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VALLEY VOICES: Reflections on new pages for a New Year
T
urning the folios from 2021 to 22, he paused. Reflected. What have we achieved? he wondered. What more can we do?
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“Twenty, twenty-one, twentytwo,” he said out loud, playing with the numerology of a still newish century, imagining thick pages with ragged edges being folded over. “We have successfully entered the age of majority, such as it used to be… “Now get real!” We – that is the Chemainus Valley Cultural Arts Society and Cowichan Valley Voice Magazine – have opened up a new venue where readers can meet writers in the region. So far, eight authors and poets have had their works published on the Valley Voices page. We are also learning how to reach out and foster creative writing in the Valleys and beyond. The objective is to encourage authors and poets. Valley Voices fits into a larger picture that’s still being
sketched and painted, an initiative to have places where writers can share their works at every stage in the literary process. What are the possibilities? An online register of writers in the region? Workshops, where authors can hammer, bend and tweak their stories into shape? A literary festival, where new works and modes of writing, collaborating, and publishing can be showcased…? “Synergy!” That’s the word he was looking for. “A whole greater than the sum of its parts.” He wondered if people would respond to the call. Go to CVCAS.ca and click on the ‘Literature’ link under the ‘Arts’ menu item to find out more. Maybe submit a story of their own, or contact literature@cvcas.ca and make contact. Having thought about all that, he drifted back into revery, set aside his ‘real’ considerations about the book of 2021, making room for the bright, colourful cover concealing the fresh, blank pages of 2022 and all that might be written there. ~ The Beginning ~ CraigSpenceWriter.ca
