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Be part of Guelph’s “16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence” as Dr. Sharon D. Engbrecht explores systemic violence in Katherena Vermette’s "The Break." Copies available at the Main Branch.
As part of Guelph’s iteration of the “16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence,” Dr. Sharon D. Engbrecht will give a talk tracing lines of systemic violence in Katherena Vermette’s "The Break." Copies of the book can be picked up at the Main Library’s circulation desk starting November 5, 2025. Copies are limited, and a library card is required to check these items out. Enjoy light refreshments and snacks!
The talk will be followed by an open discussion about the novel’s themes and intersections of violence, as well as agency and responsibility in the wake of assault and intergenerational trauma.
Katherena Vermette: is a Métis writer from Treaty One territory, the heart of the Métis nation, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Her first book, "North End Love Songs" (The Muses Company), won the Governor General's Literary Award for Poetry. Her NFB short documentary, "this river," won the Coup de Coeur at the Montreal First Peoples Festival and a Canadian Screen Award. Her first novel, "The Break," is the winner of three Manitoba Book Awards and the Amazon.ca First Novel Award. It was a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction, the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, and CBC Canada Reads.
"The Break": The novel opens by describing “the break,” a series of barren lots in a working-class neighbourhood in Winnipeg. In the winter, there’s hydro lines that buzz “quiet enough that you can ignore it.” The “buzz” acts as a metaphor for various forms of violence in the novel, including gender-based violence as something “you can just ignore.” It’s “just white noise,” the narrator tells readers, “and some people can ignore things like that. Some people can hear it but just get used to it.” Drawing attention to the “white noise” of gender-based violence allows us to reconsider how it plays out in our larger communities and what it means to take a stance to stop it. This activism, at once very personal and communal, is a small way we as individuals can take a stand and be a part of ending gender-based violence in all its forms.
Sharon D. Engbrecht: is a postdoctoral researcher at the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation (University of Guelph). Their research delves into how narratives by women authors challenge the systems of power that perpetuate gender-based violence and discrimination. They hail from the Canadian prairies and recently completed their PhD at the University of British Columbia.
By participating in this program, you acknowledge and accept the Guelph Public Library's Code of Conduct.
If you have any questions, please contact Library Programmer Lauren at lcontini@guelphpl.ca.
Alternative formats are available as per the Accessibility per Ontarians Act by contacting Library Communications at 519-824-6220.
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