Award-winning Author
StoryFest is an annual celebration of writers, readers and storytellers organized by the Greenwood Centre for Living History in Hudson, Quebec. The 2010 festival runs from October 3rd to November 1st, and features writers M.G. Vassanji, Nino Ricci, Claire Holden Rothman, and Margaret Trudeau.
On Tuesday, October 12th at 7:30 pm, Nino Ricci reads from and talks about his work at the Hudson Village Theatre, 28 Wharf Road, in Hudson, Quebec.
Nino Ricci kicks off the Writers’ Alliance of Newfoundland and Labrador’s inaugural Come From Away Reading Series. Sunday, October 3rd, 2010, at The Ship Pub in St. John’s, and Monday, October 4th and at Jennifer’s Bar Room in Corner Brook. Both evenings get underway at 8:00 PM. Hosted by Randall Maggs, the award-winning author of Night Work: The Sawchuk Poems. Admission is free.
The 2010 Kingston WritersFest opens with a tribute to the late Paul Quarrington. Nino joins Dave Bidini, Wayson Choy, Kim Moritsugu, Stuart Ross, Steven Heighton, Dan Hill, Cordelia Strube, Jim Garrard, Judith Keenan, and the Porkbelly Futures for an evening of reminiscence and story celebrating a legacy that includes Paul’s posthumously released CD The Songs and memoir Cigar Box Banjo.
7:30 – 10:30 pm on Wednesday, September 22 in the Regina Rosen Auditorium of the Grand Theatre, 218 Princess Street, Kingston.
Nino joins Kate Taylor, Jacob Scheier, Elizabeth Abbott, and other literary powerhouses at the historic Sharon Temple in East Gwillimbury for the 2010 Words Alive Literary Festival. Saturday, September 18th, 2010. The fun begins at 11 AM and goes all day.
Built in the early 1800s by a sect of lapsed Quakers known as the Children of Peace, Sharon Temple has the double distinction of being both a National Historic Site and a National Peace Site. Couple that with beautiful grounds and great literature, and you’ve got all the ingredients for a kick-ass déjeuner sur l’herbe.
Join Alistair MacLeod and Nino Ricci at the Tombstone Interpretive Centre for short readings and a public reception. 2:00 pm Sunday September 12th, 2010 in Tombstone Territorial Park, Yukon.
An evening with Rebecca Belmore, IAIN BAXTER&, Alistair MacLeod and Nino Ricci featuring artist talks, readings, and a panel discussion on the sense of place in art. Hosted by Jackie Olson. Saturday, September 11th, 2010, at the Dänojà Zho Cultural Centre in Dawson City, Yukon.
Windsor Printmakers Forum’s Sense of Place exhibit continues its world tour with a stop in the Yukon Territory, land of gold rushes, calls of the wild, and the poetry of Robert Service, who in “The Cremation of Sam McGee” famously transposed a couple of Lake Laberge’s vowels for the sake of a particularly pleasing internal rhyme.
In conjunction with the exhibition, the original Sense of Place crew of Alistair MacLeod, IAIN BAXTER&, and Nino Ricci will be hooking up with renowned multidisciplinary artist Rebecca Belmore for the Artists & Storytellers Colloquium. Come join the fun, on Thursday, September 9th, 2010 at 6:00 PM, at the Yukon Arts Centre, 300 College Drive, Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. On September 11th, the colloquium moves on to the Dänojà Zho Cultural Centre in Dawson City.
There are strange things done
in the midnight sun,
by the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee.— from “The Cremation of Sam McGee”
Harbourfront’s International Festival of Authors puts the muse back in amusement park as it travels to the Canadian National Exhibition. See Nino and fellow author Steven Heighton brave death-defying leaps of imagination and suspensions of disbelief as they read from their recent works. 3 PM Thursday, September 2nd, 2010 at the CNE’s Direct Energy Centre. Stick around until 5:30 and catch Linwood Barclay and Louise Penny as well. Hosted by Bert Archer.
Guelph’s The BookShelf hosts a grab-bag literary night in which Trillium Award winners and nominees past and present combine a teaser for September’s Eden Mills Literary Festival with a tribute to one of the festival’s stalwarts, the late Paul Quarrington. Nino joins Alexandra Leggat, Susan Holbrook and Cordelia Strube. 7 PM on Wednesday, August 18th, 2010 in The BookShelf’s EBar, 41 Quebec Street, Guelph, Ontario. 519-821-3311.
The Festival of the Written Arts in Sechelt, B.C. is Canada’s longest running summer gathering of Canadian writers and readers and one of the best venues for getting up close and personal with writers who are often so dazzled by the fresh air and sunshine that they forget to hide out in the hospitality suite. This year’s participants include Bonnie Burnard, Ian Brown, and Brian Brett, and that’s just the Bs. Further up the alphabet you’ll find, among others, Karen Connelly, Lawrence Hill, Jack Hodgins, Annabel Lyon, Shani Mootoo, Joan Thomas, and Jack Whyte.
Come to the festival writers love, and not just because of the stunning setting, the huge audiences, the great hosting, the stomach-churning ride up from Vancouver in a six-seater seaplane, or the chance for a five-star meal at the nearby Blue Heron Inn courtesy of a well-heeled patron of the arts. (Nino is currently taking offers.) What they love above all is that they get a whole hour on stage, all to themselves, to do WHATEVER THEY WANT. Talk about trust.
Nino’s hour begins at 8:30 PM on Friday, August 13th, in the Rockwood Centre (though there is no telling where it will end).
The 2010 Stephen Leacock Summer Festival finishes off with the Paul Quarrington Levee, with readings by Joe Kertes, Antanas Sileika, Kim Moritsugu, and Nino Ricci, a screening of Paul Quarrington: Life in Music, and a live performance by Paul’s band Porkbelly Futures. Sunday, July 25th, 2010 at 2 PM, on the grounds of the Leacock Museum overlooking beautiful Lake Couchiching. Afterwards join Paul’s lifelong friend Dan Hill in concert at the Orillia Opera House at 8 PM.
Check out the Leacock Museum web site for a series of video tributes to Paul Quarrington produced by BookShorts.
