IN PERSON Your History! Readings by the AWCS Historical Fiction Roundtable
Tuesday, June 2, 2026
7:00pm-9:00pm MT
FREE EVENT - OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Step back in time through vivid scenes, memorable characters, found objects, and stories inspired by true moments in history.
Each story is paired with an artifact (a photograph, a talisman, a memento), immersing you in each reading. The objects will be on display during the evening, offering a tangible glimpse into the events that shaped the words.
Whether you enjoy history and historical fiction or simply appreciate great storytelling, you'll enjoy this evening full of epic eras and intimate character portraits.
Join us for this lively reading event from AWCS' Historical Fiction Roundtable. There will be light refreshments at the event.
This event takes place in person at the Alexandra Writers Centre Society.
NOTE: We encourage you to register, and let us know your number of guests.
This is a social, casual event, centered on the playful celebration of creativity. Bring guests, friends and family.
Readers, in no particular order:
- Doreen Vanderstoop
- Irena Karshenbaum
- Julie Pithers
- Susan Calder
- Brenda Joyce Leahy (Johnson)
- Devan Erno
- O.L. McAnord
- Tamara Kramer
- Andrew Johnson
- Kelly Dawson
- Joan Peters
READER BIOS
Doreen Vanderstoop (she/her) is a Calgary-based writer, storyteller and musician. Her debut novel Watershed was published by Freehand Books in May 2020 and won the Book Publishers Association of Alberta Trade Fiction Book of the Year Award in 2021. Her short fiction has been published by Prairie Fire Magazine, Alexandra Writers’ Centre, Loft 112 and online at Montreal Serai, among others. As a storyteller, Doreen performs folktales, literary adaptations and her own original non-fiction stories at events of all kinds. She intermingles story and song in her performances and leads workshops to inspire in others a passion for story.
Irena Karshenbaum (she/her) is a powerhouse of passion and purpose. As an advocate for community vibrancy, she organizes and speaks at cultural and educational events, and she led an unprecedented project that found, moved and gifted one of the last surviving prairie synagogues to Heritage Park. Irena has been writing for over 20 years, contributing opinion pieces to the Calgary Herald and crafting stories on history, heritage, travel, and books for various publications, including The Canadian Encyclopedia, Heritage Calgary and Heritage Toronto. She has completed her first novel and a children's picture book, and is currently writing a collection of micro stories set in Calgary and Montreal.
Julie Pithers (she/her) has written and performed radio plays for children, developed corporate communications writing for a CEO that lets you get away with murder and a website for a Halloween fright-house that is nothing but murder. Otherwise, she writes long and short stories: Long is fiction, short is creative non-fiction — she can’t explain why the difference. Her attempts at screenplay writing remain, mercifully, in the storage room.
Susan Calder (she/her) is the author of six novels published by BWL Publishing Inc. The first five are mystery and suspense novels set in contemporary Calgary and California. In 2024, BWL released Susan’s first historical novel, A Killer Whisky, set in Calgary during the 1918 Influenza pandemic, World War One, and Alberta Prohibition. A doctor's receptionist and a police detective join forces to solve a suspicious death. Susan is currently working on her second historical novel, which will take place in the European spa city of Karlovy Vary at the outbreak of World War One. The novel is inspired by her maternal grandparents’ immigration to Canada after the war from (then) Czechoslovakia. Susan’s short stories and poems have won contests and appeared in magazines and anthologies. Her story “Death and Apple Pie” will be published this fall in the Sisters-in-Crime-Canada West anthology to be titled Crime Wave 4: Home Sweet Homicide.
Brenda Joyce Leahy (Johnson) (she/her) believes she was incredibly fortunate to grow up on a farm near Taber, Alberta, where hard work and beautiful prairie skies were a part of everyday life. In the evenings, reading and playing board games were the family’s favourite pastimes. Brenda now lives with her family near the Rocky Mountains in Calgary, Alberta. After over 20 years practising law, she has returned to her first love of writing fiction. The Art of Rebellion was her first Young Adult historical novel, published by Rebelight Publishing, spring 2016. A copy of the book is archived at the Louvre Museum, where much of the research was done. Flip, Flop, Flapjack! is an historical picture book, published by Red Barn Books, and illustrated by Melissa Bruglemans-LaBelle, spring 2023. It was awarded BEST CHILDREN’S AND YOUNG ADULT BOOK OF THE YEAR recently by the BPAA. Robin Hood of the Prairies, a short story by Brenda, was published in an anthology, YYC POP, Poetic Portraits of People, in August, 2020, by Frontenac House. Her story was also chosen for the YYC POP Poetry in Transit project, which displayed excerpts of stories and poems on city buses and C-Train cars in the fall of 2020.
