Join us Saturday, Nov. 28 at 7 pm for FBCW Telling The Truth, an event with non-fiction writers, hosted by Megan Cole. Register here (bcwriters.ca/events-for-writers) and a link will be sent to you. When it's time for the event, click on the link to join the live Zoom event. Looking forward to seeing you there!
Darrel J. McLeod is Cree from Treaty 8 First Nation of Alberta. He is the author of the memoir Mamaskatch: A Cree Coming of Age (Douglas & McIntyre), winner of the 2018 Governor General’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction, and finalist for the RBC Charles Taylor Prize and other literary awards. Darrel is a fluent speaker of French and Spanish and is studying Cree. He holds degrees in French literature and education from the University of British Columbia, and has advanced training in dispute resolution. Before retiring and pursuing a career in writing, he was a chief negotiator of land claims for the federal government, and executive director of education and international affairs with the Assembly of First Nations.
McLeod lives, writes, sings and performs jazz in Sooke, B.C., and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. The sequel to Mamaskatch, entitled Peyakow: Reclaiming Cree Dignity, a Memoir will publish March 2021 with Douglas & McIntyre.
Chelene Knight is the author of the Braided Skin and the memoir Dear Current Occupant, winner of the 2018 Vancouver Book Award, and long-listed for the George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature. Her essays have appeared in multiple Canadian and American literary journals, plus the Globe and Mail, the Walrus, and the Toronto Star. Her work is anthologized in Making Room, Love Me True, Sustenance, The Summer Book, and Black Writers Matter, winner of the 2020 Saskatchewan Book Award. The Toronto Star called Knight, “one of the storytellers we need most right now.” Knight was the previous managing editor at Room magazine, and the previous festival director for the Growing Room Festival in Vancouver. She is now CEO of her own literary studio, Breathing Space Creative and she works as an associate literary agent with Transatlantic Agency. Chelene often gives talks about home, belonging and belief, inclusivity, and community building through authentic storytelling. Chelene teaches part time at the University of Toronto.
Host Megan Cole is a tattooed food enthusiast with an obsessive reading habit. Megan has been published in The Puritan, Invisiblog, Untethered, Coast Mountain Culture Magazine and more. She's currently working on her first book titled Crazy Making: Surviving the Shipwreck of Male Mental Health. When Megan isn’t writing, reading or cooking, she’s working at the Powell River Public Library and as the director of audience development for the BC and Yukon Book Prizes. She's also the host and producer of the podcast Writing the Coast.
