Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - October 21, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba TUESDAY OCTOBER 21, 2025 ● ARTS & LIFE EDITOR: JILL WILSON 204-697-7018 ● ARTS@FREEPRESS.MB.CA ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM ARTS ● LIFE SECTION C CONNECT WITH THE BEST ARTS AND LIFE COVERAGE IN MANITOBA ▼ A FTER publishing four critical- ly acclaimed books of poetry, Laotian-Canadian author Souvankham Thammavongsa’s debut short-fiction collection, 2020’s How To Pronounce Knife, wowed readers and critics, winning the $20,000 Trillium Book Award and the $100,000 Giller Prize. The Toronto-based Thammavong- sa’s debut novel, Pick a Colour, published Sept. 30 by Knopf Canada, is a slim but immersive novel about a former boxer turned nail salon owner, and her employees and clients, that takes place over the course of one business day. The novel returns to the world of one of the stories in How to Pro- nounce Knife — and, like the story collection, has landed on the five- book short list for this year’s Giller Prize, which will be awarded Nov. 17. Thammavongsa launches Pick a Colour tonight at McNally Robinson Booksellers’ Grant Park location, where she’ll be joined in conversation by Lindsay Wong, author of The Woo Woo. Thammavongsa wrote Pick a Co- lour in six weeks. “I was really locked in. What was really important to me was the language and the flow of a single day. I set myself a really difficult param- eter: one voice, one room, one day,” she says. That voice is the salon owner, Ning, and the day is spent in her nail salon, Susan’s, up the street from Bird and Spa Salon, where she cut her teeth before leaving to start her own shop. (Bird and Spa featured in the story Mani Pedi, which appeared in How to Pronounce Knife and also featured a esthetician with a boxing back- ground). Combining the sweet science and the daily grind of a salon was no small task for Thammavongsa. “These are two very different worlds … and to bring them together and make it feel like they fit was difficult,” she says. To help incorporate elements of boxing into Pick a Colour, Tham- mavongsa, 47, stepped into the ring. “For a year-and-a-half, I took boxing lessons, technical boxing lessons. A lot of writers, when they do research for their novels, they get so excited, and rightly so — they’re learning something new,” she says. “I worked really hard to make the story of the novel really shine, and not to bury it underneath everything I learned about boxing.” Ning works with Mai, Noi and Annie, who playfully spar with each other and take jabs at unknowing clients in an unnamed, non-English language. The character’s memories of her time in the ring play into her emotionally guarded nature. “There’s that line, protect yourself at all times — it becomes her life philosophy in the nail salon,” Tham- mavongsa says. Thammavongsa’s poetic pedigree also helped shape the novel’s narra- tive. EVENT PREVIEW SOUVANKHAM THAMMAVONGSA, LAUNCHING PICK A COLOUR In conversation with Lindsay Wong ● McNally Robinson Booksellers (1120 Grant Ave.) ● Tonight, 7 p.m. ● Free STEPH MARTYNIUK PHOTO Souvankham Thammavongsa took boxing lessons while researching her novel. KNOCKOUT DEBUT Toronto author’s first novel finds links between sweet science and grind of nail salon ● CONTINUED ON C2 BEN SIGURDSON Arts and culture industries create 20,000 jobs, study finds ART and culture are key components of Manitoba’s identity and economy, according to new data released by the Manitoba Arts Council on Monday. A study commissioned by the arts funding agency found creative and cultural industries generated more than 20,000 jobs and $1.75 billion in economic value, representing about three per cent of the province’s gross domestic product, in 2023. Arts and culture tourism also brought $377 mil- lion into the province, with this brand of visitors spending nearly twice as much as other tourists. At the same time, a Probe Research poll conducted in September shows high rates of pride and participation in local arts and culture programming, with some exceptions. MAC executive director Randy Joynt hopes the tandem findings will help underline the financial and social ben- efits of art during a time of uncertain- ty created by geopolitical tensions and the long tail of the pandemic. “Our cultural sovereignty, our identi- ty, is more important than ever. Manitoba has a unique arts and cultur- al identity and I think it’s important that we establish that,” Joynt says. Folklorama, performing arts events, cultural festivals and concerts were the most beloved kinds of activ- ities among respondents. Many also cited arts and culture as important to their mental health and well-being. Half of all Manitobans are regular arts-goers, with socializing, learning and mental stimulation as the main reasons for attending shows or visiting galleries and museums. There is notably less participation in the arts among men, those with lower levels of education and rural residents. Men are also less likely to make art and pursue creative hobbies than women. The gender divide is a worrying trend seen in a lot of public polling these days, says Probe principal Mary Agnes Welch. “This finding in the arts is one little nugget of a much bigger problem among men. They don’t have as many friends, and they are just not as en- gaged with community events, cultural events and the high arts,” Welch says. Only four per cent of rural Mani- tobans describe arts and culture as a positive community asset, compared with 31 per cent of Winnipeggers. Access to and interest in the arts are also lacking outside the Perimeter Highway. “I think rural Manitobans also feel a lot of the arts doesn’t really speak to them, it’s maybe a little highfalutin and not as grassroots. One of the big find- ings in this survey is that Manitobans genuinely want fun, community-orient- ed, vibrant experiences,” Welch says. Respondents were strongly support- ive of investing in the arts as a way of improving community connections and creating a sense of shared identity. The Manitoba Arts Council receives most of its annual funding from the provincial government and distributes about $10 million in grants to local art- ists and arts organizations each year. The aforementioned economic-im- pact study found the council’s 102 operating-grant recipients generated $85 million for Manitoba’s GDP during the 2023-24 fiscal year. The council plans to use findings from the poll and study to inform the development of its new strategic plan. Joynt hopes the data will also benefit other organizations and embolden the public to get more involved in the local arts and culture scene. “We want to keep encouraging con- tributions from the private and public sector, but also from Manitobans,” whether through patronage, volunteer- ing or charitable donations, he says. eva.wasney@winnipegfreepress.com EVA WASNEY MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS Manitoba Arts Council executive director Randy Joynt says new studies underline the financial and social benefits of the arts sector. ;