National Network for Equitable Library Service

Happy Place explores the lives of seven women aged 23 to 60 who are residents of an in-patient care facility: a microcosm for the world outside its walls. What is it to live inside the suffering of these women...addressing the idea that we are not so different from each other, though our circumstances may be? Each woman must try to find a way to fit into a world that can't respond to or redress a pain that is unseeable. But they are also the ones who can teach one another how to live with what happened to them as no one else ever could.

From the novel by Martha Blum. The Walnut Tree tells the story of the intense journey of SŸssel, a young, privileged Jewish woman who grows up in Chernowitz, studies in Prague and Paris, endures the horrors of World War II in Eastern Europe, and ultimately escapes to the peace and promise of a new life in Saskatoon. The character of the older SŸssel looks back at her life, accompanied by her alter ego, a Musician, who performs on a grand piano. This powerful, disturbing, and transcendent drama sets the devastating power of historical events against the personal forces of reconciliation.

To celebrate their anniversary, Sam surprises his wife Vera by bringing her back to the spot of their rural honeymoon fifty years ago. Now surrounded by parking lots and software buildings, Vera is shocked to discover that the once charming bed and breakfast has transformed into the last place on earth she wants to be. When Sam has an unexpected heart attack, Vera is hopelessly stuck. A strange visitor and the arrival of her daughters force her to reevaluate the sum of her life and the relationship she has formed with her family.

The long history of the Clan MacDonald begins in 1779 as Calum Ruadh leaves Scotland to begin a new life on Cape Breton Island. Haunted by the stories and songs of the ancestry, two brothers seek to reconcile their past with their present. From the writer of Glenn and Inexpressible Island (Scirocco Drama) comes this adaptation from the award-winning novel by Alistair MacLeod.

Prairie Nurse, which premiered at the Blyth Festival, is a comedy about two Filipino nurses who come to work at a small-town Saskatchewan hospital in the late 1960s. Cultural clashes, personality differences, homesickness, and the amorous but dim-witted goalie from the local hockey team complicate the women’s lives. Based on the true story of her mother’s immigration to Canada, Badian’s play is part romantic comedy, part farce, and part cultural history.

In Better Angels: A Parable, Akosua Mansa leaves Ghana to work for Greg and Leila Tate in the tony suburbs of a metropolitan city. But she soon finds herself in an impossible situation: like more than forty million people, she's become trapped in modern-day slavery. Taking cues from the spider god, Anansi, Akosua will take her destiny into her own hands. Eating Pomegranates Naked examines two couples and their single frenemy as they scratch the surface of their relationships over too much wine. What do infertility, religion, toxoplasmosis, and ice-cream have to do with Tulipmania?

Ten years ago, Laura was a student in Alan Wells' English class. She was uncharacteristically smart for a fifteen-year-old - perceptive and vulnerable - a dream for a flailing teacher. Now, at twenty-five, Laura has written her first novel. She's called it Dear Mr. Wells, and Alan is the first person she wants to read it. Weaving seamlessly from present to past, Lo (or Dear Mr. Wells) burrows in the grey areas of consent. A coming-of-age story, a love story, a vindication, Lo (or Dear Mr. Wells) examines a formative relationship that both corrupts and liberates.

Sarah’s marriage is over, and she’s just moved back home to the farm with her beekeeper mother, Gail. As the women try to adjust to the many changes in their world, their lives are complicated by the community’s last-ever Turkey Days celebration, beehive troubles, an eccentric neighbour, and a handsome young researcher. The Birds and the Bees is a laugh-out-loud comedy with a huge, honeyed heart.

Café Daughter is a one-woman drama inspired by a true story about a Chinese-Cree girl growing up in Saskatchewan in the 1950s and 60s. The story begins in 1957, as nine-year-old Yvette Wong helps out in her parents' cafe in Alistair, Saskatchewan. She's incredibly bright but has been placed in the slow learners' class because of her skin colour. Her mother Katherine, who was forced to attend a residential school, is conflicted about her identity and has charged Yvette with a secret--to never tell anyone she's part Cree.

After the loss of a loved one, a woman must face the shattering memories of a past trauma. CRASH is the fractured unraveling of memory; a tour de force narrative about family, faith and love. “Can’t remember isn’t the same as forget. Forget is, don’t want to remember. Can’t remember is, don’t want to forget.” A Girl. A Room. A River.