Tag: scholastic

St. Martin Ukrainian Bilingual School

It was an interesting experience, speaking with St. Martin students from Edmonton AB this afternoon. We always log in on the virtual visit fifteen minutes or so early to ensure everything is working, and it was. But Microsoft Teams gods were not with us, because once the students settled in, the screens for both classrooms went blank and no matter what Ms Pohoreski or Ms Alexandruk did, that’s how the screens remained. So I presented to two blank screens. When students asked questions, their voices were crisp and clear and their questions were well-considered. I made eye contact with the web-cam and pretended it was a student. I was grateful to get this pic to see all the lovely students I was talking to! Many thanks to HREC ED for the funding!

CUCS lecture Winterkill

It was a lively and informed discussion with a great group of students, alumni, scholars and readers, touching on the research I did in order to write this book and the reasons for including uncomfortably historically accurate Canadian characters. We also discussed the tendency in Holodomor literature to portray people as all good or all bad and why I went out of my way not to do that, and also what else I consciously avoided.

Visiting with St. Sofia students; thank you HREC ED

Visiting with St. Sofia Byzantine Catholic students feels like coming home. No I was never a student at St. Sofia, but I’ve visited so often, virtually and in person, and their students and staff are so welcoming. This year, with the heartbreaking war in Ukraine, there are many more students. And speaking about Winterkill and the Holodomor with kids who have fled war as they sit among the kind and welcoming people of St. Sofia is a poignant experience.

Here are some pics.

Winterkill: Scholastic Audio edition

It’s such an honour to be asked to read my own backmatter for the audio edition of Winterkill. Being dyslexic, I often misread and mispronounce words, even when reading from something I’ve written myself. That makes reading the backmatter for audio a bit of a challenge, but one I’m certainly up to. Scholastic Audio has been coordinating with Catherine North Studios in Hamilton for the recording of the backmatter and so I’ve had the opportunity to meet with Will Crann several times over these last few years. He is persnickety in all the best ways, and a true professional. It’s always such a pleasure working with him.

Winterkill ARCs

Writing Winterkill, set during the Holodomor in 1930s Ukraine, was a gut-wrenching experience. I thought I was writing history, but mere weeks after finishing the final edit, Putin launched a genocidal campaign against Ukraine and the world inspired by Stalin’s actions in the Holodomor.

There is satisfaction in holding this book in my hands and I look forward to September 6th when it will be born. I pray that Putin’s war will be history by then. What we forget we do repeat.