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Gary Barwin & George Matuvi In Conversation
Join authors George Makonese Matuvi and Gary Barwin as they delve into their diverse childhoods, sharing poignant memories and experiences.
In Imagining Imagining, Barwin thinks deeply about big ideas: story and identity, art and death, how we communicate, and why we dream. From his childhood home in Ireland to his long-time home in Hamilton, Barwin shares the thoughts that keep him up at night (literally) and the ideas that keep him creating. Filled with witty asides, wise stories and a generosity of spirit that is unmistakable, these are essays that readers will turn to again and again.
In The War as I Saw It, George Makonese Matuvi invites us into the world of a child living through a war he doesn’t understand. Driven by violence from their home in the mountains to the streets of Zimbabwe’s cities, Matuvi shares his family’s tale of flight and hardship interspersed with stories of his youth, adding depth and joy to his portrait of a family struggling with displacement. The War as I Saw It is a story of love, of strength in difficulty and of the ingenuity of one family as they cope with forces beyond their control.
Gary Barwin is a writer, composer, and multidisciplinary artist and the author of twenty-six books including Nothing the Same, Everything Haunted: The Ballad of Motl the Cowboy, which won the Canadian Jewish Literary Award. His national bestselling novel Yiddish for Pirates won the Leacock Medal for Humour and the Canadian Jewish Literary Award, was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award for Fiction and the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and was long-listed for Canada Reads.
Explore Gary Barwin in our collection
George Makonese Matuvi grew up in Chamini, a rural area in the district of Zvishavane, in Zimbabwe, where he was surrounded by mountains and developed a love of both soccer and books. He is currently an electrical engineer and runs a small consulting company. The War as I Saw It: In Rhodesia, Now Zimbabwe, Through the Eyes of a Black Boy is his first book.
Borrow The War As I Saw It from our collection
Presented in partnership with Wolsak and Wynn publishers who will be on site with books for sale.
If you need an accessibility accommodation during this program, please register early so we can confirm arrangements a few days before your visit.
Central Library is the largest location and houses historical and special collections, a computer lab, meeting rooms for public rental, and departments responsible for system-wide library services support. Burlington Public Library is a tax-supported registered charitable organization.
