Wordworks Spring 2007 M.A.C. Farrant

WORDWORKS Spring 2007

T h e Vo i c e o f B r i t i s h C o l u m b i a Wr i t e r s

M.A.C. Farrant comic existentialism in everyday life

The Federation of BC Writers presents The 19th Annual Literary Writes Competition

Literary Writes 2007 Deadline: July 1, 2007 First prize is $500 Second prize is $300 Third prize is $150 This Year’s Category: Travel Stories Foreign Affairs: Travel stories with a twist!

Romance, danger or desire, fiction or creative nonfiction, from political intrigue in Iraq to a chance encounter in a Tunisian café, send us your best in 1000 words or less!

Only three months to go…

Easter chocolate, end-of-term exams, the start of the water polo season… and before you know it, it’s Canada Day again.

So Go, Go, Go!

The competition is open to all BC writers and residents.

D Entries must be original work, not previously published in any form.

D Maximum of 1000 words per entry.

D Typed on one side of 8½ x 11” white paper, pages numbered consecutively and stapled together; written in English.

D Blind judging will be in effect, so do not put your name on the manuscript, but please put the title on each page.

D Enclose a cover sheet with your name, address, telephone number, email address, the title of your submission and its word length.

D Entry fee is $15 for Federation members and $20 for non-members. There is no limit to the number of entries an individual may submit. Each entry must be accompanied by the entry fee. A person may win only one prize. Make cheques or money orders payable to The Federation of BC Writers.

D Entries must be postmarked on or before July 1, 2007. No entries will be returned. Copyright remains with the author.

D No email submissions.

Winners will be announced in September, 2007.

Judge: George Fetherling, travel writer, author and small press publisher

| Mail submissions and cheques,

postmarked by July 1, 2007, to: Literary Writes The Federation of BC Writers PO Box 3887 Stn Terminal Vancouver, BC V6B 3Z3

This year’s category is Travel Stories.

Remember the deadline: July 1, 2007

Features

News

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2 3 4 6 11

Writers and Taxes

By Merilyn Simonds

14 Deborah Ellis: A Canadian Who Listens to the World’s Children

By Janet Nicol

A Note From Our President FBCW AGM & Conference The Press Room FBCW Workshop Series Women Playwrights International Conference

17 Author! Author!

A Perfect Match Birth of a Book Cover

Contests & Markets

19 M.A.C. Farrant Comic Existentialism in Everyday Life

Community

22 Contests & Markets

By Kuldip Gill

Interview with Fernanda Viveiros

25 Launched!

New Titles by Federation Members

35 THE LAST WORD Writer’s Get it Wrong?

29 Regional Reports Member News From Around the Province

By Margaret Thompson

We Will Set the Rules, Thanks

By Kim Goldberg

Cover photo

by Terry Farrant

WORDWORKS–SPRING 2007

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FEDERATION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA WRITERS

WORDWORKS THE FEDERATION OF BC WRITERS IS THE VOICE OF WRITERS IN BC—SUPPORTING, DEVELOPING AND EDUCATING WRITERS WHILE FOSTERING A COMMUNITY FOR WRITING THROUGHOUT THE PROVINCE.

Publisher THE FEDERATION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA WRITERS

Editorial Committee MARGARET THOMPSON LINDA CROSFIELD GAIL BUENTE SHIRLEY RUDOLPH

Managing Editor FERNANDA VIVEIROS

Production & Design SHIRLEY RUDOLPH

Webmaster GUILLAUME LEVESQUE

2006-2007 Board of Directors PRESIDENT—BRIAN BUSBY VICE PRESIDENT—KARIN KONSTANTYNOWICZ TREASURER—GREG BALL SECRETARY—LOIS PETERSON PAST PRESIDENT—MARGARET THOMPSON EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR—FERNANDA VIVEIROS

Regional Representatives 1. NORTH—TBA 2. SOUTH EAST—ANNE STRACHAN 3. CENTRAL—KAY MCCRACKEN 4. FRASER VALLEY—SYLVIA TAYLOR 5. LOWER MAINLAND—JOHN MULHOLLAND 6. THE ISLANDS—DAVID FRASER THE FEDERATION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA WRITERS PO BOX 3887 STN TERMINAL VANCOUVER, BC V6B 3Z3 T: 604-683-2057 BCWRITERS@SHAW.CA WWW.BCWRITERS.COM ISSN # 0843-1329

PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT NO. 40685010 POSTAL CUSTOMER NO. 7017320 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO FEDERATION OF BC WRITERS BOX 3887 STN TERMINAL VANCOUVER BC V6B 3Z3

A Note From Our President

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sit down to write this, just a few minutes into the new day, all too aware that it is due in a matter of hours. This deadline is one of many with which I’ve had to contend these past few months. Some, such as this message, are minor, while others are tied to major projects, the culminations of months of steady work.

There have been late nights, all-nighters and early mornings… regrets have been sent, many a social event has been sacrificed… I will not be attending this month’s Lily Allen concert.

These have been the months of congestion and caffeine. But why? Why take on more when the plate seems already full? The simple answer is that for most writers sustenance is a difficult thing to turn down – and feasts are few and far between. Well-paying, interesting jobs being scarce, they are difficult to refuse. And so, we burn the midnight oil—and that of 3 am.—stretching ourselves. We are, after all, talking about money, not a common commodity amongst those in the writing community. In short, writers are made to work hard for the sad reason that money from writing is hard to come by.

How very unfortunate then, that the Federation, too, suffers from a lack of money. It stretches itself, taking on programs, organizing events, holding readings, none of which would be possible without the generosity of volunteers and a full-time executive director who is paid the hours of a part-time wage earner. Our staff, our board and our volunteers are all made to work harder due to lack of funding. Like nearly every other arts organization, we count on the support of various levels of government and it is the lack of support in this area that limits our opportunity for growth. Our total grant revenue last year was $39,881, little more than 22 percent that of the Writers Guild of Alberta.

And yet, we persevere. The Federation continues to administer valuable and popular programs such as Off The Page, and recently re-instated a regular series of workshops. Our quarterly journal, WordWorks, is produced on schedule and our e-bulletin, Federation Vox, keeps members informed and connected to our office in Vancouver. The Federation organizes readings, awards honorariums and prizes, sponsors writing festivals and literary events and promotes the achievements of its members through a newly re-designed website. That we accomplish so much with so little is somewhat miraculous but in order to support new programs and expand existing services in the years ahead, we will have to rely less on the mythical promise of government funding for the Arts and pursue alternative sources of revenue, such as corporate sponsorship.

This is my final message in WordWorks. Come the end of April, the Fed will have a new president. During my two years as president, I’ve seen time and time again that the Fed is an organization blessed with dedicated and talented individuals. I’d like to thank all who have provided support, advice and guidance these last two years.

–Brian Busby 2

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NEWS

FBCW AGM & Conference April 27 – 28, 2007 Leave your garret, set down your quill and keyboard, and walk, sail, fly, drive or pedal to our annual shindig, also known in more civilized circles as The Federation of BC Writers’ Annual General Meeting and Conference. This year’s festa will take place at the Bedford Regency Hotel on Friday, April 27, and Saturday, April 28, in Victoria, and we have a lot to celebrate!

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ot only did the Fed mark its 30th anniversary last year with a budget squeaked back into the black, the organization is gaining momentum with a slate of new projects in the planning stages for the year ahead. And, after several years of singleevening-only AGMs incorporating an AGM, Reception and Annual Lecture, we’re pleased to add an additional day to our event this year, with workshop sessions led by M.A.C. Farrant and John Gould on Saturday, April 28.

The Annual General Meeting will begin on Friday, April 27, at 6:30 pm. in the Brittingham Room at the Bedford Regency Hotel. Agenda issues will be addressed and open to discussion from our membership. New board members will be officially appointed and introduced, and reports on the FBCW’s budget, regional achievements, programs and services will be presented. Refreshments, door prizes and a no-host reception will follow the AGM. At 8:00 pm., we will coerce University of Victoria professor and writer Lynne Van Luven to the podium where she will deliver a a keynote address on “Hints for Heavy Lifting: How to Maintain Writerly Stamina.”

Seating at the Friday evening event is limited and refreshments need prearranging, so RSVP to the Federation office at 604-683-2057 or email

bcwriters@shaw.ca. A reception with refreshments, no-host bar and door prizes will follow the AGM. Out-oftowners may be interested in staying at the Bedford Regency Hotel, a boutique hotel at 1140 Government Street, located in the heart of Victoria’s shopping district. Federation members are entitled to a 10 percent discount on room rates at time of booking (quote group #371).

Early risers can join FBCW board members for breakfast in the hotel’s Belingo Lounge before heading back to the Brittingham Room for one or both workshops. John Gould will present a workshop on fiction technique in the Saturday morning session, while M.A.C. Farrant will lead a memoir writing workshop in the afternoon. Each workshop is three hours long, and fees are $50 per workshop or two workshops for $90 (FBCW member rate). Light refreshments will be served.

The potential of our organization to thrive in the years ahead depends so much on the support and energy of our members. The AGM conference is an opportunity to voice concerns and ideas, listen to a thought-provoking lecture, take in a workshop, and kick up hell and heels while enjoying the company of like-minded literary types.

We look forward to seeing Federation members at our AGM Conference in Victoria this year!

Members can register for either workshop—or both—by contacting the Federation office at bcwriters@shaw.ca and requesting a registration form.

More With Less: Some Techniques of Compression Brittingham Room, 9 am. to noon Instructor: John Gould Signing off at the end of an unduly long letter, Mark Twain once wrote, “If I’d had more time I’d have kept this shorter.” It takes work to achieve concision, but it’s worth it. Whether you’re writing a postcard story or an epic novel you want your fiction lean and efficient, you want every word to count. In this workshop we’ll explore tactics for condensing mountains of meaning into molehills of prose. We’ll listen to some Bach (now there was a guy who could pack things in), and we’ll play around with some fresh phrases of our own.

John Gould is the author of two books of very short stories, most recently Kilter: 55 Fictions, which was a finalist for the 2003 Giller Prize and a Globe and Mail Best Book. His fiction has appeared in literary periodicals across the country, and has been adapted for short films for TV. He teaches in the Writing Department at the University of Victoria, and serves on the editorial board of the Malahat Review.

continued on page 5

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FEDERATION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA WRITERS

The Press Room BC Book Prizes Announces Shortlist for 2007 The West Coast Book Prize Society is pleased to recognize 35 finalists vying for recognition in seven categories at the 23rd Annual BC Book Prizes. The winners in the seven categories listed below will be announced at the Lieutenant Governor’s BC Book Prizes Gala on Saturday, April 28, 2007, at Government House in Victoria. The Federation of BC Writers congratulates this year’s finalists, particularly Federation members Harold Rhenisch and Katherine Gordon.

The Wolves of Evelyn: Journeys Through a Dark Century by Harold Rhenisch is nominated for the Hubert Evans Non-fiction Prize.

Katherine Gordon’s Made to Measure: A History of Land Surveying in British Columbia is a finalist in the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize category.

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n April 21, the recipient of the 2007 Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence will be announced. This award was established in 2003 by the Honourable Iona Campagnolo to recognize British Columbia writers who have contributed to the development of literary excellence in the province. The award will be presented at the Lieutenant Governor’s BC Book Prizes Gala on Saturday, April 28, 2007. The nominees listed above and this year’s winner of the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence will collectively receive $19,000 in cash prizes.

In the meantime, you are invited to celebrate the finalists at several free events happening throughout the province, including the BC Book Prize Soirée, on April 21, 7 - 9 pm., at the Vancouver Lookout at Harbour Centre. This event will also mark the beginning of BC Book and Magazine Week which takes place April 21 to 28, 2007. Twelve of the shortlisted authors will be part of BC Book Prizes On Tour presented by Alcan. This author reading tour will take finalists to schools, bookstores and public libraries in 16 communities throughout BC. For more information call 604.687.2405 or visit www.bcbookprizes.ca

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Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize awarded to the author of the best work of fiction: • Marilyn Bowering, What It Takes to Be Human (Penguin Group Canada) • Bill Gaston, Gargoyles (House of Anansi Press) • Anosh Irani, The Song of Kahunsha (Doubleday Canada) • Adam Lewis Schroeder, Empress of Asia (Raincoast Books) • Carol Windley, Home Schooling (Cormorant Books) Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize awarded to the author of the best work of poetry: • Maxine Gadd, Backup to Babylon (New Star Books) • Don McKay, Strike / Slip (McClelland & Stewart) • Steven Price, Anatomy of Keys (Brick Books) • Sharon Thesen, The Good Bacteria (House of Anansi Press) • Terence Young, Moving Day (Signature Editions)

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NEWS

Hubert Evans Non-fiction Prize awarded to the author of the best original nonfiction literary work: • Karsten Heuer, Being Caribou: Five Months on Foot with an Arctic Herd (McClelland & Stewart) • Eric Miller, The Reservoir (Ekstasis Editions) • Heather Pringle, The Master Plan: Himmler’s Scholars and the Holocaust (Penguin Group Canada) • Harold Rhenisch, The Wolves at Evelyn: Journeys Through a Dark Century (Brindle and Glass Publishing) • Dan Zuberi, Differences That Matter: Social Policy and the Working Poor in the United States and Canada (Cornell University Press) Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize to recognize the author(s) of the book that contributes most to the enjoyment and understanding of British Columbia: • Katherine Gordon, Made to Measure: A History of Land Surveying in British Columbia (Sono Nis Press) • Jean Barman and Jan Hare, Good Intentions Gone Awry: Emma Crosby and the Methodist Mission on the Northwest Coast (University of British Columbia Press) • Ian M. Thom, Charles C. Hill, and Johanne Lamoureux, Emily Carr (Douglas & McIntyre)

FBCW AGM & Conference, cont’d from page 3 Speak, Memory!

Writing Memoir with M.A.C. Farrant Brittingham Room, 1 to 4 pm.

Instructor: M.A.C. Farrant “Memory is the mother of all wisdom.”

Aeschylus

• Rachel Lebowitz, Hannus (Fitzhenry & Whiteside Publishers) (Pedlar Press) • Deborah Hodge (author), • Judith Williams, John Mantha (illustrator), Clam Gardens: Aboriginal Mariculture on The Kids Book of Canadian Immigration Canada’s West Coast (New Star Books) (Kids Can Press) • Catherine Jameson (author), Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Julie Flett (illustrator), Prize awarded to the best non-illustrated Zoe and the Fawn (Theytus Books) book written for children: • Ellen Schwartz (author), • Sarah Ellis, Odd Man Out Sima Elizabeth Shefrin (illustrator), (Groundwood Books / Abby’s Birds House of Anansi Press) (Tradewind Books) • James Heneghan, Safe House (Orca Book Publishers) BC Booksellers’ Choice Award In Honour • Glen Huser, Skinnybones and the of Bill Duthie presented to the originating Wrinkle Queen publisher and author(s) of the best book in (Groundwood Books / terms of public appeal, initiative, design, House of Anansi Press) production and content: • Iain Lawrence, Gemini Summer • Daina Augaitus, Nika Collison, Robert (Random House of Canada) Davidson, Peter Macnair, • Craig Spence, Josh & the Magic Vial Bill Reid and others; and (Thistledown Press) Douglas & McIntyre, Raven Travelling: Two Centuries Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s of Haida Art Literature Prize presented to the best • Michael Kluckner and Whitecap Books, illustrated book written for children: Vancouver Remembered • Maggie De Vries (author), • Sylvia Olsen (author), Joan Larson Renne Benoit (illustrator), (illustrator) and Sono Nis Press, Tale of a Great White Fish: Yetsa’s Sweater A Sturgeon Story • David Suzuki and Greystone Books, (Greystone Books) David Suzuki: The Autobiography • Sarah Ellis (author), • Lynne Van Luven (editor) and TouchDusan Petricic (illustrator), wood Editions, The Queen’s Feet Nobody’s Mother: Life Without Kids

Memoir is one of the oldest forms of storytelling. Based on “real life”, it follows in the oral tradition with that urgent, arm-grabbing gesture: Here, let me tell you how it was! The popularity of this form underscores our continuing need for personal stories.

