A big highlight of last weekend

...was hearing Diane Schoemperlen deliver the Caroline Heath Memorial Lecture.The Saskatchewan Writers' Guild has brought in a long line of great speakers over the years. As I stated on Facebook, I was especially excited this year as I'm a big fan of Forms of Devotion, an amazing book that can only come from an amazing mind. Before the lecture I bought her new book By the Book as planned and while I was at the book table an English professor told me how much she loves Our Lady of the Lost and Found, so of course I bought that too. I'd taken along my well-worn copy of Forms of Devotion on my trip to Saskatoon hoping to get it signed as well, but once I got there I felt a bit too weird about asking. I don't want to be an annoying fan.

And just a note to illustrate how great the presenters at the Saskatchewan Writers' Guild Fall Conference in partnership with the Ânskohk Aboriginal Literature Festival were this year: on top of their scheduled lectures, sessions and readings, Diane Schoemperlen, Warren Cariou, and Garry Thomas Morse all read at the open mic and shared in the fun, and David Seymour was there too and we heard open mic readings by those who had taken his poetry workshop. Hats off to all. You couldn't ask for a nicer bunch.