Join acclaimed memoirist and editor JJ Lee and local contributors to the Better Next Year series of true-life holiday stories for tales of dashed holiday hopes, Christmas catastrophes, and slender, heartbreaking shards of joy.
Featuring readings by Lillian Au (“Arviat”) and Jill Maynard (“Songbird’) from Upon a Midnight Clear, and Joanna Baxter (“Vienna”) from Better Next Year.
Event Details:
- Doors open at 5:45 p.m.
- Registration is required; seating is general admission.
The Editor:
JJ Lee is the author of the memoir The Measure of a Man: The Story of a Father, a Son, and a Suit, which was a finalist for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Non-Fiction, the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction, the BC Book Prize’s Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize, and the Governor General’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction. He is also the editor of the nonfiction anthology Better Next Year. He teaches creative nonfiction at The Writer’s Studio at Simon Fraser University and writing at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts in Burnaby, British Columbia.
The Contributing Authors:
Lillian Au is a former spokesperson and TV journalist. She works in radio as a traffic anchor. One of her stories received an honourable mention for the International Amy MacRae Award for Memoir. Lillian lives with her husband and two children on Vancouver’s North Shore.
Jill Maynard has deep connections in her communities of Deep Cove and Saltspring Island. She writes about her experiences as a mom of three, a teacher of at-risk youth, as well as her explorations in nature. She is a student of creative writing and this is her first formal publication.
Joanna Baxter co-founded and co-hosted a quarterly reading event and podcast called Spiel_Vancouver to support local emerging writers. She is currently working on a collection of short stories. Her story “Vienna” appeared in the first volume of the Better Next Year anthology series. Joanna lives with her husband and two teenagers on Vancouver’s North Shore.