Posts from the ‘News & Events’ Category

Personal Stories Made Profound – Sept 30 Workshop

Personal Stories made profound, poetic, and/or prosey

or

“how to make your story into literature”

New Glasgow Public Library (902-752-8233)
Tuesday, September 30, 6:00pm – 7:30pm

In this session, Writer in Residence Chris Benjamin will look at how to mine the riches of our personal lives for great stories – be they family histories, travel experiences, rites of passage or obstacles hurdled. The truth can make great memoir, essay or even inspire your next work of fiction.

Indian School Road New Glasgow Launch

Tuesday September 23, 7:00 pm, at the New Glasgow Public Library (Community Room), author and Writer in Residence Chris Benjamin will read from his new book, Indian School Road: Legacies of the Shubenacadie Residential School, and launch his time as writer in residence.

All are welcome to join us!

Writer-in-residence looking forward to connecting to area

Antigonish’s newspaper, The Casket, published a piece on Chris Benjamin as the Writer in Residence at the Pictou-Antigonish Regional Library. Here is an excerpt:

New writer-in-residence at the Pictou-Antigonish Regional Library Chris Benjamin is looking forward to connecting to the area more, through his role.

Though he has done many workshops through the Writer’s Federation and in schools each year this is his first experience as an official writer-in-residence.

“I’ve always passed through this area – as a kid I did summer camps in New Glasgow – but I’ve never fully connected to the place or spent a lot of time here,” Benjamin said. “I’m really excited about just getting to know another part of Nova Scotia.”

Chronicle Herald calls Indian School Road “powerful, hard-hitting”

Paul Bennett’s review of Indian School Road: Legacies of the Shubenacadie Residential School appeared in last Saturday’s Halifax Chronicle Herald. Here is an excerpt:

In Indian School Road, Halifax writer Chris Benjamin tackles the tragic story of the Shubenacadie Indian Residential School, its predecessors and its painful legacies. It’s a powerful, hard-hitting book that will bring the whole sordid history of the schools to new audiences. Hailed by Quill & Quire as one of the season’s most-anticipated Canadian non-fiction titles, the book lives up to that advance billing.

Click here to read the full review.

Travel Writing Workshop

On Tuesday, September 16, 6-7:30 pm, Writer in Residence Chris Benjamin will give a workshop on Travel Writing at the Antigonish Town and County Library, 283 Main Street, Antigonish.

Many people love to travel, and many people love to write. This session will give good practical advice on how to turn your travel experiences – whether trekking far from the beaten path, luxuriating at a spa or showing your out-of-town in-laws some local attractions – into publishable stories.

Writer in Residence & Book Launch in Antigonish, Sept 9

Pictou-Antigonish Regional Library’s 2014 Writer-in-Residence, Chris Benjamin, will launch his newest book with a reading on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 7:00 p.m. at the Antigonish Town and County Library (283 Main St., Antigonish, Nova Scotia).

Indian School Road: Legacies of the Shubenacadie Residential School is released this month and won the Dave Greber Freelance Writing Award.

Benjamin is also the author of the novel Drive-By Saviours and the non-fiction book Eco-Innovators: Sustainability in Atlantic Canada.

For more information on this and other writer-in-residence programs, including mentoring sessions and writing workshops, go to www.parl.ns.ca.

Chris Benjamin is Writer in Residence at Pictou-Antigonish Regional Library

From the Aug 25 NG News:

It all started at the age of six years old when he wrote the story of a boy and his dinosaur. After that, Chris Benjamin was hooked on writing. As a shy boy growing up in Beaverbank, Nova Scotia, writing was a creative outlet that he knew he was good at – getting praise locally, nationally and internationally for his work.

It appears the Pictou-Antigonish Regional Library (PARL) also took notice, which is why he has been chosen as their 2014 Writer-in-Residence. Read more

Indian School Road Book Launch

In Indian School Road, journalist Chris Benjamin tackles the controversial and tragic history of the Shubenacadie Indian Residential School, its predecessors, and its lasting effects, giving voice to multiple perspectives for the first time.

Benjamin integrates research, interviews, and testimonies to guide readers through the varied experiences of students, principals, and teachers over the school’s nearly forty years of operation (1930–1967) and beyond.

Exposing the raw wounds of truth and reconciliation as well as the struggle for an inclusive Mi’kmaw education system, Indian School Road is a comprehensive and compassionate narrative history of the school that uneducated hundreds of Aboriginal children.

Chris Benjamin’s first nonfiction book, Eco-Innovators: Sustainability in Atlantic Canada; won the Best Atlantic-Published Book Award and was a finalist for the Evelyn Richardson Prize. His novel, Drive-by Saviours, won the Bill Percy Award and was longlisted for Canada Reads. Chris writes opinion and features for magazines across North America and won the 2013 Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for his (then-unpublished) manuscript of Indian School Road.

Light refreshments and signed copies of Mister Benjamin’s book will be available after the presentation.

For additional information:
Richard MacMichael
902-424-8897
[email protected]