$25.00
79 in stock
When: Friday, August 7, 8:00 pm
We’re opening tonight’s session by celebrating the winner of the first ever Winterset in Summer Literary Festival Flash Fiction Contest, developed in partnership with Riddle Fence. Lisa Moore will read the prompt that started it all and introduce the contest winner; and Trudy Morgan-Cole will read her winning story, “Bonnie’s Place,” described by the judges as “tender, funny, and beautifully observed.”
And then: for our 25th anniversary season we are pleased to present our Irish connection! Writer Niamh Campbell of Dublin, Ireland, winner of the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2021, will talk about her new novel Make Strange, where a woman is unsettled by her child’s accounts of having lived a previous life; and Newfoundland writer Michael Crummey will talk about winning the 2025 Dublin Literary Award for his novel The Adversary, the story of a sister and brother battling for primacy in a fictional 19th century Newfoundland town. The unforgettable Noreen Golfman, former chair of the Winterset in Summer Festival and literature lover par excellence, will host
NIAMH CAMPBELL is a writer from Dublin, Ireland, based in County Clare. She is the author of This Happy (2020), We Were Young (2022) and Make Strange (2026). In 2021 she won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. She teaches creative writing at University College Dublin.
MICHAEL CRUMMEY is the author of thirteen books of fiction and poetry. His latest novel, The Adversary, was the winner of the 2025 International Dublin Literary Award. Considered “one of North America’s finest novelists” (The Washington Post), his work has been published in a dozen countries and has won or been nominated for many Canadian and international awards, including the Giller Prize, the Governor-General’s Award, the Commonwealth Prize, and the Winterset Award.
DR. NOREEN GOLFMAN was honoured with the title Professor Emerita, having taught English literature and film studies at Memorial University of Newfoundland before becoming associate then dean of the School of Graduate Studies. From there she was appointed Provost and Vice President (Academic). ACTRA awarded her “Woman of the Year” in 2019. In 2023 she was invested into the Order of Newfoundland and Labrador and in 2025 Memorial University awarded her an Honorary Doctorate. Noreen was a freelance broadcaster, commentator, and film reviewer for CBC Radio and TV. She was the founding director of the St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival (1989) and chaired the board of the festival for thirty years. She’s been the president of the MUN Cinema Series for about 38 years, is Vice Chair of PictureNL, and co-chair of Business and Arts NL. She chaired the board of Friends of Canadian Broadcasting for 28 years. For several years she helmed the board of the wonderful Winterset in Summer Literary Festival to which she remains devoted.
LISA MOORE has written three collections of short stories, Degrees of Nakedness, Open, and Something for Everyone, and four novels, Alligator, February, Caught and This Is How We Love along with Flannery, a young adult novel. Lisa wrote a stage play based on her novel February and is a co-librettist with composer Laura Kaminsky for the opera based on February. With Jack Whalen, Lisa co-wrote the creative nonfiction book Invisible Prisons, which was short-listed for the Hilary Weston Prize in 2024 and won both the BMO Winterset Award for Nonfiction and the Newfoundland and Labrador Book Prize for Non-Fiction. Lisa is currently writing for stage and screen and finishing a young adult novel, The Spellbound. Lisa studied conceptual art at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and is a professor teaching Creative Writing at Memorial University of Newfoundland.
TRUDY MORGAN-COLE won the brand new flash fiction contest by Winterset in Summer Literary Festival and Riddle Fence! Trudy is a novelist from St. John’s. She has written several works of historical fiction focusing on the experiences of Newfoundland women, including By the Rivers of Brooklyn, That Forgetful Shore, A Sudden Sun, Most Anything You Please, and the Cupids Trilogy. In addition to writing novels, Trudy dabbles in short fiction, playwriting, podcasting, and audio drama. Her new novel, Beyond the Brightening Sea, will be released in Fall 2026.
