Good news for those who decided to read more books as their new year’s resolution this year: the Saskatchewan Festival of Words has already started a must-read book list by sharing the upcoming lineup of celebrated authors confirmed for the 2021 literary event.
Organizers announced an impressive list of Canadian authors coming to the Festival of Words this July, sharing a number of award-winning names during the conclusion of the 2020 event.
For those looking forward to the popular literary festival coming up this July, there’s still plenty of time to dive into some of the published works from this year’s guest authors, to prepare for the Festival’s panels, readings, workshops and author Q&As.
This year’s lineup features plenty of Saskatchewan talent — including award-winning novelists Guy Vanderhaeghe and Sharon Butala, former Moose Javian Angie Abdou and other notable names in the Canadian literary world.
As usual, the Festival of Words has chosen guests from a range of genres and backgrounds, highlighting everything from dystopian fiction to memoirs to gardening tips.
With the new year underway, there’s no better time than to dive headfirst into a new pile of must-reads — or to keep an eye out for those fresh releases set to hit the shelves this spring.
Here’s a list of titles from Festival of Words guests that are worth adding to your reading list:
Harold Johnson, Saskatchewan author:
Corvus (2016): Set in the city of La Ronge in the future, Corvus follows two lawyers who find themselves exposed to new perspectives in very different ways: Lenore Hansen befriends a political dissenter and war veteran, while George Taylor crashes his virtual reality-powered vehicle near an isolated First Nations community in the mountains. The experiences cause both men to confront the past to save their future, in a story told through the lens of a dystopian society that exposes the illusion of security caused by technology and critiques a world hung up on climate change denial and war. The novel was shortlisted for the Sask Book Award for Aboriginal Peoples’ Writing.
Cry Wolf (2020): Released earlier this year, Cry Wolf is a nonfiction book described as “part story, part forensic analysis” examining the 2005 wolf attack on a young man in Points North Landing, a work camp in northern Saskatchewan, alongside other reported wolf attacks. Johnson considers these instances to discuss how people are failing to take wolves as predators seriously and what the consequences of our actions will be, if humans continue in this mindset.
Jael Richardson, Ontario author, speaker and activist:
The Stone Thrower: A Daughter’s Lessons, a Father’s Life (2012): Richardson’s debut novel is a memoir exploring the story of her father, former CFL quarterback Chuck Ealey, an African-American athlete born in Ohio but denied a career in American football due to reasons Richardson only realizes after attending her father’s 40th high school reunion. The Stone Thrower approaches the topics of race and destiny from the perspective of a daughter looking at her own family’s history, as she discovers what it means to be black in Canada. The memoir has also been adapted into a children’s storybook.
Gutter Child (2021): Richardson’s second novel is set in a dystopian world, where people are divided into privileged and vulnerable, and the most vulnerable must “buy their freedom by working off their debt to society.” The novel follows a teenage girl who finds herself precariously balanced between the two worlds due to a government-operated social experiment, leaving her to navigate a new life of servitude and a world of disadvantages. Set to release on Jan. 26, Gutter Child is currently available for pre-order.
Lyndon Penner, Saskatchewan horticulturist and radio personality:
The Way of the Gardener ( 2021): As a Saskatchewan environmentalist and plant expert, Penner took a trip to the Camino de Santiago in northern Spain, where he focused his attention on the local ecology of northern region of the country and how it tells the history of the people and the land — all detailed in his latest armchair novel, which underscores the connection between the human condition and nature itself. This non-fiction title will be released on March 27 of this year.
Penner has also published several titles about gardening in the Canadian prairie zone, including Native Plants for the Short Season Yard and Garden Design for the Short Season Yard.
Sharon Butala, Saskatchewan novelist:
Season of Fury and Wonder (2019): Butala’s latest work is a short story collection focused on sharing the lives of contemporary women — particularly older women, with each story offering insights into the truth about growing older. This title has been chosen for the upcoming Festival of Words book club on Jan. 28.
Zara’s Dead (2018): Shortlisted for Sask Book Awards Publishing Category, Butala’s fiction mystery novel follows main character Fiona, who even in her seventies is still angry about the unsolved murder of a young woman she once knew named Zara. With many questions left about what happened, Fiona seeks to find out who exactly did the crime and when she finds out, her own life is forever changed.
