Joseph Boyden is in the House at STARFest 2014!!!

At the Arden Theatre in St. Albert, October 23/14

The book he was meant to write all his life:
The Orenda.

What a blast!!!  Last evening, October 23, a friend and I attended the sold out STARFest 2014 event featuring award-winning author Joseph Boyden.  My many thanks to Laura Frey a book blogger (Reading in Bed) from whom I won the tickets. Boyden has been on tour since August of 2013 promoting The Orenda, the book he said he was meant to write all his life.  Let me tell you you missed out!!  He is humorous, intelligent, passionate about human rights, and has these cute little dimples when he smiles.  

Joseph Boyden signing books at the end of the evening

Joseph Boyden was born October 31, 1966 a descendant of Irish, Scottish and Anishinaabe background.  It is his First Nations lineage that influences his writing.  Boyden recently was involved with an animated film project in which he did the voiceover for a character.  He also wrote the story Going Home Star for the Winnipeg Ballet (http://www.rwb.org/whats-on/show/a-story-of-truth-and-reconciliation).  Boyden is passionate about advocating for First Nations, missing Aboriginal women, women's rights and the environment.   He writes of these, believing this country needs to have an open dialogue on these issues - a civilized one. He is also an advocate for mental health, having suffered from depression himself as a teen.

"Walk 'til morning.  Walk through the night until you see daylight."   

Boyden considers his calling to be to address depression and the high suicide rate on the reserves among the youth and in society.  He hopes and wishes to to help.  If he can "touch just one" then he is making a difference.  

In addition to his novels, one short-story collection, and the Winnipeg Ballet story (http://vimeo.com/107958447); Boyden has written a couple non-fiction books including one about Louis Riel and Gabriel Dumont.  He desires to make history exciting for readers.

He is one very busy man!!  He teaches at the university in New Orleans, as does his wife Amanda (also a novelist), is on the road promoting The Orenda, is currently writing a companion novel to The Orenda and a new novel titled Seven Matches, a book about residential schools and a young boy who seems to be running away with seven matches to light a fire to warm him by night.  Boyden's brief introduction was compelling!

As you can tell, Joseph Boyden is a huge historian, drawing from his heritage, primarily the Native American heritage on his mother's side; to tell the tales of history.  As he says, If we don't know where we come from, how do we know where we're going?

**In the works, The Orenda is currently being made into a television mini-series for CBC.

Boyden reading from The Orenda

Joseph Boyden's biography as supplied by his publisher:  Joseph Boyden's first novel, Three Day Road, was selected for the Today Show Book Club, won the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, the CBA Libris Fiction Book of the Year Award, the Amazon.ca/Books in Canada First Novel Award, and the McNally Robinson Aboriginal Book of the Year Award, and was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award for Fiction. His second novel, Through Black Spruce, was awarded the Scotiabank Giller Prize and named the Canadian Booksellers Association Fiction Book of the Year; it also earned him the CBA’s Author of the Year Award. His most recent novel, The Orenda, won Canada Reads and was nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Award for Fiction. Boyden divides his time between Northern Ontario and Louisiana. (http://www.hamishhamilton.ca/authors/joseph-boyden.html)

Boyden's novels include Three Day Road (2005 Penguin Canada)  - winner of the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, Through Black Spruce (2008 Penguin Canada) - won the Scotiabank Giller Prize November 2008, The Orenda (2013  Hamish Hamilton, a division of Penguin Random House Canada) - long listed for the 2013 Scotiabank Giller Prize and winner of the 2014 Canada Reads.  He published a short story collection titled Born With a Tooth in 2001 (Cormorant Books).  His non-fiction works include two titles:  From Mushkegowuk to New Orleans: A Mixed Blood Highway (Edmonton: NeWest 2008) and Extraordinary Canadians: Louis Riel and Gabriel Dumont (Penguin 2010).

