WINNIPEG - Award-winning Manitoba author Melissa Steele has been selected as the Winnipeg Public Library's Writer-in-Residence for 2010-2011. Steele's two published short fiction collections, Donut Shop Lovers (Turnstone Press, 1999), and Beautiful Girl Thumb (Turnstone, 2006) have earned her writing significant recognition to date.

After the first collection's release, Steele won the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Writer at the 1999 Manitoba Book Awards. Beautiful Girl Thumb won the 2007 Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction, and is currently in the running for the book all Manitobans should read for the Winnipeg Foundation's On the Same Page program. Steele will be signing copies of the nominated book at McNally Robinson Grant Park on Saturday, August 21 from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m..

Steele's term as Writer-in-Residence starts October 1, 2010 and runs until April, 2011. During this time, she will give individual consultations and workshops to the public, as well as work on her own writing projects.

Turnstone Press is excited to have our author, David Arnason, taking part in the 2010 Icelandic Festival in Gimli, Manitoba. Also attending the festival are Iceland's Prime Minister, Johanna Sigurdardottir, Miss Iceland 2009, Guorun Dogg Runarsdottir, and Canada's Ambassador to Iceland, Allan Bones.

David will be reading from his new novel, Baldur's Song: A Saga on Saturday, July 31 at 2:00 p.m. in the Johnson Hall of Waterfront Centre, and at 1:30 p.m. on Monday, August 2 on the stage at Gimli Park.