Where I Live Now (2017): Butala’s most recent memoir explores her experience living on the land in southwest Saskatchewan for more than 30 years, as well as adapting to a new life in the city following the passing of her husband.
Will Ferguson, Albertan travel writer:
419 (2012): This Giller Prize-winning novel from Ferguson takes readers on an adventure with main protagonist Laura, an entirely average Canadian whose father fell for an internet scam that cost him his life — prompting her to leave her regular life to travel to Nigeria in search of justice from her father’s killer.
Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw (2004): A number of Ferguson’s published works showcase his extensive travel history, none more so than this nonfiction book detailing the observations he collected while on a trip crisscrossing Canada — including a stop in the Friendly City, which was so memorable it's right there in the title.
Sylvia Legris, Saskatoon poet:
Legris has published several poetry collections worth visiting before her appearance at the Festival, including Griffin award-winning Nerve Squall from 2005, which includes weather, ghosts and brain disorders, and her most recent work The Hideous Hidden (2016), which explores the “poetic potential of human and animal anatomy.”
Linda Spalding, Ontario novelist:
The Purchase (2012): Spalding’s novel The Purchase, winner of the Governor General’s Literary Award, follows the story of a young Quaker father and widower in 1798, as he travels from Pennsylvania with his family in search of a future homestead after being cast out of his community for re-marrying a woman not of his faith. In building a new life, his story becomes a struggle of conscience that involves two murders and an encounter with a runaway slave.
A Reckoning (2017): Spalding’s next published novel is a sequel to The Purchase and, set in 1855, a continuation of the Dickenson farm’s story — with some details inspired by Spalding’s own family history, according to an interview with Spalding herself.
Guy Vanderhaeghe, Saskatchewan author:
The Englishmen’s Boy (1966): Known best for his historical and western fiction, Vanderhaeghe’s most popular work is the 1966 novel The Englishmen’s Boy, which tells the story of the 19th century Cypress Hills Massacre from the lips of the last living survivor, sharing his experience with a screenwriter 50 years later in the 1920s. The novel is actually the beginning of a trilogy, luckily for those who enjoy it, and the story continues with The Last Crossing and A Good Man.
Daddy Lenin and Other Stories (2016): For something more recent, Vanderhaeghe’s 2016 short story collection is another worthwhile endeavour. Including nine fictional stories, Daddy Lenin explores the lives of many different kinds of characters, from rebellious teenagers in too deep to the budding relationship between a father and his daughter who is handicapped from polio, and more.
Farzana Doctor, Ontario novelist and social worker:
Seven (2020): Recently released in the fall of 2020, Seven follows main character Sharifa on a marriage-saving trip to India with her husband, where she learns more about her great-great-grandfather and his four wives — who are mysteriously missing from her family’s lore — and encounters divide among her cousins over an old ritual involving female genital-cutting that some insist is ceremonial and others condemn.
Six Metres of Pavement (2011): Doctor’s second published novel, which won the 2012 Lambda Literary Award, is about main character Ismail, who is plagued by a mistake 20 years ago that left his infant daughter dead and his life in shambles. The consequences of his tragic actions still haunt him as he continues to move forward and develops a more-than-friendship relationship with a divorced neighbour and a fatherly friendship with a local college student.
Angie Abdou, author from British Columbia:
This One Wild Life (2021): As almost a companion to her mother-son novel Home Ice: Reflections of a Reluctant Hockey Mom, Abdou’s new memoir shares the story of the summer hiking goal she undertook with her concerningly shy daughter Katie, to draw her out of her shell and reconnect the mother-daughter duo — while also exploring the ideas of self-confidence, teen girls and the effects of internet time. This One Wild Life will be released this April.
In Case I Go (2017): Abdou’s fiction novel In Case I Go tells the story of Eli, a young boy whose family returns to the small town where his late great-great-grandfather once lived, bringing the preteen face to face with the ghost of his great-great-grandfather and his past. With his ancestor’s memories threatening to take over Eli entirely, he struggles with the history of the little town and its ongoing relationship with the Indigenous members of the community.
