Conor Kerr
Autore di Avenue of Champions
Sull'Autore
Conor Kerr is an Indigenous educator, writer and harvester. He is a member of the Mtis Nation of Alberta, part of the Edmonton Indigenous community and is descended from the Lac Ste. Anne Fort Des Prairies Mtis communities and the Papaschase Cree Nation. He works as the Manager of Indigenous mostra altro Relations Supports at NorQuest College and is a sessional instructor in the pimcihisowin program at MacEwan University. In 2019, Conor received the Ralph Gustafson Poetry Award. His poetry has been anthologized in Best Canadian Poetry 2020 and has appeared in literary magazines across Canada. He is honoured to be able to live and work on the land that his family has called home for generations. mostra meno
Opere di Conor Kerr
Strength of a Sash 1 copia
Etichette
Informazioni generali
Non ci sono ancora dati nella Conoscenza comune per questo autore. Puoi aiutarci.
Utenti
Recensioni
Premi e riconoscimenti
Statistiche
- Opere
- 5
- Utenti
- 24
- Popolarità
- #522,742
- Voto
- 4.0
- Recensioni
- 2
- ISBN
- 8
Review of the Nightwood Editions Kindle edition (October 23, 2021) released shortly after the paperback edition (October 1, 2021)
Avenue of Champions refers to Avenue 118 in Edmonton, Alberta. The nickname derives from the now defunct Northlands Coliseum ('The House that Gretzky Built') indoor sports arena which was situated at 7424 118 Avenue. Teams such as the NHL's Edmonton Oilers played at that arena. 118 Avenue also marks a dividing line between the poorer neighbourhoods of North Edmonton vs the richer neighbourhoods of South Edmonton in the context of the stories in this book.
Conor Kerr's first novel is a multigenerational family saga of a Métis family over time from living in the bush to the cities. It makes several jumps in time and POV so you have to be prepared to orient yourself accordingly. The main thing to know is that the Granny in the "Prologue: The Last Big Dance" is the grandmother to the young girl in that story, who in turn becomes the Granny to the main character Daniel in the later stories of the book. i.e. the first Granny is the Great-Great-Grandmother of Daniel. I admit to getting confused about that until later in the book.
The book collects several short stories which appeared in Canadian literary journals and anthologies from 2019 to 2021 as described in the Acknowledgements section and adds several others to assemble them together as a novel. The stories are told with good heart and humour and the two different Grannies of the saga stood out for me as the strongest characters, both striving to make a living and a future for themselves and their families even if by the so-called 'illegal' means of moonshining and marijuana cultivation. Although the Daniel character is framed as the main protagonist, his story does take a more depressing path of becoming sublimated and co-opted by bureaucracy.
Quote
* This is in reference of the Wet'suwet'en First Nation in the province of British Columbia and its protests against the Coastal GasLink Pipeline being built through its native lands without consultation. Read further about that here.
Other Reviews
Avenue of Champions by Jannie Edwards, Alberta Views, June 1, 2022.
Trivia and Links
Author Conor Kerr is interviewed at CTV Saskatoon to introduce the book here.
If you are reading this before June 27, 2023 you can still register for the Giller Book Club zoom meeting on that day where author Conor Kerr will discuss the book with fellow author Joshua Whitehead.… (altro)