The 23rd Annual Wallace Stegner House Dinner,
March 6 at the Memorial Hall in Eastend.

 

Special guests this year was the well-known poet Lorna Crozier.

She was raised at Swift Current, attended Universities of Saskatchewan, Regina and Saskatoon.
For several years Crozier taught high-school English, creative writing at Banff School of Fine Arts.
She taught at the University of Saskatchewan from 1986–1991 and presently teaches as a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Writing at the University of Victoria. In 2003, she was appointed Chair of that department.
In June 2004, Crozier was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of Regina for her contributions to Canadian literature and in 2007, one from the University of Saskatchewan.
In 2009, she was inducted into the Royal Society of Canada. In 1992, her book Inventing the Hawk received the Governor General's Award for the best book of Canadian poetry. Two of her other books were both nominated for the Governor General's Award.
Crozier received first prize in poetry in the 1987 CBC National Writing Competition. She has published more than 20 books during her writing career. Her latest books are The Blue Hour of the Day, Selected Poems came out in 2007, and her memoir, Small Beneath the Sky in 2009.

 

Master of Ceremonies - Sean Virgo.

Sean Virgo was born in Malta, and grew up in South Africa, Malaya, Ireland and the U.K.
He immigrated to Canada in 1966. He has published a number of works of both poetry and fiction including: Pieces for the Old Earth Man(1974); Island(1975); Selected Poems(1990); White Lies & Other Fictions(1981); Through the Eyes of a Cat(1983); Selakhi(1987); Wormwood(1989); Waking in Eden(1991) and Begging Questions(2005).
His work has won various awards, including the CBC Competition (first prize for fiction, 1979); The BBC 3 Short Story Competition (first prize, 1980); and National Magazine Awards (first prize for both Poetry(1979) and Fiction(1990). Sean was the host of a popular recent SCN television documentary series entitled The Middle of Somewhere. These episodes reject the Saskatchewan stereotypes of flat, vast, dwarfing, lonely, hostile, and diminishing; and focus on the intimate, individual and intriguing nature of the province.

 

Our musicians this year

Trea (Jensen) Schuster and Kevin Were as a duo are called Karuna Spirit.
Together they write and combine Celtic, folk, and indigenous sounds and rhythms, with didgeridoo, harp and guitar. Schuster is a singer/songwriter, plays 12-string guitar, bodhran (Irish drum) and African drum. She writes and sings traditional folk and Celtic songs. Her music is about love, loss and the sea. Originally from Calgary, Schuster calls Eastend home.
Singer/songwriter Werre moved to Eastend in the fall of 2009 and is originally from Calgary. Were started playing didgeridoo eight years ago and now plays and performs with instruments, which he has, hand crafted in many styles.

 

The Dinner	The Auction

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