2006 Quebec Writers' Federation Awards and Louis Armstrong

Rawi Hage (shown above) took home two awards, the McAuslan First Book Prize and the Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction for his novel De Niro's Game.

The A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry was awarded to Susan Elmslie for I, Nadja, and Other Poems - which I actually picked up at Chapters this afternoon before finding out she had won the prize.

Read about all the winners from the 2006 QWF Awards.

I wasn't able to make it to the awards gala, instead I was invited to see The Satchmo' Suite at the Saidye Bronfman Centre with Ryan and Josh. It was a beautiful play:

"The Satchmo' Suite" is about the relationship between a modern day black classical Cellist and the 'Father of Jazz' himself, Louis Armstrong. The Cellist, on tour with a classical symphony, summons Louis Armstrong to get help with a difficult musical passage from Bach's Six Suites for Solo Cello. The ghost of Louis Armstrong appears in the Cellist's hotel room. The lives of the major characters intermingle and resonate off each other as issues of hope, courage, family, and racism emerge in highly entertaining and powerful ways. It's about the polarities between the head and the heart, the intellect and intuition. The play is full of music, both Jazz and Classical.

"The Satchmo' Suite" opened on November 19th and runs till December 10th. If you're in Montreal, see it if you have a chance.