CANCELLED Wordfest Presents Rene Denfeld

CANCELLED: Wordfest Presents Rene Denfeld

Wordfest presents award-winning writer and social justice worker Rene Denfeld to celebrate the launch of Sleeping Giants. The conversation, hosted by Wordfest's Creative Ringleader Shelley Youngblut, starts at 7PM MT and includes an audience Q & A and book signing. Shelf Life Books will be on site with copies of Denfeld’s newest book, as well as her acclaimed backlist. Ticket holders can also pre-order copies here for pick-up at the event.

We are grateful to HarperCollins Canada for making it possible to connect you with the writer Margaret Atwood calls “amazing”!

About Sleeping Giants

Rene Denfeld keeps writing books I have to read in one sitting because I can’t stop.” ­–Rebecca Solnit

From the bestselling author of The Child Finder and The Enchanted, a compelling and poignant story of sibling bonds, monsters masquerading as caretakers, terrifying secrets, and the power of love to right even the most egregious wrongs.

Twenty years ago, a nine-year-old boy was swept away by powerful waves on a remote Oregon beach, his body lost to the sea. Only a stone memorial remains to mark his tragic death.

For most of her life, Amanda Dufresne had no idea she had an older brother named Dennis Owens, or that he had died. Adopted as a baby, she learned about him while looking into her late birth mother and is curious to know more about this lost sibling. A solitary young woman, Amanda has always felt distanced from the world around her. Her brain works differently from others, leaving her feeling set apart. Her one true companion is the orphaned polar bear she cares for working at the zoo. By getting to know her birth family, she hopes to understand more about herself.

Retired police officer Larry Palmer is a widower with nothing but time and in need of a purpose. He offers to help Amanda find answers. The search leads to shocking and heartbreaking discoveries. Dennis Owen had been a forgotten foster child abandoned to a home for disturbed boys off the coast. As Amanda and Larry dig deeper into the past, the two stumble upon decades of cruelty and hidden crimes – including a barbaric treatment still used today.

Told in Rene Denfeld’s inimitable style, Sleeping Giants is an enthralling and heartbreaking novel that burrows deep in the heart and will leave no reader untouched.

About Rene Denfield

Rene Denfeld is a bestselling author, licensed investigator, and foster mother. She is the author of the novels The Butterfly Girl, The Child Finder and The Enchanted. Her novels have won numerous awards including a French Prix, and The New York Times named her a 2017 hero of the year. She lives in Portland, Oregon. Follow her on Instagram @rdenfeld

About Host Shelley Youngblut

Shelley Youngblut is the CEO & Creative Ringleader of Wordfest. She was the recipient of the 2020 Calgary Award for Community Achievement in the Arts and the 2018 Rozsa Award for Arts Leadership. She also won the 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award at the Western Magazine Awards. Youngblut was the founding editor of Calgary’s award-winning Swerve magazine and has created magazines for ESPN, Seventeen, Cosmopolitan, Nickelodeon, Western Living, and The Globe and Mail. She was also a former pop-culture correspondent for ABC World News Now and Canada AM. Follow her on Facebook @ShelleyYoungblut and Instagram/Threads @youngblutshelley.

Curiouser?

• Modern Love: Four Castaways Make a Family. –­The New York Times
• Rene Denfield: What Happens After the Trauma. –Guernica Magazine