Wordworks Spring 2008 Daniel Wood

WORDWORKS Spring 2008

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

Daniel Wood: Revealing the World, One Story at a Time

Literary Writes 2008 The Federation of BC Writers presents: The 20th Annual Literary Writes Competition This Year’s Category: Short Fiction, any genre (literary, mystery, romance, speculative or science fiction) Deadline: July 1, 2008 First Prize: $500 and publication in WordWorks Second Prize: $300 Third Prize: $150 Winners will also read their winning entries at Word On The Street Vancouver on September 28, 2008.

The Federation of BC Writers is calling upon all creative souls to enter this year’s Literary Writes fiction contest. Be it literary or mystery, speculative or science, your short story should grab the readers’ attention, holding them sweet hostage until the very end. Enter now and you could be a winner in Literary Writes 2008!

Entries must be original, unpublished stories, any genre, maximum length 4,000 words (accurate word count please). Novel excerpts and non-fiction will not knowingly be considered.

Manuscripts should be typed, pages numbered consecutively and stapled together with title on top of each page.

No identification of the author is to appear on the manuscript itself.

Name, address, telephone and email contact, and a short biography of the author are to be submitted on a separate sheet to accompany the entry.

Manuscripts will NOT be returned, they are destroyed at the end of the competition. Contest results will be posted on the Federation website in September 2008.

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 but each entry must be accompanied by the entry fee.

A person may win only one prize. Make cheque payable to Federation of BC Writers.

The competition is open to all BC writers and residents.

All contest entries must be postmarked

by July 1, 2008.

Mail Entries to: Literary Writes 2008 Federation of BC Writers PO Box 3887 Stn Terminal Vancouver, BC V6B 3Z3

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A Note From the Managing Editor

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FBCW AGM and Conference

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Launch of New Federation Anthology

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Daniel Wood: Revealing the World, One Story at a Time

By Mandana Rastan

13 Author! Author!

Speed Dating for Writers

By David J. Litvak

Community 14 Launched!

New Titles by Federation Members 23 Regional Reports Member News From Around the Province

Contests & Markets 20 Contests & Markets

Cover photo, courtesy of www.ronwattsphoto.com

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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.

A Note From the Managing Editor

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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

2007-2008 Board of Directors PRESIDENT—JAN DRABEK VICE PRESIDENT—JOY HUEBERT INTERIM TREASURER—GREG BALL SECRETARY—ANDREA LOWE PAST PRESIDENT—BRIAN BUSBY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR—FERNANDA VIVEIROS

Regional Representatives 1. NORTH—AUDREY L’HEUREUX 2. SOUTH EAST—ANNE STRACHAN 3. CENTRAL—KAY MCCRACKEN 4. FRASER VALLEY—SYLVIA TAYLOR 5. LOWER MAINLAND—TBA 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

ou may have noticed that the spring issue of WordWorks has arrived a little later than usual. I wish I could say it was because we were waiting for winter’s end and the snowfall here in Vancouver several weeks ago threw us off but the truth is, the Federation has been busier than Fernanda Viveiros ever these last few months with competing project and administrative deadlines. Not only are we embarking on the development of a long-term corporate sponsor plan for the Federation but we’re also working to make the Board’s committee structure more effective. But do not fear, the summer issue is already in the works!

Thank you to the members of our editorial board: Margaret Thompson, Linda Crosfield, Gail Buente and Shirley Rudolph (who is also responsible for WW’s professional design!) for their dedication to producing yet another terrific issue of WordWorks. We’re pleased to present Mandana Rastan’s thoughtful interview of award-winning literary journalist Daniel Wood, one of the founders of the Federation of BC Writers and a past president. And I’m sure some of you will be able to relate to David Litvak’s search for the perfect literary agent in “Speed Dating for Writers.”

Our Launched section features 17 new titles by Federation members and we have a special book of our own to promote—the new Fed anthology, Imagining British Columbia: Land, Memory & Place.We look forward to seeing you at the launch events and hope you will support the publication of this book and its contributing authors by purchasing a copy.

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nd don’t forget about our AGM conference, taking place in Vancouver on May 9 – 10. It’s an opportuntity to socialize at the Fed’s anthology launch, talk shop with sympatico colleagues, take in a workshop or two but more importantly, to lend your voice in our discussion of Federation accomplishments and its goals for the year ahead. We’ll see you there!

—Fernanda Viveiros

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

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FBCW AGM & Conference May 9 - 10, 2008

Federation members are invited to attend the Federation of BC Writers’ Annual General Meeting and Conference taking place May 9 – 10 at the Listel Hotel in Vancouver’s scenic West End neighbourhood.

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ur AGM will commence at 6:30 pm on Friday, May 9, in the Sculpture Gallery Room at the Listel Hotel, 1300 Robson Street. Members are encouraged to arrive ten minutes early to pick up their AGM packages and voting cards.

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 2007 budget, regional achievements, programs and service accomplishments will be presented to the membership.

The AGM will be followed by a reception and the launch of the Fed anthology Imagining British Columbia: Land, Memory & Place published by Anvil Press. Anthology editor Daniel Francis will introduce readings by contributing authors Trevor Carolan, Mona Fertig, Luanne Armstrong and Pam Galloway. Signed copies of the anthology will be available for purchase after the readings.

Seating at the Friday evening event is limited and refreshments need pre-arranging, so please RSVP to the Federation office at 604-683-2057 or email bcwriters@shaw.ca.

Admission to the AGM, Reception and Anthology Launch is free to FBCW members, $5 for guests and members of the public.

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wo workshops, details on the next page, are scheduled for this year’s conference.

We are pleased to offer our members “A First Date with Screenwriting” presented by author and award-winning screenwriter Michele Adams and “The Art of the Sentence” led by another award-winning author and the editor of Geist magazine, Stephen Osborne. Members can register for either workshop—or both—by contacting the Federation office at bcwriters@shaw.ca and requesting a registration form.

The potential of our organization to thrive and expand its services depends on the involvement and participation of our members. The 2008 AGM conference is an opportunity to voice concerns and ideas, support our anthology launch, take in a workshop, and enjoy the company of friends and colleagues. We look forward to seeing you at this year’s AGM Conference in Vancouver!

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FEDERATION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA WRITERS

Workshops at the AGM AF irst Date with Screenwriting First Instructor: Michele Adams 9 am to noon $75 for Fed members ($90 for non-members) Registration fee includes complimentary notebooks & pens, and light refreshments.

Many novelists, short fiction writers, memoirists, and poets are attracted to the idea of writing for the silver screen.

Why? Fun, glory, money—because they “see” this narrative unfolding as a film, because they want to be part of the primary storytelling mode of our culture, because Vancouver is “Hollywood North”—or even all of the above! A feature script can be an exciting creative achievement, but it’s also a lot more than a great idea. Screenwriters need to develop special skills to connect the images, emotions and words that will bring their visions to life on the page; skills that, while they relate to the work of prose writers and poets, are in some ways unique to the screenwriter’s craft. In this morning workshop, we’ll explore some basics: writing visual, screenplay formatting and vocabulary, developing active protagonists, etc.—with a special focus on transferring skills from other writing practice.

Michele Adams is the author of Bright Objects of Desire, a collection of short stories, published by Biblioasis Press. In 2006 her story “Infinite Speed” won the Fiddlehead fiction prize and was also listed in Best American Short Stories 2006; her fiction has appeared in literary journals, and has been adapted for short film and radio.

In 2007 her novel manuscript Grim Sausages was shortlisted for the Metcalf Rooke Award. Two of her feature scripts: Lady S and Sex Lives of the Saints, won the SFU Praxis screenplay competition; both have subsequently been optioned and in development with production companies. She also works as a script analyst and story editor, and teaches screenwriting for SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts

The Art of the Sentence W orkshop Workshop Instructor: Stephen Osborne 1 to 4 pm. $50 for Fed members ($65 for non-members) Registration fee includes complimentary copies of Geist, notebooks & pens, and light refreshments.

Good writing begins with good sentences and Stephen Osborne knows where to find them and how to write them. Learn about good verbs and bad verbs, and even those pesky adverbs. This combination lecture-workshop will provide you with techniques to improve and revitalize your writing immediately. Bring along a sharp pencil and you’ll leave with some great sentences in your pocket.

Stephen Osborne is the editor of Geist and author of Ice & Fire: Dispatches from the New World. He is a recipient of the Vancouver Arts Award for Writing and Publishing, the CBC Literary Award for travel writing, the National Magazine Award for Outstanding Achievement and the Western Magazine Award for Lifetime Achievement. He founded Pulp Press Book Publishers (now Arsenal Pulp Press) in 1971. Read more about him at www.geist.com/phototaxis 4

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Launch of New Federation Anthology Our new Federation anthology, Imagining British Columbia: Land, Memory & Place, will soon take its place on bookstore shelves across the country.

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he twenty contemporary writers featured in this anthology have mined the literary potential inherent in a setting and captured landscape, seascape, nature, history and the unique cast of characters that inhabit our province. Their essays and memoirs have been inspired by, or are in some way affected by, the particular “sense of place” that sets that left-hand corner of the country apart from other provinces. Some are humorous; others are poignant. Whether describing a family history in Kitsilano, the difficulties fitting in as an immigrant, or a close encounter with a grizzly bear, these stories communicate a sense of belonging to, or a trying to find, a sense of place.

Some of Canada’s best-known writers, all members of the Federation of BC Writers, are featured in this anthology, including Pauline Holdstock, Harold Rhenisch, George Fetherling and M.A.C. Farrant. The list of contributors includes established authors Katherine Gordon, Margaret Thompson, Trevor Carolan, Luanne Armstrong, Deanna Kawatski, Jan Drabek, A.S. Penne, Howie White, Joan Skogan, Mona Fertig and Shannon Cowan. Emerging writers Pam Galloway, Victoria Marvin, Trisha Cull, Dawn Service and Elizabeth Templeman further attest to the new talent found within our membership. The book features an introduction by editor Daniel Francis, a historian and author of twenty books.

The Federation of BC Writers would like to thank our former Executive Director Merrill Fearon for initiating the project, Past President Brian Busby for reading over one hundred submissions and heading the jury process, Daniel Francis for assisting a number of authors with polishing their contributions, and publisher Brian Kaufman, for undertaking this ambitious project. We also thank our contributors, talented writers all, for lending their voices to a book we believe our members will be proud to display on their bookshelves.

The Federation would like to encourage its members to purchase copies directly from the publisher, Anvil Press (order form on page 28) or at your local independent bookstore. We look forward to seeing you at the launch events taking place around the province this spring.

Additional launch events and readings will be posted on our website, www.bcwriters.com WORDWORKS–SPRING 2008

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Anthology Launch Events Around the P rovince Province Vancouver: Anvil Launch of Imagining British Columbia, a BC Book & Magazine Week event Café Montmartre, 4362 Main Street, Vancouver Tuesday, April 22, 7 pm.

Readers: Trisha Cull, Victoria Marvin, Jan Drabek For more information, contact Karen Green at info@anvilpress.com Federation of BC Writers’ Anthology Launch Sculpture Gallery Room, Listel Hotel, 1300 Robson Street, Vancouver Friday, May 9, 8 pm.

