"While one need not be grieving to find resonance here, those who grief has touched will not feel silenced or pushed outside. In eloquent, luminous prose, these essays will be a companion to many and will be a collection to return to (again lives inside against)."

Please join us for the Calgary launch of Against Death: 35 Essays on Living, featuring readings by Elee Kraljii Gardiner, Nikki Reimer and guests.

Thursday, Sept. 26
7-9 p.m.
Readings start at 7:30
Shelf Life Books
Free

Against Death: 35 Essays On Living articulates the personal experiences of each author’s “near-deathness,” utilizing fresh and inventive language to represent what “magical thinking” proposes. These pieces are incisive and articulate, avoiding the usual platitudes, feel-good bromides, and pep talks associated with near-death encounters. The writing moves past the sob story and confronts the tough circumstance of facing death with truth and compassion, no matter how ugly or (in)convenient.

***

Elee Kraljii Gardiner is the author of the book of poems serpentine loop (Anvil Press, 2016), nominated for the 2017 Raymond Souster Award. She is the co-editor with John Asfour of V6A: Writing from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2012), a City of Vancouver Book Award finalist, and she is the founder of Thursdays Writing Collective as well as the editor and publisher of eight of its anthologies. Her chapbook Trauma Head (Otter Press, 2017) was shortlisted for the bpNichol Chapbook Award and is a precursor to a second book of poetry by the same name (Trauma Head, Anvil Press, Nov 2018), which was shortlisted for the Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry.

NIKKI REIMER writes poetry, essays and criticism. Her published books are My Heart is a Rose Manhattan, DOWNVERSE and [sic], which was shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. Her writing has also been shortlisted for the Lit POP poetry and PRISM International Creative Non Fiction Prize. Reimer is the sister of late Calgary musician Chris Reimer, guitarist for Women, and The Dodos in 2011. Nikki is a co-founder of the Chris Reimer Legacy Fund Society: https://www.cjjrlegacyfund.com/

***

Land Acknowledgment
We acknowledge that this event takes place on the traditional territories of the people of the Treaty 7 region in Southern Alberta, which includes the Blackfoot Confederacy (comprising the Siksika, Piikani, and Kainai First Nations), as well as the Tsuut’ina First Nation, and the Stoney Nakoda (including the Chiniki, Bearspaw, and Wesley First Nations). The City of Calgary is also home to Métis Nation of Alberta, Region III.

***