Invitation to WBB Anthology Launch

Please join the book launch party for Writing in the Margins, an anthology containing poetry and prose by Edmonton writers from Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Hungary, Kosovo, Russia, and French Canada, all participants of the Creative Writing Workshop project.

March 08 – Thursday – 7 pm

In the City Room of City Hall

Mistress of Ceremonies: Anna Marie Sewell, Edmonton’s Poet Laureate

Free, fabulous, and fun— invite your friends!

Anthology Launch - Writing in the Margins

Members of the "Writing in the Margins" creative writing workshop has compiled poems and short stories to create a WBB first: an anthology that was published by Writers Beyond Borders. 


The manuscript is going to the printers very soon and there will be a book launch early in March - details to follow!

Two New Books to Check Out!

World on a Maple Leaf: A Treasury of Canadian Multicultural Folktales

Edited by Asma Sayed and Nayanika Kumar

ISBN: 978-1-55378-134-9  

For orders, contact ucca@shaw.ca

Includes stories by WBB members: Melissa Morelli Lacroix, Henry Victor, Natalyia Bukhanova and Dave Schultz.

Spring Over Ashes * Primavera Sobre Cinzas includes poems by Mario Fletcha in English, Portuguese, and Spanish. The poems were written between 2006 and 2011. Mario now dedicates his time to poetry, literature, inspiring freedom and justice, and collaborating for the development and growth of Writers Beyond Borders, in which he has been involved with since the beginning. Order here!

2011-2012 EDMONTON WRITER-IN-EXILE APPLICATION

The Edmonton Writer-in-Exile Committee invites applications for its PEN Canada Writer in Exile residency in 2011-2012. The deadline has been extended to November 15, 2011.

The successful applicant will have the opportunity to write full-time for a year in equipped offices at the Edmonton Public Library and University of Alberta. Some public speaking and community work is expected. The residency will run from 15 October 2011 to 14 October 2012, during which time a financial stipend is provided, paid monthly, totaling $30,000; no additional funds are provided for travel or other expenses. 

Qualifications:  

• The writer has immigrated to Canada from another country as a refugee or as an immigrant seeking freedom of expression;  

• The writer has a significant volume of work (published or unpublished), which may include books in any literary genre, plays, screenplays or published journalism;   

• The writer is aware of the challenges to freedom of expression around the world, and willing to engage Edmontonians in a public discussion about them.  

• The writer has a working knowledge of English. 

For more information, check PEN Canada's website or email Anna-Marie Klassen at the Edmonton Public Library.

New Project - Classical Literature of the World

World literature is not well known in Canada and people have no idea how rich and valuable it is. WBB members come from different cultural backgrounds and as participants of this project, they would talk about the literature of their homeland in short presentations (15-20 minutes). For details, please contact Nataliya @ bukhanova@yahoo.com.

Book Launch - The Man in Blue Pyjamas

Jalal Barzanji will launch his new book, The Man in Blue Pyjamas, with two events as part of the 2011 LitFest, Edmonton's Nonfiction Festival.

Monday, October 17 @ noon

CBC Centre Stage, City Centre Mall

Discuss the challenges in reshaping a story for a new language, new culture and new context. Meet Jalal Barzanji, Sabah Salih (translator) and Peter Midgley (editor). This is a free event.

Monday, October 17 @ 7:00 pm - Book launch

Milner Library Theatre, 7 Sir Winston Churchill Square

Tickets are available @ www.tixonthesquare.ca. Ticket revenues will go to support PEN Canada. 

Jalal Barzanji's First Book in English

Kurdish poet  and Writers Beyond Borders member, Jalal Barzanji, has his first book in English published by the University of Alberta Press. 

"The style of my book must be in small pieces, as my life has been in pieces", says Jalal, who completed The Man in Blue Pyjamas: A Prison Memoir while he was Edmonton's first Writer-in-Exile in 2007-2008. This is a story of assimilated people who have been forgotten. It has no political agenda and true to humanity in general.

Please join me in congratulating Jalal!