The Dancehall Years with Joan Haggerty

Young Gwen Killam enjoys idyllic summers on Bowen Island until the sudden disappearance of her swimming teacher, Takumi Yoshito. The novel goes on to trace an intricate and intimate geography of time, place, and people from the Depression, to Pearl Harbor, to the 1980s.

Joan Haggerty spent her formative years “on the coast in cedars and salt water,” but then lived abroad, writing and publishing a book about teaching as well as the experimental feminist novel, Daughters of the Moon (1971). It was praised by Marge Piercy and John Irving. Joan Haggerty returned to British Columbia, where she published The Invitation (1994), a memoir about re-uniting with the child she gave up for adoption. It was nominated for a Governor General’s Award. The Dancehall Years (Mother Tongue) was published earlier this summer. Tracy Sherlock of the Vancouver Sun called it a “gorgeously rendered novel.”

Please join us as we welcome author Joan Haggerty with refreshments and music. Copies of the novel will be available for sale and signing.

When: Saturday, September 10, 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.
Where: Historic Joy Kogawa House, 1450 West 64th Avenue, Vancouver
Cost: By donation