The Winnipeg International Writers Festival is a Winnipeg, Manitoba based organization that puts together an annual literary festival known as THIN AIR. The festival program runs for a week each fall, and there are also several off-season events regularly occurring throughout the year. Programming is available in both English and French. While most of the events occur in Winnipeg, there are also some at Brandon University and throughout the province.
The Winnipeg International Writers Festival was founded by Andris Taskans, Mark Steven Morton, and Robyn Maharaj in 1996, with the first festival running from October 14 to 19 of the following year. [1] The festival hosted approximately 50 writers from across Canada and around the world. The creation of the festival was explained as follows:
"It grew out of the determination to see that the writing, reading and publishing community was being served the way other [Winnipeg] cultural communities were being served.
"You have music aficionados being offered events such as the Jazz Festival and the New Music Festival, theatre-goers have the Fringe Festival - we're a festival town. People like to have large-scale events which offer them a lot of choice and that's what we wanted to do for the writing community." - Paula Kelly, coordinator for the 1997 Winnipeg Writers Festival, quoted in The Manitoban. [1]
The festival involved collaboration from a number of organizations, including Prairie Fire , the Manitoba Writers' Guild, the West End Cultural Centre (which had previously hosted a Word on the Street series), the Interfaith Marriage and Family Institute, and the University of Winnipeg. In addition, Balmoral Hall School hosted a number of school events related to the festival.
Since that time the THIN AIR festival has become a regular fixture in the province.
Currently the Winnipeg International Writers Festival is staffed by Director Charlene Diehl, General Manager Perry Grosshans, Administrative Coordinator Aaron Simm, and Coordonnatrice Karen San Filippo.
The 2009 THIN AIR festival ran from September 20 to 27. During this week writers including France Adams, Jan Andrews, Elizabeth Bachinsky, Christian Bök, Bonnie Burnard, George Elliott Clarke, Beth (Johnston) Cruikshank, Cyril Dabydeen, Nick DiChario, Deborah Ellis, Lesley Fairfield, Endre Farkas, Jon Paul Fiorentino, Linda Frank, Marie-Louise Gay, Charlotte Gingras, Terry Griggs, Catherine Hunter, Lynn Johnston, Judith Keenan, Lauren Kirshner, Jacqueline Larson, Charles Leblanc, J.R. Léveillé, Jeanette Lynes, Jake MacDonald, Guy Maddin, Hal Niedzviecki, David O'Meara, Marc Prescott, Lorraine Pritchard, T'ai Pu, Mélanie Rocan, [2] Serge Salvador, Robert J Sawyer, Deborah Schnitzer, Gregory Scofield, Anne Sechin, Struan Sinclair, Carolyn Marie Souaid, Margaret Sweatman, CJ Taylor, Serge Patrice Thibodeau, George Toles, Rhea Tregebov, Priscila Uppal, Robert Charles Wilson, and Tim Wynne-Jones will be performing readings, workshops and discussions throughout Manitoba.
Some events planned include the Mainstage readings at the CanWest Global Performing Arts Centre at The Forks, Afternoon Book Chats at the McNally Robinson Polo Park Bookstore, The Nooner and Big Ideas at the Millennium Winnipeg Public Library, and After Words and A Pint of Bitter Murder at Aqua Books. [3]
The 2008 festival ran from September 21 to 28. During the week, 73 writers did readings, workshops and discussions at various sites throughout Winnipeg. [3]
The mainstage and school stage events occurred at CanWest Global Performing Arts Centre at The Forks. The Campus Program events were at the University of Winnipeg, the University of Manitoba, Red River College, Canadian Mennonite University, and Brandon University. The French program, Foyer des Écrivains, was at the Centre culturel Franco-manitobain in St. Boniface. The Rural Tour covered Brandon, Altona, Morden, Holland, Portage la Prairie, Selkirk, and Carman. There were also events at Winnipeg Public Library, Aqua Books, and McNally Robinson, among other locations.
Manitoba is a province of Canada at the longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's fifth-most populous province, with a population of 1,342,153 as of 2021, of widely varied landscape, from arctic tundra and the Hudson Bay coastline in the north to dense boreal forest, large freshwater lakes, and prairie grassland in the central and southern regions.
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. As of 2021, Winnipeg had a city population of 749,607 and a metropolitan population of 834,678, making it the sixth-largest city, and eighth-largest metropolitan area in Canada.
Di Brandt often stylized as di brandt, is a Canadian poet and scholar from Winnipeg, Manitoba. She became Winnipeg's first Poet Laureate in 2018.
Brandon is the second-largest city in the province of Manitoba, Canada. It is located in the southwestern corner of the province on the banks of the Assiniboine River, approximately 214 km (133 mi) west of the provincial capital, Winnipeg, and 120 km (75 mi) east of the Saskatchewan border. Brandon covers an area of 77.41 km2 (29.89 sq mi) with a population of 51,313, and a census metropolitan area population of 54,268. It is the primary hub of trade and commerce for the Westman Region as well as parts of southeastern Saskatchewan and northern North Dakota, an area with a combined population of over 190,000 people.