Whether for the self, the family, or for publication, the literary memoir explores an aspect of life in depth and the narrator’s voice is always distinct. Learn the techniques and structures of fiction and essay that will bring your memoir to life, that will cause your memory to speak, and even, perhaps, to sing. Participants are asked to bring one to two pages of writing which is based on a single event.

M.A.C. Farrant is the multi award-winning author of eight collections of satirical and humorous short fiction, most recently, The Breakdown So Far. A ten-part serialization of her memoir, My Turquoise Years, was broadcast on CBC and a stage adaptation was selected as one of four plays for the Arts Club Theatre’s annual ReACT event. Her stories have been adapted for radio and are widely anthologized in both Canada and the United States. She has taught fiction workshops in Canada and Australia.

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FEDERATION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA WRITERS

FBCW Workshop Series for Spring 2007 This spring’s program of workshops provide an excellent opportunity for writers at different stages of development to compose new work or polish a work-in-progress under the guidance of experienced writers. Additional workshops at various locations throughout the province will be posted online on the Federation website as topics and instructors are confirmed.

Pre-registration is required at least a week in advance as seating is limited. To register for any of the following FBCW workshops, contact the Fed office at 604-683-2057 or email bcwriters@shaw.ca

cul8er: W riting for Y oung A dults Writing Young Adults Sunday Sunday,, April 15, 1 to 5 pm.

Alliance for Arts & Culture, 938 Howe Street, V ancouver Vancouver Instructor: Sheryl MacF arlane MacFarlane Cost: $50 for F ed members, Fed $75 for non-members Have you ever thought about writing a YA novel? Would you rather sit down to a great YA read than the latest Booker Prize winner? Get the low-down on the dos, don’ts and how-tos of writing for young adults with author Sheryl McFarlane.

Sheryl will guide participants through the murky waters of various options within the genre, bring you up to date on current trends and issues, and help you jump-start your writing with an emphasis on authentic voice, characterization, and dialogue. Please bring the first five pages of a YA manuscript and be prepared to dive into the fantastic world of YA fiction.

Sheryl McFarlane is the author of twelve picture books including A Pod of Orcas, This is the Dog, Jessie’s Island, Waiting for the Whales and a YA title, The Smell of Paint.

Sheryl’s books have won or been shortlisted for the Governor General’s, the BC Book Prize, the Mr. Christie, the Blue Spruce and Chocolate Lily Awards.

Framing, V oice, and Colouring: Voice, Key Skills in Creative NonF iction NonFiction

Having Y our Say: Your Writing the P ersonal Essay Personal

Saturday Saturday,, May 12, 10 to 3 pm.

Room 141, Ok anagan College, Okanagan Salmon Arm Campus Instructor: Harold Rhenisch Cost: $50 for F ed members, Fed $75 for non-members

Saturday Saturday,, May 26, 1 to 5 pm.

Alliance for Arts & Culture, 938 Howe Street, V ancouver Vancouver Instructor: Lois JJ.. P eterson Peterson Cost: $50 for F ed members, Fed $75 for non-members

Creative nonfiction is a flexible genre that uses the techniques of fiction, drama, and poetry in a nonfiction context. It ranges from reportage to documentary and historical writing on the one hand, to memoir and personal essay on the other (and any imaginable point in between).

Anything is possible. In this hands-on workshop, Harold Rhenisch will guide you through three key techniques for successfully meeting the challenges of fusing genres into creative nonfiction, and for exploiting some of the key strengths of the genre. The workshop will be divided into three sections, with a guided writing exercise in each section.

Personal essays (sometimes called personal narrative or opinion pieces) are a great way to break into print, or expand your readership. But there’s an art to connecting your experience to the universal condition in a way that makes for compelling reading.

Learn how to dig deep into what you really feel about the world, use story as the focus of your piece, structure a piece that makes your reader care, and find a market for your opinions and experiences.

Harold Rhenisch is the author of twenty books, including four books of creative nonfiction, most recently the humorous bird watching memoir Winging Home, and The Wolves at Evelyn, shortlisted for the BC Book Prizes. He is the winner of the Critic’s Desk Award, the B.C. & Yukon Newspaper Association’s Arts & Culture Writing award, and the Malahat Review Long Poem Prize.

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Lois Peterson’s personal essays have appeared in the Globe and Mail, Maclean’s Magazine, the Vancouver Sun, and other print and online markets. Her short stories, articles, essays, and poetry have been published internationally.

WORDWORKS–SPRING 2007

FEATURES

Writers and Taxes Adapted from the TWUC Workshop for Writers

by Merilyn Simonds

From a financial perspective, writers fall into two categories: those who have jobs and earn some extra income from writing, and those who earn their entire income from writingrelated activities. Either way, whether writing provides all or part of your income, in the eyes of the government you are operating a business. You have to declare the income earned from writing and calculate your profits or losses, the same as any other small-business person. To do this, you will need to keep a separate set of financial records for writing.

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lthough it strikes terror in some of us, keeping books isn’t complicated. Anyone who can add and subtract can do it. Regardless of how minimal your income is, it is wise to start keeping track of your income and expenses early in your career. For one thing, it will help you see this as a business, which it is. And for another, it will help you ease into the learning curve so that by the time you are earning a full income from writing, dealing with things like incorporation and GST or HST, you’ll be comfortable with the forms and terminology. Even if you hire someone else to set up your books or do your income tax, you are still the one keeping the receipts: you have to understand how it’s done and why.

Profits and Losses You will have to declare whatever income you earn from writing (including grants, but not prizes). However, you will be able to deduct whatever expenses you incurred in the process of earning that income. In the early years, it is quite possible that your expenses will be greater than your income, which means you’ll show a loss when you calculate your net business income. If you have another job, you can deduct

WORDWORKS–SPRING 2007

your writing loss from your other employment income. By the government’s definition, a business is an activity that you intend to carry on for profit. However, the nature of writing is such that a considerable period of time may pass before a writer becomes established and profitable. Although the existence of a reasonable expectation of profit is relevant in determining the deductibility of losses, in the case of writers continued next page 7

FEDERATION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA WRITERS

Writers and Taxes, cont’d it is recognized that a longer period of time may be required in establishing that such reasonable expectation exists.

Indeed, it is possible that a writer may not realize a profit during his or her lifetime but still have a reasonable expectation of profit.

The P aper T rail Paper Trail Whether you are earning a profit or declaring a loss, you must have in your possession the documents to support your claim. Keep everything. That is basic, but sound advice. The government is absolutely clear on this. If you are audited, you have to be able to show them every cancelled cheque, invoice, travel log, and receipt that relates to your writing.

Keeping all that paper is in your own best interest, too. A novel might come out of a trip to Hawaii you took five years ago and when you finally get an advance, the trip can be written off against it as a business expense.

In post offices at income tax time or on the federal government’s website, you’ll find a Statement of Business Activities form. This lists all the categories of allowable expenses. It is a good idea to duplicate their categories when you set up your record-keeping system.

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ne very simple system for managing receipts is to use a letter-size accordion folder available at any stationery store. Buy one with at least ten, preferably twenty pockets. Label the pockets to match the categories on the government’s Statement of Business Activities.

There may be some you can omit, such as bad debts, fuel costs, administration fees, salaries. All through the year, every time you spend money on pencils or a restaurant meal, slip the receipt into the appropriate pocket. If it doesn’t specify on the receipt what was purchased, jot the details on the back. If it is a restaurant meal, note the person you were with and what you talked about. If it was a gift, name the recipient. Get in the habit of cleaning out your wallet or purse once a week and putting the business receipts in their pockets.

What can you claim as an expense? Just about anything, so long as it relates to writing. So long as you can justify its use in your work, so long as you have a story, you can claim it. The notes on the back of the receipt are to remind you how completely and absolutely this is indeed a writerly expense. The more details, the better chance you’ll have of the expense being accepted if you are ever audited.

You can claim office supplies, obviously. Travel and meals 8

related to writing, for research, for readings, for promotion, to see your editor, to talk about your manuscript with friends. Mailing expenses. Books. These are registered as supplies, though the first time you file as a writer you can also claim the cost of your entire library as a deduction. Hair appointments are claimable, if they come just before public appearances. Clothes if you wear them for promotion purposes alone. Your TWUC membership. Phone expenses if you have an exclusively business line, otherwise you have to estimate the proportion of personal and business use.

You can also claim the business-use portion of your house if you have an in-home office. Business-use-of-home expenses are calculated on the second page of the Statement of Business Activities. Essentially, you estimate the square footage of your office, take it as a percentage of the entire square footage of the house and claim that proportion of heat, hydro, mortgage interest, taxes, snow removal, house cleaning, repair costs, property taxes, etc. You can also claim the business use of your car, which can be significant given the cost of cars these days. Trip diary booklets are available at stationery suppliers: keep one in the glove compartment and make note of every trip, however insignificant. It all adds up.

At the end of the year, add up your business kilometres, and calculate the percentage of total kilometres that were used for writing-related travel. Then you can claim that percentage of your gas and oil and car washes and repairs and also the capital cost depreciation of the vehicle itself.

(You don’t have to keep gas receipts: this cost can be estimated based on the mileage.)

You will be surprised at how quickly expenses accumulate. You may decide not to claim these expenses if you don’t have significant income, but who knows? Five years down the road, you may write a bestseller and you’ll be happy to have these expenses to bring forward to claim against that big advance.

Tax T ime Time At year-end, you have three choices. You can hand your file of receipts over to an accountant, you can tote up your receipts yourself by hand, or you can buy accounting software such as Quicken, which is a standard for personal financial management. There is also software called Quickbooks for small businesses, but in most cases this will be more than a writer needs. Quicken is easy to use and will do all your calculations for you, printing out detailed and summary reports for each category and for your income and expenses in toto. Even if you don’t prepare your own taxes, the more you do yourself to prepare the Statement of Business Activities, the less you will have to pay the accountant.

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FEATURES

There is at least one good reason to hire an accountant to do your taxes: returns prepared by professionals are less cra-arg.gc.ca likely to be audited. It’s like buying The Canada Revenue Agency website has all the information you insurance. Accountants charge by the need to set up your books. Easy to navigate with good helplines. hour, so if you present them with properly tallied receipts in the correct categories, the charge is likely to be copylaw.com/new_articles/finaldrafts.html minimal. If possible, find an accountant An excellent article on choosing a literary executor. with experience in the arts. Many of the expenses writers incur are unusual and intuit.ca someone familiar with the territory can Canadian source for Quicken financial management software. find you deductions you might not have considered. And they’ll know the law. For instance, if you live in Quebec, you won’t have to pay provincial tax on the first Income Tax Guide for Writers, published by The Writers Union of $60,000 of income derived from material Canada. Available at www.writersunion.ca for $9. to which you own the copyright. (This is called the copyright-income deduction Business & Professional Income (T4002) and TWUC is lobbying for other General Information for GST/HST Registrants Guide (RC4022) provinces to institute it as well.) Another Guide for Canadian Small Businesses (RC4070) good reason to consider involving an accountant is that you would have These guides are published by the Canada Revenue Agency (available assurance that all deductions and all tax at agency offices or in pdf and html form on their website: factors have been considered in the preparation of your return. cra-arg.gc.ca) If your net income (your income minus your expenses) is above a certain level, you may have to pay income tax in quarterly installorder to have enough left after expenses to put food on the ments. And if your total earnings before expenses are over table and pay the rent. One of the difficulties of a career as a $30,000, you will have to collect GST (the goods and writer is the unpredictability of the income and the long dry service tax) or HST (harmonized sales tax that applies in spells. Many people give up not because the writing isn’t Newfoundland & Labrador, Nova Scotia and New working out, but because the boom-and-bust cycle is too Brunswick) on your earnings. The Canada Revenue Agency much to cope with. Keeping good records can help you get a website listed in Recommended Resources outlines in detail handle on this, and reduce some of the anxiety. how to do this. It isn’t complicated and the upside is that you get back the GST you paid out on expenses, which can be considerable. Tallying the GST on expenses can be timeThose huge publicized advances notwithstanding, your consuming but the Quicken program does it automatically. net income will almost certainly be quite low. Figure it out: Whatever method you use to record your income and expenses, these records will come in handy in managing your even if you get $100,000 for a book, that still only works out to $33,333.33 a year if the manuscript took three years to career as a whole. If you use Quicken, consider recording write. And your advance will most likely be considerably less your income according to genre: book reviews, teaching, than that. Writers in this country don’t earn much. A 1998 readings, advances, royalties, etc. When you print out your study by Quill & Quire and The Writers’ Union of Canada year-end report, you’ll be able to see exactly where your reported an average of $11,480 net income for Canadian money came from. It isn’t always what you think. Those freelance book and periodical writers. A December 2003 little book reviews add up. Royalties steadily dwindle.

Knowing exactly where your income came from last year will study commissioned by the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Canada Council identified the average make it easier to predict where it might come from in the writing income as $8,125. year to follow. You’ll know exactly what you need to earn in continued next page

Recommended R esources: W riters & T ax es Resources: Writers Tax axes

Suggested R eading: W riters & T ax es Reading: Writers Tax axes

Good Inc.

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FEDERATION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA WRITERS

Writers and Taxes, cont’d From a tax perspective, a big advance can be a big problem.

Suppose you toil away for ten years writing a novel, earning nothing, then you sell the novel for $300,000. You will be taxed in that one year on the amount, at the highest income tax rate, thus losing more than half of it to tax. Yet in reality, it took a decade to earn the money. If the income had been spread out over ten years, you would pay annual taxes of approximately $5,000 for each of 10 years, rather than paying approximately $105,000 -

$120,000, depending on which province you live in, at once in the year you sell. Alas, it doesn’t work like that: there is no back-averaging or forward-averaging for individual Canadians. You can bring forward some expenses to write off against it, but whatever net income is left, you’ll pay tax on it.

This can be punishing. We at TWUC have lobbied for years to correct the situation, which is obviously unfair, but we aren’t likely to have success soon. But there is another way to avoid the negative tax consequences of a good advance. You can incorporate.

This is neither an expensive nor a difficult process. It can be as simple

TAX SERVICES for WRITERS • Personal Income Tax Returns specializing in artists & self-employed (beginning at $299) • GST Returns ($199) • Your advocate with Revenue Canada • A gentle guide if you are behind in your taxes • Consultation

CONTACT ME (604) 321-2670 angela@diamondthought.com #309-402 West Pender St. Vancouver www.diamondthought.com

Angela Hryniuk has been in the tax preparation business for nearly 12 years. She is also the author of 3 books of poetry and a Spoken Word CD.

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as creating a shell corporation in which you wear all the hats of president, secretary, sole employee. Books are kept exactly as before, with the exception that you pay yourself a salary and send monthly deductions to the Canada Revenue Agency. All writing income goes into the corporation and is taxed in the corporation after all business expenses have been claimed in the corporation. Any amounts that you need to live on would be paid from the corporation as a salary. Your salary becomes a business expense for the corporation.

But the big advantage is that with proper planning and execution, your corporate financial affairs can be structured in a manner such that large amounts earned in one year can effectively be taxed over a number of years, with potentially significant tax savings.

