Pandemic Response Reading Series: An Evening with Ian Williams

Join us for an exciting evening – at 7 pm Central, 8 pm Eastern, 5 pm Pacific – celebrating Ian Williams‘ stunning new poetry collection Word Problems which tackles the tough issues of our time–racial inequality, our pernicious depression, the troubled relationships we have with other people–through the seemingly simple questions of grade school: if Billy has five nickels and Jane has three dimes, how many Black men will be murdered by police? He uses his characteristic inventiveness to find not just new answers but new questions, reconsidering what poetry can be, using math and grammar lessons to shape poems that invite us to participate.

Lauren Carter (PRRS founder and organizer) will be leaving her host role to read with Ian. Most recently, Lauren is the author of Following Sea, a poetry collection navigating the personal and historical maps of family, and This Has Nothing to Do With You, a novel about shocking violence and the fragility of family relationships, which won the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction this past spring, when she also received the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Writer, at the Manitoba Book Awards.

Charlene Diehl, director of the Winnipeg International Writers’ Festival, will host this evening of up close and personal conversation with two extraordinary writers.

Audience size is limited, so register early right here: https://us02web.zoom.us/…/reg…/WN_25abIDFLQXO6amINxq1NCw

The PRRS gratefully acknowledges the financial assistance of the Canada Council through the Writers’ Union of Canada for this event.