Canada has a large domestic and foreign tourism industry. The second largest country in the world, Canada's incredible geographical variety is a significant tourist attractor. Much of the country's tourism is centred in the following regions: Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City, Vancouver/Whistler, Niagara Falls, Vancouver Island, Canadian Rockies, British Columbia's Okanagan Valley, Churchill, Manitoba and the National Capital Region of Ottawa-Gatineau. The large cities are known for their culture, diversity, as well as the many national parks and historic sites.
CHMI-DT is a television station licensed to Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, Canada, broadcasting the Citytv network to the Winnipeg area. Owned and operated by Rogers Sports & Media, the station has studios at 8 Forks Market Road in downtown Winnipeg, and its transmitter is located adjacent to Bohn Road in Cartier.
McNally Robinson Booksellers is a family-operated chain of Canadian independent bookstores founded in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1981. It is managed by new owners Chris Hall and Lori Baker, formerly managed by Holly and Paul McNally. As of 2019 it had three branches, two in Winnipeg and one in Saskatoon, as well as a sister-store McNally Jackson in New York City.
Prairie Public Television is a state network of public television stations operated primarily by Prairie Public Broadcasting. It comprises all of the PBS member stations in the U.S. state of North Dakota.
The Forks is a historic site, meeting place, and green space in downtown Winnipeg located at the confluence of the Red River and the Assiniboine River.
Prairie Theatre Exchange (PTE) is a professional theatre in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It is located on the third floor of Portage Place mall in downtown Winnipeg. By the end of the 2016-17 season, PTE had presented 340 plays on its thrust stage over its 44 year history, 149 of which were world premieres, to an annual average attendance of 35,000 people.
Winnipeg is well known across the prairies for its arts and culture.
The geography of Manitoba addresses the easternmost of the three prairie Canadian provinces, located in the longitudinal centre of Canada. Manitoba borders on Saskatchewan to the west, Ontario to the east, Nunavut to the north, and the American states of North Dakota and Minnesota to the south. Although the border with Saskatchewan appears straight on large-scale maps, it actually has many right-angle corners that give the appearance of a slanted line. In elevation, Manitoba ranges from sea level on Hudson Bay to 2727 ft (831 m) on top of Baldy Mountain. The northern sixty percent of the province is on the Canadian Shield. The northernmost regions of Manitoba lie permafrost, and a section of tundra bordering Hudson Bay.
Canad Inns is a chain of hotels headquartered in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
Anita Daher is an author, screenwriter, producer, show host and actor based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She has worked in book publishing since 1995 and has published in print, audio and e-book format in Canada, the United States, and Europe. She is also an actor on stage and screen. In 2020, she began to produce and host an author interview series called Made in Manitoba: Stories from Home airing on Shaw Winnipeg's community access channel, as well as the YouTube Channel, Made in Manitoba Book TV.
Aqua Books was a Canadian independent bookstore opened in Winnipeg, Manitoba by Kelly Hughes in 1999. It was acknowledged for helping revitalize downtown Winnipeg and creating an eclectic mix of programs and events for the Winnipeg arts and culture community. Aqua Books closed in early 2012, and after a failed attempt to reopen in a new location, closed permanently later that year.
Manitoban culture is a term that encompasses the artistic elements that are representative of Manitoba. Manitoba's culture has been influenced by both traditional and modern Canadian artistic values, as well as some aspects of the cultures of immigrant populations and its American neighbours. In Manitoba, the Minister of Culture, Heritage, Tourism and Sport is the cabinet minister responsible for promoting and, to some extent, financing Manitoba culture. The Manitoba Arts Council is the agency that has been established to provide the processes for arts funding. The Canadian federal government also plays a role by instituting programs and laws regarding culture nationwide. Most of Manitoba's cultural activities take place in its capital and largest city, Winnipeg.
Maurice Mierau is an American-Canadian writer of non-fiction and poetry. Born in Bloomington, Indiana, Mierau grew up in Nigeria, Manitoba, Jamaica, Kansas and Saskatchewan and has a Mennonite background. Mierau currently lives with his family in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and was president of the League of Canadian Poets from 2006-2008. Mierau holds an MA in English Literature from the University of Manitoba.
Pride Winnipeg Festival is a 10-day LGBT pride festival, held annually in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It is one of the largest organized pride festivals in central Canada, featuring 10-days of community-organized events, a Dyke March, a rally, Pride Parade, outdoor festival and closing party.
James Culleton is a Canadian contemporary multimedia artist and designer based in Saint Boniface, a city ward of Winnipeg, Manitoba. He specializes in blind-contour drawing and sculpture, and his work has been exhibited across Canada and into the United States.
Mélanie Rocan is a Canadian artist from La Broquerie, Manitoba. She works mostly in various paint mediums. She also has been known to work in multimedia, especially when working collaboratively.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)