Episode 29: Conor Kerr

This week, GBR invites you to kick back, relax and enjoy yet another recording from LitFest 2021. In this episode, Emily Riddle joins her pal Conor Kerr for the IRL launch of his debut novel AVENUE OF CHAMPIONS. 

Emily Riddle is nehiyaw and a member of the Alexander First Nation in Treaty 6. She lives in amiskwaciwâskahikan. A writer, public library worker and researcher, she sits on the board of advisers for the Yellowhead Institute, a First Nations-led think tank. Emily was shortlisted for the 2020 CBC Poetry Prize and selected for the 2021 Writers’ Trust of Canada mentorship program.

Conor Kerr is a Métis/Ukrainian educator, writer and harvester. He is a member of the Métis Nation of Alberta, part of the Edmonton Indigenous community and is descended from the Lac Ste. Anne and Fort Des Prairies Métis communities and the Papaschase Cree Nation. His Ukrainian family settled in Treaty 4 territory in Saskatchewan. Conor works as the manager of Indigenous Relations and Supports at NorQuest College and is a sessional instructor in the pimâcihisowin program at MacEwan University. In 2019, Conor received The Fiddlehead’s Ralph Gustafson Poetry Prize. His writing has been anthologized in Best Canadian Stories 2020, Best Canadian Poetry 2020 and has appeared in literary magazines across Canada. He is honoured to be able to live, work and chase Labrador retrievers around on the land that his family has called home for generations.

You can order AVENUE OF CHAMPIONS here.

Where to find Emily: on Instagram and Twitter @emilyjaneriddle.

Where to find Connor: on Instagram @metismagic; or on his website. 

You can find Glass Bookshop on all social platforms @glasssbookshop and you can check out previous episodes of the show on the Glass Bookshop Radio website.