I can’t think of anything better than savouring delicious writing like this. I have really enjoyed the slow curation of bringing KC, Jason, and Arlea together.
I think self-professed propagandist and poet, Jason Stefanik is one of our most eclectic, visually stunning and just plain fascinating writers. I fully expect great things from that one.
Arlea Ashcroft’s writing is so immediate, purely visceral, and somehow punk rock?! I don’t know how, but everything she writes feels like a punk song: direct, to the point, in your face and flipping profound!
And, KC Adams, of course, is already legend. Her work both cements and is cemented into our place here. It is in our walkways, along the river, in our institutions. She is literally a part of the fabric of the city and we are richer for it.
I chose these works individually, but now thinking of how they play off and work with each other, it seems obvious and well, not at all. They are of eras and areas; they are both past and current. As Winnipeg as a crumbling, graffitied parkade, as the unkept but still gorgeous riverwalk. Overgrown elms in September. They are Transcona and St Andrews, not really Winnipeg but not not Winnipeg at the same time, like earth we walk on has always been and always will be. Equal parts make-you-think and just-plain-fun.
I am so honoured to be a part and bring these together for the Voices project.
Maarsii for reading.
katherena vermette (she/her/hers) is a Michif (Red River Métis) writer from Treaty 1 territory, the heart of the Métis Nation, Winnipeg, Manitoba. Her Michif roots on her paternal side run deep in St. Boniface, St. Norbert and beyond. Her maternal side is Mennonite from the Altona and Rosenfeld area (Treaty 1). In 2013, katherena's first book, North End Love Songs (Muses’ Company) won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Poetry. Since then, her work has garnered awards and critical accolades across genres. Her novels The Break (House of Anansi) and The Strangers and The Circle (Hamish Hamilton) were all national best sellers and won multiple literary awards. Her fourth novel, real ones (Hamish Hamilton) was released in September 2024.
katherena's work for children and young adults includes the picture book, The Girl and The Wolf (Theytus) and graphic novel series, A Girl Called Echo (Highwater). She holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University of British Columbia, and an honourary Doctor of Letters from the University of Manitoba. katherena lives with her kids – fur and human – in a cranky old house within skipping distance of the temperamental Red River.