Celebrated author Katherena Vermette returns as a guest in York University’s Canadian Writers in Person Lecture Series on March 6, and will discuss her highly acclaimed novel The Break.
The series, presented by the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS), runs Tuesday evenings from 7 to 10pm at 206 Accolade West Building.
A Métis writer from Treaty One territory in Winnipeg, Vermette has earned much acclaim as both a writer and filmmaker. Her debut book, North End Love Songs (The Muses’ Company), won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Poetry.
Vermette’s novel The Break (House of Anansi) was awarded the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction (2007), the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award (2017), the McNally Robinson Book of the Year (2017) and the Amazon.ca First Novel Award (2017). It was also shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction (2016), the Rogers Trust Fiction Prize (2016) and the Burt Award for First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Young Adult Literature (2017).
The fictional story begins one evening when young Métis mother Stella looks out her window and sees someone in trouble on the Break (an isolated piece of land) and calls police.
The story is told through shifting narratives of those connected to the victim. The reader learns of their personal stories leading up to the event, and a larger story unfolds.
Vermette has published a seven-volume children’s picture book series, The Seven Teachings Stories.
Vermette has also earned the Coup de Coeur at the Montreal First Peoples Festival and a nomination for a Canadian Screen Award for her National Film Board short documentary, This River.
Vermette has a master’s of fine arts from the University of British Columbia. She is also involved in coordinating arts programs in Winnipeg, where she lives with her family.
For more information on the series, visit the event website.