April 30 - An evening reading with Francine Cunningham and Wayne Arthurson

The University of Alberta Writer-in-Residence program is pleased to host a joint reading with Francine Cunningham, University of Calgary Writer-in-Residence, and Wayne Arthurson, University of Alberta Writer-in-Residence.

The reading will kick off on Tuesday, April 30 at 6:30 PM in the City Room, upstairs at Peter Lougheed Hall on campus, 11011 Saskatchewan Drive NW. Francine and Wayne will both read from their work and conduct a Q&A with the audience. All are welcome and refreshments will be provided!

Parking is available in Lot U on the west side of Lougheed Hall. Street parking around the building is also available.

Francine Cunningham is the 2023-24 Canadian Writer-in-Residence at the University of Calgary. She is an award-winning writer, artist and educator who spends her summer days writing on the prairies and her winter months teaching in the north. Francine is a member of the Saddle Lake Cree Nation in Alberta but grew up in Calgary, Edmonton, and 100 Mile House, BC. Francine is also Métis, and has settler family roots stretching from as far away as Ireland and Belgium.

Her debut book of poems On/Me (Caitlin Press) was nominated for The BC and Yukon Book Prize, The Indigenous Voices Award, and The Vancouver Book Award. Her debut book of short stories God Isn’t Here Today (Invisible Publishing) was longlisted for the inaugural Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, was a finalist for the 2023 Indigenous Voices Award, and won the 2023 ReLit award for short fiction. Her first children’s book, What if bedtime didn’t exist (Annick Press) will be out in March 2024. Francine also writes for television, with credits including the teen reality show THAT’S AWSM!, and she was a recipient of a Telus StoryHive grant to make a web-series. Her fiction, non-fiction, and poetry have also appeared in The Best Canadian Short Stories, The Best Canadian Non-Fiction, in Grain Magazine as the 2018 Short Prose Award winner, on The Malahat Review’s Far Horizon’s Prose shortlist, and on the 2022 CBC Poetry Prize longlist.

Wayne Arthurson is the 2023-24 Writer-in-Residence at the University of Alberta. He is a writer and literary agent from Edmonton and is the author of eight novels and five books of nonfiction. Arthurson’s work focuses on the Indigenous experience in Canada and is informed by his Cree and French Canadian heritage. His debut novel Final Season is set in an Indigenous community that faces severe environmental upheaval due to a new hydroelectric project. His novella The Red Chesterfield won the 2020 Crime Writers of Canada Award of Excellence (formerly the Arthur Ellis Award) in the Best Novella category. He has been twice shortlisted for the High Plains Book Award in the Best Indigenous Writer category, and his novel Fall from Grace won the 2012 Alberta Readers' Choice Award.