Devan Erno (he/him) is a multi-genre author whose short fiction and nonfiction can be found in Polar Borealis, Blanket Gravity, Bright Flash Literary Review, and Uncharted magazines, and is forthcoming elsewhere. His novels are works-in-progress, set in the ancient Mediterranean. He lives with his family of humans and animals in northwest Calgary.
O.L. McAnord (he/him) believes in the power of stories, the triumph of understanding, and the infallibility of truth. Author, essayist, researcher, and stickler, O.L. spends his time exploring, reading, and writing—distilling information and ideas into narratives he hopes will confront, challenge, entertain, and inspire his readers. Born, raised, living, and writing on Treaty 7 land in Mohkinstsis, or Calgary, Alberta, Canada, O.L. is driven by his connection to this Place and its People. His current project, A Galling Fire, is a revisionist western/historical fiction novel set on the traditional territory of the Niitsitapi Blackfoot Confederacy, also known today as Southern Alberta and Northern Montana. Much like A Galling Fire, O.L. McAnord is a work-in-progress. (O.L.'s When Words Collide event, https://olmcanord.com/)
Tamara Kramer (she/her) holds a Bachelor of Arts in History and a Master of Fine Arts in Fiction. She also has a Bachelor of Medical Rehabilitation in Occupational Therapy, but that feels like another lifetime ago. Tamara enjoys working on the family acreage, building her personal library, and getting lost in research.
Tamara lives with her husband, four children, two rabbits (one of whom has yet to learn to use a litter box), and an aged (and less than angelic but most definitely perfect) golden retriever. Her work has been short-listed and honourably mentioned in several writing contests, and has appeared in the Federation of BC Writers’ publication, WordWorks. Tamara has several pieces out on submission and is currently editing her debut historical novel about the Canadian Pacific steamship Empress of Ireland.
Andrew Johnson (he/him) is an aspiring historic fiction writer who began his author’s journey as teacher editor of News and Notes: The Professional Journal of INDEC (The Industrial Education Association of Alberta). While teaching Visual Communications, he established his own desktop publishing company and assisted others to publish thesis documents, yearbooks and professional newsletters. An educational leave allowed him to pursue graduate studies within the Faculty of Environmental Design (UofC). Upon returning to teaching, he taught, Architecture and Animation, eventually becoming a CBE Specialist for Career and Technology Studies. Over the years Andrew shared his mother’s interest in genealogy and helped her publish two family history books. Upon her passing, and after retiring from teaching, he joined AWCS. By participating in courses, programs and conferences he hopes to successfully adapt her book, ‘John Johnson; The Third Mayor of Kansas City by combining the genres of Memoir and Historic Fiction. As the eighth child from a family of twelve, Andrew and his wife have raised three children. His fondest Dad memory is sitting on the floor, reading the Harry Potter series books before bedtime. As young professionals, his children continue to share their love of reading through family book club.
Kelly Dawson (she/her) was born and raised in Calgary, and after moving to the West Coast for a handful of years, was very happy to return and call Calgary home once again. A wife and stepmother, Kelly is grateful to spend her non-writing time camping and wandering through Alberta’s beautiful rolling hills and Rocky Mountains, being creative in the kitchen and pottery studio, and working for the City of Calgary. Currently, she is focused on the completion of her first novel which centres around the burdened yet hopeful life of a young man turned travelling clockmaker, at the end of the 19th century.
With much appreciation for friends and family, AWCS, and the small collection of writing groups she is a member of, Kelly aspires to finish the 2nd draft of her novel in 2026.
Joan Peters (she/her) is a recovering police officer, enjoying writing full-time for the last two years. Her Creative Non-Fiction has been read on CBC, and she was selected to read at the Alexandra Writers' Center winter showcase 2025. She was asked to present at When Words Collide 2025: WOMEN FIGHTING CRIME: Understanding a Female Officer in a Man’s World. More recently, Joan received an honourary mention for Creative Non-Fiction in January 2026 from Off-Topic Publishing. Publishers have expressed interest in her children’s story as well as the historical fiction Joan is currently working on. Her goal is to have a messy first draft of it by the end of June. So far, it is pretty messy. Tonight’s reading is from that draft.