M/C: Editor Daniel Francis Readers: Trevor Carolan, Pam Galloway, Luanne Armstrong, Mona Fertig For more information, contact the Federation office at bcwriters@shaw.ca Salmon Arm: Shuswap Lake International Writers’ Festival Launch and lunch sponsored by the Federation of BC Writers and the Shuswap Association of Writers takes place on the deck of the Prestige Hotel, Saturday, May 24, 12:30 - 1:30 pm.

Deanna Kawatski, Jan Drabek and Luanne Armstrong reading from the Federation’s new anthology. For more information, contact Kay McCracken at kaymcc@telus.net Victoria: Fed Anthology Launch sponsored by the Federation of BC Writers, taking place at the Community Arts Council of Greater Victoria, 6G - 1001 Douglas St., Victoria.

Saturday, May 30, 7 pm.

Readers: Harold Rhenisch, Katherine Gordon, Pauline Holdstock, M.A.C. Farrant, Mona Fertig, Trisha Cull and Margaret Thompson.

For more information, contact the Federation office.

FEDERATION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA WRITERS

Daniel Wood:

Revealing the World, One Story at a Time

By Mandana Rastan

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photo: Mandana Rastan

hree hundred kilometers southwest of Cairo, in Egypt’s Bahariya Oasis, near the ruins of an ancient temple dedicated to the Pharaonic god Horus, award-winning freelance magazine writer Daniel Wood and his photographer-buddy Ron Watts stand amongst ancient pottery shards, under a 40-degree desert sun, sipping hot water from their water bottles. Minutes later, below the desert’s surface and guided by archaeologist Mohammed Aiady, Wood enters a newfound, decorated tomb, full of 2600-year-old gold- and linen- covered mummies, a few of the thousands discovered beneath the shifting Saharan sands in 1996. “At the moment,” Wood writes in the 2001 Westworld magazine article ‘Ghosts in the Oasis’, “Aiady is deciphering for me the wall paintings that tell the story of Bannantiu-Zed-Amun-efankh, a real man who lay in this dimly lit crypt, mummified for the last 2600 years. But I’m having trouble concentrating. My thoughts keep veering toward my circumstances. I’m six metres beneath the Sahara. In an airless, claustrophobia-inducing tomb. With mummy curses on my mind.”

Wood’s motto: No Fear. He travels the world to get at the heart of a good story, and thrives on uncertainty and adventure. Author of 14 books, both fiction and non-fiction, and winner of over 30 writing awards, 65-year-old Wood is highly respected amongst Canada’s non-fiction writers, magazine editors, and his hundreds of former Simon Fraser University students. His secret for success and a life well-lived: his love of mystery, risk-taking, and ambiguity; plus a good sense of humour, great writing skills and a passion for the devious pleasures of narrative storytelling. He has combined these to have a thirty-year career as a fulltime freelance writer.

Now, before me, in his Kitsilano home, surrounded by photos and artifacts of three decades of trips around the world, Wood sinks comfortably in his swivel chair, reflecting on the life of a teacher turned writer.

Since he began traveling in 1963, Wood has been to almost 100 countries. He has lived for extended periods of time in the Unites States, Denmark, Nepal, Malaysia, Afghanistan and Greece. His adventures in the past few years have included driving solo across the entire Australian outback, kayaking the Arctic coast of Greenland, crossing Mongolia’s Gobi Desert in search of dinosaurs, climbing to 16,000 feet on an Ecuadorian volcano, and white water kayaking for a week through the Belize jungle. Last month he returned from Antarctica, his seventh continent.

Wood’s photographer, Ron Watts, comments on how he has been personally affected by working and travelling with the adventurous writer. “We’re getting older and it’s physically wearing,” says Watts.

“These long hauls—the flying back from Mongolia, we were up early to get to Beijing and then all day 6

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in the airport in Beijing, uncomfortable seats on the way back, the jet lag.” On location, Ron has to be patient to capture the right lighting and perfect conditions for his photos. Sometimes there isn’t even a story from the aspect of photography, and sometimes his photos don’t make it into the published article. But the rewards outweigh the hardships. “It’s those moments and charges, the adrenalin rush, the experiences,” he points out.

Also, he is moved by the people they meet throughout their travels, especially those in less industrialized, less “sophisticated” cultures—their openness and generosity.

“They invite you in and feed you, open up to you, allow you to photograph them. They don’t know what you’re going to do or what you’re going to say about them and they may never see it. […] They’re interested, in our culture, who we are and what we’re doing, and why we’re asking these questions and all that sort of stuff. That kind of level, it’s very gratifying. And I think that’s what Daniel strives for because it’s very difficult to get through to that level, to cut through the superficial and find the depth, that universal aspect of human nature.”

Born in Newton, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston, Wood has loved writing stories since he was six or seven. In school, he recalls, he would get praised for writing stories.

Later, he was editor of newspapers in his high school and university and wrote about social and political issues. In the meantime, he majored in English with a focus on creative writing, thinking writing would just be a hobby.

In the 1960s Wood served as a Peace Corps volunteer, setting up primary schools in rural Borneo, living without any electricity in a jungle population of 400 in a primitive world of former head-hunters. When he was 25, he published his first fiction book, River of Gold (Longman, 1969).

In the early 70s, as an American draft resister, Wood made Vancouver his new home and got a teaching job in an experimental private elementary school, teaching kids aged 4 to 13 in East Vancouver. Then, in 1974, because of his experience in community education, he landed a position as a lecturer in the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia. An offspring of these experiences was his urban guidebook Kids! Kids! Kids, which sold 150,000 copies, an unprecedented number for Canadian non-fiction.

It provided educators, children and kids of all ages with a compilation of day trips, public events and recreational opportunities.

Teaching, however, became frustrating for an outspoken Wood, whose radical views were as incompatible with those of his conservative colleagues as oil and water. The huge success of his best-selling non-fiction book had provided him with a breakthrough, opening doors to the non-fiction WORDWORKS–SPRING 2008

world and giving Wood a high profile as well as a cheque for $60,000, which today would be worth more than triple that amount. In the meantime, Wood had already done some freelance writing for publications such as The Georgia Straight and Vancouver Magazine. With the money from the book and a desire to be independent, he decided to try working full-time as a writer.

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ew Journalism writers such as Tom Wolfe, John McPhee and Joan Didion, who were the nonfiction literary stars of the 60s and 70s, inspired Wood. “They were a revelation,” he explains, “because suddenly non-fiction wasn’t just reporting. They were writing with the understanding of the narrative. Narrative is at the heart of what I do, and it was the heart of what those writers did.” The use of plot, characters, story twists and dialogue were important tools that Wood picked up from the New Journalists and applied to his own writing.

“I’m really interested in people’s motivation and thinking, so I ask them some questions to have them reveal their inner fears, motivations and feelings. I like asking people tough questions. I’ve never been shy about doing that. It causes people to think, and so the reader gets to see inside the character,” says Wood. When he asks “What did you do?” and follows it up with “How did you feel about what you did?”, he prompts the interviewee to reveal a fuller story.

According to Wood, motivation, and not just action, is the essence of narrative. “When you take the tricks of fiction and apply [them] to non-fiction,” he says, “you end up affecting the reader. You’re not just giving them information.”

Wood was the first person to write about the missing women of Downtown Eastside in 1994 (Step Magazine). In that article he raised issues about the law “being complicit in the death of many working women by not allowing them to solicit in a protected environment – as happens in New Zealand and most of Europe.” Similarly, in 2001, he was the first person to write about the dangers of the Mormons’ polygamous community in Bountiful, B.C. (Saturday Night), and in 2002 in Vancouver Magazine he explored “the often fatal issues around local street racing—by joining with the street racers in their racing.” Most of these articles have won writing awards.

In his January 2008 Vancouver Magazine article about the plight of Filipino nannies, Wood addresses the effect of “Canada’s highly discriminatory and racist Live-In Caregiver’s legislation” that requires thousands of Filipino mothers to leave their children in order to work as nannies in Canada.

Editor Gary Ross comments, “Vancouver mothers don’t continued next page 7

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Canada. In 2000, the Western Magazine Awards gave Daniel Wood its Lifetime Achievement Award, the first and so far the only one given to a freelance magazine writer. realize their Filipino nanny has left her own children behind, In his role as teacher and mentor, Wood has taught even that the nanny has children and that this is a great flaw in writing at UBC, at a variety of writers’ festivals from the way that we handle the collective raising of our children in Victoria to the Sunshine Coast, and, for over 20 years, at this society, in this world, and we’ve got some letters to the Simon Fraser University’s downtown campus. In 2008, he editor about it saying, ‘Thank you, I didn’t realize, this is will also be teaching non-fiction writing at the Powell River important, thank you for publishing it.’”

Festival of Writers in April, the Says Wood, “I’ve written about 40-50 articles Island Mountain Arts Festival in on issues of social justice in order to bring such Wells, B.C. in July, and the issues to the public’s attention. It gives me Surrey International Writers “Can we assume that satisfaction to raise important social issues in an Festival in November. Over the the stories that inform informative, thoughtful way. I’m not trying to past 25 years he has taught nonand entertain us, give the readers answers. I prefer ambiguity. You, fiction writing to over 3000 the reader, with what you know, now have to people. A significant number of connecting us to the figure out the answers. This is what makes stories them have become writers and remotest regions of work. The reader is asked to enter the story and editors, and at least 20 published our planet, will react.” Wood likes to shine light in dark corners, books have come out of these always be at our showing how we as a society have failed to notice classes. certain issues, and he wants to get people to talk Mary Wood, 93, “a welldoorstep?” about them. “I’m a social critic. I pack the rock of known American political figure my social criticism inside a snowball of entertainand feminist of the pre-Gloria ing writing. I’m always looking for important Steinem days”, had a deep untold stories that reveal the things that are taboo, or impact on shaping her writer son’s thinking, fuelling his overlooked, or unjust. People tell me stuff and I see the desire to make a difference as a social activist. As a university larger story in that thing.” student in the early 60s, Wood was involved in the Civil For example, the May 11-18, 2006 issue of The Georgia Rights movement, spending three summers in the American Straight included Wood’s cover story about gays and the South helping with voters’ rights and voting registration for priesthood, and the hypocrisy that the Anglican Church disenfranchised blacks. “I was deeply affected by those years. allowed by having gay priests in the clergy as long as the I saw injustice. I saw discrimination. Friends of mine were men’s sexuality was kept secret. That story was one of murdered. People tried to kill me. These things were formaWood’s four finalist nominations in the National Magazine tive in what I think a person should do when facing injusAwards last year. To date he has won 31 regional, national or tice.” Wood was in Alabama when three young civil rights international magazine writing awards, and he has been a workers were murdered in nearby Mississippi. He adds, “I finalist for 62 more magazine writing awards—far more than was in Selma, Alabama during all the now-historic events any other magazine writer in Canada. there and got to know three people, including Martin Luther King, who were later murdered as well. These tragic events ther than raising important issues through his shaped my lifelong involvement with issues of social justice.” writing, Wood has tried to improve the lot of He has maintained this commitment for 30 years. “I take my Canada’s writers over the years. Not only one of the writing skills and regularly explore issues in society that have founders of the Federation of B.C. Writers, Wood was, in been ignored and I want society to think about them.” fact, the second president, under whose leadership One of Canada’s leading magazine writers, and, according Wordworks was started, and named, by him. In the 1980s he to editor Gary Ross “the absolute quintessential professional was one of three people who turned the Toronto-based freelance writer” and “an editor’s dream”, Wood, in his own Periodical (now Professional) Writers Association of Canada words, is “probably the most eclectic non-fiction writer in the (PWAC) into a national, chapter-based organization. country.” During the past three decades, his stories have Between 1989 and 1991 he was writer/editor of The Globe ranged across a wide spectrum of topics—food, art, science, and Mail’s WEST magazine, which, during his tenure, won adventure, politics, profiles, humour, design, wildlife, fashion, the National Magazine Award as the best periodical in crime, and celebrities. “There’s a certain element of the

The Heart of the Matter, cont’d

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seems to flow so smoothly and naturally and with a terrific rhythm between facts and scenes and characters and be bound by this unifying theme, and yet not realize that it was a complete architectural construction. And for me it was exciting to see that, oh, none of this happens by accident, and from that moment on I began to employ some of his method, and, more than that, I began to think of stories architecturally, and I pass it onto other writers I know as well. We’re all better for it. I think it’s not exaggerating to say that the quality of writing in Western Canada has been affected by the things Daniel is teaching.”

