Events & Workshops

Book Bytes is a lunchtime, online summer reading series celebrating the work of Saskatchewan writers of diverse genres, identities, and experience levels. Events run every Wednesday lunch hour from 12-1 pm (Saskatchewan time) beginning on July 19, 2023, via Zoom.

Please be mindful of your time zone as all times listed are Saskatchewan time. Find your time zone here: https://dateful.com/time-zone-converter

Register once for the entire series here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_P5Uarbg0RQO47T2vxqTJzg

This event will be recorded and uploaded as an unlisted video (meaning that only registered participants will be able to access the video or sent by request) available for 30 days on the SWG YouTube channel following the event.

The Guild is fortunate to have the support of our major funders who make events like this possible: Sask Lotteries in proud partnership with SaskCulture, Canada Council for the Arts and the City of Regina. 

August 9, 2023 (Saskatchewan Book Award Winners)

Readings by

Anne Lazurko

Alasdair Rees

Russell Wangersky

Host: Jay Semko

Anne Lazurko’s novel, What Is Written on the Tongue, received the 2023 Fiction Award at the Saskatchewan Book Awards and was shortlisted for both the 2023 Saskatchewan Book of the Year and the 2022 Glengarry Book Award. Her novel Dollybird won the Willa Award for historical fiction and was shortlisted for a Saskatchewan Book Award. With short fiction and poetry published in literary magazines and anthologies, Anne is an active editor, teacher and mentor in the prairie writing community. She has a degree in Political Science, is a graduate of the Humber creative writing program, and writes from her farm near Weyburn, SK.

Alasdair Rees lives on Treaty 6 territory in Saskatoon. From 2019 to 2020, he served as Saskatchewan's first Youth Poet Laureate. His writing has been longlisted for the Pacific Spirit Poetry Prize and the Grouse Grind Lit Prize. Recent publications include Estuaire and The Brooklyn Review. He has served as editor for Grain, Metatron Press, and FR: Arts et culture, a first-of-its-kind publication on French-Canadian artists outside of Quebec. 2021 saw the release of a collection of poems titled Mon écologie, which went on to win the Prix du Livre Français at the Saskatchewan Book Awards. Alasdair’s installation, Duet, is on show as part of Picasso: Becoming the Faun at Remai Modern from June to October 2023.

Russell Wangersky is a writer, editor and columnist now living in Winnipeg. A seven-time finalist for Canada’s National Newspaper Awards, he works at the Winnipeg Free Press as Comment Editor. His eight books include Burning Down the House: Fighting Fires and Losing Myself, a memoir of his eight years as a volunteer firefighter, two novels, and three short story collections. His short story collection Whirl Away was a finalist for the 2012 Scotiabank/Giller Prize and won the Thomas Head Raddall Prize. His newest book, Same Ground, is a memoir of retracing his great-great-grandfather’s route to the California Gold Rush.

Jay Semko is a bassist and vocalist with Western Canadian Music Hall of Fame members The Northern Pikes, and is an award winning music composer for numerous film and TV productions, most notably the Canadian classic ”Due South". He is considered one of Canada’s premiere songwriters, and has co-written and recorded with many of the best writers and musicians in music. His first book, “The Poetry & Lyrics
of Jay Semko”, was published in 2021 - the audiobook version will be released in August 2023, and “Time to Time”, the latest album from The Northern Pikes, dropped June 9, 2023.