Emerging Canadian author Cid V. Brunet will visit Brandon University (BU) on Wednesday, March 20 to read from her creative memoir Statues of Lions. The free, public reading will begin at 5 p.m. in He Oyate Tawapi (Ceremony Room), Room 141 of the Dr. James and Mrs. Lucille Brown Health Studies Complex.

Following the reading, Dr. Ariane Hanemaayer, who teaches in BU’s Department of Sociology, as well as the Gender and Women’s Studies Program, will host an interview and dialogue with Brunet.

Statues of Lions is the creative memoir of a stripper, sharing Brunet’s eight years of experience in the industry. The content focuses on her relationship to her work, which at times has been exploitative, and at other times, exciting and nourishing.

The book explores Brunet’s growth and how her work has affected her life, friendships, lovers, and family. The story weaves together themes of queerness, relationships, sex work, mental health, toxic masculinity, sex, and individual autonomy.

Cid V. Brunet was raised in rural farming communities near Montreal. Over the last decade she has published poems in Strange Horizons, Peculiar Mormyrid, and The Fem. Her first non-fiction piece appeared in Pearls Anthology (2016). In 2018 she received a mentorship through the Quebec Writers Federation, and worked under the guidance of non-fiction author Merrily Weisbord to produce a narrative memoir about her experiences of stripping in Canada.

This event is supported by the Margaret Laurence Foundation with Gender and Women’s Studies and the English and Creative Writing Literary Exchange.