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ike his mentor, Montgomery enjoys telling stories.

Meeting Wood made him realize that “not only is there a method to this beautiful thing, but also I can do it.” After graduating from Langara, instead of going into newspaper journalism, Montgomery took a chance on an opportunity to write feature stories in Hong Kong (Hong Kong Shipping Gazette and ) from 1996 to 1998.

And following in Wood’s footsteps has paid off. He has won four Western Canada Magazine Awards, a 2004 silver National Magazine award and the 2003 American Society of Travel Writer’s Silver Award for best North American travel story.

Montgomery’s book The Last Heathen (2004) won the $25,000 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction in 2005.

Montgomery’s praise for Wood is echoed by Colleen Friesen, one of Wood’s former students and a freelance travel journalist. Four years ago she took two of Wood’s courses at Simon Fraser University, and found him very supportive and encouraging to new writers. “He started my writing career,” she says, “made it seem possible.” Her story “Meth and Kin” (March 2006, Vancouver Magazine), won a National Magazine Award in 2006 and a Western Magazine Award in 2007.

I first met Wood at the Surrey International Writers’ Conference in October 2007 at his presentation on nonfiction writing as well as a 15-minute Blue Pencil Café session, continued next page photo: www.ronwattsphoto.com

explorer and adventurer in me,” he admits. “The world is full of mysteries and I find pursuing the mysteries fascinating.”

Wood’s sense of adventure has led him into many strange, sometimes hazardous, situations. For example, in March 2004, dressed uncomfortably in a tuxedo, mingling with 1300 Explorers Club diners in Manhattan’s WaldorfAstoria, Wood savoured delicacies such as poached earthworms, beer-battered goat testicles and tempura tarantulas, and then wrote about his experience for The Walrus. An Arctic journey that saw him kayaking with 11 others dressed in “fat yellow penguin” survival suits amongst massive icebergs off Ellesmere Island, “rubbing shoulders with the Viking, Thule and explorer ghosts,” made a compelling story in the Winter 2007 issue of Westworld magazine. He has danced to an old Chubby Checker tape with Borneo’s wandering Penang people, ridden a camel named Hadou into the remotest reaches of the Moroccan Sahara, been treed by a pair of annoyed rhinos in southern Nepal, and written about them all.

Storytelling is an art that comes naturally to Wood, but it is supported by hard work. As Anne Rose, editor of Westworld magazine, says, “He reads voraciously, he does his digging and he does his research and then he also puts a human face on the piece and brings it alive for people. So even if something happened a long time ago, he’s got a way of tying it into current events and things that are going on in the world around us so that we can relate to that story in present day.”

In the late 1990s when award-winning author and journalist Charles Montgomery was in journalism school at Langara College, he met Daniel Wood as a guest speaker.

Wood talked about an architectural approach to storytelling.

“So a story would have all those elements we feel are so important,” says Montgomery, referring to the narrative tools used in fiction—scene, character, dialogue, inner monologue, motivation, plot, drama and facts. “Daniel would weave them together in a very artful fashion, but that was utterly premeditated. So as a reader you could read one of Daniel’s pieces and be pleased by the way everything

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The Heart of the Matter, cont’d which was a chance to meet one-on-one with an accomplished author. I showed Wood some of my published articles. He commented that he could see my writing was from the heart, which I sensed was where his own passion for writing came from, but he was quite blunt about the limited readership I was reaching. So he suggested that I take his upcoming course “Creative Magazine Writing” at SFU, and I did. I liked his nononsense, tell-it-like-it-is yet gentle, encouraging attitude. A week later, I was on the edge of my seat in his classroom, taking in every word. Step by step I learned how to put a magazine proposal together and got a fast-track lesson in how to write a story from various angles, revealing the bigger picture. Also, I could hardly believe it when Wood offered the entire class ongoing mentorship for as long as we needed it. It’s not every day that a teacher does that.

And why would he? I think it’s because he’s passionate about what he does. Also, because he cares about raising issues and telling a compelling narrative to engage readers, he probably wants to see that continue with the new generation of writers and investigative journalists. So when he sees people who are talented and interested, he wants to pass on what he knows about the craft. Friesen concurred, adding that Wood taught her to believe in her ability, giving her the confidence to pursue queries that she might otherwise have thought were beyond her. As a joke, and to make his point in a light but meaningful, memorable way, Wood took his water bottle and squirted some of its contents on the carpet in their SFU classroom as “sort of a benediction of the students”. The message is “You’re writers if—and that’s the operative word—you decide that you’re writers.”

Wood comments, “I’m very proud to have helped writers find their feet. If you have ambition, skills and selfdiscipline, you can do it, and I’m happy to pass on the torch. That’s what citizenship is about. As a refugee in Canada and an old 60s idealist, I feel a part of my life should go to educating the new generation of young, nonfiction writers in Canada. ” Wood adds, “I’m drawn to stories. They inform, and they give shape to the events around us. If I can encourage others to enter and inhabit the world of creative non-fiction or literary journalism, I know, from my own experience, that they will have a fulfilling and adventurous life.” Friesen can vouch for that.

Like Wood, she often convinces companies to pay for her travel expenses in exchange for exposure and publicity via her travel articles. This often translates into thousands of dollars saved and trips that she may not otherwise be able to make.

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Making a living as a freelance magazine writer is not all that easy, however. “The challenge,” says Gary Ross, editor of Vancouver Magazine and former editor of Saturday Night, “involves getting the best writers to work for inhuman wages. You know, I basically want, for a few thousand dollars, people to give me six weeks of their life and it’s a lot to ask […]. The challenge is getting great productivity out of wonderful writers and finding ways to get them into the magazine when they’re busy with better paying gigs or writing books and things like that.” Both Ross and Rose admit that magazine writers’ rates have not changed in the last 15-20 years, still, at the most, $1 per word for senior writers and big feature stories.

Other challenges for magazine writers? “It’s more of a struggle and there’s more amalgamation of companies,” says Rose, “so that they’re producing maybe several magazines.” That means more pressure on the editing staff and less time spent working with writers. Rose adds, “You always used to have a lot of people in their 40s, 50s, and 60s working on magazines as well as the younger people, and I don’t see that happening any more as much, so it’s hard for young people to get on-the-job training from people who’ve been in the industry for a long time, and I think that somehow comes out on the writers eventually.”

Wood, however, disagrees. “There are plenty of excellent teachers and courses in the province who are currently instructing new writers,” he says. “In fact, almost every B.C. university and college has a journalism/creative non-fiction program now. I can’t think of one that doesn’t. It’s not the job of working editors to instruct, so don’t look there expecting mentoring help.”

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new trend is pointing to magazine writers expanding their skills to do more than writing. What some editors are doing now is sending writers off on assignments with video equipment so they can return with live stories that can be added to features for the website versions. As Wood says, “In the 21st century we’re entering the age of the documentary film as people come to expect the media to challenge the abiding fantasies that consumed the public in the 20th century. If I were young now, I’d be making documentaries.”

Current enthusiasm for documentaries seems to bear out Wood’s opinion. Katherine Monk’s January 16 article in The Vancouver Sun outlines a number of prominent Canadian documentary films and filmmakers at this year’s Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. “With a full array of thoughtful, inspired and urgent films about everything from drinking water to government secrets filling out all facets of the program […] Canadian filmmakers [looked] to bring their message to the world stage.” These are filmmakers committed WORDWORKS–SPRING 2008

FEATURES

to humanitarian issues, showing how our world can be a of any feelings of guilt or accountability, to what extent are better place, how we can inspire and learn from each other, readers willing to continue buying print copies, supporting how to view our challenges from various perspectives, raise the publishing houses? awareness and stimulate discussion. Monk adds, “When it Ross is not so optimistic about the future of magazine comes to non-fiction, we’re doing something right.” writing and publishing. “You look at what’s happened over the Which brings us back to Daniel Wood’s important role as past ten years. All kinds of good magazines have shut down and critic/writer in a doctrinaire world, and his commitment to all kinds of faux magazines have started up, and by faux writing articles about social magazines I mean magazines that essentially issues that get readers to think service the advertiser and pay almost no regard to and ask questions, as well as his actual editorial content. So all these magazines ability to weave a compelling like Vancouver View and Dream Homes that are ”I’m always looking narrative into investigative just kind of conduits for Botox ads and West for important untold reporting that informs and Vancouver Real Estate listings and so on—that’s stories that reveal the entertains readers. the direction that magazines have taken and I things that are taboo, In a fast-paced, technologicallydon’t know what’s going to reverse that direction. advanced world we can easily I don’t think it’s particularly a good time to aspire or overlooked,or obtain the latest information from to be a freelance magazine writer.” At the same unjust.” various forms of media but only in time, however, he points out that “Daniel is kind snippets and often through forces of a shining example that it can be done and how driven by fear-inducing drama, to do it”. Wood’s response? “I survived by being money-generating sensationalism, and sex-obsessed gloss. As well, very productive and because I’m the old guy.” sources such as You Tube can not only provide us with endless Still, not every writer can follow Wood’s lead. Not without hours of entertainment and updated discussion of what’s happen- support from readers, publishers and government agencies. It’s ing around us, but also confer the power of reporting on nonimportant that we make an investment in Canadian media individuals and readily connect us worldwide. However, storytelling. “Our culture is vulnerable because of the overflow these sources rarely give us the bigger picture. It is the non-fiction from the U.S.,” warns Wood—not a surprising statement. narrative that fulfills that need, providing readers with connecSchools need to pay more attention to Canadian content in tions. It is non-fiction reportage that we can rely on for depth and their curriculum and the government can support magazine meaning. “We want to know how the facts affect us,” says Wood, content and distribution through a postal subsidy. At the same “and the job of a good non-fiction writer is to show us that. The time, it’s important to recognize and appreciate the recent narrative acts as a bridge to the reader. The facts have been increase in funding through grants and prizes. For example, one packaged in an entertaining way.” And non-fiction has some of Canada’s largest literary prizes, British Columbia’s National heavyweight supporters. In a 2005 interview with New York Award for Canadian Non-Fiction, was increased this year from Times’ Rachel Donadio, V. S. Naipaul, Nobel laureate in litera$25,000 to $40,000 so that it is now the same amount as ture, commented that “non-fiction gave one a chance to explore Griffin Poetry Prize and the Scotiabank Giller Prize. the world, the other world, the world that one didn’t know fully.”