Incorporation isn’t for everybody. The general rule of thumb is that your net income has to be in the top tax bracket to make it worthwhile, i.e. an income of at least $75,000 in a year. And all your income most likely has to be from writing, because once you incorporate, you will no longer be able to write off losses against a salary. You will almost certainly have to hire an accountant to do your annual corporate taxes — it really is too complicated for mere mortals — though the cost will likely only be a few hundred dollars a year. What you save will more than pay that cost, which in itself is also deductible. Remember though: the incorporation has to take place before that big cheque is cashed. You can’t backdate incorporation. You can, however, do all the legal work to set it up, and then leave it in limbo until you are ready to register it. Not a bad idea if you think you might score big with that new book.

This article, written by Merilyn Simonds, originally appeared in the winter 2006 issue of The Writers’ Union of Canada Newsletter, reprinted with permission by the author. Merilyn Simonds is the author of twelve books, most recently the novel, The Holding, which was named an Editors’ Choice by the New York Times. A self-supporting writer, she has lobbied the government on behalf of The Writers Union for improved taxation for writers.

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FEATURES

Women Playwrights International Conference

By Sharon Stearns

Women playwrights from all over the world gathered for the 7th Women Playwrights International Conference held in Jakarta and Bali, November 19 to 26, 2006. I attended the conference with five other Canadian playwrights: Hope McIntyre, Cornelia Hoogland, Erika Batdorf, Sharon Cavanagh and Melanie Brouzes.

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he conferences have been held every three years since 1988 (Buffalo, New York) 1991 (Toronto, Canada), 1994 (Adelaide Australia), 1997 (Galway Ireland), 2000 (Athens Greece), and 2003 (Manila, Philippines). Jakarta, Indonesia, was chosen to host the 2006 Women Playwrights International Conference, due to a strong lobby from Indonesian playwrights to attract wider international participation. And in the current volatile global situation, Indonesia was seen as a middle ground where East could meet West and the focus of the conference (Cultural Liberty in a Diverse World) could be given its due.

Ratna Sarumpaet, Indonesia’s most prominent female playwright, was a major organizer of the conference. A passionate and outspoken theatre worker and activist, she noted it was very important that the conference be held in a developing country, because “ideas emerging from conferences held in developed nations fail to bring maximum attention to problems facing the real world.”

This was my first conference, although I’ve always wanted to participate. Fifty-seven playwrights from 21 countries and 90 Indonesian theatre artists gathered to present our work, discuss new forms and ideas, and immerse ourselves in a diverse soup of ethnicities and cultural politics. I presented my play Shout Sister in a drama session that

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included a discussion of the work, as did Cornelia, Hope and Sharon. Erika performed her play, Poetic License, and Melanie presented a talk on “Theatre as Community.”

Acclaimed Egyptian writer and feminist Nawal El Saadawi opened the conference with a keynote speech applauding the huge street demonstrations protesting George Bush’s coinciding visit to Indonesia. She used it as an example of creative thinking, and of how people must fight against injustice and violence carried out in the name of religion, noting that Bush’s Iraq policy had won support from U.S. religious groups. Saadawi was jailed in 1980 by the late Egyptian president Anwar Sadat for her critical views on sexuality, democracy and justice in the Egyptian regime. She spoke eloquently on the challenges facing women writers living in global and local patriarchal capitalist systems. She remains deeply concerned about the increasing power of religion in politics in both Islamic and Christian cultures, and struggles to find a balance between dissidence and creativity in her writing. continued next page 11

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Women Playwrights, cont’d Many impressions and captivating connections were made with other playwrights. Each day we listened to a keynote speech on the various conference themes: Identity, Community and the Role of Diversity; Language, Culture and Structure; Dramatic Performance Text; Stage, State and Ideology; Freedom, Human Rights and Power, followed by group discussions.

A variety of workshops ranging from Indonesian dance performance, body language exploration, to script writing and puppetry were offered in the afternoon, along with drama sessions where playwrights presented excerpts of their work.

Theatre, music and dance performances from all over Indonesia were presented every night, often accompanied by a banquet and handicraft exhibitions. Jam-packed days in Jakarta, a city of twelve million people, offered an array of incredible contrasts.

Polluted, hot, squalid, rife with poverty, streets plugged with traffic and garbage choking the canals. Yet every morning at 4 am., I awoke to the beautiful sound of singing and bells—the Muslim morning call to prayer that rang through the entire city.

What a strange and fascinating place to meet with theatre artists from different countries, all of us women creating art against the prevailing odds of our specific cultures, coming together to share our experience and knowledge.

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here were many memorable highlights and impressions, but a few stand out as inspiring mental snapshots to cherish:

• Dozens of Muslim women theatre artists attended (Java has the largest Muslim population in the world) and they are passionate about their art and their religion. They insist that Islam is degraded and misunderstood, and it is their creative female voice that must be heard to help cure this global misapprehension.

• Mumbi Kaigwa, a theatre artist from Kenya. Her company produces Eve Ensler’s play The Vagina Monologues every year to raise money and awareness for local organizations to end violence against women. Yet in neighbouring Uganda, the play is banned by the government who states “art should not promote striptease, prostitution and immorality.”

• Noelle Janaczweska, an award-winning playwright from Australia, presented an utterly compelling tribute to the power of words, a power that gripped her early in life. One night, when just a child, she crept downstairs and pulled out the big Larousse English-French dictionary from the bookshelf, lay on the living room floor with the book on her 12

chest, and hoped for a miracle that might allow her to ingest the entire lexicon while she slept. As a playwright, she asks: “How do you find the words? Does it matter in what are, after all, works of imagination? Theatre is a mirror held up to society, but it’s also, at its best, much, much more than that. If reflection were its sole purpose, it could never question, never transcend, never consider an alternative. So I prefer to think of theatre as a place of cultural ventriloquism and poly-vocal potential. As a place of negotiation, as an ongoing dialogue between what is obvious and what is hidden. In my most idealistic moments, a country without border patrols, a space where truth can be told that may not be the accepted wisdom.”

• Dea Loher, a playwright from Berlin, gave a fascinating talk, accompanied by excerpts from the film adaptation of her play Life on Praca Roosevelt. It was a powerful example of the interaction between reality and art, and proof that art can transform reality. Loher was commissioned by the Goethe Institute in Sao Paulo, Brazil, to write a play about the city, but after three months of living there, her apartment was robbed and all her research material lost. She was offered shelter by a small theatre group in Praca Roosevelt, a horrific ghetto in the centre of the city, a no-go area inhabited by the destitute, the elderly, transsexuals, prostitutes and drug dealers.

The play she wrote while living in the midst of this squalor was first performed in Germany, by German actors, to a German audience. She said, “Although it talked of a Brazilian reality, German audiences embraced the play, so much so that one critic proclaimed ‘We are Brazilian!’ The play was then sent to Brazil where a Brazilian audience saw a German interpretation of a German play about a Brazilian reality. Then a Brazilian company did their own production, which was sent back to Germany for a German audience, this time the Brazilian interpretation of the German play about Brazilian reality! Lastly, the Brazilian production is now regularly performed in Sao Paulo, and the production has helped to transform what was once a dangerous, squalid area to a place where you can peacefully drink a beer outside the theatre. The people living in Praca Roosevelt, seeing their lives transformed into a piece of art, are now proud to live there. More theatres have moved into the area, and a movement has started which the papers and politicians call ‘the revitalization of Praca Roosevelt.’”

• Cok Sawitri, a Balinese theatre artist, turned everyone’s minds upside down and delighted us with her talk about theatre in Bali, different from theatre anywhere else in the world. In Bali, it is believed theatre exists in the realm of the spirit—a network of consciousness in the boundless continued next page WORDWORKS–SPRING 2007

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world. In the boundless world, there are no barriers between life and death, past and present, the living and their deceased ancestors. It has no connection to the idea of globalization, material wealth or financial achievement.

The stage is a sacred place, a purified ground owned by the gods. So government can never impose punishment or censure on the performance, even if it is full of social criticism. As Sawitri says, “In Bali, the state cannot intervene on the stage. Kalangan (stage) still belongs to the immortal and sacred ideas of freedom and creativity.

We ask not, ‘when will we be apprehended by the military, but when will we be apprehended by the mysticism?’” In Bali, artists are welcome to express themselves any way they wish. Artists are revered!

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any playwrights came from countries where theatre suffers censure of some sort, even if it’s subtle, as Eleanor Wong from Singapore pointed out. In Singapore, commercial theatre (she cited Neil Simon) thrives. Locally significant theatre that criticizes too strongly might not get you thrown in jail, but it will make your funding disappear. Knowing that many of these women are writing in threatening political climates was a humbling thought for us from Canada, where the level of bravery

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needed to express our ideas often involves no more than getting past the terror of the blank page.

It was a great occasion to spend time with my Canadian colleagues (none of whom I had met before) in an international setting, Seeing Erika Batdorf perform her riveting theatre piece Poetic License was an inspiration. I know it will have a personal effect on my work as a playwright and performer. Listening to Sharon Cavanagh’s beautiful language as she read from her play Diotema, Melanie Brouzes’ heartfelt talk on Theatre as Community, participating in the reading of Cornelia Hoogland’s play The Country of my Skin, working with Hope McIntyre on an American playwright’s piece… All of it was wonderfully enriching and a great opportunity to share our work. I was honoured to share their company in representing Canada at this conference.

Sharon Stearns is a playwright, actor, singer and dramaturge who has worked with theatres across Canada. She also works as a freelance writer, writing essays, articles and reviews for magazines and newspapers, as well as documentaries and plays for CBC Radio. Her short fiction has been published in literary magazines and anthologies. She is artistic producer of Wishbone Productions, a theatre dedicated to developing and producing new plays and musical events.

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FEDERATION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA WRITERS

Deborah Ellis: A Canadian Who Listens to the World’s Children

By Janet Nicol

Since Deborah Ellis began writing books for youth eight years ago, she has garnered top literary awards, many publishing contracts and even controversy. Her unique stories portray children’s hardships and heroism in troubled parts of the globe.

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llis first made her mark with The Breadwinner Trilogy, novels about girls in Afghanistan. She has also written about poverty in Canada (Looking for X), young people in the Middle East (Three Wishes: Palestinian and Israel Children Speak Out) and most recently, street children in Bolivia (I Am a Taxi). But success was not immediate.

When Ellis came to Vancouver in February, she discussed her path to publication and generously shared her writing process in an interview and at her presentations at the University of British Columbia and the Vancouver Public Library.

“It all started when I was listening to the stories of Afghan women living in Toronto,” Ellis says. A long time feminist and peace activist, Ellis was volunteer fundraising in Toronto to help women in Afghanistan whose lives had been turned upside down after the Taliban seized power in 1996.

“That the Taliban could take away all women have gained baffled me,” Ellis says. “I wondered how this could happen in this day and age.”

Ellis traveled to neighboring Pakistan and interviewed Afghanis living in refugee camps.

“I was inspired by women who were secretly smuggled out of Afghanistan to Pakistan to celebrate International Women’s Day, risking their lives and liberty,” she recalls.

At the women’s rally Ellis heard about an eleven-year-old girl who dressed as a boy to help her family survive. This gave her the idea for her central character, Parvana, in The Breadwinner. “I wanted to reflect the tales of courage, ingenuity and resourcefulness of children,” she says.

“I decided to collect the stories of refugees because it gives dignity to lives that may not be visible to us. Real people are harder to kill.” Ellis also learned from this 14

experience that “those killed by the lack of infrastructure are the hidden victims of war.”

The royalties for The Breadwinner Trilogy are donated to Women 4 Women in Afghanistan, a Calgary-based organization Ellis helped found. She supports Canada’s involvement in Afghanistan, but suggests the government’s priority should be reconstruction, not the purchase of expensive military hardware.

“Keep schools open and hire as many teachers as possible,” she urges, noting that the Soviet invasion left “a badly wounded country. We need to give the Afghan people hope so they can take over their lives again.”

By her own admission, Ellis, aged 46, grew up a “social isolate” in Paris, Ontario, loving books and writing stories since age 12. “I grew up wanting to get out of town.”

She wrote for many years without success. “I was wandering in the wilderness in my 20s and 30s,” Ellis confesses. “I wrote horrible books.”

And then Ellis wrote a children’s story “by accident” for a contest sponsored by Toronto-based Groundwood Books.

She won the contest and found her writing gift.

Looking for X, her first novel published in 1999, won the Governor General’s award. But her next three books were rejected by publishers. Then came another breakthrough with The Breadwinner.

An important influence in her work is the late Studs Terkel, an American author whose books are a compilation of interviews with “ordinary Americans in extraordinary times” as Ellis puts it. Using this approach, Ellis spent two months in 2002 interviewing Israeli and Palestinian youth. The result was Three Wishes, a powerful non-fiction work and one which Ellis hopes makes a difference. “It lessens fear if children can see each other,” she says. The views of the children interviewed do not reflect how we like to think kids are, Ellis says. “They are forced to grow up early and with hatred.”

Ellis had a publishing contract when she went to the Middle East. “I went over not knowing much,” she admits.

“This was a good and bad thing.”

As it turned out, Ellis touched a sensitive political nerve.

Three Wishes has been censored by two Toronto school districts because of complaints made by the Canadian Jewish Congress. Its members argue the book demonizes Israeli soldiers and glorifies suicide bombers. While a number of groups are fighting the censorship ruling, Ellis stays out of the fray. “Any book can be targeted at any time,” she says.

Following her Middle East experience, Ellis traveled to Malawi and Zambia in Africa and gathered interviews from children living with the AIDS epidemic, thousands of whom are orphaned. “What is it like to be a kid at the epicentre of AIDS?” Ellis wanted to know. “How do we rebuild ourselves after losing everything?”

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From her interviews, Ellis wrote both a novel, The Heaven Shop and a non-fiction book, Our Stories, Our Songs: African Children Speak Out About AIDS. Ellis debated with her publisher about including interviews with child prostitutes—central to the issues of the AIDS epidemic—but in the end, these interviews were left out. “We just wouldn’t have been able to get the book on school library shelves,” Ellis says.

In all the despair of the AIDS crisis, Ellis does see solutions, especially in the areas of health and education. “It is possible to keep AIDS orphans in schools,” she says.

A Company of Fools followed, a novel about another epidemic—the European bubonic plague during the Middle Ages.

The historical distance allowed Ellis to take a more light-hearted look at a group of boys in a French monastery who provide humorous street entertainment in the hopes of curing people of the deadly disease.

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llis’s only adult book, The Women of the Afghan War, is a collection of oral accounts of Afghan women living in Pakistani camps and of female Russian military support personnel formerly stationed in Afghanistan.

Ellis researches her subject matter with enthusiasm. “I didn’t go to university so I love to do the research,” she says.

“I don’t have an agenda when I arrive in a country. I am open-minded. I meet the children on the streets, go to the prisons (in Bolivia) and people I talk to also introduce me to others. I don’t tell the authorities and try to stay under the radar. There is too much going on to write while I am in another country, so I hang out and wander around aimlessly.

I soak up every detail. You avoid stereotyping that way.”

Ellis brushes off the personal dangers.

“It’s more dangerous for the people I interview. I have a ticket out and money in my pocket.”

However, Ellis admits she has experienced thefts and attacks. “But most people are kind and so welcoming. This outweighs the crazier stuff,” she says. “I am always surprised at how kind people are to each other and it gives me hope.”

Ellis also learned from her travels that citizens will always fight against an oppressive government.

Ellis does try to pre-arrange interviews before arriving, but many of the conversations she holds with the children are the result of pure chance.

