Martha Baillie

Martha Baillie

Martha Baillie’s novel, The Incident Report was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and is to be released as a feature film in 2023, directed by Naomi Jaye and starring Britt Lower and Tom Mercier, with Charlie Kaufman as executive producer. Her novel, The Search for Heinrich Schlögel, was an O Magazine editors’ pick. Sister Language, co-written with her late sister Christina Baillie, was a 2020 Trillium Award finalist. Her multimedia project based on The Search for Heinrich Schlögel is archived at www.schlogel.ca. She lives in Toronto.

Website: marthabaillie.ca
Instagram: @marthabaillie

FESTIVAL BOOK

There is No Blue

<blockquote>I am grateful for this profound meditation on family and loss.” <em>–Charlie Kaufman</em>, filmmaker</blockquote>
<strong>Martha Baillie’s richly layered response to her mother’s passing, her father's life, and her sister’s suicide is an exploration of how the body, the rooms we inhabit, and our languages offer the psyche a home, if only for a time. </strong>

Three essays, three deaths. The first is the death of the author’s mother, a protracted disappearance, leaving space for thoughtfulness and ritual: the washing of her body, the making of a death mask. The second considers Baillie's father, his remoteness, his charm, a lacuna at the center of the family even before his death, earlier than her mother's. And then, third, shockingly, the author’s sister – a visual artist and writer living with a diagnosis of schizophrenia – who writes three reasons to die on her bedroom wall and then takes her life, just before the book the sisters co-authored is due to come out.

In this close observation of a family, few absolutes hold, as experiences of reality diverge. A memoir of cascading grief and survival from the author of <em>The Incident Report.</em>

<strong>GET THE BOOK</strong>

<a href="https://store.shelflifebooks.ca/item/eICIMlJ6k5G14EguaFNFMA">Shelf Life Books</a> | <a href="https://calgary.bibliocommons.com/v2/search?searchType=smart&amp;query=there%20is%20no%20blue%20baillie">Calgary Public Library</a>

<strong>BE CURIOUSER</strong>
<ul>
<li>Martha Baillie's Favourite Books and Biggest Influences – <a href="https://open-book.ca/News/Martha-Baillie-s-Favourite-Books-Biggest-Influences">Open Book</a></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Visitors create the story in the ‘library’ of Miriam’s World at Theatre Passe Muraille – <a href="https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/visual-arts/visitors-create-the-story-in-the-library-of-miriam-s-world-at-theatre-passe-muraille/article_5ff136b0-1a42-567a-9bb7-81f54266a125.html">Toronto Star</a></li>
<li>62 Books to Read This Fall – <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books/article-fall-books-preview-62-books-to-get-ready-for-the-cozy-season/">The Globe and Mail</a></li>
</ul>

ALL EVENTS WITH Martha Baillie

9:30 AM
The Way We... Navigate
Oct 14 @ 9:30 AM MT - 11 AM MT

DJD Dance Centre

111 12 Ave SE
9:30 AM
Unearthings starring Martha Baillie, Anne Berest & Kyo Maclear
Oct 15 @ 9:30 AM MT - 10:45 AM 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