As readers, can we assume that the stories that inform hether or not new non-fiction writers are setting and entertain us, connecting us to the remotest regions of their sights on such awards, they can benefit our planet, will always be at our doorstep? from Wood’s three golden nuggets: see your role To what extent might readily-available Internet informaas a storyteller, not a reporter; look in dark places; and don’t tion, tabloids and all kinds of magazines be competing with be afraid—go right into your own fears. Wood has faith in quality literature? As well, with shorter features than previthe ability of good writing to influence the way people ous years (for example, 2500 words now versus 5000 words think. “I’ve always believed in the power of words and I in The Georgia Straight, say, a couple of decades ago) and believe in the power of words even more emphatically today. readers’ shorter attention span, what might the future of Words can make a difference.” non-fiction features look like? Also, taking into considerWood has demonstrated by his example that if we want to ation the fact that writers’ rates have remained the same as make a difference in the world, we have to get involved. He twenty years ago, how encouraging can that be for potential knows he can’t change the world. As a journalist he can only raise freelance writers? And, in an age of dwindling loyalty to the issues, and bring about awareness and action. He has made a artists, where many music lovers’ consciousness seems devoid career out of raising the consciousness of readers and bringing the

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FEDERATION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA WRITERS

destination of which the traveller is unaware.” Perhaps we travel and gather stories in search of our story within, and with every story we write we gain a deeper understanding of ourselves and how we relate to all that surrounds us.

And all the better if, along the way, we can raise issues and make our fellow travellers reflect on their own path and the marks they’re leaving behind with their footprints. Perhaps we can make a difference after all.

The Heart of the Matter, cont’d mysteries of the world to armchair travellers. And he’s living life with passion.

His passion is his gift to the world.

And indeed we are transformed in the process of the journey as I was.

This article started as a magazine proposal for a class assignment. The story snowballed as my interview with Daniel Wood led me to further interviews with his editors, colleagues and former students. As the story expanded, my own experience was enhanced, my fears and shyness subsided, my confidence increased and I got a glimpse into what it takes to write a profile.

Philosopher and educator Martin Buber said, “Every journey has a secret

Mandana Rastan

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An Iranian immigrant, Mandana Rastan teaches English to immigrants and international students at Vancouver Community College. She is also studying in the Writer’s Studio/Creative Writing Program at Simon Fraser University. Her website is www.mandanasworld.homestead.com

WORDWORKS–SPRING 2008

FEATURES

Author! Author!

Speed Dating for Writers

By David J. Litvak

My knees quivered and my palms were sweaty as I waited in the hall with a small crowd of other nervous guys. I’d never done this before. I hope she likes me, I thought hopefully as I combed my hair and straightened my shirt. Maybe this will be the beginning of a meaningful relationship. You never know.

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hen my name was called, I entered the room and took my seat in front of a middle-aged woman with a stern gaze and a cool demeanor. There was an awkward silence. I tried to fill it by blurting out a few words about myself, hoping I would say something that would entice her to want to hear more. I was wrong. She was clearly not impressed. After ten excruciating minutes, it was time to gather up my ego and move on.

Like many of her colleagues from the United States and Canada, the editor I had just met came to this year’s Surrey International Writer’s Conference to scout out prospective new writing talent. She spent a whole morning of the threeday extravaganza listening to pitches like mine from writers who were desperately trying to get their manuscripts published. It was the first time that I’d ever “pitched” an editor from a prestigious publishing house face-to-face and to be honest, I was a little nervous. Unfortunately, she was wholly unenthusiastic and rejected my book proposals outright. But hey, as a writer, I’m used to rejection. In fact, in that sense, writing is a lot like dating. And, like speed dating, pitching ideas to editors and literary agents at ten-minute intervals is like going on a series of nerve-wracking first dates. Although my initial “date” with an editor left me somewhat dejected, my next two encounters were more encouraging.

My second date was with an affable editor from a publishing house in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She listened to my pitch attentively. At the end of our brief meeting, she took my manuscript and promised to look it over, even though she thought it sounded too commercial for the literary children’s press that she represented. Fair enough. Getting a manuscript into the hands of an editor is half the battle. In most cases, when manuscripts by unknown authors are sent to publishing houses, they end up in the slush pile, and a standard “Dear Writer” form letter is sent back. So, we’ll see what happens.

WORDWORKS–SPRING 2008

My third date was with a literary agent, also from Massachusetts. By this time, I was getting the hang of things.

I’d stopped blurting out my writing history in one breath.

She was approachable and friendly, and we spent our ten minutes fleshing out some of my ideas. She felt that one of my books, The Accidental Publicist, would have limited appeal. But her curiosity was piqued by Dancing With Bears in Nelson, BC, a collection of short stories about my experiences in the magical mountain town situated in southeastern British Columbia. She suggested that I email five of the stories to her. I explained that the book was still a work-inprogress and that I would gladly send her five chapters once I’d tweaked them. She wasn’t willing to represent me yet but was open to the possibility that she might in the future. So, although the morning wasn’t a resounding success, it wasn’t an absolute failure either. But, I’m not a sucker for punishment and after three meetings, I’d reached my saturation point. I decided to wander around the hotel lobby, visit some of the writing-related vendors and associations, and schmooze with other writers.

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discovered that other writers who’d met with agents had had a variety of experiences. One science fiction writer, instead of subjecting herself to the speed-dating assembly-line approach, decided to set up informational meetings with agents to hone her pitch. Some of the agents were responsive to her unconventional approach while others were not. I heard that one writer had met with twenty agents and editors. Talk about perseverance! And stamina. He obviously has a thicker skin than I. As for me, if I’m not published by next October, I will probably do this again but I don’t think I’ll have twenty literary dates. I’m not that desperate. But at least I won’t be a conference virgin. And maybe I’ll find the perfect match. You never know.

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FEDERATION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA WRITERS

Launched!

New Titles by

Federation Members

Kendra Kandlestar and the Door to Unger Lee Edward Födi Brown Books, October 2007 ISBN: 978-1-933285-83-2 $20.95 Everyone knows that the creatures of the outside world are forbidden by magic to enter the land of Een. That’s why young Kendra Kandlestar is so surprised when a giant Unger arrives in the middle of the night to deliver a cryptic message: If she can find the fabled Door to Unger, she will be able to unlock the truth about her long-lost family. Soon, Kendra finds herself on an epic adventure in which she must tangle with dwarves, monsters, and one strange, magic-peddling faun. Can Kendra trust this peculiar cast of characters? Will she be able to discover the secret about her family?

Lee Edward Födi has been writing and illustrating stories about magic, monsters, and mystery for as long as he can remember.

Growing up on a farm, he was subjected to various horrible chores such as cleaning up after chickens, pigs, geese, and younger siblings. Once, he was even accidentally locked inside the chicken coop. It’s probably this incident that gave him the idea for writing Kendra Kandlestar and the Door to Unger, a story in which there are numerous doors, but none that harbour anything behind them quite so terrible as chicken dung. Födi now lives in Vancouver, Canada, and likes to stay as far away as possible from all farms.

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Manga Touch Jacqueline Pearce Orca, October 2007 ISBN 978-1-55143-746-0 $9.95 CDN Dana is excited about her school trip to Japan despite the fact that she is surrounded by the Melly Mob, “in-crowd” kids who make fun of her. Dana is certain she will be less of an outsider in Japan, home of manga and anime.

But she soon discovers that it’s just as difficult to fit in with a foreign culture as it is to fit in at school—and the only other manga fan she meets refuses to talk to her. As Dana learns to meet people halfway and gains some friends in Japan, Melissa, leader of the Melly Mob, makes every effort to remind her that she’s still an outsider.

Jacqueline Pearce grew up on Vancouver Island, intrigued by local history and the possible stories in the places around her.

Manga Touch, in a departure from the author’s usual local settings, takes readers along on a teenage character’s exchange trip to Japan.

Jacqueline is the author of seven books for children and teens.

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COMMUNITY

The Fight of Her Life: A Year of Ours Ab McQuillin Trafford Publishing, October 2007 ISBN 978-1-4251-3436-5 $15.95 This is the moving story of a woman’s battle with cancer as told from her husband’s perspective. From the time Mary McQuillin hemorrhaged and was admitted to hospital to the discovery of a lump the size of a golf ball right through the many months of treatment, Ab McQuillin details his wife’s journey through serious illness and the lifechanging aftermath.

Ab McQuillin of Quesnel was raised in Ontario but has lived half his life in BC. He is a retired journeyman cook and started writing short stories in 1999 for the Quesnel Wordspinners Anthologies. He is the author of a cookbook and published a 26-page booklet for the Quesnel & District Seniors’ Society.

Tin Angel

Alone Against the Arctic

Shannon Cowan Lobster Press, October 2007 ISBN 978-1-897073-68-1 $14.95

Anthony Dalton Heritage House, October 2007 ISBN 978-1-894974-33-2 $19.95

“Everything that came after my arrest is well recorded by the local papers. Shelter Bay was a small town, with clean streets and impeccable sanitation. Salmon still ran in nearby rivers, and the smells of cut wood and paper pulp were akin to economic holiness. The price of gasoline may have been on the rise, but people didn’t drive very far to get where they were going. As a rule, children did not commit serious crimes.

Then I came along and changed all that.”

In the summer of 1984, Anthony Dalton embarked on a near-fatal voyage in a small open boat along the wild northwest coast of Alaska, attempting a solo transit of the Northwest Passage. His sea quest ran parallel to an arduous relief expedition undertaken in 1897-98, when the officers of the U.S. Revenue cutter Bear set out to reach eight whaling ships that were stranded in thick ice, their crews on the verge of starvation. Both journeys are depicted in this captivating adventure tale, and Dalton’s gripping description of his encounter with an icy hell explores the irresistible lure of risk and challenge that continues to draw adventurers to the Arctic: a place like no other.

It is 1969, and Ronnie Page loves her life at Raven’s, an idyllic mountain lodge that her family has owned for generations. But sudden tragedy destroys her bliss when Ronnie stands accused of murdering a family friend. Will anyone ever really know what happened that night at the lodge? Ronnie herself is uncertain of her absolute guilt or innocence, but one thing is clear: everyone has something to hide in this bittersweet tale.

Shannon Cowan received her Masters in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia. Her first novel, Leaving Winter, was published in 2000. She won the Eden Mills Literary Prize in 2002, was shortlisted for the CBC Literary Competition, and received the Norma Epstein Award for Creative Writing for the Tin Angel manuscript.

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Anthony Dalton is an adventurer, writer and photographer. The author of four books about the sea, and co-author of two others, he has also written hundreds of magazine and newspaper articles which have been published in 20 countries and nine languages. He lives in Tsawwassen, BC.

FEDERATION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA WRITERS

The Garden That You Are

The Jealousy Bone

Dead in the Water

Katherine Gordon Sono Nis Press, December 2007 ISBN 1-55039-160-7 $28.95

Julie Paul Emdash Publishing, February 2008 ISBN 978-0-9780182-4-5 $19.95

Robin Stevenson Orca Book Publishers, March 2008 ISBN 9781551439624 $9.95

If gardening is a cycle of growth, enrichment, decay, and rebirth, so is the nature of humanity: in our societies, our cultures, and our relationships. For the gardeners among us, it’s more than an analogy. Our gardens and our lives are inextricably intertwined.

