39 School Days

Elizabeth Hay

Ontario

Alexander Maksik

United States

Suzette Mayr

Alberta

Elizabeth Hay, Ontario

Elizabeth Hay is the author of the Scotiabank Giller Prize-winning novel Late Nights on Air as well as three other award-winning works of fiction, Small Change, A Student of Weather and Garbo Laughs. Formerly a radio broadcaster, she has spent time in Mexico and New York City and now lives in Ottawa. Her new novel, Alone in the Classroom, probes the roots of obsessive love and hate across generations. Read more

Alexander Maksik, United States

Alexander Maksik’s writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Harvard Review, Narrative, Strangers in Paris: New Writing Inspired by the City of Light, nthWORD and The Nervous Breakdown, among others. He is the recipient of a Truman Capote Fellowship and a Teaching/Writing Fellowship from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He lives in Iowa City. His first novel, You Deserve Nothing, delineates the shocking fall from grace of a charismatic young teacher in Paris. Read more

Suzette Mayr, Alberta

Suzette Mayr is the author of three previous novels: Moon Honey, The Widows and Venous Hum. The Widows was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (Caribbean and Canada region) and has been translated into German. Moon Honey was shortlisted for the Writers Guild of Alberta Best First Book Award and Best Novel Award. Her newest novel is Monoceros, concerning the aftermath of a teenager’s suicide at a Catholic high school. She lives and works in Calgary. Read more

Friday, October 21, 2011 - 10:00am - 11:30am
Revue Stage
$17 / $8.50 for student groups

Elizabeth Hay has described the classroom as “a very charged atmosphere, from which you can’t escape.” Given that we’ve all spent time in the classroom and all have visceral memories of moments during that time, what better place to centre three compelling novels? Hay’s new novel, Alone in the Classroom, spins its narrative web beginning in a small prairie school in 1929. Alexander Maksik sets his novel in Paris at an international high school catering to children of wealthy, influential families. And Suzette Mayr’s novel is set at a Catholic high school in suburban Calgary. Is the classroom more than just a universal experience to which readers can relate? Is there far more significance to the time we spend in that crucible that forms or deforms us all?

Tickets are still available and can be purchased at the door 45 minutes before the event begins.

39 School Days

2011 Festival