Cherie Dimaline

Cherie Dimaline

Cherie Dimaline’s 2017 book, The Marrow Thieves, was chosen by TIME magazine as one of the Best YA Books of All Time. An international bestseller, it won the Governor General’s Literary Award and the prestigious Kirkus Prize for Young Readers, and was named a Book of the Year on numerous lists including National Public Radio, the School Library Journal, the New York Public Library, The Globe and Mail, and the CBC. Her novel Empire of Wild became an instant Canadian bestseller and was named Indigo’s #1 Best Book of 2019. Hunting By Stars, the hotly anticipated sequel to The Marrow Thieves, was a 2022 American Indian Library Association Honor Book. Dimaline is currently writing for television and screen and her latest novel, VenCo, has already been optioned by AMC Studio and Network. She lives in her home territory, where she is a registered and active member of the Georgian Bay Métis Community.

Website: cheriedimaline.com
Instagram: @cherie.dimaline

FESTIVAL BOOK

VenCo

Lucky St. James, orphaned daughter of a bad-ass Métis good-times girl, is barely hanging on to her nowhere life when she finds out that she and her grandmother, Stella, are about to be evicted from their apartment. Bad to worse in a heartbeat. Then one night, doing laundry in the building's dank basement, Lucky feels an irresistible something calling to her. Crawling through a hidden hole in the wall, she finds a tarnished silver spoon depicting a story-book hag over letters that spell out S-A-L-E-M.

Which alerts Salem-born Meena Good, finder of a matching spoon, to Lucky's existence. One of the most powerful witches in North America, Meena has been called to bring together seven special witches and seven special spoons – infused with magic and scattered to the four directions more than a century ago – to form a magic circle that will restore women to their rightful power. Under the wing of the international headhunting firm VenCo, devoted to placing exceptional women in roles where they can influence business, politics and the arts, Meena has spent years searching out witches hiding in plain sight wherever women gather: suburban book clubs, Mommy & Me groups, temp agencies. Lucky and her spoon are number six.

With only one more spoon to find, a very powerful adversary has Meena's coven in his sights – Jay Christos, a roguish and deadly witch-hunter as old as witchcraft itself. As the clock ticks toward a now-or-never deadline, Meena sends Lucky and her grandmother on a dangerous, sometimes hilarious, road trip through the United States in search of the seventh spoon. The trail leads them at last to the darkly magical city of New Orleans, where Lucky's final showdown with Jay Christos will determine whether the coven will be completed, ushering in a new beginning, or whether witches will be forced to remain forever underground.

<strong>GET THE BOOK</strong>

<a href="https://store.shelflifebooks.ca/item/rC8Hn_GwKfSLPlSX7rzSAg">Shelf Life Books</a> | <a href="https://calgary.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S95C1502581">Calgary Public Library</a> |<a href="https://www.audible.ca/pd/VenCo-Audiobook/B0B64BG2FX?qid=1690318243&amp;sr=1-1&amp;ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_1_1&amp;pf_rd_p=b278ed0a-c3b2-4491-808c-7cb2190a487c&amp;pf_rd_r=B9KKGSJ8MY7204TN02V7&amp;pageLoadId=1QyOfrUk5pFeIVGY&amp;creativeId=0d6f6720-f41c-457e-a42b-8c8dceb62f2c">Audible</a>

An Anthology of Monsters

<em>An Anthology of Monsters</em> is the tale of an intricate dance with life-long anxiety. It is about how the stories we tell ourselves can help reshape the ways in which we think, cope, and ultimately survive. Using examples from her books, from her mère, and from her own late night worry sessions, Cherie Dimaline choreographs a deeply personal narrative about all the ways in which we tell stories. She reveals how to collect and curate our stories, how they elicit difficult and beautiful conversations, and how family and community is a place of refuge and strength.

<strong>GET THE BOOK</strong>

<a href="https://store.shelflifebooks.ca/item/QBQXhdlgipQ9f6zuaPG2jg">Shelf Life Books</a> | <a href="https://calgary.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S95C1499559">Calgary Public Library</a>

Funeral Songs for Dying Girls

<strong>After inadvertently starting rumors of a haunted cemetery, a teen befriends a ghost in this brand-new young adult novel exploring grief and belonging by the critically acclaimed and bestselling author of <em>The Marrow Thieves</em> series.</strong>

Winifred has lived in the apartment above the cemetery office with her father, who works in the crematorium, all her life, close to her mother's grave. With her 16th birthday only days away, Winifred has settled into a lazy summer schedule, lugging her obese Chihuahua around the grounds in a squeaky red wagon to visit the neglected gravesides and nursing a serious crush on her best friend, Jack.

