gritLIT 2014

I might be biased, since I'm on the committee, but gritLIT is one of the best festivals Hamilton has to offer, and it starts tomorrow! We're so excited to welcome a Writer's Trust Fiction Prize winner, a Journey Prize winner, a handful of punk rockers, and the winner of the 2013 Giller Prize to this year's celebration of writers, reading, and books. Visit gritlit.ca for more information.

Here's the complete schedule. Hope to see you there!

Thursday, April 3rd, 2014

7:00pm — Poetry

gritLIT partners with the Hamilton Poetry Centre to welcome celebrated poets Julie Bruck (Monkey Ranch) and Adam Dickinson (The Polymers).

8:30pm — Murder Was the Crime

Peter Robinson (Children of the Revolution), D.J. McIntosh (The Book of Stolen Tales) and Debra Komar (The Lynching of Peter Wheeler) share tales of murder and suspense in an evening of fictional and true-life mysteries.

Friday, April 4, 2014

7:00pm — Family Matters

Jump into the offbeat, sometimes hilarious world of family dysfunction with Ray Robertson (I Was There the Night He Died) and  Nancy Jo Cullen(Canary).

8:30pm — An Equal and Opposite Reaction

Michael Winter (Minister Without Portfolio), Emma Donoghue (Frog Music) and Catherine Bush (Accusation) delve into the lives of characters whose worlds are forever changed by events beyond their control.

Saturday, April 5, 2014

10:30 am — Literary Salon with Michael Winter

Join one of Canada's most celebrated authors for light refreshments and a lively round-table discussion about books, writing and the Canadian publishing industry.

This event takes place at the Mulberry Street Coffeehouse, 193 James St. N.

Registration is limited.  Registration fee: $20/$15 for gritLIT members

10:30am — Writing Workshop: Writing from the Prompt

Critically-acclaimed novelist Catherine Bush shows writers of all levels how to use prompts to dig deeper, become more open and find the playful exuberance at the heart of all great writing.

Registration is limited.  Registration fee: $20/$15 for gritLIT members

1:00pm — The Mother and Child Reunion

Memoirists Jowita Bydlowska (Drunk Mom) and Priscila Uppal (Projection: Encounters with MyRunaway Mother) share tales of struggle and recovery.

2:15pm — gritLIT Contest Winners

Two winners of last year's gritLIT writing competition, Alexandra Missettand Raymond Beauchemin, share excerpts from their winning works.

Admission is free.

3:00pm — Lives of Girls and Women

Krista Bridge (The Eliot Girls), Jennifer LoveGrove (Watch How We Walk) and Lauren B. Davis (The Empty Room) examine the lives of extraordinary women fighting to discover their own identities.

7:00pm — In Conversation with...Teenage Head

Graham Rockingham sits down with members of Teenage Head and with author Geoff Pevere to discuss Gods of the Hammer: The Teenage Head Story.

8:30pm — Putting the grit in gritLIT

Celebrate the work of two of Canada's grittiest and most interesting literary voices: Craig Davidson (Cataract City) and Lynn Coady (Hellgoing).

Sunday, April 6, 2014

10:30am — Writing Workshop: First Things First

Journey Prize finalist and novelist Krista Foss guides you through the process of developing a first novel from inception to publication.

Registration is limited.  Registration fee: $20/$15 for gritLIT members

10:30am — Writing Workshop: Telling Our Own Tales

Author Denise Chong examines the task of turning knowing family stories into telling them and focuses on the power and flaws of memory and issues of privacy and respect in bringing these stories to the page.

Registration is limited. Registration fee: $20/$15 for gritLIT members

1:00pm — A Book to Take Us Worlds Away

Travel from a small town in 1950's Yugoslavia to the badlands of the wild west with novelists Nicole Lundrigan (The Widow Tree) and Natalee Caple (In Calamity's Wake).

2:15pm — All About the Hammer preview

Local novelists Hugh Cook (Heron River) and Janet Turpin Myers (Nightswimming) share their stories in a preview of this evening's All About the Hammer event.

Admission is free.

3:00pm — Different Voices, Different Lands

Join Denise Chong (Lives of the Family), Saleema Nawaz (Bone and Bread) and Dannabang Kuwabong (Voices from Kibuli Country) for a fascinating reading and discussion about identity and the impact of cultural heritage on the stories we tell.

7:30pm — Closing Night with LitLive: All About the Hammer

gritLIT partners with LitLive for a gala closing night celebrating the recently-published works of seven Hamilton authors. Presenters include Chris Pannell (A Nervous City), John Terpstra (Brilliant Falls), Jeffery Donaldson (Slack Action), Amanda Jernigan (All the Daylight Hours), Marilyn Gear Pilling (A Bee Garden), Amanda Leduc (The Miracles of Ordinary Men) and David Haskins (This House Is Condemned).

This event takes place at Homegrown Hamilton, 27 King William St.

This is a pay-what-you-can event.