First Nations House at the University of Toronto will be hosting the fifth annual celebration of the Indigenous Writers’ Gathering on October 18, 2012. Not to be missed, the event will end with a gala reading night hosted by CBC’s Sidd Bobb and Wab Kinew.

Participating Aboriginal authors this year include the renowned Lee Maracle, Cherokee author and UBC professor Daniel Heath Justice, Metis poet Marilyn Dumont, and the bestselling Richard Wagamese. Former Lieutenant Governor James Bartleman will offer a special reading, while Cree cellist sensation Cris Derkson and World Champion Hoop Dancer and Canada’s Got Talent Finalist Lisa Odjig will each perform.

The Indigenous Writers’ Gathering is free and open to the public. The event offers several workshops, including Rogarou Stories: Traditional Metis Folk stories and a fiction workshop with Richard Wagamese, as well as two panel discussions: “Declaring and Taking Back the Power of Words,” with Daniel Justice, and “Indigenous Literature: Where we have been and where we need to go,” also with Daniel Justice, as well as Richard Wagamese, Lee Maracle, and Marilyn Dumont.

The evening will end at the beautiful Capitol Theatre with the launch of the Indigenous Muskrat Magazine, Issue #3. Be sure to arrive early as the first 150 guests will join the authors and organizers for a free cocktail hour; doors open at 7:00pm. For those taking the TTC to the gala, the theatre is 3 blocks north of the Eglinton Subway Station on Yonge. If you’re driving, parking is available in the rear of the building.

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Christine McFarlane is a Saulteaux woman from Peguis First Nation and a contributing editor at The Toronto Review of Books. She has a regular column in the Native Canadian Newsletter, and freelances for Anishinabek News, First Nations House Magazine, Windspeaker, New Tribe Magazine, and firstperspective.ca.