Gil Adamson and
John Metcalf

Thursday, May 1, 7:30 p.m., Free
Bentley Chamber Music Studio

Adamson’s The Outlander is shortlisted for the 2008 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize Best Book Award. Michael Ondaatje called it “a remarkable first novel, full of verve, beautifully written, and with all the panache of a great adventure.” Metcalf is senior editor of The Porcupine’s Quill. Some of his works include The Lady Who Sold Furniture, Adult Entertainment, Kicking Against the Pricks, and Acts of Kindness and of Love.

Edna Alford and
Greg Hollingshead

Thursday, May 8, 7:30 p.m., Free
Bentley Chamber Music Studio

Alford is the award-winning author of two collections of short fiction, A Sleep Full of Dreams and The Garden of Eloise Loon. She is associate director of the Writing Studio and has co-edited the Banff Centre Press anthologies Meltwater, Rip-rap, and Intersections. Hollingshead is the director of the Writing Studio. He has published three novels and three story collections and is the winner of the Governor General’s Award for Fiction and the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize.

John Steffler

Tuesday, May 13, 7:30 p.m., Free
Rolston Recital Hall

Steffler is the author of five books of poetry and the novel The Afterlife of George Cartwright, which won the Smithbooks/Books in Canada First Novel Award. In December 2006 he was named poet laureate of Canada.

Don McKay

Thursday, May 15, 7:30 p.m., Free
Rolston Recital Hall

McKay is the associate director of poetry for the Writing Studio and the two-time winner of the Governor General’s Award for Poetry. His work has received the Griffin Poetry Prize, the National Magazine Award, and the Canadian Authors Association Award.

Alan Cumyn and
Mary Dalton

Thursday, May 22, Free
Rolston Recital Hall

Cumyn is the award-winning author of nine wide-ranging and often wildly different novels. He is currently adapting two of his novels for the screen. Dalton is the author of four books of poetry. Her latest, Red Ledger, was shortlisted in 2007 for the Atlantic Poetry Prize and the E.J. Pratt Poetry Award.

Sharon Butala

Saturday, May 24, Free
Rolston Recital Hall

Sharon Butala reads from her latest book, The Girl in Saskatoon: A Meditation on Memory and Murder. The book deals with the 1962 murder of Butala’s high school friend, Alexandra Wiwcharuk, and is presented as part of the Banff Book Discussion Weekend.

Catherine Bush

Friday, May 30, Free
Rolston Recital Hall

Catherine Bush is the author of three novels. Claire’s Head was chosen as a Best Book of the Year by the Globe and Mail. The Rules of Engagement was chosen as a New York Times Notable Book and a Best Book of the Year by the LA Times.

Other readers included Gitanjali Kolanad, Jena Schmitt, Naomi Lewis, and Helen Guri.