Our Reconstructions

How do the stories we inherit shape who we become? Kingston WritersFest is thrilled to present, a special evening with literary legends Helen Humphreys and Judith Thompson. Helen Humphreys introduces Summerland which begins with the disappearance of her grandfather during World War II and the consequences that followed. This brilliant, touching memoir weaves memory and reconstructed family history to explore how dreams pass down through generations. Two-time Governor General’s Award winner Judith Thompson, debuts her highly anticipated In Crow’s Field, a powerful novel of resilience and survival set primarily in Kingston.

Helen Humphreys is an author of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. Several of her books have been national bestsellers and named as The New York Times Notable Books of the Year and The Globe and Mail  Best Books of the Year. Humphreys has won the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, a Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction, and the City of Toronto Book Award. She has also been shortlisted for a Governor General’s Literary Award, the Trillium Book Award and CBC’s Canada Reads, as well as longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the British Columbia National Award for Non-Fiction. In 2009, Humphreys was awarded the Harbourfront Festival Prize for literary excellence. She was born in Kingston-on-Thames, England, and now lives in Kingston, Ontario.

Judith Thompson is a two-time winner of the Governor General's Literary Award for White Biting Dog and The Other Side of the Dark. In 2006 she was invested as an Officer in the Order of Canada and in 2008 she was awarded the prestigious Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for her play Palace of the End. Judith is a professor of drama at the University of Guelph and lives with her husband and five children in Toronto.

This event is made possible by Queen's Quarterly.