The year in Manitoba books

"The Manitoba lit scene is just busting out all over!"

—Shelagh Rogers, CBC Host

Since we started Manitoba Scene in late March, 2011 we've posted more than 120 book-related entries on the site.  That's about one entry every two days! 

CBC's Next Chapter host Shelagh Rogers nailed it when she said "The Manitoba lit scene is just busting out all over!"

So we thought it would be fun to invite some of our contributors in 'literary land' to put down the book they are reading, reflect on this past year and tell us about their favourite Manitoba book or their favourite Manitoba book event.

Here's what they said.

"After a too-long hiatus, Susie Moloney rocked it with her self-proclaimed "bitch lit" winner, The Thirteen. Suburban witches and dark pacts are the hook, but The Thirteen's killer characters and delicious dialogue made it my Manitoba book of the year".  - Chadwick Ginther



"Grooviest Manitoba poetry moment: The 2011 Thin Air Festival Afterwords Jazz Club with the sonorous  Steven Ross Smith performing selections from his latest poetry collection fluttertongue 5: everything appears to shine with mossy splendour (Turnstone Press, 2011) with bassist Steve Kirby and guitarist Christopher Ulrich on the velvety Aqua Books stage.  I recommend Smith's poems for a rejuvenating new year's read--a poem a day of Smith's ecstatic meditations will shine new possibilities on your daily act of living". - Jennifer Still, poet

"My Manitoba book pick for 2011 is Beatrice Mosionier's Come Walk With Me. It is a rare thing when readers are provided such a personal look into the creation of a book, let alone a classic like April Raintree (which is one of my favourite books ever). Come Walk With Me is an intimate, powerful auto-biography that explains how, and why, 'Raintree' was made. What makes it so great, though, is that it stands perfectly well on its own. It is a beautiful piece of literature". - David Robertson, author of The Life of Helen Betty Osborne and winner of Manitoba Reads.


"For me the publishing event of the year in Manitoba is Méira Cook's new book of poems, A Walker in the City. Cook does what poets should: engage fully with the present and the past, fill lines with beautiful rhythmic phrasings, and fill her book with disturbing, sometimes hopeful implications". - Maurice Mierau Writer & Editor, The Winnipeg Review


"I had so many terrific Manitoba book experiences this year. One story still hangs in my head: "Stolen," from Sheila McClarty's High Speed Crow. I learned more than I'd ever known before (which was nothing) about collecting horse sperm. What really got me, though, was its subtle suspense and devastating turn. Sometimes you just don't want things to end the way they do, but they do - and the effect of it stays with you". - Dora Dueck, author of This Hidden Thing.





"One of the great pleasures of 2011 for me was reconnecting with Poor Michael's Bookshop in Onanole, just outside Riding Mountain National Park.  Poor Michael's represents the highest ideal of a book store--a community arts centre, cafe, and gathering place on summer evenings. It has enriched the entire area--a provincial treaure on the outskirts of our national park". - Steve Burgess, author of  Who Killed Mom?

Thinking of starting a new diet in 2012?  Winnipeg writer Ariel Gordon summed it up perfectly when she listed her #1 reason on why you should read Manitoba books:

"Because a 100-mile literary diet is EMINENTLY easier to achieve than a plain ol' 100-mile diet."