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Some of the children speak English but many don’t, so Ellis, who does not speak other languages, pays a translator to assist her. She avoids professionals, preferring to help those who need the work. She begins her interviews with general questions and then asks more specific ones. It sounds simple, but if you have read Ellis’ books, you will be moved by her ability to get young people to talk. Ellis attributes this partly to listening skills she developed over the years working as a counselor in a psychiatric group home for women.

“In order to find out what women are trying to say, you have to get through all their talking, and listen to what they are really trying to tell you,” she says of her experiences with clients.

Ellis asks a parent or guardian of the children she interviews to sign a permission form. Sadly, many children she has met are orphans or street children. Regardless of their circumstances, Ellis never pays for interviews. But those interviewed benefit in other ways. Besides donating royalties from her earlier publications to help people in Afghanistan, Ellis has also directed royalties to Street Kids International and UNICEF. Ellis tries to stay as long as she can in the country— usually two or three months. When she returns to Canada, she begins writing. The first draft usually takes a couple of months to write. Remarkably, Ellis has balanced all this traveling, researching and writing with her employment at a group home. But a year and a half ago, Ellis was able to quit her day job to write full-time.

In her latest novel, Ellis writes about the “disposable children in the cocaine trade” as she describes the subject of I Am A Taxi. “When I went to Bolivia, the prisons were filled with people involved with the drug trade, as part of a crackdown so the government could get money from the West.”

Her writing shines in this fast-paced novel about a young boy named Diego, who is drawn to the drug world through a chain of unfortunate events. Part of a trilogy, the sequel is due out this September. continued next page 15

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Deborah Ellis, cont’d Ellis divides the world’s young people into “valued children” and “throw-away children.” But the divide does not necessarily fall between developed and less developed countries. Even though most of her books are set outside Canada, Ellis points out that many Canadian children can find parallels in their own lives with violence, poverty and racism. “There are war zones within Canadian families,” she observes.

Readers can also identify with children’s struggles elsewhere for other reasons. Canadian children’s author Jean Little, legally blind since birth, and now in her seventies, continues to write realistic and inspiring stories based on her own challenges. She has been a major influence on Ellis.

“She shows how the bigger world impacts on smaller lives,” Ellis says.

An American publisher recently approached Ellis and asked her to contribute to a series of young adult books on artist’s lives. The result is The Jackal in the Garden, set in Persia, circa 1400. Ellis is also involved in an on-going series of historical fiction books for middle readers called Our Canadian Girl.

One idea continues to lead to another for Ellis these days.

She has more books coming, promising two with Canadian settings and another set in New York, where “feeder neighborhoods” have sprung up by a prison.

Ellis stays involved with her community, working in a woman’s shelter, in Simcoe, Ontario where she now resides. She is part of the relief staff, giving her flexible hours. Her mother Betty has passed away, but her father, Keith, and one older sister, Carolyn, a nurse, with two daughters, live close by.

Ellis is single and has no children but, though she leads a solitary writer’s life, her stories connect her to the larger world. On book tours to schools across Canada, Ellis has met many of her young readers, most in the middle grades.

Her books are translated into 18 languages and she receives letters from readers around the world.

Ellis appreciates the freedom she enjoys as a female born at this time in history. “It gives us a responsibility,” she believes.

As for advice to writers hoping to publish their first book, Ellis suggests, “Read your own work critically and don’t give up.”

Janet Nicol is a freelance writer and high school history teacher in Vancouver.

Spirit of Writing Festival 2007 Friday, June 1 and Saturday, June 2 Selkirk College, 411 Broadway Street, Nakusp, BC FEES:

WORKSHOPS: Poetr y: A cts of Courage oetry: Acts

Susan Andrews Grace, visual artist, creative writing teacher and poet (Flesh, A Naked Dress)

Writing on the Wild SSide ide

Members of The Federation of BC Writers $65/both days, $40/one day Non-members $75/both days, $45/one day

Deanna Kawatski, author of Clara and Me and Wilderness Mother

Opening the Wor k ork and

CONTACT PERSON:

Say the Wor d ord

Anne Strachan, Box 867, Nakusp, BC, V0G 1R0 sisinwriting@hotmail.com

Two different workshops by Harold Rhenisch, author of 20 books including The Wolves at Evelyn, BC Book Prize finalist

The Literar istor Literaryy H Histor istoryy Tour

Project assistance provided with the generous assistance of: The Federation of BC Writers Selkirk College Nakusp Nakusp Public Library

Alan Twigg, literary historian, publisher of BC BookWorld, Shadbolt Fellow (SFU)

Friday ev ening: Coffee H evening: House ouse SSocial ocial Satur day ev ening: D inner and O pen M ic aturday evening: Dinner Open Mic

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FEATURES

AUTHOR! AUTHOR!

A Perfect Match Birth of a Book Cover

By Kuldip Gill

Delight. And dismay. Such were my emotions when I saw the cover my publisher was suggesting for my first book of poetry. The paradox: while I loved the image, and admired the skill of a noted illustrator, at the same time I knew the art was inappropriate to the subject matter, to my culture, and to my feminist ideology. I faced the familiar dilemma of the emerging writer: a possible clash between my dependence on the publisher and my own convictions. How was I to tell an awardwinning illustrator and my publisher that I could not accept the suggested cover?

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hroughout the publishing process, the experience of working with the publisher, designers and editors had been so overwhelmingly positive—and now this! What if they decided that I must accept this particular cover?

Until that first glance at the cover, if ever there had been a good publishing story I would have said that my experience with Dharma Rasa (Nightwood Editions, 1999) qualified.

It all began with my intent to write the material as prose, but as narrative it became too difficult. I hadn’t the experience at that time to confront ideas about the disclosure of personal lives, mine as well as those of family and friends. When I wrote the pieces as short truncated stories, they came out poetically. My husband said, “These are poems, you should submit them for publication.” Over the months he kept up his encouragement. I had no such ambition, but later said I’d do it if and when they ever got to number 30 or so. That happened before I knew it, so I submitted a manuscript to the publisher I admired most, WORDWORKS–SPRING 2007

without telling anyone. The poems went to Harbour Publishing for whose works I have always had a great admiration, since they are local histories, about local small towns, fishing, logging and in general, subjects to my liking. I sent them to Howard White who gave them to the renowned editor, Mary Schendlinger, who was there in those years, to consider for publication under their Nightwood Editions imprint. The poems went in-house to Marisa Alps, a very generous and supportive editor, and I was soon notified that they had been accepted for publication. I was awed by that acceptance. The poems were also sent out to an outside editor, and as that process took place, Mary White became the designer for my book.

I had asked that the book have good internal divisions and a plain font. My publisher was generous when I asked for art of India to mark the internal divisions. Mary asked me to send a file of art images I liked for consideration. At the UBC library of Fine Arts I found some I thought appropriate. Mary found some textile pieces in my file continued next page 17

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A Perfect Match, cont’d which were useable and from these she prepared the mockup sheets for me. I loved her suggestions: the way she chose grey tones, subtle colours, and used portions of the overall image on the inside cover to separate the divisions in the text.

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ll writers should experience a relationship such as I had in working with Marisa Alps on the text, at least once in their lives. It was smooth and remarkable, a supportive mentorship. Her collaboration with the outside editor and me went like clockwork. We had wide agreement on virtually everything and she took my needs into account throughout. What I received was a course on how one works with a publisher from start to finish. Then, of course, we came to the cover and Marisa told me that the image I had suggested, my own photograph of a Hindu and Jain temple in India, would not be suitable. She said the award-winning illustrator Kim LaFave would design the cover. I’d never seen Kim’s work. I waited impatiently to find out what it would look like.

Although I had sparse knowledge of how authors and publishers work, I knew that a cover is usually decided on by the publisher and the marketing people. Authors I knew said they had very little input into cover design, apart from approval of the cover suggested to them. I didn’t want my relationship with the publisher to turn difficult at this stage.

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he cover arrived one night as an attachment to an email from Kim. I opened the attachment and there it was—as I mentioned above, delight and dismay, a muddle of thinking; How do I get this changed, now?

I was looking at the image of a South Asian person wearing a small headdress adorned with a gorgeous peacock feather and a manly tunic out of which emerged robust arms! As most Indians know, the peacock feather is deeply symbolic of the Hindu god Krishna. The figure was a perfect image of the god as he is usually depicted, and obviously a composite drawn from the file of many images I had sent earlier. I loved it. I stared at it; the colours were beautiful and I didn’t want to say “No” to it. But after looking at it for about 15 minutes, I thought, “No, it’s inappropriate in too many ways.” A male Hindu god—I am a feminist Sikh woman. My poems in Dharma Rasa are almost all about Sikh people and our settlement in Canada, or about our previous lives in India. Many questions ran through my mind; 18

most importantly, how would my Sikh family and readers feel about that as a cover? I knew that it would not resonate any better than the image I had sent of temples in India.

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picked up the phone and dialed Kim’s number on the Sechelt Peninsula. To his credit, he listened with care and then generously, and calmly, said he would just change the cover. In my mind I had an image of the artist labouring for the next week to produce a new cover. It was not that way! He said he would go back to the art files I had amassed and would change the image to a more suitable one right away.

“Kuldip don’t worry, you’ll have a new cover by morning.”

I felt very bad as I went to bed and paradoxically relieved as well. In the morning I booted up my computer and there, to my delight and surprise, was the image as it is today on my book: a South Asian woman with her dark hair drawn back, soft tendrils escaping; a lovely choli blouse, and bangles on her wrists.

Everything a cover for my first book of poetry should be.

And the book has continued to have a magical life. It won a BC2000 Book Award and is recommended for schools, and to my constant surprise, touches readers and listeners very emotionally. It resonates with my family, people of my own South Asian culture, as well as Canadian culture, and young and old alike, cross-cutting identities such as gender, race, age, class and generation.

I have never regretted summoning up the courage to hold out for the perfect match of cover and text, which finally linked all the differing goals and traditions that went into the making of the book.

Kuldip Gill teaches Introduction to Fiction, Poetry and Drama at the University College of the Fraser Valley where in 2006 she was the Writer-in-Residence. She is author of the award winning poetry book Dharma Rasa and of a number of limited edition chap books. Her poetry, fiction and non-fiction have been published in literary journals and anthologies. She reads now from a manuscript of new poetry—some of it on the Valley where she lives, and some based on visual art. She continues to work avidly on her memoir, poetry and short story collection.

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M.A.C. Farrant Comic Existentialism in Everyday Life photo: Terry Farrant

M.A.C. Farrant is the author of a memoir, My Turquoise Years, and eight collections of satirical and humorous short fiction. A long-time member of The Federation of BC Writers, Farrant is also one of its busiest with a schedule that incorporates writing for print, radio and stage, presenting workshops, teaching occasionally in the Creative Writing Department at the University of Victoria, and co--hosting a regular reading series in Sidney. Currently touring her new book, The Breakdown So Far, Farrant sat down long enough to share her insights on writing and life in an interview with Fernanda Viveiros, conducted via email.

Why M.A.C. and not Marion?

I like the way initials can cleave a life. This is something I discovered as a kid and wrote about in My Turquoise Years.

Following my father who was W.D., a Master Mariner, and Billy, a single father, I became M.A., hurler of confounding dictionary words, and Marion, a school girl with an aberrant mother. When I began publishing there were a lot of Canadian “M” authors around—Marian, a few Margarets, Marilyn— and it seemed natural to use initials, something that was a little different. I acquired the “C” through a first marriage.

In your latest book, The Breakdown So Far, you pull apart, examine and question modern realities in a collection of short stories that move fluidly between fiction, personal essay and objective journalism. I don’t think I’ve ever come across this combination of writing styles, all within the pages of a single book, before.

In this book I’m practicing a kind of comic existentialism, though not all the pieces are comic. In addressing the subject of human existence I didn’t want to be confined by form.

During the writing it didn’t seem important to worry about whether or not one of the compositions would be called fiction, essay, prose poem, or reporting; I used whichever form suited the material at hand; I was more interested in discovering various angles on the subject, and in the notion of playfulness—the importance of it. Apparently as a species we played before we worked; work is a recent invention. In writing about “the problem of existence” I’m also writing about what some of us refer to as d…d…d…eath.

WORDWORKS–SPRING 2007

Ah, I see. But isn’t death the reason writers write? To outlast mortality, leave a bit of themselves behind in libraries, bookstores, strangers’ homes?

I think each of us contributes in some way to the culture of our times and that this is our best shot at immortality— assuming that our culture endures. We’re each of us attempting to tell our side of the story about what it’s like to be alive on this planet at this particular time. To this end some of us create fiction. Others compose music, or choreograph dance, or make films, and so on. I like this line from a poem called “The Sculptor” by American prose poet Russell Edson which for me sums up the imaginative response: “Once I changed a man into a child by removing certain bones. The result was less than life, yet more than death; it was art.”

That’s a little creepy.

Do you think so? I think it’s beautiful. It’s what artists do.

I’ve heard it said that happy people don’t write, and yet you seem pretty happy. Given your unusual upbringing—captured so vividly in My Turquoise Years—I would think being abandoned by one’s mother would leave a neurotic impress on even the most well adjusted child. Is the “tears of a clown” poignancy in much of your humour a result of having to deal with so much disappointment as a child?

I recently read something Eric Idle said in an interview: Anyone abandoned by their mother becomes a comedian. He’d had a horrific childhood and spent much of it in an orphanage. My continued next page 19

FEDERATION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA WRITERS

MAC Farrant, cont’d situation was different. It wasn’t so much the fact of being abandoned by my mother that shaped my life as having a lucky escape from her when I was five years old. This probably sounds shocking but for me it is true. Lucky too was having a devoted father who visited regularly and a large and lively extended family that essentially raised me. All this I tried to capture in My Turquoise Years. My situation was unusual, certainly, and I was very aware of being “different” in the fifties and sixties but because of the secure and predictable home life there was room for the expression of my quirkiness. My uncle watched a lot of TV cartoons, and was crazy about the Three Stooges. Growing up I watched these programs with him, nearly every day at four. The rest of my family practiced slap stick humour. There was a lot of arm farting, tripping, and dumb gags going on; my father had a dry sense of humour; my closest cousins were hilarious mimics. A kid picks these things up—how to be funny, how to laugh your head off, and, more importantly, what causes you to laugh your head off. My world view became shaped by the comic response— the tragicomic—what you refer to as the “tears of the clown”.

Which is another lucky break because it could easily have become only tragic, only tears. So… not a lot of disappointment or unhappiness as a child. Rather, it was a largely freeing and creative time surrounded by involved adults—at least nine of them and in particular my Aunt Elsie who became my surrogate mother. She called the crowd of us “me and mine” and was its ruling centre.

There was Cordova Bay beach too. That was important. I spent a lot of time there laughing my head off with my dog.

Many writers tend to return to real places and actual life events, not to safely mine the things they already know, but in order to find answers to the everyday strangeness and the fascinating mystery within their own lives that first compelled them to want to write about that particular place and time to begin with. We should stick to our own gardens, said Voltaire. Would you agree?

I have absolutely no mandate to suggest for the writing life; I have no belief in “shoulds” as far as where to find material or inspiration. Craft, like any skill, can be taught. That’s a given.

What can’t be taught is content, and content is particular to the individual writer. Whether or not it is fresh content, or original content is another matter. What I have done is follow my nose: pursued those ideas that fired me up, that made my hair stand on end or that I fell in love with; became ecstatic about certain other writers and learned from their works and still do. Like most writers I collect quotes. I like what Edson says he does in his work, which is to run naked with his imagination. Some of us see the world as a problem that must be solved. Annie Dillard said that. Some of us are bent on 20

creating tiny shards of reality out of chaos. That could be a definition of a writer of fiction. Or non-fiction, or memoir, or poetry for that matter. Here’s another quote, this one from William Carlos Williams: “No new line without a new mind.”

