Best-selling Canadian author Catherine Hernandez, whose acclaimed novels have a common theme of people finding dignity and hope in the face of adversity, is coming to Newmarket Public Library for an author's event on March 6 in celebration of International Women's Day.
Hernandez has written novels, children’s books, plays, and screenplays. Her debut novel, Scarborough, published in 2017, is a coming-of-age story about three young children living in a low-income neighbourhood in the Toronto district.
Scarborough was a literary sensation. It earned the Jim Wong-Chu Emerging Writers Award and was shortlisted for the Toronto Book Awards, Evergreen Forest of Reading Award, Edmund White Award, the Trillium Book Award, and was a finalist for Canada Reads 2022.
When the book was adapted as a film in 2021, Hernandez’s screenplay won Best Adapted Screenplay at the Canadian Screen Awards. The film also won Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor awards.
“We are thrilled to welcome Catherine for this author event celebrating International Women’s Day,” says Tracy Munusami, the library’s CEO, in a news release. “She writes compelling, compassionate stories that have met with praise here at home and internationally.”
Hernandez’s other novels include Crosshairs, The Story of Us, and her latest, Behind You, which has been optioned to be made into a feature film with her once again writing the screenplay.
Give Them Joy is the title of Hernandez’s author event and she will be available to sign books following her talk. The evening program will also include a performance by York Chamber Ensemble of music created by women composers, as well as a presentation by award-winning poet and national poetry slam champion Desiree McKenzie. Tickets for the event, adult/senior $20.34 and dhild 12 and older $16.95, can be purchased at bit.ly/3CJ5LhX.
Give Them Joy with Catherine Hernandez is on Friday, March 7, at 7 p.m. at Old Town Hall, 460 Botsford St., Newmarket. Give Them Joy is sponsored by Brain Power Studios.