Ottawa, February 27, 2008 – Three winners of the 2007 Governor General's Literary Awards will soon be playing to one of the world's toughest audiences: New Yorkers.
Don Domanski, Karolyn Smardz Frost and Colleen Murphy will be the headliners at a public reading in New York City on Wednesday, March 5. In partnership with the Americas Society, the Consulate General of Canada in New York and the Canada Council for the Arts, the program will be hosted by Pamela Wallin, former Consul General in New York and Senior Advisor on Canada-U.S. relations to the President of the Americas Society, along with current Consul General Daniel Sullivan.
It will be moderated by award-winning Canadian author Austin Clarke, who served as a member of the English-language fiction jury for the 2007 GG Awards.
The reading is part of the Americas Society's Canada Festival, as well as Upper North Side, a program of activities organized by the Consulate General of Canada in New York to introduce New Yorkers to Canadian culture. It is also the last of a year-long series of events marking the 50th anniversary of the Canada Council, which was created by Parliament on March 28, 1957.
All three of the GG-winning books are expected to resonate with American readers. Karolyn Smardz Frost's I've Got a Home in Glory Land: A Lost Tale of the Underground Railroad tells the story of Thornton and Lucie Blackburn, who escaped from slavery in Kentucky in the 1830s and used the Underground Railroad, an informal network of secret routes and safe houses, to reach freedom in Toronto. The book won the 2007 Governor General's Award for English-language
non-fiction.
Colleen Murphy's play The December Man (L'homme de décembre) tells the story of a fictional student who witnessed the most devastating school shooting in Canada's history: the killing of 14 female students at Montreal's l'École Polytechnique by mass murderer Marc Lépine. The book won the 2007 Governor General's Award for English-language drama.
Don Domanski's poetry collection, All Our Wonder Unavenged, deals with universal themes that transcend geographic borders, from spirituality and the wonders of nature to the mysteries of everyday life. The book won the 2007 Governor General's Award for English-language poetry. Born on Cape Breton Island and now living in Halifax, Mr. Domanski will be making his first-ever visit to New York for this reading.
Created by Governor General Lord Tweedsmuir, who as John Buchan wrote such books as The Thirty-Nine Steps, the Governor General's Literary Awards are Canada's oldest and most prestigious awards for literature. The first awards were presented in 1937 to honour the best books of 1936. Today, fourteen awards are presented each year in fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama, children's literature (text), children's literature (illustration) and translation: seven for books written in English and seven for books written in French.
The reading will take place at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, March 5 at the Americas Society, 680 Park Avenue (at E. 68th Street). The event is open to the public and there is no charge for admission.
Donna Balkan
Senior Communications Manager
1-800-263-5588 or (613) 566-4414, ext. 4134
Email this contact
Heather McAfee
Acting Public Relations Officer
1-800-263-5588 or (613) 566-4414, ext. 4523
Email this contact
Canadian Consulate General in New York
Anna Velasco
212-596-1652
anna.velasco@international.gc.ca
