Monday, November 18 | Doors 5:00 p.m. with program 6:00 p.m. sharp
Wurst Restaurant at 2437 4th Street SW Calgary, AB
Tickets $15 WGA early-bird – by Friday, October 4
$20 after October 4 | $25 at the door
We have extended the early bird rate of $15 for WGA members who purchase tickets by midnight, Friday October 4.
**Advance tickets strongly recommended as this event has sold out the past three years**
For tickets and presenter bios please visit: frontiercollege.akaraisin.com/ui/Calgary2019/tickets
Our 2019 MC is Russell Bowers, Host of CBC Radio’s Daybreak Alberta—and our Book Defenders include Cobra Collins (defending Dual Citizens by Alix Ohlin); Shaun Hunter (defending Lampedusa by Steven Price), Taylor Lambert (defending The Innocents by Michael Crummey); Naomi K. Lewis (defending Immigrant City by David Bezmozgis); Anne Logan (defending Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club by Megan Gail Coles) and Malcolm Mooney (defending Reproductionby Ian Williams).
Frontier College is Canada’s original and oldest charitable literacy organization, delivering programs to high-needs communities across the country, including inner city schools, public housing sites, community centres, women’s shelters and summer camps for indigenous children.
All proceeds from Calgary’s Giller Light Bash support literacy education in Alberta. Please help us raise funds for this important cause while celebrating local talent and Canadian literature! The GLB is Calgary’s most well-attended book party, offering six amazing book defenders, live broadcast of the prize announcement on big screens, animated panel discussion—and a generous array of raffle and silent auction prizes.
2019 HOST & BOOK DEFENDER BIOS
Russell Bowers, Host of CBC Radio’s Daybreak Alberta
Russell has been a broadcast professional for over 30 years, having hosted radio shows nationally and regionally from coast to coast. He has conducted over 12,000 interviews with political leaders, international figures and the people next door. Noted for his conversational style, Russell has worked as a print columnist, videographer, speechwriter, publicist, and university instructor — and has been an award-winning actor and record producer.
Cobra Collins, Spoken Word Artist & Poet
Cobra is a Calgary based Metis poet of significant height. She was the captain and coach of Calgary’s 2016 Slam team, representing our city on a national level at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word and is a member of Calgary’s Inkspot Spoken Word Collective, home of Calgary’s official poetry Slam. Cobra has participated in several Nationwide Spoken Word festivals, as well as collaborated with artists of different backgrounds for dance (Fluid Movements Arts Festival) and performance festivals (IKG 1 ! Live Performance Festival).
Shaun Hunter, Author
Shaun is the author of Calgary through the Eyes of Writers (Rocky Mountain Books, 2018), a literary journey around Calgary from its frontier beginnings to the contemporary city. Shaun shares her passion for Calgary’s literary landscape on guided walks, presentations, and her blog, and as a member of the Calgary reading circle for Project Bookmark Canada. She has written five biographies for young readers, and her award-nominated personal essays have appeared in literary magazines, anthologies, and The Globe and Mail. Based in Calgary, Shaun turns up local literary treasures at www.shaunhunter.ca.
Naomi K. Lewis, Author
Naomi’s most recent book, Tiny Lights for Travellers is a current (October 2019) finalist for the Governor General Literary Nonfiction Award. Her previous books are the novel Cricket in a Fist, the short story collection I Know Who You Remind Me Of, and the anthology Shy, which she co-edited with Rona Altrows. Her magazine writing has been shortlisted for provincial and national awards, and she has served as writer in residence at the Calgary Public Library and the University of New Brunswick. She is at work on her second novel.
Anne Logan, Book Reviewer
Anne Logan has worked in the Canadian book industry for ten years as a publicist, literary festival programmer, and book reviewer. As book columnist for CBC Calgary, she reviews books on air for The Homestretch and occasionally on TV. You can catch her book club once per month at the Memorial Park Library and visit her book blog ivereadthis.com to read her latest reviews of all the recent book releases in Canada. Her book reviews have appeared in Alberta Views magazine and beyond. She’s a Past President for the Writers’ Guild of Alberta, and one last random fact is that she blogged for the Calgary Herald about the composting program when it first came to our city.
Taylor Lambert, Journalist
Taylor Lambert is an award-winning journalist and the author of four literary nonfiction books. His 2017 book Darwin’s Moving, which explored class divides through the lives of furniture movers, won the W.O. Mitchell Prize. In Rising, his account of the devastating 2013 Alberta flood, Lambert told the story of the disaster through multiple narratives with differing perspectives of events. His work has appeared in Maisonneuve, Alberta Views, Vice News, the Globe and Mail, the National Post, The Sprawl, Avenue and elsewhere. He stubbornly lives in Calgary, where he hosts a podcast called The Calgarian.
Malcolm Mooney, Interdisciplinary Artist
Malcolm Mooney is an artist, poet, singer and lyricist, and one of the most celebrated figures in contemporary music circles. He was the original vocalist with the seminal late-1960s/1970s German rock band CAN. Mooney’s recordings with Can remain among the most influential of the past forty years. Malcolm Mooney has performed and exhibited his artwork extensively over the past thirty years; most recently with gigs in Paris, New York, London, and Los Angeles and shows at White Columns Gallery in NYC and at Skyline College Art Gallery in San Bruno California. Malcolm Mooney is an instructor of abstract painting at Alberta University of the Arts and he received an MFA from California State University in 1987 and a BFA from Boston University’s School of Fine Arts and Applied Arts in 1979.