Literary aficionados, please take note! Once again the Cathedral Village Arts Festival will showcase the literary arts. Check back for more details on these events.

All Star Poet Slam
8 pm Tuesday, May 25
Cathedral Village Free House
The slam is a Festival mainstay for a very good reason. We've been attracting writers with a flair for performing their poetry for years now and we're bringing back the best for a poetry slam showdown. Turn out to cheer on your favourite poets, many of them from the Cathedral area. The audience has a crucial role in any poetry slam - they are judge, jury, and . . . well, you get the idea. This year, the poetry all-star champ will be selected by audience ballot. Come to cheer, come to jeer, but do not miss the all-star slam.

Three Authors from Hagios Press
7:30 pm Wednesday, May 26
Cathedral Neighbourhood Centre
Hagios Press is a small literary publisher that calls the Cathedral area home. Hagios presents a reading with three of their most recent collaborators - authors David Carpenter (the novella The Ketzer), Donna Kane (a poetry collection entitled Somewhere, a Fire) and Dolores Reimer (a poetry collection entitled Stone Baby). Come celebrate Hagios's tenth published title and enjoy some of the finest poetry and fiction around.

Poetry Slam
7:30 pm Wednesday, May 26
Sheldon-Williams Collegiate
Who says high school students have inhibitions . . . about poetry? For the past few years, students at Sheldon-Williams Collegiate have celebrated the Arts Festival by holding a poetry slam. Students are put through literary wringer for 30 minutes as they strive to compose a masterwork around the themes of relationships, environment, and humour. Poetry without a net; poetry in motion. Come watch the next generation of poets slam it out!

Brain Freeze: Reading by Marty Chan
1 pm Friday, May 29
Connaught Library

Marty Chan's new novel for young readers, The Mystery of the Frozen Brains is set in a French Canadian town in rural Alberta. The novel develops the coming to awareness of a Chinese boy in a community under the myriad of ethnic influences including French, English and Ukrainian. As serious as the novel's theme is, Chan's buoyant, gifted humour overrides the tone of the story.
Marty Chan is an Edmonton dramatist and scriptwriter. His Gemini-nominated half-hour television pilot The Orange Seed Myth and Other Lies Mothers Tell won the gold medal at the Charleston World Television Festival. Chan is also known for his YTV work, notably The Incredible Story Studio and his touring Canadian play, Mom, Dad, I'm Living with a White Girl.

Playwrights in the Spotlight
7:30 pm Friday, May 29
Westminster United Church
The play's the thing! Festival audiences will enjoy readings by Marty Chan and Kelley Jo Burke, two of western Canada's most talented playwrights. No actors, no sets - just the authors and their words, shared with intimacy and immediacy in this author reading. This event will also allow audience members to quiz the playwrights on the ins and outs of playwriting.

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