Anna Marie Sewell

A reading from novels Humane and its sequel Urbane, Indigi-noir novels set in Amiskwaciy, a close correlate of Edmonton. Narrator Hazel LeSage - unlicensed PI, visionary dog thief, self-professed asshole — takes us along on her mystical adventures, along with a cast of family, friends, and Others, all trying to make sensible, urbane lives in a fractious reality, where it may take everything you’ve got to be, if not human, at least humane.

Humane and Urbane were published by Stonehouse Publishing in 2020 and 2023.

Content Advisories: Foul language, allusion to physical violence.

Special thanks to Stonehouse, the Thousand Faces Festival, and Cher Barrett.

Anna Marie Sewell is a multi-genre writer and artist. She toiled in Indie Theatre, was Edmonton’s 4th Poet Laureate, and has choral scores (as lyricist) published in Canada and the USA. After a long adventure in multi-disciplinary, collaborative community arts projects, she’s become a novelist. Her first novel, 2020’s Humane, continues to win fans, as the Literary Press Group of Canada’s July 2023 Book Club selection. Closer to home, the sequel Urbane debuted at #1 on the Edmonton Fiction lists. The astonishing Mi’gmaq, Anishnaabe and Polish family tales of her rural childhood, seasoned with local Viking Lore, provoked Sewell’s deep fascination with shapeshifters and their worldwide presence just to one side of the everyday.