Thursday, February 24, 7:00 pm
Join host Benjamin Dugdale as theyl lead a discussion with featured authors: Ms. Ifeoma Chinwuba (UofA WiR) , Shazia Hafiz Ramji, and Theresa Shea, on the importance of freedom to read a wide range of literature. Thank you to Shelf Life Books for hosting this and other events in partnership with the WGA.
For those of you who missed the event, the recording is now available!
Learn more about Freedom to Read Week HERE
Presenters
Ms. Ifeoma Chinwuba has an M.Sc in Political Science from the University of Lagos, Nigeria. Her career in the foreign service of Nigeria culminated in her appointment as Ambassador to Côte d’Ivoire. Her writing career went in tandem with her diplomatic one. So far, she has published five books. They include three full-sized award-winning novels, a drama in verse and a juvenile novella. Her ‘Waiting for Maria’ was longlisted for The Commonwealth Writers Prize in 2008.
Ms Chinwuba’s diplomatic service transported her to numerous countries. The places that struck her most are The Canadian Rockies, The Rift Valley in Kenya, The Victoria Falls in Zambia and Zimbabwe, the Holy Lands (Israel and Palestine), and the ancient city of Efes in Turkey.
Chinwuba is a poet, novelist, essayist and literary critic. She is compiling a chapbook on The Pandemic & Me. Entries close on 15 January 2022. For Black History Month, she will, on 3 February 2022, curate a recital of poems of African Masters.
Shazia Hafiz Ramji was the winner of the 2021 Poetry and Prose prize presented by the Southern Alberta Art Gallery, a finalist for the 2021 National Magazine Awards, and a finalist for the 2021 Mitchell Prize for Faith and Poetry. She is the author of Port of Being. Shazia lives in Calgary and Vancouver, where she is at work on a novel.
Theresa Shea is the author of two novels: The Shade Tree (2021), winner of the Guernica Prize, and The Unfinished Child (2013), a finalist for the Georges Bugnet Award and the Alberta Readers’ Choice Award. She lives in Edmonton. For more information, please visit her website: www.theresashea.com
Benjamin C. Dugdale is a Canadian poet & experimental filmmaker currently living on Treaty 7 territory in rural Alberta. B’s writing can be found in places like GEIST, fillingStation, The Maynard, Plenitude & elsewhere. B also sometimes publishes as bonny CD. Their chapbook “Saint Rat O’Sphere’s Formica Canticle Poems” was published in 2020 by Anstruther Press. Their full-length collection, The Repoetic: After Saint Pol Roux, is available from Gordon Hill Press in Spring 2023. Their updates can be found at benjamindugdale.ca.