ottawa international writers festival; here are upcoming August/September events:

1. August 22 @ 7:30: Where War Lives
An evening with Paul Watson
Hosted by the Ottawa Citizen's Kate Heartfield
Library and Archives Canada, 395 Wellington Street
$12 General / $10 Student or Senior / Free for Members

A Pulitzer Prize — winning journalist takes us on a personal and historic journey from Mogadishu through Rwanda to Afghanistan and Iraq.

Paul Watson was born a rebel with one hand, who grew up thinking it took two to fire an assault rifle, or play jazz piano. So he became a journalist. At first, he loved war. He fed his lust for the bang-bang, by spending vacations with guerilla fighters in Angola, Eritrea, Sudan, and Somalia, and writing about conflicts on the frontlines of the Cold War. Soon he graduated to assignments covering some of the world’s most important conflicts, including South Africa, Rwanda, Afghanistan, and Iraq.

Watson reported on Osama bin Laden’s first battlefield victory in Somalia. Unwittingly, Watson’s Pulitzer Prize—winning photo of Staff Sgt. David Cleveland — whose Black Hawk was shot down over the streets of Mogadishu — helped hand bin Laden one of his earliest propaganda coups, one that proved barbarity is a powerful weapon in a modern media war. Public outrage over the pictures of Cleveland’s corpse forced President Clinton to order the world’s most powerful military into retreat. With each new beheading announced on the news, Watson wonders whether he helped teach the terrorists one of their most valuable lessons.
Much more than a journalist’s memoir, Where War Lives connects the dots of the historic continuum from Mogadishu through Rwanda to Afghanistan and Iraq.

2. September 10 @ 7:30 pm:
Celebrate Ottawa Magazine’s Summer Fiction Issue
with readings from Elizabeth Hay, Alan Cumyn, Scott Randall and Jean Van Loon
Library and Archives Canada, 395 Wellington Street
A Free Event

3. September 17 @ 6:30 pm
Book Launch: Boot Crazy
by JC Sulzenko
Library and Archives Canada, 395 Wellington Street
A Free Event

4. September 22 @ 7:30: Spook Country
An Evening with William Gibson
hosted by CBC Radio’s Adrian Harewood
Library and Archives Canada, 395 Wellington Street
$12 General / $10 Student or Senior / Free for Members

An evening with one of the most acclaimed writers on the planet celebrating his latest novel, Spook Country. In a Starred Review, Publishers Weekly said “Gibson's fine ninth novel offers startling insights into our paranoid and often fragmented, postmodern world... Compelling characters and crisp action sequences, plus the author's trademark metaphoric language, help make this one of Gibson's best.”

5. September 30 @ 7:30:
Random Illuminations: Eleanor Wachtel on Carol Shields
Hosted by CPAC's Ken Rockburn
Library and Archives Canada, 395 Wellington Street
$12 General / $10 Student or Senior / Free for Members

A great conversation can offer insight into the hearts and minds of its participants. In Random Illuminations, an intimate, wide-ranging collection of conversations (and some correspondence), writer-broadcaster Eleanor Wachtel and her friend, author Carol Shields, touch on both the personal and the professional. Eleanor Wachtel brings together her rich collection of interviews with Carol from that first occasion to Shields's death in 2003. Disarmingly direct, Carol Shields talks about her writing, language and consciousness, and her interest in "redeeming the lives of lost or vanished women," all the while touching on topics as diverse as feminism, raising children, the metaphorical search for a home, and the joys and griefs of everyday life.

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FESTIVAL MEMBERSHIP

Become a Festival Member with a minimum monthly donation of $20 or more. Your important annual contribution supports both annual Festivals, our free Children's Literacy Program: Step Into Stories and a wide range of other activities and programs throughout the year, including literacy programs for the homeless, outreach with women's shelters and programs for new Canadians. 2007/08 Memberships are valid from September 1, 2007 until August 31, 2008.
Festival Members are rewarded with:

Free access to an entire year of programming - that includes access to the 2007 Fall Edition, the 2008 Spring Edition, PLUS all our year-round events including special events like this year's evening with The Right Honourable Jean Crétien which are not included with regular Festival Passes.

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10% off book purchases during the Festivals and at Nicholas Hoare on Sussex Drive
Special invitations to exclusive events and celebrations like this Fall's 'Members Only' reception prior to the Ottawa Book Awards.

Your name will appear in the 2008 Spring Edition Program (with your permission).
To become a Festival Member, please email Leslie Wilson or call us at (613) 562-1243.