Shelf Life Books

DON'T PRETEND YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHO'S TALLEST

SINGLE ONION #153
WHAT: The Single Onion will feature four great poets at our October event: Claire Kelly, Monica Kidd, Amy LeBlanc, and Paul Zits.
... WHEN: Thursday, October 18th, at 7:00 p.m.
WHERE: Shelf Life Books, 100 - 1302 4th St. SW (shelflifebooks.ca)
About the readers:
Claire Kelly's first full-length collection, Maunder, which centres on the act of walking, is available from Palimpsest Press. Her writing has appeared online and in journals across Canada, most recently in Juniper, The Puritan, Alberta Views, Prairie Fire, Poetry is Dead, Minola Review, CV2, and The Literary Review of Canada. In 2017, her poem “Mother, What Should We Do Now?” was longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize, and her poem “First the Children Stopped Asking for a Ride” was featured in the League of Canadian Poets’ Poem in Your Pocket Booklet. One Thing – Then Another, her second collection of poetry, will be released in April 2019 with ECW and looks at the disjointedness of cross-country relocation. Claire lives and writes in Edmonton, AB, where she works at NeWest Press.
Monica Kidd has authored several books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction; her newest collection of poems, Chance Encounters With Wild Animals, will be published by Gaspereau Press in 2019. She divides her time between Calgary and St. John's, and between medicine and art.
Amy LeBlanc holds a BA (Hons) in English Literature and creative writing from the University of Calgary. She is currently non-fiction editor at filling Station magazine. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Room, Prairie Fire, Contemporary Verse 2, Geez, and EVENT, among others. Amy won the 2018 BrainStorm Poetry Contest for her poem 'Swell'. She is the author of two chapbooks, most recently "Ladybird, Ladybird" published with Anstruther Press in August 2018. She will be attending an Emerging Writers Intensive at the Banff Centre for the Arts in October 2018.
Paul Zits is a teacher with the Calgary Board of Education and is the author of two books of poetry, Massacre Street, which won the 2014 Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry, and Leap-seconds, which won the 2016 Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry. His forthcoming book, Exhibit, will be published by the University of Calgary Press in January, 2019.
Single Onion usually happens the third Thursday of the month, nine times a year. Our event schedule can always be found at: www.singleonion.com.
For the most up to date Single Onion news, check us out on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/singleonion
We gratefully acknowledge the support of The Canada Council for the Arts, The League of Canadian Poets and the Calgary Arts Development
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You're invited to the launch of Beyond Shelters: Solutions to Homelessness from the Front Lines. Join us for a presentation and discussion with James Hughes, the editor, and John Rook, the head of national strategic initiatives for The Mustard Seed.
Newspapers, television and films cast homeless shelters as places of desperation, sadness and sickness. However, over the last 25 years, homeless shelters have changed dramatically.
Shelters have become more professional and sophi...sticated in addressing homelessness in their communities. They now do much more than provide a bed and a meal for the night — they offer different methods of intervention, different types of services and different forms of connection to the communities they serve.
This book offers essays by experienced shelter managers who address the future of the homeless shelter in Canada. This diverse collection also includes a chapter by Dr. Sam Tsemberis, the father of the successful Housing First Model. There are contributions by leaders in the homelessness field from across Canada, who have been at the forefront of developing unique services for women, youth, Indigenous people, and families. The days of shelters serving to merely warehouse homeless people out of sight and mind are being replaced by specialized approaches that are reducing homelessness in Canada.
The contributors have years of experience understanding the causes of and solutions to homelessness and the role that shelters can play in achieving their ultimate goal — the elimination of all forms of homelessness in Canada.
James Hughes has worked as a senior administrator in social services for more than fifteen years. He served as Director General of the Old Brewery Mission, Quebec's largest centre serving homeless people. He was the Deputy Minister of Social Development in New Brunswick from 2008 to 2011 and now works for the Montreal based McConnell Foundation. He is the author of Early Intervention: How Canada's social programs can work better, save lives, and often save money. He lives in Montreal.
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This piece is adapted from “Impossible Owls: Essays" out now from FSG Originals!

