At Congress 2018, the Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English will convene a panel of highly acclaimed Regina writers for a reading and conversation about their work. The panel “A Celebration of Regina Writers” pays tribute to the rich literary culture of Congress’ host city, Regina. It features Gail Bowen, Trevor Herriot, and Connie Gault.

Gail Bowen has been called “Canada’s Best Mystery Novelist.” She is a playwright and author of the popular Joanne Kilbourn mystery novels, which trace the investigative adventures of a Regina-based university professor whose community is frequently touched by murder. The first six novels in the series have been adapted into television movies. Winner of the 2018 Grand Master prize from the Crime Writers of Canada, Bowen has recently released the 17th installment in the Joanne Kilbourn series, The Winners’ Circle (McClelland & Stewart, 2017), nominated for a 2018 Arthur Ellis Award for best novel, and Sleuth: Gail Bowen on Writing Mysteries (U Regina P, 2018). A retired professor and cultural commentator, Bowen taught at SIFC (now the First Nations University of Canada), and was Chair of the English Department for six years.

Connie Gault is a writer known for her moving representations of prairie history, her insights into the significance of ordinary women’s lives, her sharp wit, and impressive stylistic range. Her first novel, Euphoria, was shortlisted for the High Plains Award and the Commonwealth Award for Best Novel. Her 2015 novel A Beauty was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. The Globe and Mail review of A Beauty observed that Gault “is terrifyingly perspicacious about small-town life,” and that she reveals the ways in which communities “storehouses of meaning.”In addition to her short story collections, Gault has published stories in many literary journals and anthologies. She is also a prolific playwright whose work has been widely produced both on stage and as radio drama.

Trevor Herriot is a naturalist, activist, and writer, whose creative non-fiction bears witness to his deep passion for the nature and culture of his home place “on the northern edge of the Great Plains in Regina, Saskatchewan.” Herriot’s books include Islands of Grass, Grass, Sky, Song: Promise and Peril in the World of Grassland Birds, which was a Globe & Mail Top 100 book, was listed by Quill and Quire on its 2009 list of 15 books that matter, and shortlisted for the Writer’s Trust Non-Fiction Prize, the Governor General’s Award for Non-fiction, and the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. The Walrus has commented that the latter is “a moving testimony to a landscape in flux, and also a profound meditation on ‘wildness’ by the pre-eminent prairie naturalist of his generation.”

“A Celebration of Regina Writers” will take place on Saturday, May 26, 5:00-6:30 pm, in Campion College 105. Open to the Public.