Book Reading: Rod Carley in Conversation With Waubgeshig Rice
September 18, 2024 @ 7:00 pm
“Rod Carley has written a captivating and bewitching novel set in England 400 years ago, yet it runs rife with contemporary relevance and resonance. Sophisticated, funny, insightful, timeless yet timely… beautifully written…RUFF is a story to be savoured.”
Terry Fallis, two-time winner of the Leacock Medal for Humour
Rod Carley’s back with another theatrical odyssey packed with an unforgettable cast of Elizabethan eccentrics. It’s a madcap world more modern than tomorrow where gender is what a person makes of it (no matter the story beneath their petticoats or tights).
Will Shakespeare is having a very bad year. Suffering from a mid-life crisis, a plague outbreak, and the death of the ancient Queen, Will’s mettle is put to the test when the new King puts his witch-burning hobby aside to announce a national play competition that will determine which theatre company will secure his favour and remain in business. As he struggles to write a Scottish supernatural thriller, Will faces one ruff and puffy obstacle after another including a young rival punk poet and his activist-wife fighting for equality and a woman’s right to tread the boards.
Will and his band of misfits must ensure not only their own survival, but that of England as well. The stage is set for an outrageous and compelling tale of ghosts, ghostwriting, writer’s block, and the chopping block.
Ruffly based on a true story.
Rod Carley is an author, humourist, actor, director, playwright, and cat wrangler. He is the award-winning author of four works of literary fiction: RUFF (September 2024), GRIN REAPING (long listed for the 2023 Leacock Medal for Humour, 2022 Bronze Winner for Humour from Foreword Review INDIES, a Finalist for the 2023 Next Generation Indie Book Award for Humor/Comedy, and long listed for the ReLit Group Awards for Best Short Fiction of 2023); KINMOUNT (long listed for the 2021 Leacock Medal for Humour and Winner of the 2021 Silver Medal for Best Regional Fiction from the Independent Publishers Book Awards); A Matter of Will (Finalist for the 2018 Northern Lit Award for Fiction).
His short stories and creative non-fiction have appeared in a variety of Canadian literary magazines including Broadview (winner of the 2022 Award of Excellence for Best Seasonal Article from the Associated Church Press), Cloud Lake Literary, Blank Spaces, Exile, HighGrader, and the anthology 150 Years Up North and More. He was a finalist for the 2021 Carter V. Cooper Short Fiction Prize. Rod is a popular author and moderator with literary festivals and book clubs and has facilitated a variety of writing-related workshops and webinars. He was the 2009 winner of TVO’s Big Ideas/Best Lecturer Competition for his lecture entitled “Adapting Shakespeare within a Modern Canadian Context.” He is a proud alumnus of the Humber School for Writers.
WAUBGESHIG RICE grew up in Wasauksing First Nation on the shores of Georgian Bay, in the southeast of Robinson-Huron Treaty territory. He’s a writer, listener, speaker, language learner, and a martial artist, holding a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He is the author of the best-selling novels Autumn of the Turning Leaves (2023) and Moon of the Crusted Snow (2018), Legacy (2014), and the short story collection Midnight Sweatlodge (2011). He appreciates loud music and the four seasons. He lives in N’Swakamok—also known as Sudbury, Ontario—with his wife and three sons.
Tickets are $12 + HST each. This event is general seating.
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