Meaning that there is much for a writer to be continually embracing. But ultimately it’s you alone with your joy and your dread trying to make sense of it all.

You’re mostly known for your satiric fiction but I prefer those stories where you’ve captured the cerebral sexiness of witty repartee between intelligent adults and the painfully embarrassing interior monologues one tends to have when raising teenagers. The dialogue is so authentic that you must be drawing from your own experiences. Do your neighbours give you a wide berth when you’re shopping for cereal?

If you’re referring to Girls Around the House—yes, that was drawn from life as we were living it then. If some of our neighbours had a hard time because of the frequent loud parties and the two hundred kids who attended our daughter’s 19th birthday party along with a Labatt Crew that handed out free beer, they never mentioned it. On the other hand, there was a drought of invitations for a couple of years afterwards so maybe that’s why we were passed over for the Christmas carol sing and the Canada Day cocktail party.

Canada Day cocktail parties? Very civilized. Actually, I was referring to some of the pieces in Darwin Alone in the Universe, an odd little book about quirky people and conversations which sound a little too authentic, if you know what I mean. Fess up, you’re writing about people you know.

But of course! The material has to come from somewhere.

But I don’t go around with a concealed tape recorder, though I’m flattered you think the conversations sound authentic.

Those dialogues really are fiction. Really. I will claim some small credit for making them up.

Your books have great titles. I think Darwin Alone in the Universe is my favourite since I tend to favour melancholy over madness.

How much thought goes into capturing the essence of your book in these few brief words? Did you come up with all of your book titles or were any suggested by a publisher for marketing reasons?

Thank you. For the Darwin book and The Breakdown So Far, I started with the title story and went from there. My Turquoise Years came out of the early writing as did Girls Around the House. The others, except one, were named after an included story. I have never chosen a title for marketing reasons, nor has a publisher ever suggested one.

WORDWORKS–SPRING 2007

FEATURES

The statistician behind the Lulu Titlescorer, a computer model that can predict the chances of any given title becoming a bestseller, notes that authors should rely on their own instincts when coming up with a good title. And yet, it’s not unusual for publishers to disregard authors’ feelings and request a change of book title based on feedback from book sales representatives.

for the Arts Club Theatre’s annual ReAct event with a mind to future production. “Translating” it for the stage meant changing some parts i.e. making it theatrical; condensing time frames; adding new dialogue as characters came to life on stage; exploring further relationships between characters.

In short, creating a whole new work.

What’s up with the Canadian writer’s obsession with wilderness?

Why aren’t they more interested in our urban lifestyle and contemporary culture considering how much variety there is to draw from in this country?

Need much more time to answer this one, but soon enough “wilderness” is going to seem like a quaint concept.

It hadn’t occurred to me that a publisher or a marketer might want to title a book of mine. I changed one title at the last moment but that was because I discovered that my original title was already in use—by one of Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters. What’s True, Darling was going to be The Congress of Human Wonders. I took the new title from the made-up quote that opens the book.

Gabriella Travaline, the artist who designed the cover for The Breakdown So Far, has said that if you were a painter your work “would be abstract with surreal imagery—somewhere between Pollock and Dali with a twist of existential angst and all the answers and questions that come with it.” And funny enough, the Globe & Mail noted, “Farrant is better at startling us with unnerving, often misanthropic, visions of everyday life than perhaps any other Canadian writer.” There’s a real theme going on here. What artwork, if any, is displayed in your home?

A mish mash of this and that: a cartoon illustration by Eve Corbel of a story that appeared in Geist; an illustration of a story that appeared in Adbusters; copies of cartoons by R. Crumb; a couple of early paintings by Christine Reimer; some work by bill bissett; a large raven by native artist Harvey Williams; some watercolours by my friend Vicky Husband from the days when she was painting; Gabriella Travaline’s painting that appears on the cover of The Breakdown…” Gabriella’s work can be seen on the web’s Flickr site. Her whimsy knocks me out.

Writer Ed Abbey once said: “If there’s not something out there that can kill you, it’s not really wilderness.” Avalanches, ice storms, grizzly bears, mosquitoes, the drowning properties of Alice Lake… Maybe the Canadian writers’ obsession with wilderness is fueled by the fear of Death by Nature.

I’m more inclined to agree with Ernest Becker’s (Denial of Death) statement that “of all things that move man, one of the principal ones is the terror of death.” Repression of this awareness or willful surrender to infinitude—”the mystery that is at the heart of every creature”—represents the only hope we trembling mortals have of living our lives with equanimity. How else to carry on and love one another without going mad? This was also the subject of Don DeLillo’s novel White Noise.

Speaking of DeLillo, who are some of your favourite writers?

Norman Levine, Peter Handke, Annie Dillard, Don DeLillo, Ernest Becker, Kurt Vonnegut, Lydia Davis, Russell Edson, Czeslaw Milosz, Pauline Holdstock, Anna Swir, Grace Paley, Julio Cortazar.

Was there a specific moment, or perhaps a book you read as a child, when you realized you wanted to write?

My father gave me two Mark Twain books for my 12th birthday—Tom Sawyer, and Huckleberry Finn. It was loving those books that set the hook.

My Turquoise Years was adapted into a stage play and is now, at the time of this interview, being performed at the Arts Club Theatre of Vancouver. How was the book “translated” from page to stage?

You do realize that neither Tom Sawyer nor Huck had mothers —maybe that spoke to something in you as a kid?

The stage adaptation was selected as one of four plays to be “workshopped” this Spring with actors, director and crew

Yes, I did realize that as a kid—and also that life could be fine, an adventure even, without one.

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FEDERATION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA WRITERS

Contests & Markets Please note that inclusion in WordWorks is not an endorsement of any contest or market. We encourage our readers to thoroughly research all contests or markets before submitting work and it’s recommended that you read one or two copies of the publication in question to make sure your writing “fits” publication requirements and guidelines. Our home page at www.bcwriters.com lists recent additions to Contests and Markets. Be sure to let your regional rep know when you win a contest or get something published so it can be included in the regional report. Good luck!

CONTESTS EVENT Magazine Creative Non-Fiction Contest Postmark Deadline: April 16, 2007 http://event.douglas.bc.ca Writers are invited to submit manuscripts exploring the creative non-fiction form.

Previously published material, or material accepted elsewhere for publication, cannot be considered.

Maximum entry length is 5000 words, typed, double-spaced. Blind judging.

Visit the website for full guidelines and submission information or email event@douglas.bc.ca. Multiple entries are allowed, however, each entry must be accompanied by a $29.95 entry fee (includes GST and a one-year subscription; make cheque or international money order payable to Event). Send entries to: Event, P.O. Box 2503, New Westminster, BC V3L 5B2.

The Canadian Writers’ Union Writing for Children Competition Postmark Deadline: April 24, 2007 www.writersunion.ca/wfcc.html Send any unpublished writing for children up to 1500 words, typed, double-spaced, not stapled, and put your name and title of entry on each numbered page. Include separate cover letter that contains your name, contact information, and title and number of pages of entry. All writers who have not been published in book format, in any genre, and who don’t have a contract with a book publisher, are eligible.

Results will be posted on the website.

Entry fee $15. Mail to WFC Competition, Ste. 200, 90 Richmond Street E., Toronto, Ontario M5C 1P1.

The Vision Writing Contest Postmark Deadline: May 1, 2007 www.winnipegrobertburns.org This one’s for fans of Robert Burns.

Choose your favourite poem/song by the bard and tell why you like it, what you believe Burns was trying to convey to his readers, and any relevant history or documentation of interest. Special consideration will be given to anyone who chooses to write about “The Vision”, which can be found on the website. Maximum 2000 words. Please check the online guidelines. Entry fee is $10. Send two copies to Celtic Faerie, “The Vision” Contest, c/o 1086 Peel Road, St. Andrews, Manitoba, R1A 3W5

Room of One’s Own Annual Fiction and Poetry Contest Postmark Deadline: May 15, 2007 www.roommagazine.com Henceforth known simply as Room, this 30-year-old journal for women writers invites you to send your fiction (maximum 4000 words) or poetry (maximum 3 poems or 150 lines) entry to Fiction and Poetry Contest, Room, PO Box 46160, Station D, Vancouver, BC, V6J 5G5. Prose must be doublespaced. No previously published work or simultaneous submissions. Entry fee of $27 entitles you to a one-year subscription.

sub-TERRAIN Magazine Annual Lush Triumphant Contest Postmark Deadline: May 15, 2007 www.subterrain.ca Send your best unpublished fiction (maximum 3000 words), creative nonfiction (maximum 4000 words) or poetry (maximum 3 poems per entry, up to 45

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lines per poem), along with $20 entry fee per submission, to Lush Triumphant, sub-TERRAIN Magazine, PO Box 3008, MPO, Vancouver, BC V67B 3X5. You get a one-year subscription for your efforts. There’s $1500 in prizes up for grabs.

The Antigonish Review’s 3rd Annual Sheldon Currie Fiction Prize Postmark Deadline: May 31, 2007 www.antigonishreview.com Send your unpublished short story typed, double-spaced, one side of page only, maximum 20 pages, to The Antigonish Review Contest, Box 5000, St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, NS, B2G 2W5. $25 entry fee gets you a one-year subscription to TAR. Send cover letter with your identifying information plus title(s) of entries. Blind judging, so make sure your name is on the cover letter only. Entries will not be returned.

The War Poetry Contest Postmark Deadline: May 31, 2007 http://www.winningwriters.com/ contests/war/wa_guidelines.php Sponsored by Winning Writers. Now in its sixth year, this contest seeks today’s best poems on the theme of war. $5,000 awarded in prizes. View complete guidelines, judge’s advice and past winners on website.

ARC Poem of the Year Contest Postmark Deadline: June 30, 2007 www.arcpoetry.ca Send your best work, up to 4 unpublished poems, maximum 100 lines each, plus $22 entry fee (for which you get a one-year subscription) to

WORDWORKS–SPRING 2007

CONTESTS & MARKETS

Poem of the Year Contest, Arc: Canada’s National Poetry Magazine, PO Box 81060, Ottawa, Ontario, K1P 1B1.

MARKETS

Prairie Fire www.prairiefire.ca

The Antigonish Review’s 7th Annual Great Blue Heron Poetry Prize Postmark Deadline: June 30, 2007 www.antigonishreview.com

Broken Pencil www.brokenpencil.com Alternative and independent culture zine considers articles, columns, non-fiction, and fiction. Get your hands on a copy of the magazine and read it to see if your work will fit, or read it online.

After you’ve checked the guidelines send up to six poems or one short story with SASE indicating whether or not you want your work returned. If not, you can provide them with an email address for notification purposes. Also, include a brief cover letter with the following: a) a two- or three-sentence biographical statement; b) your full mailing address, email address (if you have one) and phone number; c) the title(s) of the piece(s) you are submitting; d) the genre of the piece(s) you are submitting (poetry, fiction, non-fiction). Let them know if you are just starting to send out your work.

Send your unpublished poem(s) on any subject, maximum 4 pages/150 lines, to The Antigonish Review Contest, Box 5000, St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, NS, B2G 2W5. $25 entry fee gets you a one-year subscription, or, if you want to submit to TAR’s fiction contest as well, send $35 for both. Send cover letter with your identifying information plus title(s) of entries. Blind judging, so make sure your name is on the cover letter only. Entries will not be returned.

19th Literary Writes Competition Postmark Deadline: July 1, 2007 www.bcwriters.com This year the category is “Foreign Affairs: Travel Writing With a Twist.”

Send your best story, maximum 1000 words, with a $15 entry fee ($20 if you’re not a Fed member), to: Literary Writes 2007, The Federation of BC Writers, PO Box 3887 Station Terminal, Vancouver, BC, V6B 3Z3. Blind judging, include cover letter with identification details and put the title only on each page of your stapled, printed on one side only, manuscript.

Sooke Fall Fair Literary & Arts Gala Postmark Deadline: September 1, 2007 www.sooke.org/fallfair/literaryarts/ index.htm “Down to Earth” is the theme for this year’s fair, and for the first time there is a literary component. Lots of categories, lots of prizes, but you really need to read the guidelines as there are very specific requirements as to presentation.

Get an entry form online and send your fiction, non-fiction or poetry to Sooke Fall Fair Literary Contest, Attn: L. Gordon, PO Box 754, Sooke, BC V0S 1N0

dANDelion www.dandelionmagazine.ca Reads submissions of poetry, prose, creative non-fiction and writing-related reviews all year round. Send your work

by September 1 for the November issue.

Submissions accepted by email, as an attachment, or via hard copy to: dANDelion Magazine Society, c/o Department of English, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive NW, Calgary, AB, T2N 1N4

New Fed Anthology Call for Submissions Deadline: May 1, 2007 www.bcwriters.com Forthcoming anthology of non-fiction writing seeks stories that define, challenge or contribute to our identity as British Columbia writers. Fed membership is required. 3000-4000 words, blind judging in effect, previously published work welcome as long as you hold the copyright or can get the okay from whoever does. Full details on the Fed’s website. Send two copies, doublespaced, to Anthology 2008, Federation of BC Writers, Box 3887 Station Terminal, Vancouver, BC V6B 3Z3.

The New Orphic Review Reads mailed submissions of fiction, poetry, reviews, and essays. Send, with SASE, to NOR, 706 Mill Street, Nelson, BC V1L 4S5

On Spec www.onspec.ca Quarterly magazine features speculative fiction, fantasy, and horror. Mostly prose, some poetry.

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Queen’s Quarterly www.queensu.ca/quarterly/ Queen’s Quarterly is a multidisciplinary journal aimed at the general educated reader. Publishes articles, reviews, short stories and poetry. QQ encourages electronic submissions. If you send as hard copy and they accept your work, they’ll need you to send as an e-mail attachment anyway, so you might as well go that route right off the bat.

Send your unpublished work (after delving into the guidelines, of course) to: The Editor, Queen’s Quarterly, 144 Barrie Street, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6

Qwerty www.lib.unb.ca/Texts/QWERTY/ University of New Brunswick publication accepts innovative and unconventional poetry, fiction, non-fiction, plays, and more. Send up to 5 poems, fiction, or non-fiction (maximum 3000 words) to Qwerty, c/o UNB English Department, PO Box 4400, Fredericton, NB E3B 5A3. You MUST send SASE or your work will not be considered. Qwerty now accepts submissions via email as well.

continued next page

FEDERATION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA WRITERS

Contests & Markets cont’d

RESOURCES FOR WRITERS

ONLINE

Drowning Man www.drowningman.net

Ghoti Magazine www.ghotimag.com

Comprehensive directory of literary publications, from small presses up to the most famous with an emphasis on poetry links. Over 300 print journals.

Looking for fiction or non-fiction (maximum 2500 words), flash fiction (500 words or less), and poetry (3-5 poems per submission) that is strong, polished, unpublished, and takes risks.

Duotrope’s Digest www.duotrope.com Great database for current markets in poetry, fiction and nonfiction. Register with them (free, although they do accept donations) and track your submissions.

Her Circle Ezine www.hercircleezine.com/ This ezine is dedicated to exploring the feminine experience in the world community. Considers fiction and non-fiction (maximum 5000 words), personal essays (3000 words) and poetry (maximum 3 pages). Submit via the online form. This is one online market that pays.

The Pedestal Magazine www.thepedestalmagazine.com Two paying markets in a row! Send up to six poems, or fiction (maximum 6000 words), or flash fiction (maximum 1000 words). Use the form provided on the website and pay close attention to the submission schedule.

