Centre for Literatures in Canada/Centre de littératures au Canada

Join the Writer-in-Residence Cody Caetano for two events with Kyle Edwards on Friday, March 20th.

AFTERNOON

3:00–4:00 PM
Friday, March 20
Henderson Hall (Rutherford Library South 1-17)
University of Alberta

The Truth That Story Carries: Indigenous Fiction and the Limits of Journalism
What truths can fiction reach that journalism cannot? Drawing on his work as a novelist and journalist, Kyle Edwards explores how the novel can reveal historical, emotional, and communal truths that exceed the evidentiary demands of reportage. While journalism prioritizes verifiable fact, Indigenous fiction carries truths shaped by memory, kinship, and lived experience—truths that resist the limits of the journalistic record.

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EVENING

7:00–8:00 PM
Friday, March 20
Latitude 53
10130 100 St NW
Edmonton, AB T5J 0N8

Reading and Conversation
Join Kyle Edwards on the evening of March 20 at Latitude 53. Kyle will read from his novel Small Ceremonies, followed by a discussion with Writer-in-Residence Cody Caetano. Kyle's book will be available for purchase, courtesy of Magpie Books

Tomorrow, February 27: 2026 Kreisel Lecture

Get tickets here: https://ualberta.alumniq.com/index.cfm/events:register/primary/eventId/818/iq

We are delighted to announce a special 20th Anniversary Kreisel Memorial Lecture! Inspired by this year’s CLC research theme of cross-pollination, we have partnered with the Writer-in-Residence Program, which celebrates its 50th Anniversary in 2026, to bring three celebrated authors to the Kreisel stage. Former U of A Writers-in-Residence Richard Van Camp (2011-12) and Shani Mootoo (2001-02) will be joined by CLC visiting author Lise Gaboury-Diallo (2011). These authors will each speak, from their unique positions and experiences, on what it means to write “in Canada,” and/or “in residence.” Their 15-20 minute talks will come together as segments of a unique 3-part lecture on writing and place.

Richard Van Camp will “be talking about the joy of watching Indigenous literature flourish when so many of our trailbreakers are still with us. It’s basically a love letter to and for Indigenous literature.”

Shani Mootoo "speaks of the diverse origins of stories written by Canadian writers, and contemplates how writers' identity and hybridity are constructed, and by whom."

Lise Gaboury-Diallo says: "Drawing on my Franco-Manitoban background and transnational experiences, I consider Canada as a site of convergence rather than coherence. Blending theory and personal reflection, I explore how writers can inhabit place with care — listening before speaking, witnessing without claiming ownership, and remaining answerable to the multiplicity that surrounds them."

Buy tickets to the 2026 Kreisel Lecture by 11:59 PM on February 19th to be entered to win a CLC tote filled with a selection of previous Kreisel publications! General admission: $15, Students: $5 Get tickets here: https://ualberta.alumniq.com/index.cfm/events:register/primary/eventId/818/iq

2026 Kreisel Lecture Tickets On Sale Now!

General Admission: $15
Students: $5

We are delighted to announce a special 20th Anniversary Kreisel Memorial Lecture! Inspired by this year’s CLC research theme of cross-pollination, we have partnered with the Writer-in-Residence Program, which celebrates its 50th Anniversary in 2026, to bring three celebrated authors to the Kreisel stage. Former U of A Writers-in-Residence Richard Van Camp (2011-12) and Shani Mootoo (2001-02) will be joined by CLC visiting author Lise Gaboury-Diallo (2011). These authors will each speak, from their unique positions and experiences, on what it means to write “in Canada,” and/or “in residence.” Their 15-20 minute talks will come together as segments of a unique 3-part lecture on writing and place.

Get your tickets here: https://ualberta.alumniq.com/index.cfm/events:register/primary/eventId/818/iq

The bilingual event Feminist Contexts / Contextes féministes has been postponed until this Monday, February 2.
Inscrivez-vous ici / Register Here : https://ualberta-ca.zoom.us/meeting/register/Hzf4vyHpSe61-dPUYUAw9A #/registration

Joignez-vous à notre discussion avec Aubrey Hanson et Marie-Ève Bradette ce jeudi 11 décembre sur Zoom. / Join us for a discussion with Aubrey Hanson and Marie-Ève Bradette this Thursday, December 11, on Zoom.

Register here / Inscrivez-vous ici: https://ualberta-ca.zoom.us/meeting/register/Xx4PjikkTU6BPJjgMpB8jw?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMjU2MjgxMDQwNTU4AAGnfotxKFWcy2_DYqeVYeRmJKV_eGfYNkUBKoRUh4_pzoKVZLUiCYS5_DmKePk_aem_KR7Mf4J_4JNPeEMoM10tuQ #/registration

Join us for three bilingual scholarly conversations held via Zoom. On November 20th, Rachel Nadon and Heather Macfarlane will discuss “The Landscape and the Stakes.” Read a detailed description of the event series on our website uab.ca/clc, and be sure to register for the event: https://ualberta-ca.zoom.us/meeting/register/YaRmZ2EATd-zXrCCLLwiGA #/registration

Participez à une série de trois conversations savantes bilingues, tenues sur Zoom, consacrées aux croisements, aux tensions et aux ruptures entre les littératures québécoise, canadienne et autochtone. Le 20 novembre, Rachel Nadon et Heather Macfarlane ouvriront la série avec une discussion autour du thème « Le paysage et les enjeux ». Pour une description détaillée de l’ensemble du cycle, visitez notre site web uab.ca/clc et inscrivez-vous à l’événement: https://ualberta-ca.zoom.us/meeting/register/YaRmZ2EATd-zXrCCLLwiGA #/registration

Subscribe to our newsletter to stay up-to-date on our latest events/Abonnez-vous également à notre infolettre afin de rester au fait de nos prochaines activités et annonces :
https://ualberta.us10.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=7907d5f65ea756ab0a4eec30c&id=677d519dda&utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMjU2MjgxMDQwNTU4CGNhbGxzaXRlAjE1AAGnX5TAAj4hfyV-pidG0TiZK8ZMFCfFVFs_HXrIO5PFOb9ymTG1J1PCk9MZKrI_aem_BZyDYI2TaVZ3qyW-yowPsQ&brid=VfAifpsdXQ7voOR8h1MI2A

Join us at Magpie Books for a reading and conversation with Kawika Guillermo, hosted by Writer-In-Residence Cody Caetano.