Who we are; where we were born; our heritage; our family and friends; the events in our lives—all play a role in the daily experiences on the piece of land we call our garden. That piece of land we have chosen (or which, in some cases, has chosen us) will in turn influence who we are, our relationships, and the events in our lives. Such is the culture of gardeners.

The Jealousy Bone takes readers on dark journeys through the human heart and among very human foibles. From women who walk through the city in nothing but a velvet coat, to parents eager to create a fanciful high-tech baby, to affairs gone wrong (or right), Paul’s characters explore the tangles of love, hate and jealousy.

Katherine Gordon is an award-winning author and journalist whose literary nonfiction work explores the history, geography and culture of British Columbia, including its environment, its people, and its politics.

She is based on Gabriola Island.

“Her stories take you on a gritty ride through the darkest reaches of everyone’s psyche, exploring relationships, inter-connections and human failings in a fresh and insightful way.” —Marc D. Christensen, publisher.

Despite his father’s opposition, Simon is determined to become a long-distance sailor, so he signs up for a week-long live-aboard course. Seasickness and the teasing of his crew mates make for a rough start but the real trouble begins when Simon and another student get curious about a cabin cruiser anchored nearby. They investigate and stumble upon an abalone poaching operation.

Unfortunately, the poachers have far too much at stake to let a couple of kids get in their way. Simon has always believed that the only person you can count on is yourself, but when he and Olivia find their lives in danger, he knows they will have to work with the rest of the crew if they are to survive.

Author Mark Anthony Jarman calls Paul’s work “tactile, loving, split-level satire, whipsmart witty dispatches from the war of the sexes,” while Vancouver author Annabel Lyon says Paul’s stories “sparkle and sass and at times sing the deepest of blues.”

Robin Stevenson lives in Victoria and is the author of four novels for teens and pre-teens.

Her first book, a YA novel called Out of Order, was published in 2007.

Julie Paul was born and raised in the village of Lanark, in the Ottawa Valley, and now lives in Victoria, BC, where she is a writer, massage therapist, mother and teacher. Her stories, poems and essays have been accepted for publication in numerous journals, including The Antigonish Review, The Fiddlehead, The Dalhousie Review, Geist, existere, Boulevard, Canadian Living, and in the anthologies Coming Attractions 07 and Women Behaving Badly.

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WORDWORKS–SPRING 2008

COMMUNITY

The Perfect Cut

Forestry A-Z

Julie Burtinshaw Raincoast Books, March 2008 ISBN 978-1-55192-816-6 $10.95

Ann Walsh, Kathleen Cook Waldron Orca Book Publishers, March 2008 ISBN 978-1551-4350-46 $19.95

What do you do when you find yourself not caring about anything? How do you handle being so detached from your life that you choose feeling pain over feeling absolutely nothing at all? After the death of his tough, guitar-playing, beloved sister, Michelle, Bryan finds it increasingly difficult to feel anything. He doesn’t care about his parents. He doesn’t care about his friends. Or school. Or anything. The only time he comes alive these days is during the few seconds it takes for the razor to cut his skin. He hasn’t cut deep enough to cause any real damage. Not yet.

In the early days of logging and for many modern forest workers, quitting time means heading back to camp. In camp, crews clean up, eat, get their tools ready for the next day and, perhaps, wash their sweaty socks. How is plywood made? What are dozer boats? How has forestry changed in the last century? These questions and dozens more are answered in Forestry A-Z, both in the informative and fascinating text and in the beautiful photographs. In writing this book, Kathleen Cook Waldron and Ann Walsh consulted dozens of experts. In illustrating it, Bob Warick traveled British Columbia for a full year, capturing our forests and forestry through the seasons.

Vancouver writer Julie Burtinshaw is the highly acclaimed author of Dead Reckoning, Adrift and The Freedom of Jenny. She is an editor at online magazine Suite101.com, has contributed to various magazines and periodicals both on and offline, and is a member of CWILL (Canadian Writers and Illustrators) and the Federation of BC Writers.

Ann is a long time Williams Lake resident who has taught both in elementary schools and at the college level. She is the author of eight novels for young readers, most of them set in Barkerville during the gold rush. As well, Ann is the author of a book of poetry and the editor of three collections of short stories for young people. She also writes for adult readers, and her work has appeared in magazines and anthologies around the world.

Forestry A-Z is her first picture book.

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Dangerous Waters: Tales of the Sea Gordon Mumford Zebra Publishing House, March 2008 ISBN 978-0-9736297-2-9 $14.95 In Dangerous Waters, Gordon Mumford shares ten stories from his Merchant Navy days. On his first voyage in 1942, he was third radio officer on a Danish collier taking coal to Iceland to bunker the Murmansk-bound convoys. Other tales describe experiences in the South Pacific, where his ship acted as a supply vessel for minesweeping operations along the Borneo coastline amongst other activities. Additional stories include: Of Home and War; The Talisman; The Canoe; A Voice from the Past; and Horace, the Ship’s Mascot.

English-born, Gordon Mumford immigrated to Canada in 1958 where he upgraded his educational credentials, and met his wife Barbara. Returning to Africa in 1961, they spent 20 years on international aid projects (UNESCO, CIDA, etc.). He lectured in telecommunications in Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia, setting up electronic departments, teaching and training instructors. In 1980, they settled in the Lower Mainland, where Gordon worked for Communications Canada as federal Emergency Planning liaison officer. He began writing creative non-fiction (memoirs) after his retirement. Gordon has five published books—The Black Pit … and Beyond; The Sampan Girl; White Man’s Drum, Drums of Rebellion, Dangerous Waters–with a sixth, In Fate’s Footsteps, nearing completion.

FEDERATION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA WRITERS

Embrace the Journey

The Girl in the Backseat

Big Guy

Valerie Green Stratis Publishing Ltd , March 2008 ISBN 978-0-9783948-2-0 $14.95

Norma Charles Ronsdale Press, March 2008 ISBN 978-1-55380-056-9 $10.95

Robin Stevenson Orca Book Publishers, March 2008 ISBN 9781551439105 $9.95

In mid-life, as the adult child of ailing parents, Valerie Green faced the challenges of making agonizing decisions and choices for parents who wanted to “age in place.” With a rapidly growing aging population, and with more people opting to age in place, this topic cannot help but soon be on the lips of people everywhere. This is a thoroughly comprehensive look at the complexities of care giving and the emotions and decisions that accompany it. Embrace The Journey - A Care Giver’s Story is Valerie’s personal journey, a universal tale of family love and a true love story.

The novel opens with fifteen-year-old Jacob Armstrong disgruntled to find that his mother has decided that the whole family must accompany his sister, Minerva, to her new university on a road trip all the way from Vancouver to Winnipeg. Before they leave BC, Minerva and Jacob are shocked to discover a stowaway in the backseat of their car. It’s a girl dressed in old-fashioned clothes and desperate to escape from her home and get to Winnipeg.

She begs the siblings not only to take her with them, but asks them to keep her presence a secret. Where, they ask, has she come from?

Why is she so desperate to escape? The Girl in the Backseat that takes you on an urgent journey across the prairies where Jacob uncovers some uncomfortable truths about himself and his attitude towards people who are different.

Derek thinks he might be falling in love. The problem is, he hasn’t been entirely honest with his on-line boyfriend. Derek sent Ethan a photo taken before he got depressed and gained eighty pounds. Derek hasn’t been honest with his employer either. When he lied about his age and experience to get a job with disabled adults, the last thing he expected was to meet a woman like Aaliyah. Smart, prickly and often difficult, Aaliyah challenges Derek’s ideas about honesty and trust. Derek has to choose whether to risk telling the truth, or to give up the most important relationship in his life.

Valerie Green was born and educated in England but moved to Victoria, British Columbia, in 1968. Married and raising her family, she continued her career as a freelance writer, columnist and author of over a dozen books. Her passion for history has resulted in numerous non-fiction history books set in Victoria and throughout the province including Above Stairs, Upstarts & Outcasts, If These Walls Could Talk and If More Walls Could Talk. She has also written about crime and criminals in Legends, Liars & Lawbreakers and Gamblers, Gunmen & Good-Time Gals.

Robin Stevenson lives in Victoria and is the author of four novels for teens and pre-teens.

Her first book, a YA novel called Out of Order, was published in 2007.

Norma Charles is the author of over fifteen books for children, among which are The Accomplice (Raincoast), short-listed for the Sheila Egoff Award for Children’s Literature and All the Way to Mexico (Raincoast), which won the Chocolate Lily Award in 2005. She also wrote the Sophie series including Sophie Sea to Sea, which won the BC Year 2000 Award. Her books have been featured several times in the Canadian Children’s Book Centre Our Choice awards. She was a teacher/librarian in Vancouver for many years and has travelled extensively, including many trips across the prairies to Manitoba where she was born.

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COMMUNITY

Full-Time: A Soccer Story

Writing the West Coast: In Love with Place

Alan Twigg Douglas Gibson Books (McClelland & Stewart), May 2008 ISBN 978-0-7710-8645-8 $32.99 Full-Time is a would-be Cinderella story, a soccer memoir that reads like a novel. It’s a year-long account of how a team of Vancouverites, aged fifty and over, travel to southern Spain and test themselves against European ex-professionals who turn out to be much younger, faster and stronger. The “soccer poor” Canadians are a mixed bunch, with little chance of winning. The narrative frequently questions the nature of sport, how competitiveness can breed contempt. There are 840,000 registered soccer players in Canada—but this is the country’s first literary investigation of the beautiful game.

Alan Twigg is a midfielder for the Point Grey Legends. Last year he served as the Shadbolt Fellow at Simon Fraser University and the first writer-in-residence at the George Price Centre for Peace in Belize. Full-Time is his 14th book. He is also the publisher of BC BookWorld.

Edited by Christine Lowther and Anita Sinner Ronsdale Press, April 2008 ISBN 1-55380-055-9 $24.95 This collection of over thirty essays explores what it means to “be at home” on Canada’s west coast, including: Brian Brett, who reflects soberly on possible futures for Clayoquot, thinking back to the wild times he spent there in the sixties; Alexandra Morton, who “took one sniff ” of the Broughton Archipelago and knew her habitat; Susan Musgrave, who writes with affection and humour about the “excluded” Haida Gwaii; Briony Penn, who compares sex in the city to love in the temperate rainforest; Andrew Struthers, who whimsically recounts the geography of a life; and Kate Braid, Keith Harrison, Betty Krawczyk, Adrienne Mason, Joanna Streetly, David Pitt-Brooke and others.

“Here is an intimate look into life on the farthest West Coast of Canada among those, who in their various ways, are filled with passion for its waterways, its forests, its wildlife, even its weather. I found Writing the West Coast fascinating.” - Sharon Butala Christine Lowther is the author of New Power and A Cabin in Clayoquot. Her work has been published in newspapers and periodicals, including the Vancouver Sun, The Fiddlehead and The Beaver.

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roughened in undercurrent Shauna Paull Leaf Press, April 2008 ISBN 978-0-9783879-4-5 $15.95 In the words of Toni Morrison, language does not ‘pin down’ slavery, genocide, war ... Its force, its felicity, is in its reach toward the ineffable ...

