HI IT'S ME Toronto Launch Fawn Parker
Schedule
Mon Sep 23 2024 at 06:30 pm
Location
Flying Books | Toronto, ON
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JOIN US FOR THE LAUNCH OF HI, IT'S ME, BY FAWN PARKERMonday September 23rd, 2024 @ 6:30PM - 8:00 PM
Flying Books 784 College St. (map)
McClelland & Stewart and Flying Books invite you to the launch of Hi, It's Me, a new novel by Giller-nominated author and poet Fawn Parker. Hosted by author Naben Ruthnum and featuring a reading from poet Ben Robinson.
About Hi, It's Me:
Women Talking meets Study for Obedience in this stunning depiction of fresh grief by Fawn Parker, the Scotiabank Giller Prize–longlisted author of What We Both Know.
Shortly after her mother’s death, Fawn arrives at the farmhouse. While there, she will stay in her mother’s bedroom in the house that is also occupied by four other women who live by an unusual set of beliefs.
Wrestling with longstanding compulsive and harmful behaviours, as well as severe self-doubt, Fawn is confronted with the reality of her mother’s death. It is her responsibility to catalogue the furniture and possessions in the room, then sell or dispose of them. Instead, Fawn becomes fixated on archiving her mother’s writing and documents, searching for signs, and drawing tenuous connections to help her understand more about the enigmatic woman in the pages.
I am surrounded by mocking evidence of her inhabitancy of this room. Quickly, it is expiring. Today she was alive. When the day runs out that will no longer be true. Tomorrow I will be able to say that yesterday she was alive, at least. The next day, nothing. She will just be dead. The fact seems to be at its smallest now, growing with time. For now she is many things, and there are many places left to find her.
In Hi, It’s Me, Fawn Parker is unafraid to explore the bewildering relationship between the living and the dead. Strikingly original, provocative, and engrossing Hi, It’s Me takes us into the furthest corners of grief, invoking the physicality and painful embodiment of terminal illness with astonishing precision and emotional force. This mesmerizing, devastating novel asks: Why must it be this way?
FAWN PARKER is the author of five books including What We Both Know (McClelland & Stewart) and the poetry collection Soft Inheritance (Palimpsest Press). Poetry, fiction, essays, and interviews have appeared in Hazlitt, The Walrus, Maisonneuve, and The Literary Review of Canada. Fawn is a SSHRC-funded PhD student at the University of New Brunswick, where she is writing a dissertation in the field of Mad Studies. Her work has been nominated for multiple National Magazine Awards, the McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize, the Atlantic Book Awards, the New Brunswick Book Awards, and the Scotiabank Giller Prize.
NABEN RUTHNUM is the author of Helpmeet, A Hero of Our Time, Curry, and other books. He also writes for the screen, and lives in Toronto.
BEN ROBINSON Ben Robinson is a poet, musician and librarian. He lives in Hamilton, ON on the traditional territories of the Erie, Neutral, Huron-Wendat, Haudenosaunee and Mississaugas. His first book is The Book of Benjamin from Palimpsest Press. His second, As Is, is forthcoming from ARP Books.
Admission is free and all are welcome to attend.
Books will be available for purchase and the author will be signing.
Accessible venue.
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Where is it happening?
Flying Books, 784 College St, Toronto, ON M6G 1C6, Canada,Toronto, OntarioEvent Location & Nearby Stays: