Latest news with #GovernorGeneral'sAward
Global News
23-05-2025
- Business
- Global News
Lethbridge Polytechnic celebrates 1st convocation since rebrand
As hats flew into the air and cheers echoed in the room, the next generation of graduates made history as the first class of Lethbridge Polytechnic. Formerly Lethbridge College, the institution rebranded in 2024 to showcase the programs on offer. 'I think it means that we're differentiating ourselves a little bit from out past. We're proud of our past being a community college, but we've evolved since and the polytechnic reflects what we do,' said Marco Hilgersom, registrar at Lethbridge Polytechnic. 2:01 Lethbridge College to become polytechnic institution Those graduating couldn't help but smile when awarded with their first-of-a-kind diplomas. Story continues below advertisement 'It's a cool opportunity to be the first convocation class of Lethbridge Polytechnic. I know the polytechnic has a long standing place here in southern Alberta,' said Governor General's Academic Award recipient, Jaydon Haustein. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy He, along with valedictorian Abigayle Terrill, led the way academically this year. Both stand-out students are graduates of the agriculture sciences program. 'It's a very, almost unique circumstance, to have both the valedictorian and the Governor General's Award recipient out of the exact same program,' Haustein said. 'I think that's a great sign for agriculture, I think that means students and especially ag students, are really taking their role seriously.' Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "I think that's a great sign for agriculture, I think that means students and especially ag students, are really taking their role seriously." Haustein says the days of taking over the family farm straight out of high school are over and higher education is a must. 'By taking our education seriously and trying our best and excelling and really putting our minds towards 'Okay, how do we make ourselves more efficient or more profitable or use better economic practices and ecological practices, socially acceptable practices?' It's really important,' he said. 'There cannot be an uneducated farmer anymore and still make a profit.' Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "There cannot be an uneducated farmer anymore and still make a profit." The efforts of these two and the entire graduating class is something the Polytechnic says is encouraging for the future. Story continues below advertisement 'It's an exciting time for Lethbridge because I think we're on the cusp of something,' said Hilgersom.
Vancouver Sun
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Vancouver Sun
Anger looms large in entertaining new novel from Family Law showrunner
Susin Nielsen 's move from novels for readers aged eight to 12 to adults began with a not-so-great interaction with a child. Well over a decade ago Vancouver's Nielsen , who at the time had written for the TV shows Robson Arms and Degrassi, was in Toronto speaking to a gym full of kids about writing for TV versus writing books. During the talk, the author of seven middle-grade-aged novels including The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen (2012), winner of the Governor General's Award for English-language children's literature and the Canadian Library Association Book of the Year for Children Award, showed a picture of a large group of people in order to show the team that it takes to make a TV show. Then, she moved on to showing the team that it takes to write a novel at home. The picture she presented was a snapshot of her cat. Get top headlines and gossip from the world of celebrity and entertainment. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sun Spots will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. At the end of her presentation, the floor was opened for questions. One Grade 7 boy put up his hand and, thinking he was funny, asked an inappropriate question about the cat photograph. You can probably guess the basic gist of his sexual innuendo query. 'His friends were goading him, giggling and laughing,' said Nielsen, who is the creator and showrunner of the Vancouver-shot TV series Family Law . 'I just saw black; it was just fury. I was mortified.' Nielsen wrapped up the presentation and right after a teacher made a 'beeline' toward her. 'I thought, 'OK, thank God she's going to tell me they're going to deal with that little s–t,' ' said Nielsen. 'And you know what she said to me? She said, 'You worked on Degrassi, did you meet Drake?' ' Nielsen hadn't met Drake. But, that day, she did meet that disruptive kid when she waded into the crowd and read him the riot act about his lewd and disrespectful questions. The child whimpered an apology and Nielsen left angry. And inspired. 'I remember I was so upset, but I also remember thinking, 'You know, this could be a really funny opening of a book,' ' said Nielsen 'He did give me a gift, weirdly.' He also gave her an apology in the form of a letter. Flash-forward and Nielsen's first adult novel, the funny and thought-provoking Snap, opens with 55-year-old Frances, a writer of popular Y/A novels who is emotionally wrecked after her marriage ends. During a talk at a school library, Frances is repeatedly interrupted by a rude boy. Frances snaps and grabs the boy and shakes him. Because it's today and everyone has a camera, the incident is recorded and shared, turning Frances's world upside down. By law she is required to attend anger management classes and there she meets Parker, a 23-year-old wardrobe assistant on a hit TV show, and 41-year-old Geraint, a mechanic and family man. Both also snapped and lashed out. The three quickly become friends as they try to move forward with the help of each other and a couple of nice doses of what Nielsen calls 'authorial vengeance.' While the incident with the kid in Toronto was the early seed of Nielsen's idea for an adult novel, the plan really took root while she was writing her last Y/A novel, 2021's Tremendous Things. '(I) remember feeling as I was writing that I was aware that I may start repeating myself and that was a bit of a terrifying feeling. I thought I just don't want to start churning out the same thing,' said Nielsen. Nielsen was further inspired to age up through her work as a TV writer. 'I was doing Family Law for a number of years and I was in this world where I was writing predominantly grown-up characters,' said Nielsen about her work on the show. 'I loved it, and I loved writing for Abby (main character in the series played by Jewel Staite). And I've done that before in television, where I've written for adults, but I found Abby's voice, so compelling … I just thought, 'Well, what the hell, why not try?' 'I'm not trying to be the next Margaret Atwood or Ann-Marie MacDonald, but I wanted to write a light, funny, hopefully sometimes poignant book. And I just thought, 'F–k it. I'm gonna try.' ' While Nielsen has left the children behind for now, she hasn't changed her approach to storytelling, which always utilizes humour. In Snap, she has Francis coming home from a disastrous online date and settling in with her daughter and a drink. The pair switch on the TV and watch Family Law reruns so 'Frances could have a laugh and be soothed by the presence of Victor Garber.' 'Isn't that terrible?' said Nielsen, laughing about the self-promotional nod to her TV show, which stars the Canadian icon Garber. 'My husband says I'm the queen of laughing at my own jokes. So yeah, I do think it made me laugh when I wrote it.' While there are plenty of funny moments in Snap, the storylines of the three main characters grow out of very serious situations. 'I can't write anything that doesn't have humour. I feel like that's been my saving grace in life,' said Nielsen. With the move into more adult-themed stories, Nielsen, who is currently working on another adult novel, hopes readers who discovered her novels when they were kids will now, as adults, continue to seek out her work. 'I know that's what my agent and publisher hope,' said Nielsen, with a laugh. 'Maybe some of (my young readers) will follow me into this world. I would love it.' Dgee@
National Post
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- National Post
Governor General's Award and Scotiabank Giller Prize winner Madeleine Thien is back with new novel
Vancouver native Madeleine Thien will be marking the publication of her latest novel The Book of Records, out May 6, with a special Vancouver Writers Fest event on May 8. Article content Thien, whose book Do Not Say We Have Nothing won the Governor General's Award for English-language fiction, the Scotiabank Giller Prize and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, will take to the Annex stage (823 Seymour St.) for a conversation with Vancouver author David Chariandy. Article content Article content Answer: The Book of Records is set in a building made of time. It is about the ideas that transform us, the lives we imagine for ourselves and others, and the hopes we carry. It is about a father who knows that his time is limited, and who wants to give his daughter an inner world that will sustain her after he is gone. Article content Q: In your book The Sea is a large complex that houses migrants. What makes The Sea different in terms of what we generally perceive as migrant centres? Article content A: In fact, The Sea is not a migrant camp or a detention centre. It's an abandoned enclave that, physically, echoes the now demolished Kowloon Walled City. People who have been displaced by war, by the rising sea, by conflict, by dwindling resources, pass through it; The Sea is just one stop on their search for home. Only a very few remain there, often because something prevents them from moving on. Article content Article content A: My novel — which, I think it's fair to say, is a strange work — is itself, metaphorically, a building, a place that shelters different philosophies across time; it houses people who are grappling with questions about free will, ethics, and what it means to live a good life. In The Sea, ideas migrate, take on new life, are misunderstood, revised, and sometimes reimagined in the hope that they might guide us when all else seems lost. Article content Article content Of course, ideas are not made of air. They are carried by human beings across space and time, across borders. My heart breaks because I do not know a time when migration, displacement, homelessness, and the search for safety were not part of our world.
