Pefect for Canadians and visitors alike, Hawthorn's book is an inspring look back at 1967. It uncovers the strange and unique ways that individual Canadians marked the occasion, the birth of traditions, and the moment when Canadians discovered who they were and got a hint about who they were to become in this modern age.
What better way to celebrate the sesquicentennial than looking back at the centennial?
Book Launch: The Summer BookSee more
Sunday, July 9th
7:00 pm at Martin Batchelor Gallery
712 Cormorant St
Doors at 6:30 • Free Admission
Focusing on the joys of summer, The Summer Book features new creative non-fiction by twenty-four exceptional and award-winning British Columbian writers: warm and wonderful tales, meditations on nature, memories, humour and seasonal anticipations. The Summer Book – a refreshing collection readers can relax and dip into, anytime of year. A small positive treasure in this complex crazy century.
Contributions by Luanne Armstrong, Kate Braid, Brian Brett, Anne Cameron, Trevor Carolan, Claudia Cornwall, Daniela Elza, Carla Funk, Jane Hamilton, Eve Jospeh, Des Kennedy, Theresa Kishkan, Chelene Knight, Fiona Lam, Grant Lawrence, J.J. Lee, Sarah De Leeuw, Peter Levitt, Christine Lowther, Pearl Luke, Susan McCaslin, Briony Penn, D.C. Reid, and Harold Rhenisch. Drawings by Gary Sim, Peter Haase, and Briony Penn.
See some of our past events below:
Book Launch: Yvonne Blomer • Karen EnnsSee more
Wednesday, June 14th
7:30 pm (doors at 7) at Munro's Books
Free to Attend
Join us for the launch of two exciting new books from Victoria’s Poet Laureate, Yvonne Blomer, and local poet Karen Enns.
Follow Yvonne’s 4,000 km journey through Southeast Asia by bicycle in her travel memoir, Sugar Ride: Cycling from Hanoi to Kuala Lampur. Part love story, part cycling adventure, Sugar Ride explores the love of cycling and the roads it can pull you up, down and along.
In her third collection of poetry, Cloud Physics, Karen Enns ranges over endings of many kinds: cultural, ecological, and personal. But the poems are also replete with affirmations of love, of music and language, and of our rootedness in place and history.
Poetry Launch: Lorna Crozier • Rhonda GanzSee more
Tuesday, May 30th
7:30 pm (doors at 7:00) at Munro's Books
Free to Attend
Join us for the launch of two exciting collections of poetry from award-winning poet Lorna Crozier and debut Victoria poet Rhonda Ganz!
In her newest collection, What the Soul Doesn't Want, Lorna Crozier describes the passage of time in the way that only she can. Her arresting, edgy poems about aging and grief are surprising and invigorating: a defiant balm. At the same time, she revels in the quirkiness and whimsy of the natural world: the vision of a fly, the naming of an eggplant, and a woman who - not unhappily - finds that cockroaches are drawn to her.
In her debut collection, Frequent, Small Loads of Laundry, poet Rhonda Ganz brazenly mixes darks with lights and dares to peg out the quirky and bizarre, both real and imagined, with all seams showing. From spontaneous combustion to suicide, from pterodactyls to pumpkin pie, Ganz is obsessed with the way people behave in moments of intimacy and domesticity. With her sharp wit and painterly abstractions, she pairs the banal with the absurd to expose the flaws of love –the frayed edges of belief and despair. Strung up, these poems are an authentic clothesline of hearsay, fabrication, doomsaying and half-truths. Ganz takes the ordinary, gives it a poke and a spin and snaps it out to dry.
Book Launch: Tom Hawthorn • The Year Canadians Lost Their Minds and Found Their CountrySee more
Tuesday, May 16th
7:30 pm (doors at 7) at Munro's Books
Free to Attend
It happened much like the 2010 Olympics did: an initial period of indifference and cynicism, and then a huge blockbuster party from a normally reserved nation—only this one was nation-wide. In the final weeks leading up to New Year's Day, 1967, Canadians embraced the official plans for celebrating the centennial, and then began making plans of their own: epic canoe trips, dangerous dogsled races, bathtub races, and even one UFO landing pad. Hundreds of other centennial projects can still be found in almost every city and hamlet across Canada, and the climax of the party was Expo 67 held on man-made islands in the middle of the St. Lawrence River near Montreal.
As we approach Canada's 150th anniversary, Tom Hawthorn offers Canadians a look back at the unlikely and inspiring story of the centennial of 1967, richly illustrated with period photos, ephemera, and his own personal stories in addition to a lot of research. As he says in the preface: "Trudeaumania; the state getting out of the bedrooms of the nation; women demanding an equal place in society; and massive changes to the population through immigration—was made possible during Centennial Year... The Canada of 2017 owes more to decisions made in the wake of 1967 than to the negotiations conducted in 1867."
Not only is Tom an award-winning journalist, he is the author of Deadlines: Obits of Memorable British Columbians, and a bookseller here at Munro’s, and we hope you will join us to celebrate (just like we Candians did in '67)!
An Evening with GEORGE SAUNDERSSee more
Saturday, April 8th
7:30 pm at Ambrosia Centre
638 Fisgard St
Tickets $10 | $50 for 2 tickets + book (doors at 7 pm) • cash bar
If you aren't familiar with George Saunders, now is your chance! The author of the bestsellingThe Tenth of December, Saunders is an absurdist, humanist, satirical master of both the essay and the short story. His long-awaited first novel, Lincoln in the Bardo, is garnering huge acclaim, and we are delighted to present an evening with one of our very favourite writers!
A moving and original father-son story Lincoln in the Bardo features none other than Abraham Lincoln, as well as an unforgettable cast of supporting characters, living and dead, historical and invented. It is an astonishing feat of imagination and a bold step forward from one of the most important and influential writers of his generation. Formally daring, generous in spirit, deeply concerned with matters of the heart, it is a testament to fiction’s ability to speak honestly and powerfully to the things that really matter to us. Saunders has invented a thrilling new form that deploys a kaleidoscopic, theatrical panorama of voices to ask a timeless, profound question: How do we live and love when we know that everything we love must end?
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