As part of the university's ongoing 200th anniversary celebrations, the Dal Libraries will be front-and-centre at this year's in Halifax.Â
The festival, which takes palce Saturday, September 15 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Halifax Central Library, will have a special "Dal 200 Author Stage" featuring a selection of engaging authors, poets and scholars who all have a connection to Dalhousie.
“Presenting these authors at Word on the Street is an extension of what the Dalhousie Libraries already do with our literary events and author readings,” said Donna Bourne-Tyson, University Librarian. “We’re thrilled to have this opportunity to feature so many authors with a Dalhousie connection at a community event in celebration of Dal 200.”
Where: Lindsay Room, 2nd floor, Halifax Central Library
When: Saturday, September 15, 10 a.m.–3 p.m.
Featured presenters at the Dal 200 Author Stage include:
10 a.m. – Sherry Pictou
Dr. Sherry Pictou is a Mi’kmaw woman from L’sɨtkuk (water cuts through high rocks), known as Bear River First Nation, Nova Scotia. She graduated with an Interdisciplinary Ph.D. at pilipiliÂţ» in June of 2017 and is currently an assistant professor in the Women’s Studies Department at Mount Saint Vincent University with a focus on Indigenous feminism. She is also a former chief for her community and the former co-chair of the World Forum of Fisher Peoples. Her research interests are decolonization of treaty relations, social justice for Indigenous women, Indigenous women’s role in food and lifeways, and Indigenous knowledge and food systems. Her forthcoming book is called Decolonizing to what? Mi'kmaq Ancestral Relational Understanding and Anthropological Perspectives on Treaty.
11 a.m. – Shauntay Grant
Shauntay Grant is a writer and storyteller from Nova Scotia. She teaches creative writing at pilipiliÂţ», and she served as Halifax's third Poet Laureate from 2009 to 2011. A descendant of Black Refugees, Black Loyalists, and Jamaican Maroons who came to Canada during the 18th and 19th centuries, Grant’s love of language stretches back to her storytelling roots in Nova Scotia’s historic Black communities. She is a multidisciplinary artist with professional degrees and training in creative writing, music, and theatre, and her homegrown artistic practice embraces African Nova Scotian folk tradition as well as contemporary approaches to literature and performance. Her awards and honours include a Best Atlantic-Published Book prize from the Atlantic Book Awards, a Poet of Honour prize from Spoken Word Canada, and a Joseph S. Stauffer Prize in Writing and Publishing from the Canada Council for the Arts. She is the author of five books for children, most recently and her stage play will premiere at Neptune Theatre in early 2019.
12 p.m. – Linda Little
Linda Little's most recent novel is Grist, published in 2014. Her first children's picture book, Work and More Work, was published in 2015. Her two earlier novels are Scotch River (2006) which won the Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award and the Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction and Strong Hollow (2001) which won the Cunard First Book Award. She has published short stories in many reviews and anthologies. Linda has taught at the pilipiliÂţ» Agricultural Campus since 2005.
12:30 p.m. – Erin Wunker
Erin Wunker teaches at pilipiliÂţ». Her research focusses on poetry and poetics, as well as critical issues in Canadian literature and culture. She is the author of Notes from a Feminist Killjoy: Essays on Everyday Life, and with Hannah McGregor (SFU) and Julie Rak (U Alberta), she is the co-editor of the forthcoming collection Refuse: CanLit in Ruins.
1 p.m. – Steve Mannell
Steven Mannell, NSAA, FRAIC, is founding director of Dalhousie's College of Sustainability. He is a practicing architect and professor of Architecture. His research includes 20th century waterworks architecture, the conservation of modern built heritage, and the late 20th century emergence of “ecological” architecture. He collaborated with Dalhousie’s Sexton Library to create online Open Access repositories of the Journal of the Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada (1974 - present), and the RAIC Journal (1924- 1974). He is curator and author of Atlantic Modern: The Architecture of the Atlantic Provinces 1950-2000 (2001), and his chapter “Environmental Architecture in Canada, 1970-2015” is included in Elsa Lam and Graham Livesey, eds., Northern Building: Canadian Architecture 1967-2017, due out in 2019. His book Living Lightly on the Earth: Building an Ark for Prince Edward Island 1974-76, published in 2018, considers the Ark in the context of 20th century counterculture, the Appropriate Technology movement, and the emergence of “ecological architecture.”
2 p.m. – El Jones
El Jones is a poet, educator, journalist and advocate. She was the fifth Poet Laureate of Halifax, and currently holds the 15th Nancy’s Chair in Women’s Studies at Mount Saint Vincent University. El is a co-founder of the Black Power Hour, a radio show developed collectively with prisoners. Her weekly column can be read online on Saturdays in the Halifax Examiner, and her book of spoken word, Live from the Afrikan Resistance!, was released in 2014. El is a recipient of the Burnley “Rocky” Jones Nova Scotia human rights award. Her advocacy and work fights anti-Black racism in Canada, walking in the path of our great-grandmothers who resisted relentlessly. She has taught in the English department at Dal and is currently a Dalhousie PhD Candidate.
Please note: Afua Cooper, originally scheduled to appear at 1 p.m., is no longer available to join Dal Libraries for the event.