Photo Gallery:

Local author Diana Davidson

Diana Davidson is an Edmonton author whose debut novel The Pilgrimage was published September 2013.  Following a brief introduction, Diana interviewed Joseph Boyden for this STARFest event.

http://www.dianadavidson.or

“If a writer of prose knows enough about what he is writing about, he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them. The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water” (Hemingway's quote which inspires Joseph Boyden's writing style)

A sold out audience was in attendance for this STARFest Event with Joseph Boyden.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada named Boyden a TRC Honorary Witness at the TRC Alberta National Event in March 2014.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission is mandated to:

• Tell Canadians what happened in the Indian Residential Schools;
• Create a permanent record of what happened in the Indian Residential Schools;
• Foster healing and reconciliation within Canada

http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/index.php?p=3 

Armchair Traveller/Book Launch The Great Canadian Bucket List (February 15/14)

So he did it!  My husband attended a book launch event with me today mostly because it was the Robin Esrock presenting his one of a kind travel experience book The Great Canadian Bucket List.  I'd attended Robin's previous event at Audrey's bookstore (and purchased a copy) here in Edmonton last fall with a friend of mine and when I told my husband who we'd been to see and support, he was disappointed he hadn't gone after all.  So, when I discovered this Armchair Traveller event/book launch with the St. Albert Public Library featuring none other than Robin Esrock, he was thrilled to go...even delayed a business trip to do so!!!  He was not disappointed!!  

The conference room was near capacity but we arrived early, thus assured of excellent seats second row from the front.  Robin was casually signing books before the event at the back of the room where light refreshments of cookies and coffee were available. Following a brief introduction and bio from the PR rep for the library, Robin took center stage by the overhead screen upon which his presentation awaited the two o'clock start.

Robin began the event with a clip from the movie The Bucket List 

starring Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson.  (If you haven't seen it yet, you simply must!)  The term bucket list has become very popular since the release of this movie.  Perhaps the term's origins come from history when people who were hung to die had a bucket kicked out from beneath them?  Robin pondered.  Whatever its origins, more and more people are making their own lists of things they want to see, accomplish or experience before their death.  

Robin didn't set out to become a travel writer per se.  Sure he has a degree in journalism, but he has also had involvement in the music industry.  He made some life changing decisions with a $20000 settlement from an accident several years ago following which he went to a travel agency and booked an around the world trip.  His intention was to cross off all those items/places on his bucket list and write home about it.  It became easier to share his adventures and photos on a blog until the day someone suggested this would make a good travel show and then a television program "Word Travels" with Julia Dimon as co-host began.   The show ran for three seasons and can still be seen on weekends on CityTV.  Check your listings.  (a presentation of photos and a few videos from some of these adventures impressed the audience as they were shown on the overhead screen.)

When civil unrest and wars became prevalent, Robin Esrock emigrated to Vancouver Canada from South Africa as a young adult and his family following shortly thereafter.  After travelling the world, crossing off that bucket list, he began to think a little closer to home for his new bucket list, thus his new book "The Great Canadian Bucket List."

From the west coast to the east, Robin shared tales of seeking the great white spirit bear, to seeing totem poles over 150 years old, to a one of a kind experience in the Okanagon (BC) in a facility owned by Swarovski (yes, one and the same).  Imagine entering a room at -15 Celsius, then another at -60 Celsius and finally -110 Celsius (a 3 minute duration) dressed in only your swimming attire!  This supposedly helps rejuvenate the body, help with ailments such as arthritis, and certainly make you glad you're alive when you slowly warm up again!! (All available at this secluded site)  It's a hit with NHL players! There's the sour toe drink in Yellowknife, zip lining over a waterfall, heli-skiing, training with the RCMP, going on a polar bear excursion in Churchill, Manitoba and so much more.  Did you know our country had so much to offer?

a reading about the search for the Northern Lights

Robin has travelled world wide.  Of course there are countries and sites he hasn't been to yet; Antarctica still eludes him.  Perhaps someday; after all, who knew ten years ago that he'd be travelling the world and getting paid to do so?  In the meantime he is learning and writing about what it is like to travel with a baby!  

Perhaps it's time for you to discover your own bucket list.  The Great Canadian Bucket List is a great place to start.  Just a warning though, once you get the bug it only grows from there!