LP WordSolutions www.lpwordsolutions.com Sign up online to receive Imprint, long-time Fed member, Lois Peterson’s, free newsletter for writers. Contains tips, market information, news of upcoming workshops and much more.

Places for Writers www.placesforwriters.com/ Good place for up-to-date market information. Lots of interesting content, including links to a variety of Canadian writers’ sites.

The Federation of BC Writers Supports Writers Like You As a writer, you know how solitary the literary life can be. You also know how important it is to keep up with the latest information, new resources and writing and reading opportunities. The Federation provides the tools, encouragement and company of fellow spirits to help support your development as a BC writer.

Information Services Hire a Writer Directory Master Class Workshops Literary Writes Contest WordWorks & BC BookWorld Funding for Readings & Events Writers-in-Schools Program Author Promotion …and so much more!

for more infor mation visit

w w w. b c w r i t e r s . c o m

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WORDWORKS–SPRING 2007

COMMUNITY

Launched!

New Titles by Federation Members

101 (and more) Writing Exercises

Whiskey Bullets: Cowboy and Indian Heritage Poems

Lois J. Peterson Metta Publications, September 2006 ISBN 0-9780884-0-9 $19.95

Garry Gottfriedson Ronsdale Press, September 2006 ISBN 978-1-55380-043-9 $14.95

Use 101 and more Writing Exercises to help you get over the obstacles that stand in the way of putting words on the page. Whether you write fiction, nonfiction, or poetry (for adults or children) for pleasure or profit, this book will help you get motivated, refine your craft, end writers block once and for all, and accumulate numerous ideas to develop into writing projects. As one writer says, “Using 101 Writing Exercises is like going to hundreds of workshops without leaving home!”

Includes more than 114 exercises, how-to articles, writing and marketing tips, resources and a writer’s lexicon.

Eloquent, poignant and witty, Garry Gottfriedson’s new collection of poetry approaches an old genre with a new flare that will challenge your expectations of cowboy poetry. Gottfriedson skillfully balances his indigenous vision and contemporary concerns, creating a blend of imagery that stimulates the mind’s eye like never before. Shattering the cowboy’s code of ethics he unveils hidden truths, unspoken and often ignored, bringing to the fore inescapable issues of gender, sexuality, race and politics, infused with aboriginal attitude.

Lois J. Peterson has taught creative writing to hundreds of students at courses, workshops, conferences and in presentations to writing groups. She operates LPwordsolutions, www.lpwordsolutions.com, providing writing, editing, consulting and instructional services to individual creative writers, non profits, government, and small business. Her own writing has appeared internationally in publications such as Maclean’s, the Globe and Mail, The Writer, Room of One’s Own, Lichen Literary Journal and the MacGuffin.

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Garry Gottfriedson, a member of the Secwepemc First Nation, was born, raised and lives in Kamloops, BC. He is a selfemployed rancher with a Masters degree in Education from Simon Fraser University.

His published works include In Honor of Our Grandmothers: Imprints of Cultural Survival (Theytus Books, 1994), Glass Tepee (Thistledown Press, 2002), nominated for First People’s Publishing Award 2004, and Painted Pony (Partners in Publishing, 2005), his first children’s story.

FEDERATION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA WRITERS

Parallel Lines

The Golden Crusader

Pam Galloway Ekstasis Editions, November 2006 ISBN 978-1-894800-71-6 $18.95

Linda Langwith Twilight Times Books, November 2006 ISBN 978-1-93335-391-3 $16.95 (US)

Parallel Lines reaches across vast distances in time and place, from 19th century industrial England to 21st century coastal BC— unfolding a memoir in poetry that explores the loss, discovery and longing that is the immigrant experience. Galloway summons her ancestors from their work and play. We meet them trudging along canal banks, assisting at a birth, joining a sing-song at the pub. Their memory persists, reaching forward to a schoolgirl’s skipping game shared across three centuries, their presence resounding through the landscape of the new world: forest, ocean and “the vast, lilac-washed and vibrant sky.” Galloway’s poems carry the steady pulse of loss and yet also have the power to uplift with celebration and hope.

Not everyone is pleased when Gemma Ravenscroft returns to Yorkshire. Who can she trust when meddling friends act more like enemies and someone bears a deadly grudge? Unnerved by a Swat team swarming over her cottage grounds and a resident ghost bent on making trouble, Gemma is nevertheless determined to find out who wants her out of the way as she embarks on a journey of self-discovery that will shatter her illusions, break her courage and ultimately save her life.

Born in northern England, Pam Galloway now lives in Vancouver, BC. She has worked as a medical reporter and freelance writer. She continues to follow her original career as a speech and language therapist working with children and their families.

Her poetry, often exploring themes of loss and belonging, is published widely in Canadian and U.K. literary magazines and anthologies. She worked collaboratively with four other poets to write Quintet: Themes and Variations, published by Ekstasis Editions in 1998.

Linda Langwith has enjoyed various careers as an arts grant officer, academic advisor, community resource coordinator and university researcher. She lives on Vancouver Island, is happily married and blessed with two daughters and a son. The recipient of a B.A. Honours and an M.A. in English, she first conceived The Golden Crusader while on a family vacation in Yorkshire when a pilgrimage to Fountains Abbey uncovered the tomb of the unknown crusader, quite forgotten in a corner of the ruins.

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The Reluctant Author: The Life and Literature of Ernest Hekkanen Margrith Schraner New Orphic Publishers, November 2006 ISBN 978-1-894842-11-2 $25.00 Based on a series of interviews with Finnish-Canadian author Ernest Hekkanen, The Reluctant Author offers us a rare glimpse into the soul of a troubled, thoughtful, haunted man. Whether it is Hekkanen the writer, the artist, or the political activist who steps forward to answer her questions, Margrith Schraner pursues him to the nexus of his contradictions and the wellspring of his creativity.

“Ernest Hekkanen is Canadian literature’s true iconoclast and most resolute maverick.

He deserves to be the subject of a book.”

—Bill Gaston, professor and author (Sointula, Mount Appetite) Margrith Schraner came to Canada from Switzerland at the age of 22. She is the coauthor of Black Snow: An Imaginative Memoir (1996). Her short story, “Dream Dig,” was selected for inclusion in the Journey Prize Anthology, 2001. Her novella, To Travel the Distance, has been serialized in The New Orphic Review since the fall of 2003. Schraner is the in-house editor of New Orphic Publishers and the associate editor of The New Orphic Review.

WORDWORKS–SPRING 2007

COMMUNITY

Come-By-Chance

The Pillow Book of Dr. Jazz: Travels Along Asia’s Dharma Trail

Carl Leggo Breakwater Books, November 2006 ISBN 978-1-55081-082-0 $14.95 Come-By-Chance is a collection of poems, often narrative, sometimes lyrical, always ruminative, about home, family, and place, about leaving and returning, about growing up and growing old, about leaving Newfoundland to live in British Columbia, and returning to Newfoundland often because it is always the place that breathes poetry in the heart and imagination.

Carl Leggo is a poet and professor in the Department of Language and Literacy Education at UBC where he teaches courses in writing and narrative research.

His poetry, fiction and scholarly essays have been published internationally. He is the author of two collections of poems, Growing Up Perpendicular on the Side of a Hill and View from My Mother’s House (both published by Killick Press, St. John’s), as well as a book about reading and teaching poetry, titled Teaching to Wonder: Responding to Poetry in the Secondary Classroom (Pacific Educational Press, Vancouver). After more than sixteen years on the Pacific coast of Canada, he still longs for the Atlantic coast, and Newfoundland which will always be home.

Trevor Carolan Ekstasis Editions, November 2006 ISBN 978-1-894800-79-2 $21.95 Hip radio man, Dr. Jazz, gives up a coastto-coast late night show when girlfriend, Nori, suggests that he meet her in Bangkok, Thailand. Travelling on a shoestring, they journey along what Dr. Jazz calls “the old dharma trail” — a backpacker’s network of cheap rooms and contacts throughout Asia.

Recalling the Japanese Pillowbook of Sei Shonogan, Dr. Jazz records the sights and sounds of his journeys, in the ironic voice of a traveller at end of day. The couple’s adventures in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, India, Nepal, Burma, and Japan are vividly written with a wry humour that touches on love, history, culture and custom, eroticism, drugs and politics. From smoking opium in a remote mountain village in Thailand, to uncovering the essence of Zen in a Japanese garden, Trevor Carolan confronts both the Westerner’s mythical dream of Asia and the harsh reality awaiting the traveller.

Trevor Carolan has published a dozen books of memoir, poetry, translation and anthologies. The first executive director of the Federation of B.C. Writers, and former literary coordinator for the XV Olympic Winter Games, he has also served in elected office and taught at several universities.

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Between the River and the Sea Phyllis Grant Lavelle Crew Publishing, November 2006 ISBN 978-0-9782528-4-7 $7.99 In August, 1896, a dreaded Great Aunt arrives to visit the Scott family, and she wreaks havoc in the house with her personality and demands. The family takes her to visit many interesting venues, the children are reduced to sly tricks, but nothing seems to mollify her. The Scott kids find a terrifying solution to their problem when an unexpected calamity strikes the whole community. Between the River and the Sea is one of six titles in a series of junior fiction written by Phyllis Grant Lavelle.

Author and history buff Phyllis Grant Lavelle enjoys writing stories of Vancouver’s yesteryears. A former educator, Lavelle would have liked to have been a time traveler, but instead satisfies her curiosity about lifestyles in other times and places by visiting interesting countries and their museums, by reading widely, and by volunteering in major arts organizations.

FEDERATION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA WRITERS

Shadows on a Cave Wall Ernest Hekkanen New Orphic Publishers, January 2007 ISBN 978-1-894842-11-2 $20.00 Although we never get to directly meet Sebastian Salo—who, over the course of his life, has been a prizefighter, musician, hunter, translator and fiction writer—we view him through the eyes of those who have known him, and none of them seem to have neutral feelings about the man. The West Kootenay town where he lives is a conservative if not an outright parochial community, and his presence there gives rise to ample dissension. The discovery of his body two months after his death allows rumors, stories and gossip to flow like water from a burst dam, and his chronicler, Jacques Dupuis, eagerly collects and collates them.

A poet, short story writer, novelist, essayist, playwright, anthologist, publisher, printmaker, painter and carver, Ernest Hekkanen resides in Nelson where he and Margrith Schraner co-curate the homebased New Orphic Gallery. The author of 38 books, Hekkanen is the publisher of New Orphic Publishers and editor-in-chief of The New Orphic Review.

Around One More Point A Journal of Paddling Adventures Mary Gazetas TouchWood Editions, December 2006 ISBN: 978-1-894898-46-1 $24.95 Whether exploring, laughing, beachcombing, fishing, basking in sunshine or waiting for a break in the weather, Mary Gazetas has paddled the west coast for almost 30 summers and has recorded her adventures in journals, photographs and drawings.This work, with its powerful visual imagery, includes stories and art created when Mary first started taking ocean canoe trips in the ’80s with her twin sister and her children.

Since those “pre-Gore-Tex” days of primitive beach camping and paddling in all kinds of weather, the trips, the people and the artwork have changed. What hasn’t changed, though, is her passion for the character of the coast, and she returns every summer, bringing home material to be transformed into a variety of artistic expressions.

Mary Gazetas was born in West Vancouver, studied fine arts at UBC and later entered the design program at the National Theatre School in Montreal. She has worked as an instructor in visual arts and as a festival planner. Currently residing in Steveston, Gazetas is a mother, grandmother, tennis player and founding director of the Richmond Fruit Tree Project.

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The Breakdown So Far M.A.C. Farrant Talon Books, March 2007 ISBN: 978-0-88922-556-5 $17.95 The Jonathan Swift of the bingo hall and elder-care, the Alexander Pope of pet-care and the dinner parties of the liberal intelligentsia, Marion Farrant continues her assault on the unaccountably disaffected and disillusioned of the Western world with The Breakdown So Far, her eighth volume of extremely short stories for those of us who seem to have lost both our way and our attention span. Unsparing in her critique of the New Age syncretism the mall culture has substituted for authentic emotion and belief, our adoption of Buddhism appears in her work as a rationalization for our ubiquitous materialism of the soul, Zen as our guiltless doctrine of neglect.

M.A.C. Farrant is the acclaimed author of seven previous collections of satirical and humorous short fiction. Her writing has been widely anthologized in North America, dramatized for television and broadcast on radio. A full-time writer currently residing in North Saanich, BC, she also teaches part-time at the creative writing department in the University of Victoria and is a frequent contributor to Adbusters, Geist, the Vancouver Sun and the Globe and Mail. An active promoter of literary arts, she is the co-producer and host of the Sidney Reading Series.

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Regional Reports

The Ministry of Child and Family has ordered 70 hardcover copies of Kay Johnston’s beautiful book Spirit of Powwow.

Guest speaker Gail Anderson-Dargatz was in fine form at the Shuswap Association of Writers’ AGM in January.

She began by pulling a comfortable old housecoat out of a box and putting it on. This is how writers start their day, she Central said, as she proceeded to pull yard items out of a box she Kay McCracken, Salmon Arm called “A Writers’ Survival Kit.” After a hilarious show and kaymcc@jetstream.net tell session, Gail answered questions from the audience.

SAW’s new executive board of directors includes Karen Kay McCracken is organizing Wild Bissenden, Howard Brown and Deanna Kawatski. Candice West Revisited, a fundraising event Lucey will remain Ways & Means Coordinator. for the Shuswap Association of Dorothy Rolin, coordinator of the Silent Auction, March Writers, on Saturday, April 21, 7 pm.

24 & 25 at Piccadilly Mall, expects this second annual event at the Art Gallery in Salmon Arm. in support of SAW to be as successful as last year and thanks The evening will feature readings by Federation members who donated signed copies of their Garry Gottfriedson, Michael books to be auctioned.

Blackstock, Jeff More, Alex Forbes, Congratulations to Heidi Garnett, whose poem came in Karen Bissenden, John Vivian, third place out of 1100 entries in Arc’s Poem of the Year Howard Brown, Marilyn McAllister, Maureen Egan, Patsy contest for her poem “Water Rituals.” Heidi’s book, PhosAlford, Lois Higgins, Elizabeth Lute and Kay McCracken. phorus (Thistledown), is being used in a second-year writing Live music by the Dust Puppets. There will be refreshments, course this semester at Okanagan College in Kelowna. book sales and door prizes. Admission: $10 for SAW David Baxter and friend performed an excerpt from “A members, $15 for non-members, $5 for students.

Child’s Christmas in Wales,” complete with appropriate Ann Walsh took part in Canada music, at the Christmas Coffee House in Council-sponsored readings in the Celista, BC. At the January Coffee Surrey Library district in late October, House, David read “My First Public and also read to West Point Grey Speech.” He also performed a short Academy students. In December she humorous dialogue with Judy Weller in a was invited to present to three schools radio show format. in Richmond; these students will be Patricia Donahue and three others studying her book, Moses, Me and have formed a group called Okanagan Murder! in coming months. Two of Writers after participating as “literary her YA titles, Skin of His Teeth and The representation” in ARTWALK, a whole Doctor’s Apprentice, previously pubweek of visual arts (Lake Country) last lished with Beach Holme and long out September. Their aim is to help provide of print, have been re-released by venues for serious new writers to present Dundurn Group. their work and books, and to coach them A Tribute to Our Seniors, a in “presentation readings.” volunteer project created by Estelle Patsy Alford’s poem, “Lot’s Wife,” Noakes and a friend, takes place at will appear in The Dalhousie Review.