The vitality of language lies in its ability to limn the actual, imagined and possible lives of its speakers, readers, writers.

Likewise, roughened in undercurrent glimpses the common astonishments of lives lived at risk, the confinements of isolation, relational and state oppression and the persistent miracle of community. Here, a poet holds the trembling stories of loss: a young woman’s death in detention, a man with aids, dying on the street, a man committing a war crime, a woman navigating in solitude the violations of her past.

Here, at the juncture of witness and experience, modern urban fracture and the body’s deep and awful silences, a poet reaches toward the place where meaning may lie.

Shauna Paull is a poet, educator and community advocate. She completed an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia in 1999. Since then, she has led creative writing workshops at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts in Deer Lake Park, Burnaby and the Emily Carr Institute of Arts and Design. Since 1999, she has worked together with migrant and undocumented women to support well-being and build community in areas of labour and mobility rights, poverty alleviation and career continuity.

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!

LOOMING DEADLINES EVENT Annual Non-Fiction Contest Deadline: postmarked April 15, 2008 http://event.douglas.bc.ca Send unpublished non-fiction, up to 5000 words, with $29.95 entry fee to EVENT, Creative Non-Fiction Contest, PO Box 2503, New Westminster, BC V3L 5B2. Blind judging: include separate cover page with your name, contact information, and title(s) of story or stories.

The Canadian Writers’ Union Writing for Children Competition Deadline: postmarked by April 24, 2008 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.

Association for Research on Mothering and Demeter Press Creative Non-Fiction and Poetry Contest Theme: Mothers and Daughters Deadline: May 15, 2008 www.yorku.ca/arm

Send your entry (up to 3 poems, 300– 1000-word memoir, literary biography or lyric essay) by email to arm@yorku.ca . Mail entry fee ($20 for poetry, $20 for non-fiction, $3 for additional entries) to ARM/Demeter Press, Room 726 Atkinson, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, ON M3J 1P3, or you can do it electronically if you go to the website and follow the links.

Pandora’s Collective Kisses and Popsicles Spring Poetry Contest Deadline: May 15, 2008 www.pandorascollective.com Send 3—yes, 3—copies of unpublished maximum 40-line poems with a $5 entry fee per poem to Pandora’s Collective (Poetry Contest Submission), Delamont Postal Outlet, PO Box 29118, 1950 West Broadway, Vancouver BC V6J 5C2. Include cover letter showing age category as well as usual contact information and name(s) of poem(s) and amount of money included. Teen category (ages 14–19) entry fee: $4/poem Children (13 and under)—$3/poem.

Room Magazine Annual Fiction and Poetry Contest Deadline: postmarked by May 15, 2008 www.roommagazine.com Formerly known as Room of One’s Own, this 30 year old journal for women writers invites you to send your fiction or creative non-fiction (maximum 4000 words) or poetry (maximum 3 poems or 150 lines) entry to Fiction and Poetry Contest, Room of One’s Own, PO Box 46160, Station D, Vancouver, BC V6J 5G5. Prose must be double-spaced. No previously published work or simultaneous submissions. Entry fee 20

of $27 entitles you to a one-year subscription.

sub-TERRAIN Magazine Annual Lush Triumphant Contest Deadline: postmarked by May 15, 2008 www.subterrain.ca There’s $1500 in prizes up for grabs so send your unpublished fiction (maximum 3000 words), creative non-fiction (maximum 4000 words) or poetry (suite of five related poems, maximum 15 pages), along with $25 entry fee per entry, to Lush Triumphant, sub-TERRAIN Magazine, PO Box 3008, MPO, Vancouver, BC V6B 3X5. You get a oneyear subscription for your efforts.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS Rocksalt—An Anthology of Contemporary B.C. Poetry Open to all poets living in B.C. Deadline: postmarked by May 15, 2008 www.mothertonguepublishing.com/ (look under trade books) Editors Mona Fertig and Harold Rhenisch will be reading submissions of 1–3 of your best unpublished poems, maximum 62 lines each, typed in 12 point font and single spaced. Include your name on each page and a cover letter with all your contact information plus a 100 (max) word bio and a 300 (max) word statement on your poetry or poetics. Email submissions to submissions@mothertonguepublishing.com: send as attachment (Word, Appleworks, .rtf or Pages). A confirmation email will be sent. Or mail to Editor, Mother Tongue Publishing Ltd., 290 Fulford-

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CONTESTS & MARKETS

Ganges Road, Salt Spring Island, B.C. V8K 2K6. No entry fee.

The Antigonish Review’s 4th Annual Sheldon Currie Fiction Prize Deadline: postmarked by May 31, 2008 www.antigonishreview.com Send your maximum 20 page unpublished short story typed, double-spaced, on one side of page only, 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.

Burnaby Writers’ Society 2008 Writing Contest Deadline: postmark May 31, 2008 www.bws.bc.ca The theme is “green” and the contest is open to all BC residents for the best onepage submissions of either prose or poetry, and you’re free to interpret “green” any way you wish. Entry fee $5 each, or 3 entries for $10. Mail entry and fee to BWS Contest Committee, 6584 Deer Lake Avenue, Burnaby BC Canada V5G 3T7.

SASE if you want a list of winners, or check the website after September 15.

Victoria School of Writing Flash Fiction Contest Deadline: postmarked before May 31, 2008 http://vswblog.wordpress.com/ postcard-story-competition/ Send 2 copies of unpublished postcard story, fiction or non-fiction, maximum 300 words, with $12 entry fee per story payable to Victoria School of Writing—Postcard Story Competition, 1027 Pandora Avenue, Victoria, BC V8V 3P6. No name on story page, but send cover letter with your name, contact information and the title and first ten words of your story. If you want, you can illustrate one of the two copies which may be displayed at the Summer School in July 2008. You could win tuition to VSW this summer.

Filling Station Call for Submissions Theme: Ugliness and Undesirability Deadline: June 1, 2008 www.fillingstation.ca

The Squamish Chief and the Squamish Writers Group Sea to Sky Literary Contest Deadline: postmark June 1, 2008 www.squamishartscouncil.org (look for Squamish Writers Group)

If your work engages in any way with with the aesthetics and poetics of disgust, ugliness, and revulsion, send it along. Considers all kinds of writing.

Prefers you submit by email, check website for specific addresses for the kind of writing you’re sending.

Open to residents of BC, entries should involve the Sea to Sky region in some way. Categories include: Long Fiction to 5000 words; Short Fiction to 1500 words; Outdoor Rec Creative NonFiction to 1500 words; Poetry 2–4 poems; Youth Category, Under 18, Poetry or Prose. No entry fee. Material must be unpublished. One entry per category per person. Clip a cover sheet to your manuscript with all your contact information, title(s) and word count(s), and indicate category. Your name must not appear on the manuscript. Double space prose, poetry need not be. Mail to The Squamish Chieff, Box 3500, 38117 2nd Avenue, Squamish, BC V8B 0B9 or you may enter by sending email to news@squamishchief.com, attaching manuscript as a .doc or .pdf file.

Geist Short Long-Distance Writing Contest Deadline: postmark June 1, 2008 www.geist.com Maximum 500 words, fiction on nonfiction, send a short story where the action takes place in at least two time zones within Canada. Blind judging, send your story, a cover letter with contact information and the title of your entry, plus $20 fee (includes a one-year subscription) to: Short Long-Distance Writing Contest, Ste. 200, 341 Water Street, Vancouver, BC V6B 1B8.

Lake’s Creative Non-Fiction Contest Deadline: postmark deadline June 1, 2008 www.lakejournal.ca Lake, a new journal of arts and environment, hales from the Okanagan and is open to all writers.

Creative non-fiction submissions on the topic of “Pines”—whether beetle, tree, or to pine for—are invited, maximum 2500 words, double spaced. Adjust your margins to 3/4 of an inch. Write up a cover letter with your name, contact information and title of entry, seal it in an envelope and send, with entry, to Lake: a journal of arts and environment, Department of Creative Studies, UBC Okanagan, 3333 University Way, Kelowna, BC V1W 2B9. Entry fee of $20 gives you a year’s subscription.

WORDWORKS–SPRING 2008

Arc Poem of the Year Contest Deadline: postmark June 30, 2007 www.arcpoetry.ca Send your best work, up to 2 unpublished poems, maximum 100 lines each, plus $23 entry fee (for which you get a one-year subscription) to Poem of the Year Contest, Arc: Canada’s National Poetry Magazine, PO Box 81060, Ottawa, Ontario, K1P 1B1. If you feel compelled to send more than 2 poems, add $5 per poem.

The Antigonish Review’s 8th Annual Great Blue Heron Poetry Prize Deadline: postmark June 30, 2008 www.antigonishreview.com 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

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FEDERATION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA WRITERS

plus title(s) of entries. Blind judging, so make sure your name is on the cover letter only. Entries will not be returned.

FreeFall Call for Submissions Deadline: June 30, 2008 www.freefallmagazine.ca FreeFall has two deadlines: the end of June for the October issue and the end of December for the April issue. Send 2 copies of 2–5 poems, any style, or prose up to 3000 words by mail to: FreeFall, 922 Ninth Avenue SE, Calgary, AB T2G 0S4 or in the body of an email to: FreeFallmagazine@yahoo.com.

Steamy Poetry and Flash Fiction Contest Ascent Aspriations Magazine Deadline: July 31, 2008 www.ascentaspirations.ca/ ascentfall2008.htm Ascent Aspirations is looking for poetry/ flash fiction that is unusual and goes beyond the traditional poetry and story of sensual, sexual love for the fall print issue with the theme: Erotica. Email your submission, along with a short bio, to ascentaspirations@shaw.ca. Also, mail copies of your entry without your name, a cover page with your name and contact information and title(s) of your poem(s) and/or story (stories) and entry fee of $5 for one poem, $10 for three poems (60 lines maximum per poem including spaces between lines) and $10 for flash fiction, maximum 800 words. Send to Ascent Aspirations Publishing, 1560 Arbutus Drive, Nanoose Bay, BC V9P 9C8. No simultaneous submissions, but as long as you hold the copyright you may send previously published work.

A Verse Map of Vancouver Poetry Anthology Call for Submissions Deadline: July 31, 2008 http://vancouverpublicspace.ca/ index.php/news/40/18 Vancouver’s first Poet Laureate, George McWhirter, invites poetry submissions for an anthology on the features that give Vancouver its identity, such as its streets

and place names. No entry fee. Poems should ideally be a two-sonnet length, and place names or cross streets should be provided. Mail poems along with a SASE to: A Verse Map of Vancouver c/o Anvil Press Publishers 278 East First Avenue, Vancouver, BC V5T 1A6.

PO Box 4400, Fredericton, NB E3B 5A3. You MUST send SASE or your work will not be considered. Qwerty now accepts submissions via e-mail as well.

SkyWing Press www.skywingpress.com New publishing company invites submissions of poetry manuscripts. Send ten sample poems to be considered for book publication. Pays in copies. Full details on website.

MARKETS 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.

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 e-mail, 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

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.

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, 22

RESOURCES FOR WRITERS Duptrope’s Digest www.duotrope.com Easy-to-sort database for over 1200 current markets for short fiction and poetry. Become a registered user (it’s free) and you’ll have access to a submissions tracker.

Editors’ Association of Canada www.editors.ca The EAC promotes professional editing as key in producing effective communication.

