Another World
with Catherine Leroux, Sean Michaels and Mona Awad
Hosted by Rhonda Douglas
There is nobody else like Mona Awad, daring enough to plunge her hands—rings and all—into the viscera of story and discover an unsettling beauty within. Rouge is her most magnetic work yet, a thrilling dystopian romp that knows that beneath the glossy, aspirational veneer of self-care lurks the same old gothic abyss.
Author and editor Rhonda Douglas hosts a conversation on the many ways imagining other worlds, imagined histories and possible tomorrows can connect us more fully to the things that matter most, with three fearless authors unafraid to push beyond the world as we know it to find and share their truth.
PLEASE NOTE: Due to illness, Mona Awad will be unable to join us for this event.
The Future by Scotiabank Giller Prize finalist Catherine Leroux, is set in an alternate history in which the French never surrendered Detroit, children protect their own kingdom in the trees. A richly imagined story of community and a plea for persistence in the face of our uncertain future, The Future is a lyrical testament to the power we hold to protect the people and places we love—together.
Scotiabank Giller Prize-winner Sean Michaels' Do You Remember Being Born? takes readers on a lyrical joy ride—seven, epic days in Silicon Valley with a tall, formidable poet (inspired by the real-life Marianne Moore) and her unusual new collaborator, a digital mind just one month old. This is a relationship unlike anything Marian has known, and as it evolves she is forced to confront the secrets of her past and the direction of her future. It's both a love letter to and an aching examination of art-making, family, identity and belonging.
Rouge, the latest from Scotiabank Giller Prize finalist Mona Awad, is a horror-tinted, gothic fairy tale about a lonely dress shop clerk whose mother's unexpected death sends her down a treacherous path in pursuit of youth and beauty. Can she escape her mother’s fate—and find a connection that is more than skin deep? Brimming with California sunshine and blood-red rose petals, Rouge holds up a warped mirror to our relationship with mortality, our collective fixation with the surface, and the wondrous, deep longing that might lie beneath.
Books are available from our friends at Perfect Books.
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