J.R. Leveille will be reading from his new novel, The Setting Lake Sun, (Le soleil du lac qui se couche), at this year's Prairie Fire Fundraiser. 6 pm, Cocktails. 7 pm, Dinner. 8 pm, Readings. Rainbow and Silent Auction to follow. Tickets are $65 and are available at McNally Robinson Booksellers and Prairie Fire.

Margaret MacPherson, author of Body Trade, and Alison Preston, author of The Girl in the Wall, join fellow Fictionistas Heather Birrell and Sarah Kathryn York for an evening of readings, followed by a Q&A and discussions among the authors and audience.

Roger Léveillé, whose The Setting Lake Sun / Le Soleil du lac qui se couche was the readers' choice for the 2011-2012 On the Same Page book, bids adieu to the program at the Millennium Library.

Body Trade author Margaret MacPherson joins fellow Fictionistas Barb Howard, Arley McNeney, Sarah Kathryn York, and Cassie Stocks for scintillating readings and fascinating discussion. Janice MacDonald hosts.

Margaret MacPherson, author of Body Trade, joins Fictionistas Barb Howard, Arley McNeney, Cassie Stocks, and Sarah Kathryn York for a special Fictionista installment of Pages on the Plaza.

Join J.R. Léveillé, author of The Setting Lake Sun, at the 7th Annual Friends of the Library Books and Brunch. Tickets are $50 and are available at the Best of Friends Gift Shop (947-0110) in the Millennium Library, or e-mail: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Join us in celebrating the launch of 3 new poetry books — Once Houses Could Fly by Rosemary Clewes, small flames by Dina E. Cox, and The Shape of a Throat by Sheila Stewart.

Margaret MacPherson, author of Body Trade, and Alison Preston, author of The Girl in the Wall, are joined by fellow Fictionistas Arley McNeney and Sarah Kathryn York for a lively afternoon of readings and discussion. Hosted by THIN AIR's Charlene Diehl.

Margaret MacPherson, author of Body Trade and Alison Preston, author of The Girl in the Wall kick off the Spring 2012 Fictionista tour with fellow Fictionistas Heather Birrell and Sarah Kathryn York.

Poetry Quebec and Chapters are teaming up to celebrate National Poetry Month. From Monday, April 23 to Sunday, April 29, Chapters will prominently display the books of some of Montreal’s finest English-language poets. The event will culminate in a special “Meet & Greet” from noon to 5 PM on April 28 and 29, where featured poets — Endre Farkas, Carolyn Marie Souaid, Susan Briscoe, Mary di Michele, Jack Hannan, Steve Luxton, Robyn Sarah, and Gillian Sze – will be on hand, in one-hour shifts, to sign books and share their love of poetry with the public. Richard Sommer, who recently passed away, will be represented by his widow, Vicki Tansey.

Alison Preston will be reading from her new novel, The Girl in the Wall, nominated for the Michael Van Rooy Award for Genre Fiction.

J.R. Léveillé, author of The Setting Lake Sun, will be honoured at the Manitoba Arts Award ceremony as this year's recipient of the Manitoba Arts Award of Distinction. The $30,000 prize is awarded biennially in recognition of artistic excellence and distinguished career achievement by a professional Manitoba artist.

Alison Preston will be reading from her new novel, The Girl in the Wall, short-listed for Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction.

Three extraordinary women bring excerpts of Margaret MacPherson's Body Trade to life through voice and accompanying original piano composition. The Aurora Project will warm up the audience with flute and jazz piano, and young artist, Jenna Mortemore, will be showcasing her work. Admission by donation.

Michael Pacey, author of The First Step, joins fellow poets Nanci Lee, Phanuel Antwi, Brian Bartlett, Liane Heller, Nate Crawford, Matt Huculak, Carole Langille, David Rimmington, Alice Burdick, Travis Mason and Andy Wainwright to read and talk about Layton’s work.

A baker’s dozen of Winnipeg’s established and emerging actors will do a on-book performance of Z: A Meditation on Oppression, Desire and Freedom, Anne Szumigalski's astonishing first stage play, which explores the relationship between captive and captor and the terrible sacrifices human beings must make to survive. When the concentration camps were opened at the end of World War II, Anne Szumigalski worked with the survivors as a translator for the British Red Cross. “It made me look at life,” she says, “in a completely different way.” In Z, Szumigalski translates that profound and disturbing experience into an amazing theatrical event—a blend of drama, poetry and dance.

Donna Caruso's documentary Rapture Of The Deep, Canadian Poet, Anne Szumigalski is a free-ranging portrait of this major Canadian poet, based largely on interviews in Saskatoon shot shortly before her death April 22, 1999, at the age of 77. In those interviews, Anne’s brilliance shines as she talks about poetry, compost, and ways she embarrassed her children. Her life’s accomplishments were many – publications, awards, notoriously outrageous dances – but what she did, though significant, pales beside the way she did things. Poet? Yes. Personality? In spades. Rapture Of The Deep is about an unforgettable woman’s epic passion and joy for life. The evening is hosted by Anne's daughter Katherine Bitney and granddaugher Frances Bitney, who will be joined by Glen Sorestad, Saskatoon poet and colleague of Anne’s, for reminiscences on the Saskatoon writing and publishing community and Anne’s place within it.

PLUS: The book trailer produced by Vanessa Mancini for A Peeled Wand, which features recordings of Anne reading her poems.

Anne Szumigalski was a mentor to numerous prairie poets and much loved in the literary community, especially in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. She was a founder of the Saskatchewan Writers' Guild and of the literary magazine Grain. Her achievements inspired (and she personally aided) the founders of the Manitoba Writers' Guild and the publication that became Prairie Fire. The lecture is delivered every year at the LCP’s Annual General Meeting and is subsequently published in Prairie Fire. Writer and editor Mark Abley, who was deeply influenced by Anne, and eventually became her literary executor, delivers the 2012 memorial lecture, which will be followed by a panel discussion on aspects of Szumigalski's work with Mark Abley, Mari-Lou Rowley & Catherine Hunter.

Anne Szumigalski loved poetry. And she loved to dance. On the second night of Mondo! Szumigalski, her two loves are combined.The evening will feature readings by award-winning writers Mark Abley, Mari-Lou Rowley, and Anne Simpson. Each writer will evoke Anne by sharing a poem of hers that’s been important to her or him, and, in between each set, the Jeffrey King Trio will play. Tickets $5.

32 of Winnipeg’s established and emerging poets and some surprise out-of-town guests do a marathon reading of Anne Szumigalski's Risks. Montreal writer Mark Abley, Anne’s literary executor, gives the introduction.