When Sharon Butala’s husband, Peter, died unexpectedly, she found herself with no place to call home. Torn by grief and loss, she fled the ranchlands of southwest Saskatchewan and moved to the city, leaving almost everything behind.
Speaking at CALL (Calgary Association of Lifelong Learners) in their newly-launched lecture series about Where I Live Now. Arts and Humanities Lectures Series, cSpace, 1721 29 Avenue S.W. 1-3 p.m.
Walrus Talks National Tour, Eric Harvie Theatre, Banff Centre (further details to follow)
Keynote speaker at “Wallace Stegner and the Consciousness of Place” hosted by the Idaho Humanities Council held at the Boise State University for K-12 teachers http://www.idahohumanities.org/?p=2017_teacher_institute
Prairie Messenger Review by Gerry Schmitz….’Through 16 works of fiction and non-fiction Sharon Butala has established herself as a preeminent literary voice of the Canadian prairie experience. Moreover, her own deep observations and compelling characters challenge narratives of western development that are too often male-dominated and anglo-centric.‘ For the full review, go to Prairie Messenger
Review by Shelley A. Leedahl, an award-winning writer, of Wild Rose – “After completing Sharon Butala’s epic new novel Wild Rose, I closed the book and thought: This is why she’s on CanLit’s “A” list. If you’re in the mood for getting completely swept up in a female pioneer’s adventure–and this means fully empathizing with the young Québécois idealist, Sophie, as she sets out in 1884 for the West and the freedom it signifies–then buckle up, because Butala assuredly leads readers back in time to a landscape where “the sun [pours] itself over everything: horses, the hats of the men, the few women’s entangling skirts, the children’s round eager faces, the …already weathered false-fronted buildings, piles of all kinds of goods on the ground from walking plows to stained sacks … to the teams of horses, the train itself …”.
Wild Rose included among the books on the Scotiabank Giller 2015 Crazy for Can Lit list…..
‘Every year, our Crazy for CanLit feature gives you the chance to sample and discuss the best books of the Canadian publishing season. All the books of the literary calendar are displayed and are eligible for the Scotiabank Giller Prize for that year. Any one of them could be entered to become that year’s winner! We often use the Crazy for CanLit collection as a platform for discussions … and more……’
Wild Rose is #1 on the Calgary Herald’s bestseller list. Calgary Herald Bestseller List
Review of Wild Rose by Joann McCaig of Shelf Life Books in Alberta Views….’It’s about time for a new novel from Sharon Butala. And it’s long past time for a new novel in which the experience of homesteading on the prairie is seen from a woman’s point of view. In Wild Rose, Butala tells the story of one very determined young woman as she tries to find freedom and a new life in what in the 1880s was still known as the North West Territories…..Wild Rose is an old-fashioned novel of character, plot and setting, refreshingly devoid of irony, angst, world-weariness or cheap flash. Novels of the old West by such contemporary authors as Fred Stenson and Guy Vanderhaeghe have brought these days powerfully to life, but from a male perspective. With Wild Rose, Butala adds her woman’s voice to the prairie canon.’
Wlld Rose has been included on the 49th Shelf’s list, which is produced by the Association of Canadian Publishers together with the Canadian Publishers’ Council, and with funding from the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Ontario Media Development Corporation and a lead sponsorship from Amazon.ca.
The 49th Shelf has one purpose: to make it easier for readers to discover Canadian books. Canadian books in all genres, from bestselling authors to new talent, from publishers large and small, from all regions of the country.
Wild Rose included in Susan Toy’s Reading Recommendations Blog Reading Recommendations
Saskatoon Star Phoenix (and the Regina Leader Post) publish a review of Wild Rose …. After novels, short fiction, and meditations comes Sharon Butala’s 16th book, the novel Wild Rose. Butala, who now lives in Calgary, lived for years on a ranch outside Eastend, and this countryside is a very large part of the story. Wild Rose adds to a relatively long tradition of settler novels in the west, most of which, at least in the past, lauded the brave struggles of white pioneers to homestead the plains and turn this part of the world into a farming juggernaut. Butala, fortunately, knows which way the wind blows, and this blandly-titled novel has some modern surprises and is a good read, besides. Saskatoon Star Phoenix
Calgary Herald Review by Catherine Ford…There is only one word appropriate for Sharon Butala’s latest book: Beautiful. Wild Rose is simply beautiful. No words of mine can do it justice because reading Wild Rose is a lock on your heart, a catch in your throat and best of all, a glimpse into the lives of our great-grandparents and every other immigrant to a wild and unforgiving land. The CPR may have “opened” the West, but it was those people who came to the ed of the line, or close to it, who took the promise of a new life and land and left everything and everybody they knew to be pioneers.
Calgary Herald