Vancouver Sun
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Vancouver Sun
Governor General's Award and Scotiabank Giller Prize winner Madeleine Thien is back with new novel
Article content Vancouver native Madeleine Thien will be marking the publication of her latest novel The Book of Records, out May 6, with a special Vancouver Writers Fest event on May 8. Article content Thien, whose book Do Not Say We Have Nothing won the Governor General's Award for English-language fiction, the Scotiabank Giller Prize and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, will take to the Annex stage (823 Seymour St.) for a conversation with Vancouver author David Chariandy. Article content Article content Article content Article content Answer: The Book of Records is set in a building made of time. It is about the ideas that transform us, the lives we imagine for ourselves and others, and the hopes we carry. It is about a father who knows that his time is limited, and who wants to give his daughter an inner world that will sustain her after he is gone. Article content A: In fact, The Sea is not a migrant camp or a detention centre. It's an abandoned enclave that, physically, echoes the now demolished Kowloon Walled City. People who have been displaced by war, by the rising sea, by conflict, by dwindling resources, pass through it; The Sea is just one stop on their search for home. Only a very few remain there, often because something prevents them from moving on. Article content Article content Article content A: My novel — which, I think it's fair to say, is a strange work — is itself, metaphorically, a building, a place that shelters different philosophies across time; it houses people who are grappling with questions about free will, ethics, and what it means to live a good life. In The Sea, ideas migrate, take on new life, are misunderstood, revised, and sometimes reimagined in the hope that they might guide us when all else seems lost. Article content Of course, ideas are not made of air. They are carried by human beings across space and time, across borders. My heart breaks because I do not know a time when migration, displacement, homelessness, and the search for safety were not part of our world. Article content A: I think I keep returning to the force of history and the significance of individual lives. Perhaps The Book of Records continues an exploration of collaboration, collusion and silence, but also the loyalties of friendship; in this novel, more than the others, there's an exploration of namelessness, and what it means to save another person, especially someone with whom we have no ties of kinship, family or national identity.
CBC
11-04-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Funeral for Antonine Maillet to be held in Moncton on Saturday
Social Sharing A public funeral for renowned Acadian writer Antonine Maillet will be held in Moncton on Saturday. It will be held at 11:00 a.m. at the Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption Cathedral on St. George Street. Flags will also be flown at half-mast across all three campuses of the Université de Moncton in her memory. Maillet was born in Bouctouche in 1929 and died at her home in Montreal on Feb. 17 at the age of 95. She received many literary awards in her career, including the Governor General's Award for Don l'Orignal, published in 1968, and the Prix Goncourt in 1979 for her novel Pélagie-la-Charrette, the first Canadian writer to receive the prestigious French literary award. She wrote 12 plays and 20 novels and was called "the greatest voice of Acadia" by New Brunswick Tourism Minister Isabelle Thériault. "In everything — in her books, in her plays, in the music — she wanted Acadie to shine and that's actually what she accomplished … she allowed Acadie to shine throughout Canada and the world," said Thériault, when news of Maillet's death was announced. On the day Maillet's death was announced, Monique Poirier, executive and artistic director of Le Pays de la Sagouine, the theatrical village in Bouctouche, said, "It's a very sad day, but we are so grateful for everything that she has done." The village brings to life the characters Maillet created, including her famous La Sagouine. That play was first staged in 1971 with Viola Leger in the title role Moncton's annual literary festival, the Frye Festival, will honour the late novelist and playwright with a special literary show on May 4, to showcase the depth of her writing. Ariane Savoie, the festival's executive director, previously said Maillet helped inspire the idea to create the festival in 1999. At the time, Maillet was co-organizing a bilingual conference in Moncton with author John Ralston Saul, Savoie said. "That idea of the Frye Festival kind of generated from that event specifically," she said. "Having a bilingual literary conference here in Moncton brought up the fact that Moncton needed these activities." In 2006, the first Maillet-Frye Lecture took place at the Frye and has since become a staple of the festival.
