Local authors Carla Funk and Yasuko Thanh, who have newly published memoirs, kick off the Sidney and Peninsula Literary Society’s spring reading series on Feb. 7 at the Shoal Centre in Sidney.
Funk, who was born and raised in a Mennonite community in Vanderhoof, B.C., will read from 2018’s Every Little Scrap and Wonder (Greystone Books), a memoir about growing up in a small town. She’s currently at work on a follow-up coming-of-age memoir, due out in 2021.
Funk has authored five books of poetry, is the former poet laureate for the City of Victoria, and a recipient of the Malahat Review’s esteemed Constance Rooke Nonfiction Prize. After teaching in UVic’s Writing Department for 15 years, she now works as an editor and manuscript consultant and leads private writing classes in her home.
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Award-winning novelist and short story writer Thanh presents her latest book, Mistakes to Run With. It’s her first published non-fiction book and details her turbulent coming-of-age in B.C. The title story from her collection Floating Like the Dead won the Journey Prize for best story published in Canada in 2009, while another won an Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Short Story. Her first novel, Mysterious Fragrance of the Yellow Mountains, a historical tale set in Vietnam, won the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize in 2016.
The reading gets underway at 7 p.m. at the Shoal Centre, 10030 Resthaven Dr. Tickets are $10 at Tanner’s Books and online, and a three-event series package is available for $20 at Tanner’s. All proceeds from ticket sales support the 2021 Sidney LitFest. For more information on the series, visit sidneyliteraryfestival.ca.
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