Piccadilly Terrace in Salmon Arm. Ken Firth won The Pine Beetle Estelle will take photos during the Review’s “Debt” theme contest and a $30 event and incorporate them into a Bookland gift certificate for the “witty written story, which is given to the rhymes and snappy tempo” in his poem Garry Gottfriedson will read from senior to keep. With permission, the Whiskey Bullets at Wild West Revisited, “Debt End.” (Pine Beetle Press, Issue 3, story in a shortened version will be Winter 2007.) Howard Brown’s poem a fundraising event for the Shuswap Association of Writers. printed in the local paper.

“Nothing Owing” also appears in the continued next page WORDWORKS–SPRING 2007

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FEDERATION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA WRITERS

winter issue of The Pine Beetle Review. Editor Chandra McCann reviewed Howard’s chapbook, In the 1950s, in the same issue.

Among the many readers at the Shuswap Writers’ Coffee House, held February 23 at Java Express in Salmon Arm, were Mary Nyland and Marilyn McCallister who both read short stories. Central regional representative Kay McCracken read two poems. Karen Bissenden, Maureen Egan, Ken Firth, Howard Brown and others read at the SW’s January Coffee House.

Sterling Haynes’ poem “I Don’t Do Old” was shortlisted by the publishers of Descant as one of the best poems written in Canada in 2006. He sold a hockey spoof to Rogers TV entitled “Hockey Night in Kamloops.”

On December 7, Garry Gottfriedson was the Keynote speaker at the Provincial Education Conference’s First Nation Education Steering Committee, followed by a reading and panel discussion. In February he read at the 2nd annual Aboriginal Writers and Storytellers Festival at the University of Northern British Columbia in Prince George and also at the ORiginAL Writers Series—Once We Were Children—Talking Stick Festival. CBC’s Daybreak South host interviewed Garry at the Kamloops Art Gallery about his recent book Whiskey Bullets: Cowboy and Indian Heritage Poems (Ronsdale).

A number of Federation members attended the Writers Union workshop in Kelowna (Writing as a Profession: How to Get Published and Survive as an Author): Sylvia Olsen (Kamloops), Sterling Haynes (Westbank), Susan Fenner (Vernon), Deanna Kawatski (Celista), Kay McCracken, Maureen Egan, and Kay Johnston from Salmon Arm. Ken McGoogan, Merilyn Simonds and Deborah Windsor, the Executive Director of the Writers’ Union of Canada, were the presenters. We all found this a most valuable workshop and the networking was fun, too.

South East Anne Strachan, Nakusp sisinwriting@hotmail.com FBCW members in the SE Region are writing, publishing, launching, reading, interviewing for radio, and mentoring young writers through the long Kootenay winter! Thanks to all Federation members who responded to the call for news.

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Angie Abdou’s short story collection, Anything Boys Can Do (Thistledown Press) was launched in September 2006 and the first printing has sold out. Her first novel, The Bone Cage (NeWest Press), will be launched at the Festival of Words in Moose Jaw this summer (www.festivalofwords.com) and she will be teaching at the Sage Hill Teen Writing Experience this July in Moose Jaw. It’s Centennial year in Riondel, and Wendy Scott is gathering and writing stories about pioneers and other folks.

This compilation, called A Recollection of Moments: Riondel Lives 1907 – 2007, will be published August 2007, in time for Riondel Daze!

South East regional representative Anne Strachan’s article “Grounded in Mystery” appeared in the January/February issue of Spirituality (www.dominicanpublications.com).

A sampling of Margrith Schraner’s book, The Reluctant Author: The Life and Literature of Ernest Hekkanen, appeared in 2006 in the Fall issue of the New Orphic Review. The Spring issue of the NOR will feature the latest installment of her novella, To Travel the Distance. New Orphic Publishers recently published Ernest Hekkanen’s novella, Shadows on a Cave Wall.

The SE Region’s most far-flung news comes from Ross Klatte: “Here in Yelapa, Mexico, some twenty miles south of Puerto Vallarta, where April and I are spending our third consecutive winter, I’ve had two readings from my memoir, Leaving the Farm (forthcoming from Oolichan), for members of Yelapa’s gringo colony. A gratifying response (I might have sold some books!).” The book launch is set for April 20 in Nelson.

Kuya Minogue, resident teacher at the ZenWords Zen Centre in Golden, is offering several spring and summer workshops on Zen Writing Practice, a unique combination of writing and Zen meditation. For more information, contact Kuya at info@zenwords.ca.

The Writers’ Show on Nelson’s CJLY, hosted by Holley Rubinsky, (www.kootenaycoopradio.com/writers) continues to grow and improve. Second season interviews will include Caroline Adderson talking about being conscious of your craft and Kathy Page on how a change of point of view can refresh a project. Send Holley your thoughts & suggestions about questions she should ask (or let her know who you would like to hear next season) through www.beyondthispoint.com. Doing the show is good clean fun, and she appreciates everyone’s support.

Maddy Harlamovs of Fruitvale had her piece, a memoir about adopting her son from Romania, shortlisted for the PRISM International non-fiction contest.

Linda Lee Crosfield has a poem coming out in a future issue of The Minnesota Review.

Stephen Lones launched his YA novella Yung Chigi at the Hidden Garden Gallery in New Denver last November.

Local response to the book has been encouraging, with WORDWORKS–SPRING 2007

COMMUNITY

adults and seniors enjoying the book as much as younger readers. A revised second printing will be complete by late March, and Stephen will present an Off the Page presentation to Grade 7 & 8 students at New Denver’s Lucerne School in April.

Fraser Valley Region Sylvia Taylor, White Rock words@sylviataylor.ca Margo Bates has recorded an audio version of her non-fiction novel, P.S. Don’t Tell Your Mother, which will be ready for distribution in April.

Half in the Sun: Anthology of Mennonite Writing (Ronsdale, 2006), edited by Elsie K. Neufeld, co-edited by Robert Martens, is being sold in the BC Ferries bookstores. Elsie visited Winnipeg in early February to read at McNally Robinson Bookstore, Canadian Mennonite University, University of Winnipeg and Steinbach Public Library, and at the Kelowna Public Library. The anthology appeared in the top-five non-fiction bestsellers list in the Winnipeg Free Press on February 5. Elsie has just completed editing I Have Seen the Flying Dutchman, the memoir of George Fraser, a retired seaman. Robert Martens also wrote for and co-edited, Windows To A Village, a collection of life stories about the formerly ethnically Mennonite village of Yarrow, BC, which will be released by Pandora Press this spring.

Susan McCaslin has recently had poems published in The Antigonish Review, The Windsor Review, Hammered Out, Palabras Press, and Transition. She has had poems accepted in Monkscript, The Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, and PRISM International. Her volume of poetry, A Plot of Light (Oolichan 2004), was reviewed in Hammered Out # 8 and The Canadian Book Review Annual. “In a Room Called Resurrection” won honourable mention in the Silver Hammer Award for Poetry, sponsored by Hammered Out, and “Hoping Against Hope When Your Child Is Ill” won second place in the Third Annual International Dance with Words Poetry Contest and was published on the website of Palabras Press.

One of Farideh Kheradmand’s short stories has been acquired from the art and cultural council in Kuwait and translated into Arabic to be published in a collection of Iranian women writers.

Alan S. Morgan of Outside the Box Puzzles Inc., has recently published his first puzzle collection book. His puzzles are now appearing daily in community newspapers: 24 hours, Surrey/ND Leader, South Delta Leader, The Local, NetworkWorld and CSA News.

After writing the only book about the modeling industry from a Canadian perspective, More Than A Pretty Face: The Essential Handbook for Canadian Models, Heather Young is authoring the first book in China ever written by a fashion model. The book has now been translated into Chinese under the title, Beauty on the Outside, Intelligence on the Inside: The Complete Guide to the Modeling World.

The 31st annual Cecilia Lamont Writers Contest awards night was held on March 21 at the White Rock Library.

Prose winners were: 1st Michael Bennett, 2nd Libby Kennedy, and 3rd Pamela Garrity. Poetry winners were: 1st Patricia Smekal, a FBCW member, 2nd& 3rd Valerie Laub.

Heidi Greco’s poem, “Shape of the Egg: A Meditation,” is included in the most recent issue of New Chief Tongue and two poems will appear in translation (English and Chinese side-byside) in the Spring 2007 issue of Bei Fei Ming / Maple Review. A short story called “Nickel and Dime” was published in subTerrain #45. As part of National Poetry Month celebrations, Heidi will be reading with Leona Gom on April 19 at the Surrey Arts Council Gallery at BCAMP’s Magazine Cabaret on April 25.

Anthony Dalton presented three seminars relating to his books at the Greater Edmonton Teachers Convention in Edmonton recently. He had his own display at the Pacific Festival of the Book in Victoria, March 23 to 25 and read from BAYCHIMO, Arctic Ghost Ship at that event. His new book, Against Arctic Odds, is now with his publisher, Heritage House, and should be available before the end of 2007. Anthony will present a workshop on writing biographies at the annual conference of the Canadian Authors Association in Ottawa in July, as well as reading from BAYCHIMO at the Ottawa Public Library.

FBCW regional representative Sylvia Taylor is currently writer/editor for a local newspaper and editing/consulting with clients on several books, including a ghost-writing gig and a two week novel-intensive with a client in Honolulu.

She is also teaching extensively and has just launched her new website: www.sylviataylor.ca and business, Sylvia Taylor Communications Ltd.

The Islands David Fraser, Nanoose Bay ascentaspirations@shaw.ca New FBCW member Pam Galloway was pleased to launch her first solo collection of poetry, Parallel Lines, in Vancouver last November.

Pam has since then read from the book at venues in Vancouver and Victoria and continued next page

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took part in the Pacific Festival of the Book in Victoria held in March.

Heather Kellerhals-Stewart’s new book, Extreme Edge (Lorimer, 2007), is a mountain climbing book for teen readers. Much of the climbing action takes place on the rock wall known as The Chief near Squamish.

Writer and journalist Ann Graham Walker, of Nanoose Bay, had a poem in the current issue of PRISM International (45.2). Titled “Another Uneasy Spring,” the poem tackles the dark issues surrounding modern-day pandemic.

Margaret Thompson’s YA historical novel, Eyewitness (2000, Ronsdale), was submitted to the Association for the Export of Canadian Books (AECB) and presented at the 5th Canadian Book Seminar in Seoul, Korea in March.

Joanne Bealy had an essay and a poem in the Winter issue of Cahoots Magazine. Her fascinating interview with Jane Rule had been published in the previous issue.

Lyn Hancock presented a reading and workshop on “Writing from Personal Experience” at the Pacific Festival of the Book in Victoria. Lyn was featured in an early March issue of the Victoria News and again in April in Senior Living.

She gave presentations and workshops on “Books Begin in Backyards” to schools in Victoria in early March at Quadra, Doncaster, South Park and Campus View.

Sheila Munro and Margaret Cadwaladr gave a memoir and autobiography workshop at the Civic Centre in Qualicum Beach on Saturday, March 24, and Sunday, March 25. Margaret also gave her popular life-writing workshop in Courtenay in January. The two-day workshop, for those with an interest in life-writing, autobiography, and memoir, included informal lectures, writing exercises and discussion in a safe, stimulating environment.

Mary Ann Moore created and delivered a number of “Embrace Your Creative Self!” creativity workshops from January through March at the Mid-Island Healing Centre, Nanaimo.

Kay Stewart and husband Chris Bullock, authors of A Deadly Little List, gave a talk on “The Co-Author Process in the Mystery Genre” at the Pacific Festival of the Book in March.

Rachel Wyatt’s play, Crackpot, adapted from Adele Wiseman’s novel of the same name, opened at the Phoenix on March 15.

Patricia Ludwick, from Gabriola, delivered “Exchanges: A Virtual Writing Workshop” January through April.

Caroline H. Davidson is now the coordinator for the The Ontario Poetry Society’s new auxiliary branch in Ladysmith, BC. John Wilson completed a reading tour in Toronto in February to promote his latest title, Where Soldiers Lie, and made a trip to Calgary in April to give the 32

Keynote Address at the Calgary Young Writers’ Conference.

In May, he was in Toronto for the Tree awards as he has a title up for the Red Maple (Red Goodwin) and the White Pine (Four Steps to Death).

Andrea McKenzie had three articles published in Ascent Aspirations Magazine: “Creative Magic: Courageous, Outrageous and Contagious”; “Late Bloomers Are Never Too Late To Write”; and “New Chapbook Press Launch for Global Community of Writers.”

In January, regional representative David Fraser, members Cindy Shantz and Patricia Smekal, along with their committee, launched WordStorm, Nanaimo’s new monthly spoken word event at the Bombay Lounge, downstairs at the Acme Food Co. Both January and February events sold out and future events promise to be the same. Check www.ascentaspirations.ca/WordStorm.htm.

Christel Martin has been writing for Senior Living Magazine since July 2006. Her February 2007 article, “Driven,” profiling BC Motor Vehicles Inspector Steve Jaques, was picked up the BC provincial government for inclusion in their e-zine, Roadrunner.

Kim Goldberg’s poem “Rainmaker” has been published in the Winter 2006 issue of On Spec, the Canadian magazine of the fantastic.

M.A.C. Farrant launched her new book, The Breakdown So Far (Talonbooks, 2007), a collection of short fiction, at the Black Stilt Coffee House on March 23. Readings in Vancouver included The Robson Reading Series, March 15, and The Raw Exchange, March 29. Her stage play adaptation of My Turquoise Years has now gone into development and is one of four new plays selected by the Arts Club Theatre for their ReACT 2007 event this spring. The play was workshopped with actors, the director, and others (and Marion herself) during the week of March 5 to 9 at the Granville Island theatre. A public reading by the actors was held on March 9.

North Compiled by Managing Editor Terrace writer Chantal Meijer had a productive winter. Her essay, “A World of Possibilities” was published in The Front Porch Syndicate and another piece, “Deming the Beaches” was published by Canada Free Press. “Twins Have Separate Birth Dates But One Party” is featured in the March/April issue of Twins Magazine and an article, “Lakelse Lake Provincial Park,” will appear in the 2007 Terrace Tourism Guide.

Margo Hearne’s article, “Haida Gwaii: A CBC Challenge” was published in the December 2006 issue of American Birds, the journal of the National Audubon Society. Her WORDWORKS–SPRING 2007

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stories on the CBC were also published in the Queen Charlotte Island Observer in December and January.

On February 27, the Local Writers Series featured Dr. Dee Horne, a UNBC English professor, who read from her novel, Central Interiors, a historical fiction about Barkerville.

Lynda Williams launched Righteous Anger, the second title in her science fiction saga, on March 8, in the Keith Gordon room of the Prince George Public Library’s main branch.

Sheila Peters is working with visual artist Perry Rath to prepare an Off the Page presentation for his high school art class. She’s also collaborating with the artist on a collection of poems and paintings, the weather from the west, which Creekstone Press will be releasing in August. She’ll be taking her book, Canyon Creek: A Script, into a First Nations 12 class in a presentation which combines storytelling, map reading, and ideas on writing personal essays.

Donna Kane, along with Don McKay and Dorothy Field, displayed poetry at the Muskwa-Kechika Art Show opening at the Dawson Creek Art Gallery on February 9. Over 100 people attended the opening, which was dedicated to the Canada Council for the Arts in recognition of their 50th anniversary.

Genevieve Landreville, Special Events Coordinator for the Canada Council for the Arts, came from Ottawa for the event.

Donna is helping to organize the second Muskwa-Kechika Artist Camp, set to take place July 28 to August 4 this summer.

