Heliconian Tuesdays

The Heliconian Literary Lecture Series has been billed as a cross between a traditional book club and university course without exams. What I appreciate is the opportunity to hear authors speak about their books, in an intimate setting. 

There were some memorable moments this year

… watching Linden MacIntyre charm the room and hearing his perspective on the upcoming federal election (he was careful not to name names and prefaced statements with the fact that he didn’t have an opinion, but if he did…)

… seeing Julian Porter graciously try to save the day when a wonky projector bulb refused to display red, turning the reproductions of his favourite paintings a ghastly hue

… listening to Catherine Gildner’s verbal retelling of events in her memoir, and realizing the details were sometimes a bit different than what was published (I guess that what is meant by “truthy”)

… enjoying the voice of Elizabeth Hay as she spoke about building her characters and settings

… realizing Michael Crummey was also a very fine poet, and hearing him read from his latest collection

… learning more about JFK and his speech writer "Ted" Sorensen from Andrew Cohen

… travelling vicariously with Kathleen Winter aboard a ship as she journeyed along the legendary Northwest Passage
... meeting Jane Urquhart before her on-stage conversation with Sandra Martin (well, actually, I didn't quite know for sure who the person was that filled my water glass, but she looked familiar!) 

WHEN	SPEAKER	AUTHOR	BOOK
Tues, Sep 29	Linden MacIntyre	Linden MacIntyre	Punishment
Tues, Oct 20	Julian Porter	Julian Porter	149 Paintings You Really Need to See in Europe
Tues, Nov 10	Catherine Gildiner	Catherine Gildiner	Coming Ashore
Tues, Jan 19	Lynn Thomson	Lynn Thomson	Birding With Yeats
Tues, Feb 23	Elizabeth Hay	Elizabeth Hay	His Whole Life
Tues, Mar 22	Kathleen Winter	Kathleen Winter	Boundless
Tues, Apr 12	Michael Crummey	Michael Crummey	Sweetland
Tues, May 10	Andrew Cohen	Andrew Cohen	Two Days in June
Tues, Jun 7	Sandra Martin	Thomas King	The Back of the Turtle

Unfortunately, didn’t make it to Lynn Thomson or Sandra Martin due to scheduling conflicts. 
On the other hand, Cheryl kindly gave me her ticket for a Thursday night series to hear Jane Urquhart 
talk about Night Stages.