About this Event
Shelf Life Books and Second Story Press are excited to announce the launch of award-winning author Karin Wells' new book,. Join us for an evening celebrating the often untold stories of incredible women in Canada with special guest Aritha van Herk!
Though wearing masks is not mandatory in our store (it is, however, encouraged!), we will require attendees to wear masks when seated in the event area. This means that any refreshments (coffee, water) should not be consumed while seated. Authors/presenters will be able to take their masks off when up at the podium.
ABOUT THE BOOK
There are women throughout Canada’s history who when faced with a locked door, have looked for a key—or a battering ram. Award-winning writer Karin Wells tells the stories of women like the fierce and iconoclastic Mina Benson Hubbard, who finished the mission to map northern Labrador that had killed her explorer husband, and Vera Peters, MD, who revolutionized treatments for Hodgkins lymphoma and breast cancer. Or the painter Paraskeva Clark, child of the Bolshevik Revolution, who rattled staid Toronto when she took Norman Bethune as a lover and spoke out for art as a tool of social change. And have you heard of Charlotte Small, a Métis woman who canoed and trekked 42,000 km—more than three times further than the American explorers Lewis and Clark—and had five babies along the way?
Some were outrageous, some were unassuming, most were not polite, but they all ignored the voices that said women could not paddle a canoe, program a computer, understand the universe, or cure a disease. They lived big lives—often at great cost—and they made a difference.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Karin Wells was born in the UK, grew up in BC and now lives in south west Ontario. She is best known as a CBC radio documentary maker and is a three time recipient of the Canadian Association of Journalist documentary award. Her work has been heard on radio networks around the world and has been recognized by the United Nations. Her first book, , won the 2021 Ontario Historical Society Award's Alison Prentice Award and was short-listed for the 2021 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing.
Aritha van Herk is a cultural commentator as well as an award-winning Canadian novelist whose work has been acclaimed throughout North America and Europe. She first rose to international literary prominence with the publication of , which received the Seal First Novel Award and which was published in North America, the United Kingdom and Europe. Her other novels include ; ; ;. and collect her essays and ficto-criticism. AvH is a member of the Royal Society of Canada, and a Professor who teaches Canadian Literature and Creative Writing in the Department of English at the University of Calgary, but first of all, she is a writer who loves stories.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Shelf Life Books, 1302 4 Street Southwest, Calgary, Canada
CAD 0.00