Red Deer Reads
Red Deer Public Library's Community-wide Book Club
Contents
Red Deer Reads
Red Deer Reads: An Evening with Conor Kerr!
, opens a new windowMeet our 2025 Red Deer Reads winning title, Prairie Edge by Conor Kerr!
About the Book:
Shortlisted for the 2024 Giller Prize • Finalist for the 2024 Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Prize • A Globe and Mail Best Book of the Year • One of CBC's Best Canadian Fiction of 2024
Prairie Edge is a frenetic, propulsive crime thriller that doubles as a sharp critique of modern activism and challenges readers to consider what "Land Back" might really look like.
Meet Isidore "Ezzy" Desjarlais and Grey Ginther: two distant Métis cousins making the most of Grey's uncle's old trailer, passing their days playing endless games of cribbage and cracking cans of cheap beer in between. Grey, once a passionate advocate for change, has been hardened and turned cynical by an activist culture she thinks has turned performative and lazy. One night, though, she has a revelation, and enlists Ezzy, who is hopelessly devoted to her but eager to avoid the authorities after a life in and out of the group home system and jail, for a bold yet dangerous political mission: capture a herd of bison from a national park and set them free in downtown Edmonton, disrupting the churn of settler routine. But as Grey becomes increasingly single-minded in her newfound calling, their act of protest puts the pair and those close to them in peril, with devastating and sometimes fatal consequences.
For readers drawn to the electric storytelling of Morgan Talty and the taut register of Stephen Graham Jones, Conor Kerr's Prairie Edge is at once a gripping, darkly funny caper and a raw reckoning with the wounds that persist across generations.
About the Author:
Conor Kerr is a Métis/Ukrainian writer living in Edmonton. A member of the Métis Nation of Alberta, he is descended from the Lac Ste. Anne Metis and the Papaschase Cree Nation. His Ukrainian family are settlers in Treaty 4 and 6 territories in Saskatchewan. He grew up in Saskatoon, Edmonton, and other prairie towns and cities. In 2022 he was named one of CBC’s Writers to Watch. He is the author of the poetry collections An Explosion of Feathers and Old Gods, as well as the novel Avenue of Champions, which was shortlisted for the Amazon Canada First Novel Award, longlisted for the 2022 Giller Prize and won the 2022 ReLIT award. Conor is an Assistant Professor at the University of Alberta where he teaches creative writing.
Which book should everyone in Red Deer read?
What is Red Deer Reads?
Red Deer Reads is a city-wide initiative designed to bring Red Deerians together through a shared reading experience. It is an opportunity for the entire community to connect and have engaging conversations about a particular book, its author, and the themes and ideas within the book. The best part? The author of the winning book will be coming to Red Deer for our featured event this fall!
How does it work?
First, we collected and reviewed potential titles and selected our top three finalists:
We had a huge list of potential titles in mind for our 2025 Red Deer Reads shortlist, and we narrowed it down to our top three titles, The Annual Migration of Clouds, opens a new window by Premee Mohamed, We Are Already Ghosts, opens a new window by Kit Dobson, and Prairie Edge, opens a new window by Conor Kerr.
Then it was your turn to read the books and vote for your favourite:
After the shortlist was revealed, we held book club discussions for each title and then opened up the Red Deer Reads voting poll! Voting ended on July 5, 2025.
Next, we announced the winner!
The Red Deer Reads winning title is... Prairie Edge by Conor Kerr!
Finally, we'll bring in the author for an extra special event!
Red Deer Reads culminates with a special event featuring the author of the 2025 Red Deer Reads winning title! This highly anticipated event with author Conor Kerr will take place on Saturday, October 25 from 4 p.m. - 6 p.m.! Sign up now to save your spot!, opens a new window
What better way to bring a community together than by all reading the same book?!
These titles may not have been crowned this year's Red Deer Reads winner, but you should definitely still give them a read!
The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamed
The world is nothing like it once was: climate disasters have wracked the continent, causing food shortages, ending industry, and leaving little behind. Then came Cad, mysterious mind-altering fungi that invade the bodies of the now scattered citizenry. Reid, a young woman who carries this parasite, has been given a chance to get away – to move to one of the last remnants of pre-disaster society – but she can't bring herself to abandon her mother and the community that relies on her. When she's offered a coveted place on a dangerous and profitable mission, she jumps at the opportunity to set her family up for life, but how can Reid ask people to put their trust in her when she can't even trust her own mind?
With keen insight and biting prose, Premee Mohamed delivers a deeply personal tale in this post-apocalyptic hopepunk novella that reflects on the meaning of community and asks what we owe to those who have lifted us up.
We Are Already Ghosts by Kit Dobson
We are Already Ghosts is a summer book, a family story, a meditation of the persistence of place, and a chronicle of a time only just passed into memory. The Briscoe-MacDougall family retire to their lakeside cabin each summer. This annual vacation is at time to unwind and refresh, a time to relax away from the hustle and bustle of city life. We are Already Ghosts joins the Briscoe-MacDougalls in the summer of 1996 and returns to them at five-year intervals.
William, Clare, Helen, Michael, John, Doug, Mike, Jéanne, Françoise, Celeste, Daphne, Benjamin, and Mackenzie the dog live, grow up, and grow old as the world changes in small ways and in devastating ones. The shock of 9/11 and the war in Afghanistan tear across the globe; the Great Recession steals jobs, savings, and houses; and the politics of colonial Canada come evermore into focus. Marriages are made and marriages fall apart, babies are born, lives end, careers are made and broken, the grass grows and is cut, the trees bud and then they lose their leaves. The cabin remains and the family returns, year after year. Impeccably written, crisp, and direct, We are Already Ghosts is a turn-of-the-millennium family epic that documents and challenges Canadian life.
Since our first Red Deer Reads program in 2015, we have hosted so many amazing authors! Check out all of our previous Red Deer Reads titles below.
Excited to join us on this reading journey?!
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