Her habit of wandering the graveyard at all hours has started a rumor that Winterson Cemetery might be haunted. It’s welcome news since the crematorium is on the verge of closure and her father’s job is being outsourced. Now that the ghost tours have started, Winifred just might be able to save her father’s job and the only home she’s ever known, not to mention being able to stay close to where her mother is buried. All she has to do is get help from her con-artist cousin to keep up the rouse and somehow manage to stop her father from believing his wife has returned from the grave. But when Phil, an actual ghost of a teen girl who lived and died in the ravine next to the cemetery, starts showing up, Winifred begins to question everything she believes about life, love and death. Especially love.

<strong>GET THE BOOK</strong>

<a href="https://store.shelflifebooks.ca/item/rC8Hn_GwKfSAWMkHd9bBHA">Shelf Life Books</a> | <a href="https://calgary.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S95C1514917">Calgary Public Library</a> |<a href="https://www.audible.ca/pd/Funeral-Songs-for-Dying-Girls-Audiobook/B0B64BHRJ7?qid=1689886609&amp;sr=1-1&amp;ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_1_1&amp;pf_rd_p=b278ed0a-c3b2-4491-808c-7cb2190a487c&amp;pf_rd_r=WPB5XFT2KDNNMXBYT3BH&amp;pageLoadId=WSWp4XiTc9hGY8Lp&amp;creativeId=0d6f6720-f41c-457e-a42b-8c8dceb62f2c">Audible</a>

<strong>BE CURIOUSER</strong>
<ul>
<li>Cherie Dimaline's witchy new book <em>VenCo</em>: a thriller to take down the patriarchy and save the world – <a href="https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/cherie-dimaline-s-witchy-new-book-venco-a-thriller-to-take-down-the-patriarchy-and/article_24174138-b36f-5613-9727-f11a03942a03.html">The Toronto Star</a></li>
<li>Radio: Cherie Dimaline on how working in the world of radio made her a better writer – <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-50-q/clip/16007258-cherie-dimaline-working-world-magic-made-better-writer">Q with Tom Power, CBC</a></li>
<li>Fast, fun and full of charm(s) – <a href="https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/cherie-dimaline/venco/">Kirkus Reviews</a></li>
<li>Cherie Dimaline's Witchy New Novel <em>VenCo </em>is Rooted in Feminist Thought – <a href="https://www.shondaland.com/inspire/books/a42779237/cherie-dimalines-witchy-new-novel-venco-is-rooted-in-feminist-thought/">Shondaland</a></li>
<li>Watch 25@25: Cherie Dimaline &amp; Maria Campbell – <a href="https://wordfest.com/2020/watch/470689675/">Wordfest Imagine on Air</a></li>
<li>In Cherie Dimaline’s latest book, <em>Funeral Songs for Dying Girls</em>, a young woman grapples with grief and ghosts – <a href="https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/in-cherie-dimaline-s-latest-book-funeral-songs-for-dying-girls-a-young-woman-grapples/article_3ee20c52-e13f-5c90-86f0-d6b0f9ee5114.html?">The Toronto Star</a></li>
<li>‘We’ve Already Survived an Apocalypse.’ –<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/14/books/indigenous-native-american-sci-fi-horror.html">The New York Times</a></li>
</ul>

ALL EVENTS WITH Cherie Dimaline

7 PM
The Way We... Hex the Patriarchy
Oct 13 @ 7 PM MT - 8:30 PM MT

DJD Dance Centre

111 12 Ave SE
1 PM
From Book to Screen to Scream
Oct 14 @ 1 PM MT - 2:15 PM MT

Memorial Park Library, 2nd Floor

1221 2 St SW
7 PM
Writers Family Feud
Oct 14 @ 7 PM MT - 9 PM MT

DJD Dance Centre

111 12 Ave SE
3 PM
Group Therapy
Oct 15 @ 3 PM MT - 4:15 PM MT

DJD Dance Centre

111 12 Ave SE

More Shows by Wordfest

1 PM
SOLD OUT - Wordfest & Taylor Centre  for the Performing Arts  Present Matty Matheson
Nov 16 @ 1 PM MT - 2:30 PM MT

Bella Concert Hall, The Taylor Centre for the Performing Arts @ MRU

18 Mt Royal Cir SW
7 PM
Wordfest Presents Marc Garneau
Nov 19 @ 7 PM MT - 8:15 PM MT

Memorial Park Library, 2nd Floor

1221 2 St SW
Add To Cart
7 PM
Wordfest Presents Jody Wilson-Raybould
Nov 27 @ 7 PM MT - 8:15 PM MT

Memorial Park Library, 2nd Floor

1221 2 St SW
Add To Cart