqueerness: a Conversation about Storytelling (Athabasca UP 2023). He is also the editor of Love after the End: an Anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction (Arsenal Pulp 2020). Currently, Whitehead is an Assistant Professor at the University of Calgary (Treaty 7) where he is housed in the departments of English and International Indigenous Studies.