Events & News

News

Audiobook Released - I Never Met a Rattlesnake I Didn’t Like

I Never Met a Rattlesnake I Didn’t Like (Thistledown, 2022) is now released as an audiobook.

Find Carpenter’s new talking book at sites below:

I Never Met a Rattlesnake I Didn’t Like: A Memoir

Book Award - I Never Met a Rattlesnake I Didn’t Like

Carpenter’s latest book, I Never Met a Rattlesnake I Didn’t Like, has won the 2023 High Plains Literary Award for creative nonfiction.

This annual October celebration of books takes place in Billings, Montana and is open to eight or nine states from the Great Plains and three prairie provinces. A very friendly gathering of bookaholics from Montana and well beyond.


Current Work

Carpenter’s latest manuscript, a collection of short stories entitled Hello, has been accepted for publication and is due out in 2025.


2018 Spring Convocation University of Saskatchewan

June 5, 2018

Carpenter received an honorary doctorate from the University of Saskatchewan.

The D.Litt. was presented to him at the June 5th Convocation. Carpenter delivered a nugget or two of wisdom for the occasion. No banjos were allowed.

2018 Spring Convocation

Prof Wendy Roy (Department Head of English), David Carpenter, Chancellor Roy Romanow, President Peter Stoicheff

David's Grad Address - PDF


The Education of Augie Merasty

TIME - Life Inside a Catholic-Run Residential School for Canadian Indigenous Children

A Time Magazine article with an excerpt from The Education of Augie Merasty.


A new edition of "The Education of Augie Merasty: A Residential School Memoir" is available from University of Regina Press.


Augie Merasty Carpenter spent 12 years attempting to assemble the story of Augie Merasty, an old Cree trapper from Northern Saskatchewan. Augie kept disappearing on him, but finally they got it done. It was published by Bruce Walsh (U of R Press) in 2015.

What followed was completely unexpected.

1) The book was the lead story in the Saturday Globe & Mail (Mark Medley's column).

2) It was then featured on The Current (CBC Radio) by Anna Maria Tremonte and on Shelagh Rogers's The Last Chapter.

3) It was reviewed widely across the country.

4) It placed 4th on The National Posts's annual "99 Best Books of the Year," edging out Salman Rushdie.

5) David Carpenter was cited in Heather Mallick's honour list, "Canada's Best People."

6) Carpenter won the prestigious Kloppenburg Award for Literary Excellence.

7) Carpenter and Merasty appeared on Oprah Winnfry's show and sang 'O Canada.' [Just kidding.]

8) The Education of Augie Merasty has been nominated for 3 Saskatchewan Book Awards (Regina, April 30th).

9) It won the coveted BURT Award in Ottawa for Indigenous cullture.

10) Carpenter won the Prime of Life Achievement Award (University of Saskatchewan).

11) Carpenter was awarded an honorary D. Litt. by the University of Saskatchewan.