7:00 - 8:00 PM
Thursday, October 30
Magpie Books
(9553 76 Ave NW)

Registration required. https://magpiebooks.ca/events/3867420251030

About the book:

An immersive journey into the author's lifelong attachment to video games, revealing how they shape us, shatter us, and give us the courage to start again

Of Floating Isles is a captivating collection of personal essays that unpack the mystifying and often intimate roles that video games play in our lives. Interweaving memoir with cultural critique, Kawika Guillermo explores the subtle yet transformative influences of video games in shaping them as a q***r and mixed-race grandson of two preachers; as a traveller, immigrant, and games scholar; and as a father, caregiver, and mourner. Through a mixture of fanciful musing, rigorous inquiry, and unflinching self-reflection, Of Floating Isles reframes the gamer's retreat from others not as social isolation, but as a quest for a different community, one where they feel seen, heard, and understood. This deep-seated longing to belong, Guillermo suggests, forms the imaginative worlds of video games and the floating isles they conjure.

By exploring their own lifelong attachment to video games, Guillermo shows how games can spark rage, confusion, and the desire to escape, but these emotions are not necessarily bad - they are the growing pains that many young people must work through. So too can games provide reflective realms to dwell, to imagine, and to build spaces for q***r, trans, racialized, and neurodiverse groups. Envisioning games as forms of poetic interaction, Of Floating Isles boldly conveys their truth-telling powers: their ability to offer guidance in times of loss and hardship, and their power to reveal the oppressive mechanisms of our "real" world.

Join the Writer-in-Residence Cody Caetano and the CLC for a talk with Kawika Guillermo on Thursday, October 30th.

3:30 – 4:30 PM
Thursday, October 30
Henderson Hall (Rutherford Library South 1-17)
University of Alberta

Free event with no registration/tickets required

Writing Machphrasis: On the Poetic Machinations of Video Games

In this talk, award-winning author, poet and scholar Kawika Guillermo will discuss the pleasures, potentials, and unexpected failures of writing about video games. Drawing on their recently published book, Of Floating Isles: On Growing Pains and Video Games, Guillermo will discuss their development of a writing style they call machphrasis: prose inspired by the machinations of video games, their universes, their puzzles, their social and physical systems of logic, their rules and boundaries, and their emotional resonances.

HAPPENING TOMORROW, OCT 15:

Join the CLC and LitFest for an event with 2025/26 Writer-in-Residence Cody Caetano!

Wednesday, October 15
12:00 – 1:00 PM
Henderson Hall, Rutherford Library South 1-17, University of Alberta

Cody's talk "Close Encounters of the Native Kind" explores boundaries between storytelling traditions, material and speculative realities, and what’s said and unsaid in the growing native literary tradition. The talk maps the evolution of this tradition through a framework of waves: from reflection and refraction to diffraction and, now, to a fourth wave of interference. This new wave of Indigenous literature is defined by its transcendence of material realism, in exchange for a more embodied, phenomenological truth. Through a lens that is both critical and personal, and informed by my dual role as a writer and literary agent, the talk examines how this shift challenges the market’s expectations of an “Indigenous Voice.”

See the full list of LitFest: Canada's Original Nonfiction Festival events here: https://litfestalberta.org/events/

Join the CLC and LitFest for an event with 2025/26 Writer-in-Residence Cody Caetano!

Wednesday, October 15
12:00 – 1:00 PM
Henderson Hall, Rutherford Library South 1-17, University of Alberta

Cody's talk "Close Encounters of the Native Kind" explores boundaries between storytelling traditions, material and speculative realities, and what’s said and unsaid in the growing native literary tradition. The talk maps the evolution of this tradition through a framework of waves: from reflection and refraction to diffraction and, now, to a fourth wave of interference. This new wave of Indigenous literature is defined by its transcendence of material realism, in exchange for a more embodied, phenomenological truth. Through a lens that is both critical and personal, and informed by my dual role as a writer and literary agent, the talk examines how this shift challenges the market’s expectations of an “Indigenous Voice.”

See the full list of LitFest: Canada's Original Nonfiction Festival events here: https://litfestalberta.org/events/

Join the CLC and LitFest for an event with 2025/26 Writer-in-Residence Cody Caetano!

Wednesday, October 15
12:00 – 1:00 PM
Henderson Hall, Rutherford Library South 1-17, University of Alberta

Cody's talk "Close Encounters of the Native Kind" explores boundaries between storytelling traditions, material and speculative realities, and what’s said and unsaid in the growing native literary tradition. The talk maps the evolution of this tradition through a framework of waves: from reflection and refraction to diffraction and, now, to a fourth wave of interference. This new wave of Indigenous literature is defined by its transcendence of material realism, in exchange for a more embodied, phenomenological truth. Through a lens that is both critical and personal, and informed by my dual role as a writer and literary agent, the talk examines how this shift challenges the market’s expectations of an “Indigenous Voice.”

See the full list of LitFest: Canada's Original Nonfiction Festival events here: https://litfestalberta.org/events/