Cranbrook-raised author Leesa Dean will be at Huckleberry Books on Saturday, June 10, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. for a meet the author event, including two lively readings from her recently released novella-in-verse, The Filling Station.
Dean completed her elementary and secondary education in Cranbrook, graduating from Mount Baker Secondary School in 1999.
“I have such fond memories of my time there,” Dean says, “especially of building sets for school plays and working with the esteemed Rod Osiowy who broke many hearts with his passing in 2010.”
She credits her former English teacher, Don Rivers, for igniting her love of literature and creative writing which led her to Montreal and then Toronto where she completed a BA in literature and an MFA in Creative Writing.
In 2016, when her critically acclaimed short story collection Waiting for the Cyclone was released, she toured the East Kootenay with poet Jane Byers and presented the Cranbrook Public Library.
“It was such an incredible experience,” Dean said. “Three of my elementary teachers attended, not to mention people I hadn’t seen since high school. I hadn’t seen most of those teachers in almost 30 years! For me, their presence was a poignant example of how, in small communities, the connections you make with your educators can be so profound.”
Dean is now an award-winning author, poet, and an instructor at Selkirk College in Castlegar where she won the 2020 SCOPE Award for Teaching Excellence. In addition to Waiting for the Cyclone (2016) and The Filling Station (2022), Dean has also published two poetry chapbooks, The Desert of Itabira (2020) and Apogee/Perigee (2023). Her books have been reviewed by places like the Globe & Mail and Quill & Quire and her work has been nominated for numerous awards, including the 2017 Trillium and Relit Awards and the 2022 Pacific Spirit Poetry Prize. Two of her creative essays were recently published in The Tyee and Kootenay Mountain Culture. She lives in Krestova, BC.
This event is free and open to the public. For more information, go to https://huckleberrybooks.ca/events. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to meet and engage with a renowned author and ask questions about the joys and craft of writing. The Filling Station and other of Dean’s titles will be available for purchase at the event or can be ordered anytime through your local bookstore.