Karen Solie, photo by Russell Hart.
Join us for the first gathering in our Deep Winter Writers Literary Cabaret series, part of the Deep Winter Writing Residency at Banff Centre. Chapter 1 offers an engaging evening of original works from this season’s writers-in-residence, hosted and capped with a special reading by faculty mentor Karen Solie.
Host Karen Solie is one of Canada’s most celebrated contemporary poets, with a major international reputation and a body of work recognized for its precision, intelligence, and lyric force. Her presence offers a strong Canadian literary anchor for the series, while also connecting the residency to a wider global poetry conversation.
Deep Winter Writers is a three-week residency designed for writers to enter a focused period of creative development in the mountains. Faculty are in residence for the first two weeks, offering mentorship, conversation, and community, with the public readings taking place during this active exchange. The third week shifts into a quieter period of deep work, giving writers time and space to carry that momentum into their manuscripts.
Settle in with a drink from the bar, browse a curated selection of books from Pages, and enjoy the warm, creative atmosphere of CLVB '33. Doors open at 6:15 p.m., with readings beginning at 7 p.m. Continue the conversation afterward during an informal mingling session with writers and faculty until 9:30 p.m.
Admission is free. Start your deep-winter literary journey with us!
About Karen Solie
Karen Solie
Karen Solie was born in Moose Jaw and grew up in southwest Saskatchewan. Her most recent collection, Wellwater (2025), has been shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection. The Caiplie Caves (2019) was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize and Derek Walcott Prize. Her work has been awarded the Griffin Prize, Trillium Poetry Prize, Latner Poetry Prize, a Canada Council Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award for an artist in mid-career, and a 2023 Guggenheim Fellowship. Her visiting writer residencies include the University of Toronto's Massey College, the University of California at Berkeley, York University, and she will be the Shaftesbury Creative Writer in Residence for Victoria College at the University of Toronto in 2026. She currently teaches creative writing half-time for the University of St Andrews in Scotland, and lives the rest of the year in Canada.