Celebrating Robert Kroetsch

Join us as editor Nicole Markotić launches the new collection of essays Robert Kroetsch: Essays on His Works (Guernica Editions). The night will feature a conversation on Kroetsch’s work and legacy with Dennis Cooley (author of The Home Place: Essays on Robert Kroetsch) hosted by Charlene Diehl. Co-presented by the Winnipeg International Writers Festival as part of our collaborative Spring Literary Series. With financial assistance from The Canada Council for the Arts through The Writers’ Union of Canada.

These essays span the period of Kroetsch’s writing. Included are essays that cover (some of) his novels, (some of) his poetry, and even (some of) his critical writing. The contributors include writers who knew Kroetsch well and those who only met him on the page; critics at the beginning of their careers and those well established in the Canadian literary field, men and women, writers and poets and critics and damn fine thinkers.

Nicole Markotić is a novelist, critic, and poet. Her books include: Scrapbook of My Years as a Zealot, Bent at the Spine, and Whelmed. She is Professor of English Literature, Creative Writing, and Canadian Literature at the University of Windsor.

Dennis Cooley was raised in Saskatchewan. He has been active for decades in Winnipeg as teacher, editor, publisher, anthologist, poet, critic, mentor. Cooley was a founder of both Turnstone Press and the Manitoba Writers’ Guild. His latest books include the stones, abecedarium, departures, and The Home Place, a study of Robert Kroetsch’s poetry.

Charlene Diehl did her graduate work at the University of Manitoba, receiving an MA under the direction of Dennis Cooley and a PhD under the direction of Robert Kroetsch. She has written books and articles for academic audiences, as well as a collection of poetry, several chapbooks, and a memoir, Out of Grief, Singing. She is the Director of the Winnipeg International Writers Festival, and associated editor of dig! magazine.