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 Writers’ Show with Holley Rubinsky www.kootenaycoopradio.com/ writers Lively radio interviews with writers, editors and publishers, including Angie Abdou, Vivien Bowers, Anne DeGrace, Katherine Gordon, Pauline Holdstock, Theresa Kishkan, Patrick Lane, Rita Moir, Kathy Page, Eileen Delehanty Pearkes, Adam Lewis Schroeder, Mary Schendlinger, Alan Twigg, John Vaillant, Tom Wayman, and Terence Young. Kootenay Co-op Radio in Nelson airs this show on Mondays at 6 PM, but thanks to archiving you can listen to any of the past shows online whenever you like.

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Regional Reports

Central Kay McCracken, Salmon Arm kaymcc@telus.net

Congratulations to Deanna Kawatski, whose moving story, “The North Ghost Wharf,” was selected for Audrey L’Heureux, publication in the new Fed antholPrince George ogy, Imagining British Columbia alheureu@shaw.ca (Anvil Press), coming out this spring. Deanna presented an Off The Page reading to the grade seven class at North Shuswap Margo Hearne’s photo-essay, Elementary in February.

“Christmas Birders Brave the Heidi Garnett was one of three poets featured at SAGA Elements on Haida Gwaii,” Public Art Gallery in Salmon Arm on February 16. Heidi was published in the winter also read at the Okanagan Arts Awards and Showcase Event 2007 edition of BC Nature. held on Friday 15, which was a glamorous affair with the Margo read from her book mayor of Kelowna in attendance and other dignitaries and Nesting Songbirds of Haida Gwaii at Rainforest Books in distinguished artists. Adding to her awards, Heidi placed Prince Rupert on January 26 and represented the Fed with third in the Antigonish Review’s Great Blue Heron an Off The Page presentation at a local high school in contest. Heidi is compiling an anthology featuring the works Masset in March. She continues to write occasional stories of older poets with the help of Kevin McPherson, instructor for Prince Rupert’s Northern View and the QCI Observer. at Okanagan College.

New Fed member Deanna Proach will receive her Howard Brown organized and emceed the Poetry Event Bachelor’s degree from UNBC at the end of May. She had February 16 at SAGA Public Art Gallery in Salmon Arm, two stories published in the Over-The-Edge newspaper at featuring Heidi Garnett, Gillian Wigmore of Prince George, UNBC—a children’s story called “Sasquatch” and an article and Calvin White of Silver Creek. Also reading were Fed on Audrey L’Heureux entitled “Photo Journalism the Hard members Alice Brown, Karen Bissenden and Elizabeth Way.” Deanna will be returning to the Sunshine Coast after Lute. graduation.

Candice Lucy hosts a Christian Writers’ Group at the Sheila Peters gave an Off The Page reading to two high First Baptist Church in Salmon Arm, the second Thursday school classes at Houston Secondary School in Houston in of each month. early March and will be touring with Perry Rath, the visual Medical Post has accepted a Sterling Haynes story Peyote artist who contributed to her book, The Weather From The Pictures and purchased another in February called Pink Pills West. The Writers In Library program is funding her tour for Pale People. Haiku Canada published a haiku and including readings in Houston, Smithers, Terrace and Prince Sterling’s poem “I’ve got the Postal Telephone Blues” came Rupert. out in Event, a Kelowna newspaper.

Donna Kane reports the Dawson Creek area is currently A strong line-up of Federation members read at the working on their third Muskwa-Kechika Artist Camp, to be Shuswap Writers’ Group coffee house at Java Jive in Salmon held August 7-14, 2008. They are accepting applications Arm, Friday, February 29. Mystery emcee—as advertised in from all artists, including writers. Donna also reports that the papers—was none other than John Vivian back from his Dawson Creek has received funding for a Written in Stone Cook Island holiday. Readers included Sarah Weaver, Ken project where a poem will be engraved into stones along that Firth, Mary Nyland, Alice and Howard Brown, and city’s walking path. The poem will be a collaborative one, Dorothy Rolin. written by Donna as well as by other poets with Dawson Ken Forscutt’s first book, Bush Pilot’s Mayday: Bush Pilot’s Creek roots: Marilyn Belak, Megan Kane, and Rebekah Journal Book One, was launched at Chapters in Kamloops Rempel. and in Salmon Arm. David Baxter read at two Celista continued next page WORDWORKS–SPRING 2008

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FEDERATION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA WRITERS

houses in January and his regular column in the Friday AM appeared in the January and February All Month.

Sharon (McLean) Kuroyama has a piece titled “Ciudad Juarez” published in the Palabras-Press Ezine (March 2008).

Sharon recently completed an Associate of Arts Degree with an emphasis on English/Creative Writing through Okanagan College, completing the majority of her courses in Salmon Arm where she lives and works. She read at Kalamalka Lake Campus during a student reading that was sponsored by John Lent.

Gail Anderson-Dargatz’s workshop, “Turning Fact Into Fiction,” will be sponsored by the Writers Trust of Canada and takes place at Okanagan College, Salmon Arm on April 12.

Dorothy Rolin, President of The Shuswap Writers’ Group, reports that the “Gallery Window Project” is near completion.

SWG members have created a stained glass effect with their writings showing through coloured opaque “glass.” These items will be auctioned at the Gallery on March 30. Dorothy has been busier than usual this year, coordinating “Secrets in My Garden,” a collaboration between Shuswap artists and writers. A gala event and silent auction takes place next fall as a fundraiser for the Shuswap Association of Writers.

South East Anne Strachan, Nakusp sisinwriting@hotmail.com

Luanne Armstrong’s new young adult novel, Pete’s Gold, will be out from Ronsdale Press in September 2008. She’ll be teaching and/or reading at the Squamish, Pemberton and Whistler libraries in April, at the Shuswap Writers Festival in May, at the College of the Rockies in Creston in June, at the Fernie Writers Festival in July, and for Island Mountain Arts in Wells in August. She also has work in four new anthologies, Body Breakdowns (Anvil Press), Double Lives, Writing and Mothering, (McGill Queens University Press), Imagining British Columbia, and Growing Up Rural (Red Deer Press).

Ernest Hekkanen’s novel, Of a Fire Beyond the Hills, currently stocked at Otter Books, will be launched at the Oxygen Art Centre in Nelson on April 25. Ernest has poetry appearing in Crossing Lines: Poets Who Came to Canada in the Vietnam War Era (Seraphim Editions), to be launched at the Oxygen Art Centre, May 21. Louis E. Bourgeois’ interview 24

with Ernest Hekkanen will appear in Complete with Missing Parts: Interviews with the Avant-Garde in April (Vox Press). The Spring issue of The New Orphic Review, entitled “Driven to Distraction,” will publish in late April or early May. Look for the latest installment of Margrith Schraner’s novel, To Travel the Distance, in the Spring 2008 issue of the New Orphic Review.

In April, Fernie’s Angie Abdou will be this year’s Beth Maloney Memorial speaker at the AGM for the College of BC physiotherapists, and will deliver a lecture about her novel The Bone Cage and its implications for health care. She’ll also speak in Toronto at the Victory Cafe. This summer Angie is teaching at the Sage Hill Teen Writing Experience in Moose Jaw and at the Fernie Writers Conference.

Holley Rubinsky reports that Luanne Armstrong did an interview for The Writers’ Show, about editing, with Geist magazine’s Mary Schendlinger. See www.kootenaycoopradio.com/writers Lorraine Gordon and Lorraine Dick have established the Grand Forks Writers Guild to provide a haven for area writers to share ideas, information, education and fellowship. Both new and seasoned writers are invited to join.

The Guild meets the third Thursday of each month at the Grand Forks & District Public Library. For more information: Lorraine Gordon 250-442-0177 or Lorraine Dick 250-442-9579.

Lorraine Gordon is offering writing, proofreading, editing, ghostwriting and copywriting services through her company, Cardinal Writing Services.

“Everyone But Me,” by Pearl Myers of Revelstoke, won the Dramatic Monologue Category in the Annual Short Grain Contest. Winning stories are published in Grain, Volume 35, Number 2, Autumn 2007.

Hello, I Must Be Going, a performance piece written by Judy Wapp along with her daughter Bessie Wapp and Nicola Harwood, was presented at the Vancouver Chutzpah Festival. The one-woman show features Bessie Wapp playing several generations of women affected by wars and had four performances to excellent response. The play was remounted in Nelson before going to Vancouver. In 2006 the piece extensively toured the Kootenays.

Barbara MacPherson of Nakusp has two articles published in Herb Quarterly, “Menopausal Herbs” and “Artemisias.” She also writes two columns once monthly for the Arrow Lakes News, “The Heart of the Community: Profiles of Community Organizations” and “Kootenay Bookshelf.”

Anne Strachan’s reflective essay “A Monk, a Pilgrim, and a Golf Cart” recently appeared in Spirituality.

Linda Lee Crosfield has a poem online at Penn Kemp’s Twelfth Key’s Viva la Vida de Frida Anthology at www.mytown.ca/vivalavida. Two of her poems have been WORDWORKS–SPRING 2008

COMMUNITY

accepted for publication in Horsefly, and two more in Ascent Aspirations’ next print collection. She read at Oxygen Art Centre in Nelson in February.

Anne DeGrace’s new novel Wind Tails has been shortlisted for the Ontario Library Association’s Evergreen Award.

The short-list, which also includes BC writer Shaena Lambert’s novel Radiance, encourages Ontario residents to read and vote on their favourite book. The winner will be announced in November.

Federation member Kuya Minogue is working with a committee of the Creston Arts Council to highlight the literary arts during Creston’s BC Spirit of 150 Arts and Culture Week, April 20–26. On April 22, at the Snoring Sasquatch, there will be a café style open mike and on April 24, Kuya, a Zen Writing Practice teacher, will offer instruction at the Art Gallery. Come to Creston to celebrate the literary arts!

James Woewoda Communications Helping Authors Get the Publicity They Deserve James Woewoda, Publicist Phone: 604 788 2962 Email: Jameswoewoda@shaw.ca Check us out on the web:

Fraser Valley

www.WoewodaCommunications.com

Sylvia Taylor, White Rock words@sylviataylor.ca

Wrapping up her 7th term as Fraser Valley Regional Director, Sylvia Taylor represented the Federation at literary events marking Freedom to Read Week and book launches of various local authors. She is collaborating with Surrey’s Writer-in-Residence Mansel Robinson on several projects advancing regional writers, and partnering with the Surrey Arts Centre and the Federation of BC Writers for a major literary event this June titled “A MidSummer Night’s Reading.” She continues to teach LifeStory and creative writing throughout the region, write regular newspaper articles and consult with businesses and authors as a writer/editor/coach through her business, Sylvia Taylor Communications.

After promoting his nautical books at boat shows in Toronto and Vancouver, Anthony Dalton recently travelled across Alberta and Manitoba on speaking engagements and to promote his latest non-fiction book, Alone Against the Arctic.