On February 17 and 18, she facilitated a creative writing workshop at the Dawson Creek Library, and on March 7, Donna gave presentations to two classes at South Peace Secondary School through the Federation’s Off the Page program.

Lower Mainland Compiled by Managing Editor New FBCW member Joanne Arnott joined Richard Van Camp, Eden Robinson, Duncan Mercredi and Dr. Greg Sarris at the 2nd Annual Aboriginal Writers and Storytellers Festival, hosted by UNBC and the City of Prince George, February 7 to 11. Joanne’s new book, Mother Time, was published by Ronsdale Press in March.

Irene Livingston received honourable mention for her entry in the Geist postcard story contest. The story will be published in the summer issue. One of her poems will also appear in Freefall Magazine.

Daniel Francis led two well-attended walking tours of Vancouver’s prostitution district in February to promote his newest title, Red Light Neon, published by Subway Books of Vancouver. Carl Leggo is pleased to report the publication of his new collection of poems, Come-By-Chance, published

by Breakwater Books. Carl will read from his new book at WORDWORKS–SPRING 2007

the Federation-sponsored Launched! Event, along with Andrea MacPherson, MAC Farrant and Mark Anthony Jarman, on April 25 at Café Montmartre during BC Book & Magazine Week.

Digby Peers, a former executive producer for the CBC, has written a story about Lister Sinclair, host for many years of the great CBC radio series Ideas. The article will appear in Stationbreak, the CBC employee newsletter.

Vancouver writer Aileen Penner recently collaborated with Betsy Warland on an interview published in the Fall 2006 edition of Women & Environments International magazine. The conversation, “Lying: A Play in Two Acts / An Interview with Poet and Creative Non-Fiction Writer Betsy Warland,” is part of a special issue on women, art and community activism. The interview can be read at www.scoredspace.ca.

New member Una Bruhns belongs to North Vancouver’s Quills Creative Writing Group, which is launching a new anthology in 2007.

Gordon Mumford read excerpts from In Fate’s Footstep, the final book of his African trilogy, at the Vancouver Public Library on March 26.

Phyllis Grant Lavelle recently launched her series of six history mystery stories for young readers, set in Vancouver circa 1895. The books, featuring historical detail, spooky happenings and engaging characters, are published by Crew Publishing of Nelson, BC. Trevor Carolan read from his new book, The Pillow Book of Dr. Jazz (Ekstasis Editions), at the inaugural Pacific Festival of the Book (March 23 – 24) in Victoria, and at The Raw Exchange Reading Series on March 29 in Vancouver.

Jan Drabek’s book tour for his memoir, His Doubtful Excellency, has taken him to Powell River, Nanaimo, Ladysmith and Gabriola Island in recent weeks. He’ll be presenting at libraries in Kelowna, Penticton and Kamloops later this spring.

Heather Haley’s new videopoem, Purple Lipstick, is garnering kudos, having been selected by VideoBardo 2nd International VideoPoetry Festival in Buenos Aires, the 3rd Zebra International Poetry Film Festival in Berlin (from over 600 entries) and the Women in Film Festival in Vancouver.

“The Understory” by Bowen Island resident Julie Andres will appear as the feature story in the Spring 2007 issue of Crow Toes Quarterly, “the new face of children’s lit.” The story, based on a segment from one of the tales in the ancient Welsh text The Mabigonian, features children wandering the forest at night...

Made to Break by Richmond author Giles Slade has garnered reviews in Playboy, Business Week and CNN. A regular contributor to Mother Jones and TLS, Giles will present a 33

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talk at Brentwood Bay Library in Victoria on April 23.

“Infinite Speed,” winner of The Fiddlehead short fiction contest (and one of the stories from Michele Adams’ debut collection Bright Objects of Desire), was recently included as part of the listing of distinguished stories in Best American Short Stories 2006. Michele’s new Red Letter reading series, sponsored by the FBCW and others, will debut on April 1 at Café Montmartre with readings by Pauline Holdstock, Sandy Shreve, Ryszard Dubanski and Michele.

On April 11, in honour of National Poetry month, Sita Carboni and Bonnie Nish of Pandora’s Collective will be featured at Poetry Around the World, hosted by Lucia Gorea, Indigo Books, West Vancouver. The ladies of Pandora’s Collective will also host Evelyn Lau at Twisted Poets Literary Salon, April 16, at The Bump N Grind Cafe.

June Hutton, a member of the local writing group SPiN, will launch her first novel Underground (Cormorant Books) in February 2009. A story of self-discovery set in the squalor and strife of the 1930s, Underground traces the events that lead a Canadian to enlist in the Spanish Civil War. BC BookWorld publisher Alan Twigg has been appointed the new Shadbolt Fellow at Simon Fraser University and is organizing a symposium, From Feast to Famine and Beyond: An Appraisal of Writing and Publishing in BC, which will take place in Vancouver this September.

Bernice Lever had two poems accepted by Voices Israel and her third book of poems, Untold Lies, will be published

by Black Moss Press later this year. She will present a workshop, “Writing Memories & Memoirs” at the Shuswap Lake International Writers Festival in May. Excerpts from Michael Hetherington’s collection of fragments of fiction, The Archive Carpet, will be published as one of the established adult authors’ contributions in the inaugural issue of the semi-annual Wordscapes Youth Writing Journal to be published in Fall 2007 by Ripple Effect Arts and Literature Society.

Miranda Pearson participated in the Vancouver Writers Festival event, “Vancouver Writes” in February and read at Green College at UBC in March. She will be reading at the Art Bar in Toronto on April 3, 32 Books in North Vancouver on April 16, the London Poetry Café on April 26, and the Shuswap Lake International Writers Festival in late May. In January, Kate Braid, in her current position as Ruth Wynn Woodward Chair in Women’s Studies at SFU, taught a writing workshop to the Clayoquot Writer’s Group, and in February, two poetry workshops (one on writing formal poetry) to the Surrey High School teachers’ conference, “Reader as Writer: Writer as Reader.” She also organized and sponsored a performance of “Poems to Love”—some of the 34

fabulous actress Joy Coghill’s favourite poems—on Valentine’s Day at SFU’s Harbour Centre campus.

Neil Aitken read, along with Russell Thornton, at the Upstart Crow Bookstore in North Vancouver in January.

Several of his poems were published in MiPOesias and The Drunken Boat, and several more are forthcoming in Concelebratory Shoehorn Review, Redactions, Sou’wester, and Spillway. His manuscript, The Lost Country of Sight, recently placed as a semi-finalist in the Elixir Press Poetry Awards in the US. Neil has been accepted to the University of Southern California (USC) and will be returning to the United States this fall to pursue a PhD in English Literature & Creative Writing.

Allan Brown helped to organize and took part in the Ayjoomixw Spirit of BC celebration at the Malaspina Exhibition Art Centre on February 2. Two of his poems were part of the multi-media show “Voices” at Studio 22 in Kingston, Ontario. The Winter/Spring issue of Hammered Out features nine of his poems along with a statement of poetic. The issue also contains a review of his volume of haiku collection, a penny in the grass (Ekstasis Editions).

Allan has recently taken on the position of book reviews coordinator for Poemata, the newsletter of the Canadian Poetry Association.

Cathie Borrie’s lyrical memoir excerpt, “Looking Into Your Voice,” was shortlisted for this year’s CBC National Literary Awards.

The Federation would like to extend congratulations to William (Bill) New on being named an Officer of the Order of Canada.

One of Canada’s most prominent researchers of Canadian literature, New has published nearly four William H. New hundred articles and over 40 books, appointed to the which range from several widelyOrder of Canada. used anthologies to the Encyclopedia of Literature in Canada (University of Toronto Press, 2002), hailed as the authoritative work on Canadian literature. Editor of UBC’s Canadian Literature from 1977 to 1995, New now holds the position of University Killam Professor Emeritus. A sought-after keynote speaker, Prof. New has taught or lectured in the USA, Scotland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, New Zealand, Australia, Finland, Norway, and China. His most recent titles include the award-nominated Underwood Log (shortlisted for the 2005 Governor General’s Award for Poetry) and Touching Equador, both published by Oolichan Books.

WORDWORKS–SPRING 2007

FEATURES

THE LAST WORD

Writer’s Get it Wrong?

By Margaret Thompson

W

ay back in the late 1960s, when Trudeaumania was in full swing, I was inspired to write a letter to the local paper in support of one of Trudeau’s more controversial statements. I can’t remember what the issue was now, and it’s of no importance. What does matter for present purposes is that in the way of very small local newspapers, the printed letter contained several spelling mistakes that certainly did not appear in the original. One of my colleagues at the high school, a crusty individual who probably thought Diefenbaker was God, seized on those typos to pour public scorn on people who had the temerity to voice such opinions when they couldn’t even spell properly. I had no quarrel with the difference of opinion; the fact that Trudeau could get people arguing seemed healthy. What smarted was the injustice of the attack, and the unwarranted, unspoken assumption that the bad spelling meant I was stupid.

I spent the next thirty years teaching English, professionally concerned, among other things, with prompting students to use the language correctly. During that time, successive waves of “new” approaches to reading and writing washed over us; their intentions were no doubt noble, but the result seems to be an ever-growing number of young people who cannot spell, who do not understand the purpose or use of punctuation, stumble over the construction of complex sentences, have the haziest command of idiomatic expressions, and routinely misuse words. In addition, they are not much bothered by their deficiencies.

Those students reflect a general trend. Every day you can see and hear errors in usage: in speech, in newspapers, on television, in the grocery store. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen price tickets for banana’s, tomato’s and potatoe’s. There is a sign in my local coffee shop advertising buns with “cinimun drizzle,” and another café recently got so tied up trying to put “ratatouille” on the menu board, that it went as far as “ratrotl-” in increasingly illegible lettering and then did the written equivalent of a fade to black. Nobody seems to know how to use apostrophes any more. Either they become Pavlovian responses to the letter “s”, or they are used randomly on the principle that they have to be correct at least 25 percent of the time, like answers to multiple choice questions. I find that particularly hard to fathom, since the dual role of the WORDWORKS–SPRING 2007

apostrophe is probably the only grammatical rule in English that has no exceptions. Then there’s the inability to distinguish between counting individual items and bulk, so that one constantly hears things like, “The amount of people…” and “There were less crimes last year…”; the apparent ignorance of the need to marry the number of subject and verb—“Is there any more questions?”; confusion over when to use “I” and “me”, with the attendant weaseling evasion, “myself”; and a complete throwing up of the hands over “lay” and “lie”.

I could go on. And on. But that would probably net me the usual protest: “Don’t be so pedantic!” Is it really pedantry, though, to be concerned? I know that language is organic and dynamic; I probably know more than most about its history, and can see our quirky spelling for the mirror of development it is. I rejoice in the fact that English has more words than any other language, a sea of synonyms that enables us to be precise and varied and subtle; that it is largely uninflected, and so free of the miseries of conjugation, declension and agreement that bedevil other languages; that it gleefully borrows, after mature consideration, so that it is constantly refreshed; that it is a flexible language that invites experiment, irreverence and fun, so that embryonic James Joyces can play as much as they like; that the spoken language is always less constrained—some would say hidebound—than the written form. I know that English will continue to evolve and the rules will change, but right now there is a form to the language that is commonly accepted as correct. Is it pedantry to hope that until those changes occur we don’t behave as if grammar, spelling and punctuation were optional? Is it pathetically small-minded to feel that, “What does it matter? You can still understand what’s meant, can’t you?” is an inadequate rationalization of sloppy laissez-faire?

B

ecause there is a spin-off for writers to this ubiquitous carelessness, and this is where I come back to my original disgruntlement.

We’re all used to seeing typos in published material these days. I’m old enough to be sure that it’s on the increase. It used to be staggering to find a mistake in a book. I don’t know if the old typesetters were more soundly trained in the basics and more careful, or whether their modern counterparts rely too much on computer programs which can’t distinguish some confusions, but now it is rare to find any book which does not contain errors. Just recently I read one by an eminent writer in which “your” was used on every occasion which called for “you’re”. I doubt if there is any one cause of this deterioration; what I do know is that readers automatically assume, because they are largely unaware of the publishing process, and have a romantic notion of the author’s status in it, not to mention the fact that what they more on next page 35

FEDERATION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA WRITERS

We Will Set the Rules, Thanks

By Kim Goldberg

I

’m tired of playing nice. Literary magazines that disallow simultaneous submissions reek of plantation -owner mentality. And they’re not getting any of my stuff. I propose a Poet Revolt under the banner of “Let My Poems Go!” What are we afraid of? It’s not like they have guns.

I mean, it’s our stuff, for Pete’s sake!

If I see a pair of shoes I like at the Bay, the store won’t hold it for me for six months while I make up my mind.

Only writers get kicked around like this.

But seriously, the editorial policy of expecting writers to wait up to a year to receive a crummy little form rejection slip before we can send the piece out somewhere else is profoundly artistnegative. And it is something each one of us can do something about.

A simultaneous submission occurs when you send a poem or short story out to more than one market at the same time. Fortunately, the majority of reputable literary magazines now allow this. Many even welcome it. (Of course, they want to be told in your cover letter that the work is out elsewhere. And they expect you to withdraw it promptly if it is accepted elsewhere or by them.)

Writer’s Get it Wrong? cont’d are reading has the author’s name firmly attached to it, that the writers are at fault.

I know, I know. Most typos are purely accidental. Sometimes the writers do make mistakes, though one wonders, in that case, why they wouldn’t be picked up by vigilant

After perusing submission guidelines for nearly 200 literary magazines, I have discovered that well over half allow simultaneous submissions. And some of those that didn’t in the past (e.g., Rattle) have changed their policy to keep up with the times and not alienate writers.

(Check out www.newpages.com and www.drowningman.net for two excellent lists of literary magazines.)

So the question is what to do about the hold-outs, since they are some of our favourite magazines.

F

or those that are silent on the subject or that state they “discourage” simultaneous submission, I submit anyway and explain in my cover letter “Simultaneous submission is a necessity when earning a living from writing. Your understanding is appreciated.”

For those that reply with “Sorry, we don’t read simultaneous submissions,” I write back and explain in more detail how the speedy placement of my work (regardless of how little any journal may pay) is crucial to my ability to support myself, get grants,

editors. In the larger picture, probably, it’s no big deal. Except that it’s one of those thin wedge ends. If we can’t expect to find language as near perfection as possible in a book, where will it exist? Getting it right should be second nature to anyone connected with writing, right? And I think most writers would prefer to feel mortified about their own errors.

36

land publishers, stay in business, etc.

(I leave off the bit about their plantation-owner mentality.)

O

ne such journal in England changed its position (at least in my case) and invited me to submit further work on that basis. Another in British Columbia resumed reading my simultaneous submissions despite previously telling me to submit future work on an exclusive basis.

I think that is how this battle will be won—one editor at a time. But we have to tell them.

So I say, let’s tell the remaining holdouts why they aren’t hearing from us.

Or let’s submit anyway, telling them it is a simultaneous submission, and telling them why exclusive submission is unfeasible for a self-supporting writer.

View it as an opportunity to educate. I have been surprised at the results so far.

And I’m just one writer.

Kim Goldberg is a Nanaimo writer and author of four books. Her articles, poetry and short fiction have appeared in numerous periodicals and literary magazines over the past 20 years.

Margaret Thompson came to Canada in 1967 and taught English at secondary and post-secondary levels until 1998. She is the author of five books, as well as short stories and articles in various literary magazines. Past President of the Federation of BC Writers, and a member of the editorial committee of WordWorks, Thompson lives in Victoria, BC.

WORDWORKS–SPRING 2007