For her 2018 chapbook, Josephine LoRe created a cento poem, a collage entitled "Poets, Preachers, Politicians and Peace-Makers ... Unity in the words of John Lennon, Martin Luther King, Jr, Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi". She then asked Wakefield Brewster, Miranda Krogstad and Chris Evans to collaborate in order to bring the poem alive as a performance piece. Rather than be assigned a voice, each poet chose passages that spoke strongly to them, and the resulting synthe...sis of voices and messages is compelling and timelessly true and meaningful. We call this collaboration f4sQuare.
On October 30th, f4sQuare will present this cento poem at ShelfLife Books, and additionally each poet will have 10 minutes in which to present their own individual work.
This will be the first live performance of the piece. Wakefield was out of town for family reasons for the Loft112 launch, so a voice recording of the piece was played instead.
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A book club for conservatives and liberals who want to get out of their echo chambers and bridge the great divide. Buy the book, read it, and come join us for a lively discussion.
We’ve all felt it: Whether we’ve argued pointlessly with someone on social media, felt our blood pressure rise as we’ve fought over politics with family members, or simply veered delicately away from certain topics, it’s hard to ignore the chasm between those who hold opposing political views. And i...t feels like it’s getting worse, that politics are getting uglier, and that reasonable discussion is falling by the wayside.
What can ordinary people do to bridge the great divide? We can read books that smart and reasonable people have written in defense of their views and we can talk about these books with others who may or may not wear the political stripes we do.
Come to Shelf Life Books for a monthly book club that does just that. Ideally, participants will have read the book assigned for that day, and will come prepared to discuss it. All of the books on our list will be made available by Shelf Life. We will meet from 10 am to noon on the last Saturday of every month.
The discussions will be led by Julie Sedivy, a local scholar and writer. Julie has taught linguistics and psychology at the University of Calgary and is the lead author of Sold on Language: How Advertisers Talk to You and What This Says About You. Her articles have appeared in magazines such as Politico, Nautilus, and Scientific American, and she has been a frequent guest on radio stations such as CBC and NPR.
October 27: The Patch—by Chris Turner
November 24: Debunking Utopia: Exposing the Myth of Nordic Socialism by Nima Sanandaji
January 26: Winning Power: Canadian Campaigning in the 21st Century by Tom Flanagan
February 23: Shopping for Votes: How Politicians Choose Us and We Choose Them by Susan Delacourt
If you would like to join the Facebook group, click here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/778733788 972927/
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Join acclaimed Ontario writers Elizabeth Greene and Kath MacLean along with host Rona Altrows for an evening of readings from their recently released books.
In Translating Air, Kath MacLean imagines conversations between the modernist poet H.D. and Sigmund Freud during the poet’s sessions with him in 1933 to 1934 and the dialogues that continued long afterwards in H.D.’s own mind.
In Elizabeth Greene's A Season Among Psychics, skeptical university instructor Judith takes a... course in psychic healing and learns the profound connection between teaching and healing.
In Rona Altrows's At This Juncture, Ariadne Jensen, intent on communicating with Joan of Arc to help a friend heal, finds an unlikely way to reach the Maid of Orléans.
Recognized as an eclectic poet-performer, Kath MacLean’s unique muse and creative delivery attract attention wherever she reads. She is the author of two previous books of poetry, For a Cappuccino on Bloor and Kat among the Tigers. In Translating Air, published with McGill-Queen's University Press in 2018, is her third collection. She lives in Toronto.
Elizabeth Greene has published three volumes of poetry: The Iron Shoes (2007), Moving (2010) and Understories (2014). Her poems, short fiction, and essays have appeared in journals and anthologies across Canada, most recently in Juniper, an online poetry journal, issues 1 and 3. She has poetry forthcoming in the League of Canadian Poets' Tree Anthology, ed. Claudia Radmore and Lesley Strutt, and in Tamaracks: Canadian Poetry for the 21st Century, ed. James Deahl. She has also edited/co-edited five books, including We Who Can Fly: Poems, Essays and Memories in Honour of Adele Wiseman,which won the Betty and Morris Aaron Prize (Jewish Book Awards) for Best Scholarship on a Canadian Subject in 1998. She lives in Kingston with her son and two cats.A Season Among Psychics is her debut novel.
Rona Altrows is the author of three books of fiction, At This Juncture, A Run on Hose and Key in Lock, as well as a children's chapbook, The River Throws a Tantrum. With Naomi K. Lewis, she co-edited the anthology Shy. She recently co-edited a second anthology of essays with Julie Sedivy called Waiting. Her work has earned her several awards, including an IPPY silver medal (shared with Lewis), the W.O. Mitchell Book Prize, and the 2017 Alberta Literary Award. She lives in Calgary, Alberta.
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Who will win!!!!

Avada kedavra

Read then watch!

Come out to Calgary’s all-ages poetry slam and open mic. Poets of all ages are welcome to share their words, competitively (in the slam) or non-competitively (open mic). For more information visit http://www.cyhmnslam.com

Join us for a wonderful afternoon of classical guitar performances brought to you by the Classical Guitar Society of Calgary. Free admission!
Performances by Tony Xie, Steven Dorscher, and Trevor Cooper.
The Classical Guitar Society of Calgary was founded in 1974 to promote interest in and study of classical guitar. That is still their goal. The society brings some of the best classical guitarists from around the world to Calgary to perform and teach masterclasses. They also ...hold social gatherings where local amateur and professional guitarists perform for each other.
http://www.classicalguitarsocietyofcalgar y.com/
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THESE. ARE. SO. GOOD.

!!!

Contest time! In collaboration with the Calgary International Film Festival, we are giving away three double passes to the Sept. 22 matinee screening of COLETTE— a biopic based on the notorious French author, starring Keira Knightley! ✨ - In order to enter, like this post and tell us about your favourite book or quote by Colette! Winners will be notified by Friday (Sept. 21) at noon!

The selection of books is insane, and very dangerous for my bank account. It is one of the best book stores I have ever been to, especially considering it is smaller than the other stores I would say have comparable selections. Their fiction section is incredible in the diversity, with a lot of international writers, and not just the ultra famous writers.

My absolute favorite book store in the city.

I really miss SLB now that I'm across the country. It's fun to browse the bright, spacious stacks of carefully curated books. Perfect combo of current, unusual and classic so it's pretty hard to leave without a stack! Also, the regular events and pop up markets show that the shop engages with and supports the city in a special way.

I love this place so much



I was looking for a certain book and I couldn’t get any help from the big box book stores so I decided to try Shelf Books, the employees were so nice and helpful! They didn’t have the book in stock but were willing to order it in for me!



They have a great selection of books.





They are also a dog friendly store which I love.



The store is so beautiful I will definitely bring coming back soon

Best selection but also, here's a gem: I just called the store and rattled off all these details about a novel I'd read a year ago and the book jacket and the plot in search of who the author was/the title - the person who answered the phone immediately named both. So appreciated!

Best bookstore in Canada, hands down. Highly curated and full of interesting treasures for bibliophile and casual browser alike.

Best book selection, best staff, best place to take dogs that isn't a dog park

Badassery instore, love this place. Gem �����

A true cultural hub and a welcoming venue for readers, writers and their dogs.