Heidi Greco’s work is included in a new anthology of poems, Crossing Lines (Seraphim Books), edited by Allan Briesmaster, with the Vancouver launch scheduled sometime WORDWORKS–SPRING 2008

in May. Heidi taught a poetry writing session at Earl Marriott Secondary in White Rock for the Fed’s Off The Page program, and presented three readings during February: two for Freedom to Read (Surrey and Mission) and one in Vancouver (Cafe Montmartre). On February 19 at the Semiahmoo Branch of Surrey Public Library, Heidi Greco read at an informal reception held to welcome Mansel Robinson as Surrey Public Library’s first Writer-in-Residence. Robinson read from Rock ‘n Rail: Ghost Trains and Spitting Slag, and spoke on his role in helping emerging local writers through consultations.

Susan McCaslin continues to tour regionally and crosscountry with her new volume of poetry, Lifting the Stone (Seraphim Editions).

Lois Peterson’s short story “Grace Enough” took Second Place in the fiction category of the North Shore Writers’ Association writing contest. She recently presented “Writing Fiction from Inside Out” for the BC branch of the Editors’ Association of Canada and will present “Word by Word” at Surrey Public Library’s Surrey Reads & Writes (www.spl.surrey.bc.ca) on April 12.

Robert Stelmach, a.k.a. Max Tell, dubbed “the International Troubadour” by the 2006 Vancouver International 25

FEDERATION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA WRITERS

Children’s Festival, has joined forces with Silvana Goldemberg, an Argentinean/Canadian author of children’s books, to create Little Johnny Small and Other Stories, an audio book in English and Spanish.

Elsie K. Neufeld is reading the proofs of her twelfth lifestory project, Tomorrow, Today Will be Yesterday: The Story of Josephine & Anthony Heslenfeld, the life story of a couple in WWII Holland, in print late March. She also taught “Writing Your Life Story” at UCFV’s Continuing Studies Writing Day and to Mission Hospice volunteers and staff.

Robert Martens, along with four other local writers, read on February 26 in Mission to mark Freedom to Read week. Robert’s most recent publication, of which he was co-editor and contributor, is Windows to a Village: Life Studies of Yarrow Pioneers, (Kitchener: Pandora Press, 2007). Robert is currently chief editor and contributor to Alphabetically Abbotsford (working title), an Abbotsford Archives compendium of local place names.

Alan S. Morgan’s “Puzzleworks” have been published daily in Vancouver’s 24 Hours for two years and just begun appearing in Australia’s largest free daily, mX, in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, and will debut globally in a Digital Chocolate cell phone game edition this summer.

The Islands David Fraser, Nanoose Bay ascentaspirations@shaw.ca

Margaret Thompson’s essay, “An Immigrant’s Song,” has been included in the new Fed Anthology, Imagining British Columbia, due out in April.

Joanna Streetly had two pieces published in the anthology, Writing the West Coast: In Love with Place (Ronsdale, April 2008), edited by Anita Sinner and Chris Lowther. The cover is graced by Joanna’s painting of the Eik Cedar.

Margaret Cadwaladr gave a presentation at Highland Secondary School in Comox on February 28 as a part of the Federation’s popular Off The Page program.

On March 18 in the Vancouver Island Cancer Centre, Elizabeth Simpson launched The Perfection of Hope: Journey Back to Health, initially published by MacFarlane Walter Ross in 1997 (bought out by M&S) and republished with four new chapters and a new introduction by Emdash Publishing in Victoria.

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Joanna Weston’s review of Robyn Sarah’s book, Little Eurekas, was published by The Danforth Review at www.danforthreview.com Julie Paul’s first collection of short fiction, The Jealousy Bone, published by Emdash Publishing, was launched on February 17 at the Union Pacific Cafe in Victoria. She read at St. Michael’s University School on February 27 as part of the Fed’s Off The Page program and at Bolen Books on March 17, alongside Alissa York.

Valerie Green read from her new book, Embrace the Journey—A Care Giver’s Story, at the Seniors Festival Celebration hosted by Senior Living Magazine at the Pearkes Recreation Centre, Victoria, B.C. on March 14.

Pauline Holdstock read at the Pacific Festival of the Book on March 15 at the Victoria Arts Connection.

SheLa E. Morrison of Gabriola Island was short-listed for Descant’s Best Canadian Poem for “Change in the Weather.”

In January, Kathy Page read from her fiction at UNB in Saint John (as part of the Lorenzo series) and Fredericton, and then at UPEI Charlottetown. She is currently part of the current Banff Wired Studio faculty, mentoring four writers online. She read again on March 23 as part of the Sidney reading series, alongside poet John Barton.

Lorraine Gane has taught an online course, “Writing As Witness: The Personal Narrative” this past winter and spring. She launched her new chapbook of poems at Wonderworks in Toronto in February. The collection, The Phantom Orchid, is a celebration of beauty in its many forms—a ghost-white flower on the forest floor, an intimate moment on a winter’s afternoon, brooding clouds and a rainbow arching over Salt Spring Island, where these poems were written.

Margaret Gracie was a semi-finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest for Sundown Salute. Mary Ann Moore was short-listed for the Writer-in-Residence program for the Vancouver Island Regional Library (including the Greater Victoria Public Library).

Kim Goldberg has had poems published in the latest issues of Rampike and Calyx. She has had two poems accepted for Crossing Lines, an anthology of poems by Americans who came to Canada during the Vietnam War years, due out in April 2008 from Seraphim Press. In February she held the Victoria launch party for her latest book, Ride Backwards On Dragon: a poet’s journey through Liuhebafa (Leaf Press), at the historic Earle Clarke House in Fernwood.

In March she built and unveiled Nanaimo’s first poem gallery by converting a vacant downtown storefront window into a literary showcase papered with poems by local poets.

WORDWORKS–SPRING 2008

COMMUNITY

David Fraser had poems published in Imperfectionist’s Monthly, Feb. 2008, Ditch Poetry, Feb. 2008, Autumn Leaves, April 2008, Ygdrasil, Feb. 2008, and Avante Garde Times, March 2008. Two of David’s poems have been posted at Nanaimo’s first Poem Gallery.

Pat Smekal’s poem “Palindrome” was a runner-up in The Ontario Poetry Society’s competition, and she has had three poems published in The Imperfectionist’s Monthly. She is an active member of, and frequent reader at WordStorm, a spoken-word event in Nanaimo. Two of Pat’s poems have been posted at Nanaimo’s first Poem Gallery.

Shannon Cowan’s novel for teenagers, Tin Angel (Lobster Press) was named one of the best books of 2007 by January Magazine.

Madeleine Nattrass has had two poems published on the net—one being the Leaf Press Monday Poem. She has also published in Tower Press, Other Voices, Quills, and in Ascent Aspirations Spring 2008 Anthology.

This winter Adrienne Mason taught two courses on writing non-fiction books and magazine articles for children’s markets as part of SFU’s Continuing Studies program. In February, she gave a week of school presentations in Maple Ridge.

WORDWORKS–SPRING 2008

Lower Mainland Compiled in-house

New Fed member Daniel Edward Craig is author of the Five-Star Mystery Series, which follows the adventures of hotel manager Trevor Lambert, the consummate host turned house detective. With an insider’s view of the hotel industry, Craig has worked for luxury hotels across Canada, most recently as Vice President of Opus Hotels in Vancouver and Montreal. His latest novel, Murder at Hotel Cinema, will be launched in June.

Jan DeGrass and Carol Upton of the Sunshine Coast School of Writing co-sponsored a memoir writing workshop, “Shimmering Moments,” in Gibsons in February.

Organizer Judy Lynne brought author Claire Robson (Love in Good Time) to the Sunshine Coast to give a three day intensive writing workshop to 16 eager and satisfied partici in the Canadian Community Newspapers Association (CCNA) Better Newspapers Competition in the category of continued next page

27

FEDERATION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA WRITERS

Arts Coverage. The Arts & Entertainment columnist can be read every week in the Coast Reporter.

Allan Brown of Powell River took part in two Spirit of BC events in February—the “Spirit of Performing Arts” on February 9 and a “Meet Local Authors” gathering at the Powell River public library on February 13. Allan’s 19th volume of poetry, the chapbook Biblical Sonatas, was issued

by Serengeti Press at the end of the month. He also has three reviews in the winter issue of Jones Av. XII, 4 and a review article in the February issue of Island Catholic News.

Ruth Kozak has launched an online travel e-zine, Travel Thru History (www.travelthruhistory.com) for new writers focusing on travels related to history/archaeology. Please read submission guidelines. A small honorarium is paid on publication.

Gerhard Winkler had an article, “A Life of Camping, and a Farewell,” published in the January/February issue of RV Times. He also won third prize in the North Shore Writers’ Association’s contest in the nonfiction category with “Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!”

Andrew Boden will see his essay, “Mad King Grover,” published in Descant’s Cats and Dogs Issue (Spring 2008).

New Fed member Marlene (aka Anna) Barcos is busy promoting her new book, Maria’s Tango.

Lee Edward Fodi’s popular book, Kendra Kandlestar and the Box of Whispers, recently received the Mom’s Choice Award for best children’s chapter book for ages 8 and up.

The sequel, Kendra Kandlestar and the Door to Unger, released in November, has been nominated for a Cybil fantasy/science fiction award. On February 16, Lee introduced his Kendra Kandlestar books to young fans with much fanfare and applause at a launch at Kids Book Sejong in South Korea. Appearing alongside fellow BC author, James McCann, Fodi gave a short presentation, signed dozens of books, and met a host of excited literature fans.

Fodi was in the country to teach a week-long young author’s conference focused on the theme of “adventure,” helping writers aged 10-15 craft short stories about dangerous journeys, brain-bending riddles, brave heroes, and diabolical villains.

Gordon Mumford exhibited and sold books at the Vancouver International Boat Show in February. His fifth book, Dangerous Waters, will be published in March. He was interviewed on Coop Radio and signed copies of his books at Lansdowne Mall’s Black Bond Bookstore during Author Week. On Thursday, April 24, he will be a featured reader at the Heritage Grill in New Westminster.

Anvil Press is pleased to announce the publication of Imagining British Columbia: Land, Memory & Place, edited by Daniel Francis Please send me _________ copy/ies of Imagining British Columbia: Land, Memory & Place Name: ______________________________________________________ Address: _____________________________________________________ City: _______________________________________________________ Postal Code: __________________________________________________ Telephone or email: ____________________________________________ Cost: $20 each ($18 plus $2 shipping & handling) Enclosed is my payment of $ _____________________________________

(

Return this form with a cheque or money order made payable to: Anvil Press P.O. Box 3008, MPO Vancouver, B.C. V6B 3X5

28

)

WORDWORKS–SPRING 2008

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THE SHORT LONG-DISTANCE WRITING CONTEST 500 WORDS 路 2 T I MES ZONES 路 O N L Y I N C A N A D A

First Prize: $250 | Second Prize: $150 | Third Prize: $100 (more than one prize per category may be awarded) Send us a short story where the action takes place in at least two time zones within Canada.

Maximum length: 500 words, fiction or non-fiction.

Deadline: postmarked June 1, 2008.

Entry Fee: $20 for the first entry (includes one-year subscription or subscription extension), $5 for each additional entry.

Winning entries will be published in Geist magazine and at geist.com.

Honourable mentions will be published at geist.com.

Selected stories will be posted at thetyee.ca Type your entry on standard paper, in at least 11-point type. Judging is blind, so include a cover letter.

Send your entry with a cheque for the entry fee to: Short Long-Distance Writing Contest #200 - 341 Water Street Vancouver, B.C. V6B 1B8

Questions? Go to geist.com/contest/distance or call 1-800-434-7834