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Author Evening

with Kath Jonathan and Ann Y.K. Choi

Commemorate Time of Remembrance with two historical novels of unmatched courage, resilience, and sacrifice in times of war.

Award-winning authors Kath Jonathan and Ann Y.K. Choi will discuss the creation of their latest novels, The Resistance Painter and All Things Under the Moon. Both books tell the stories of women who, during times of war, choose to resist, ultimately transforming their own lives and the lives of those around them.

Stop by the Woolf & Company (formerly Rookery Books) table to purchase titles by the authors and have them signed as a keepsake from this special event.

About Kath Jonathan

A resident of Toronto, Kath Jonathan is a poetry, short story, and novel writer. Her work has been shortlisted for the Marina Nemat Award, a finalist for The Janice Colbert Poetry Award, longlisted for the Puritan’s Thomas Morton Memorial Prize for short story, published in a Penguin Random House chapbook and in online literary magazines. Kath holds a Certificate in creative writing and an MA in English literature, both from the University of Toronto.

The Resistance Painter

An evocative work of historical fiction, examining the little-known story of Poland’s extraordinary WW ll resistance army and the contemporary lives of two artists, grandmother and granddaughter, inextricably linked by a wartime betrayal.

Warsaw 1939. Irena Marianowska’s dreams of attending art school in Paris are crushed when the Nazis invade Poland. Instead, she joins the Home Army and, together with her resistance cell, risks her life guiding people to safety through the sewers of Warsaw. In 1942, after a harrowing mission, she returns home to learn that her sister, Lotka, has been abducted by the Gestapo. In her search for Lotka, Irena encounters a host of characters who lead her into greater danger.

 
About Ann Y.K. Choi

Ann Y. K. Choi, originally from Chung-Ju, South Korea, is a Toronto-based author and educator. Her novel, Kay’s Lucky Coin Variety, was shortlisted for the Toronto Book Award. In 2017, Choi was honoured by the Korean Canadian Heritage Awards committee and awarded with the Culture Award for promoting Korean heritage within Canada. Choi currently serves on the program advisory committee for gritLIT, Hamilton’s literary festival, mentors emerging writers in a group she founded called Writers in Trees, and teaches creative writing at the University of Toronto, School of Continuing Studies.

All Things Under the Moon

Pachinko meets Beasts of a Little Land in this stunning, evocative tale, set in 1920s Korea, of one seemingly ordinary woman--an uneducated villager living under Japanese occupation--who takes control of her own destiny and rises to become an advocate for women's literacy as a force for change.

"Women need other women to survive."

In 1924, Korea is an occupied country. In Seoul's secret, underground networks and throughout the countryside, rebellion against the Japanese Empire simmers, threatening to boil over. Kim Na-Young lives a simple life in the rural village of Daegeori, where she watches the moon rise and set over the pine-wooded mountains, tends to her household alongside her best friend, Yeon-Soo, and cares for her sick mother.

Doors for this event will open at 6:00 pm.

Registration is required to confirm attendance. Please register for everyone attending. Limited entry without registration may be available at the door, but is not guaranteed.

 Accessibility
If you require an accessibility accommodation for this program or event, please tell us how we can meet your needs as soon as possible so arrangements can be organized. If you require a sign language interpreter, please let us know at least two-weeks (10 working weekdays) before the program date. 
  
If you are attending a registered program with a support person, please add your support worker as a guest when you sign up. 

COST: Free

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