maskotēw-askiy: a Celebration of Prairie Poetics

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About

Outside of the prairies, they’re looked at as abandoned lands full of oil rigs and racists. This framing, created by settlers, manifests an “us vs. them”--us, the more liberated, and them, the unlucky ones in the prairies. This popular narrative ignores that this is all Native land, it ignores that the prairies hold governance older than Canada, and it ignores the beauty and complexity of these lands.

The Prairies are fluid: grasslands swaying in the wind, streams forming cutbanks in rock, wildflowers daring to grow along highways. The prairies are complex, full of sovereign people, love, queerness, and sunsets.

Join Emily Riddle, Samantha Martin-Bird, and Brandi Bird in a reading and conversation exploring their works that are inspired by, written to, and born in maskotēw-askiy.

Curated and moderated by Samantha Nock

This event is captioned

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Organizer

Victoria Festival of Authors

Since 2016, Victoria Festival of Authors (VFA) has been the largest celebration of books and book lovers on Vancouver Island. Each fall we invite authors from across Canada to share their books and ideas with Victoria’s readers. VFA has also included school-based programs since 2019.

Our traditional five-day festival includes author readings, panels, workshops, and master classes, as well as events that fuse literature with other art forms, such as dance, music and visual arts. The Victoria Festival of Authors showcases established and emerging poets, prose writers, and other storytellers. Artistic achievement, creative innovation and a diversity of voices drive our mandate. Victoria Festival of Authors achieved charitable status in 2019.

In 2021, we have taken what we learned last year, at our first virtual festival, and combined it with the strengths of past programming to deliver a hybrid festival. We are excited to present seven in-person events to small but necessary audiences. You can also take part from the comfort of your living room since all in-person programming will be live-streamed for free. These events celebrate the writers from our region: Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland. In addition, we will have four Zoom events, featuring authors from across Canada.

We gratefully acknowledge the generous financial support of the BC Arts Council, Canada Council, the CRD, the City of Victoria, United Way and the Government of Canada's Emergency Community Support for ensuring live-streaming and Zoom-based events are free.

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