National Launch of Blue Sky Kingdom at Banff Mountain Film + Book Festival
Bestselling author Bruce Kirkby is launching his book, Blue Sky Kingdom: An Epic Family Journey to the Heart of the Himalaya, at the Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival, with a presentation and conversation with John Vaillant.
This is a virtual event that will be available for viewing between Saturday, October 31 and Sunday, November 08, 2020. The price is $10 and tickets are available at www.banffcentre.ca/virtual-festival. Books are available for purchase through the festival’s Virtual Marketplace—www.banffcentre.ca/mountain-marketplace).
Blue Sky Kingdom describes Bruce's impressive slow travel journey with his wife and two children (ages 3 and 7) to one of the last places Tibetan Buddhism is still practised in its original setting. It began in two canoes in Kimberley, BC. The family then hopped on a shipping freighter to cross the Pacific, travelled through South Korea, China, India and Nepal by bus, train and riverboat, then traversed the Himalaya on foot. It was a journey that fundamentally changed Kirkby’s relationship to the world and sense of connection with his family. It showed him the benefits of slowing down. And it taught him to accept his son’s diagnosis on the autism spectrum and embrace him for who he is.
Bruce Kirkby is a wilderness writer and adventure photographer recognized for connecting wild places with contemporary issues. With expeditions spanning more than eighty countries and thirty years, Kirkby’s accomplishments include the first modern crossing of Arabia’s Empty Quarter by camel, a descent of Ethiopia’s Blue Nile Gorge by raft, a sea kayak traverse of Borneo’s northern coast and a coast-to-coast Icelandic trek. A columnist for The Globe and Mail, author of four bestselling books and winner of multiple National Magazine Awards, Kirkby has also written for The New York Times, Outside magazine and Canadian Geographic. He makes his home in Kimberley, BC.
The Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival celebrates mountain literature and film, bringing together filmmakers, writers, publishers, editors, photographers, athletes, adventurers, and – of course – readers.