WORDWORKS Summer 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
Robin Stevenson the writer next door steps off the page
Scenes from a Launch In May, the Federation of BC Writers and Anvil Press launched Imagining British Columbia: Land, Memory & Place at several venues throughout the province, including Vancouver, Victoria and Salmon Arm.
Margaret Thompson
Harold Rhenisch
M.A.C. Farrant
Katherine Gordon Daniel Francis
Victoria Marvin
Mona Fertig
A.S. Penne
News
Features
2 A Note From the President
6 The Phoenix Alternative New technology gives out of print titles a second life.
3 Executive Director’s Report to the 2008 AGM 4 Minutes from the 2008 AGM
Community 18 Launched! New Titles by Federation Members 26 Regional Reports Member News From Around the Province
By Kathy Page
8 Writing from Away Cornwall, In Words and Memory By Lois J. Peterson
11 Writer! Writer! Not Reading Too Much Into It By Shirley Rudolph
12 Meeting The Writer Next Door How one program successfully introduces BC writers to BC students By Margaret Thompson
Contests & Markets 24 Contests & Markets
15 “Hey, Are You the Author?” WordWorks in Conversation with Robin Stevenson
Cover photo, courtesy of David Lowes
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FEDERATION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA WRITERS
THE FEDERATION OF BC WRITERS IS THE VOICE OF WRITERS IN BC—SUPPORTING, DEVELOPING AND EDUCATING WRITERS WHILE FOSTERING A COMMUNITY FOR WRITING THROUGHOUT THE PROVINCE.
Publisher THE FEDERATION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA WRITERS
Editorial Committee MARGARET THOMPSON LINDA CROSFIELD GAIL BUENTE LOIS J. PETERSON SHIRLEY RUDOLPH
Managing Editor FERNANDA VIVEIROS
Production & Design SHIRLEY RUDOLPH
Webmaster GUILLAUME LEVESQUE
2008-2009 Board of Directors PRESIDENT—SYLVIA TAYLOR VICE PRESIDENT—position open TREASURER—DOUGLAS P. WELBANKS SECRETARY—position open
Staff EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR—Fernanda Viveiros MEMBERSHIP COORDINATOR—Barbara Coleman
Regional Representatives NORTH—HILARY CROWLEY SOUTH EAST—ANNE DeGRACE FRASER VALLEY—LOIS J. PETERSON LOWER MAINLAND—LORRAINE MURPHY THE ISLANDS—DAVID FRASER CENTRAL—KAY McCRACKEN THE FEDERATION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA WRITERS PO BOX 3887 STN TERMINAL VANCOUVER, BC V6B 3Z3 T: 604-683-2057 BCWRITERS@SHAW.CA WWW.BCWRITERS.COM ISSN # 0843-1329
PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT NO. 40685010 POSTAL CUSTOMER NO. 7017320 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO FEDERATION OF BC WRITERS BOX 3887 STN TERMINAL VANCOUVER BC V6B 3Z3
A Note from the President C
ounting your blessings is a wise practice at any time, but especially so during transition and change, and gratitude is a great place to start. It’s easy to be grateful about an organization that offers so much for so little to so many: a quarterly magazine jammed with insights and information from the literary trenches; a generous, easy-to-navigate website that shares its incredible resources indiscriminately; an e-newsletter of writerly events and opportunities; a hiring and Sylvia Taylor job-posting directory; an annual writing competition; workshops and discounts; published anthologies of members’ works; an inspiring collaborative school program that connects kids and working writers; readings, festivals, free consults and legal advice, within a supportive community for all writers of all levels and genres. Many thanks to departing Board members: Jan Drabek, prior president; Audrey L’Heureux, North Region regional representative and Anne Strachan, South East regional representative, for their invaluable contribution. Thanks also, to our continuing board members: David Fraser, our Islands regional rep and Kay McCracken, who serves the Central region, for your continuing commitment and belief in the Fed and our writing community. And a very warm welcome to our new board members: Treasurer Doug Welbanks; Lower Mainland regional representative Lorraine Murphy; Fraser Valley regional representative Lois J. Peterson; North regional representative Hilary Crowley and South East regional representative Anne DeGrace. We look forward to your ideas, energy and inspiration. Thanks also, to our renewing members for your tenacity and faith, and a heartfelt welcome to all our new members. And, of course, enormous gratitude to our Executive Director, Fernanda Viveiros—the tireless engine behind the Fed—whose sheer will and exemplary work has kept this boat afloat through some stormy seas. May the coming year bring fine weather and fiscal fuel! With a full complement of regional reps and a crackshot Executive Director, we are moving forward with three priorities: Fundraising, Constitution Review, and a complete Board Executive. Thus far, we have formed a fundraising committee and are mapping out an action plan aimed at corporate partnerships. Our Constitution is currently under consultative review, and lastly, candidates for the Executive Board positions of Vice-President and Secretary are being compiled and considered. I am honoured to now serve as President after eight years as Fraser Valley Regional Rep and grateful to all those who contributed to its legacy of literacy and inclusiveness. I invite everyone from every corner of this province to be written into the next chapter of the Federation’s history, to offer their ideas and enthusiasm, to do just a little to create an organization we can be grateful for. —Sylvia Taylor 2
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NEWS
Executive Director’s Report to the AGM 2008 T
his is my third report to the Annual General Meeting and I’m pleased to say that despite continued funding and staffing challenges, it’s been a stable and productive year at the Federation. In 2007, we maintained all our existing programs and services and continued to strengthen partnerships with BC’s writing and publishing community through joint ventures and sponsorships like Geist in the Classroom, the Spirit of Writing Festival in Nakusp and BC BookWorld’s literary symposium, Reckoning 07. We continued to sponsor writing festivals such as the Shuswap Lake International Writers’ Festival, and were represented at Word on the Street Vancouver and the Surrey International Writers’ Festival in 2007. Over the past year, we presented twelve workshops in four regions of the province, sold advertising in every issue of WordWorks and published a new Fed anthology with Anvil Press. In the year ahead we are committed to forming new relationships such as the partnership in-kind we’ve established with the BC Association of Magazine Publishers wherein we will provide promotional support to BCAMP’s Trade Magazine Symposium taking place this summer in Vancouver.
Organization Accomplishments & Goals The Federation is the only province-wide writers’ organization that embraces all levels of writers working in all the different genres and areas of specialty. Its main goals are to promote excellence and Fernanda Viveiros professionalism in the literary arts and to encourage greater regional and national recognition of BC writers and their achievements. The Federation accomplishes this by supporting the development of its members with a range of programs and services. Several of our most successful programs and services include the Off The Page writers-inschools program, WordWorks magazine and our annual Literary Writes contest. In addition, it is the only province-wide writers’ organization that devotes a significant portion of its budget to artist fees (Off The Page, reading & writing honoraria), contest prizes and paid work opportunities as well as sponsoring festivals, reading events and workshops throughout the province. We continue to streamline the organization and operate frugally but are determined to run significant programs that fulfill our mandate and benefit both emerging writers and established authors. Fed webmaster Guillaume Levesque with North regional representative Hilary Crowley of Prince George and Louis Druehl of Bamfield
Federation members assemble for the 2008 AGM
Membership The Federation continues to attract new members each year while maintaining a strong base of renewal members consisting of both emerging and established writers from all regions of the province. At the close of 2007, we had 648 members (which included 82 members whose memberships expired during the last three months of the year). Membership fees accounted for 38% of our total revenues. However, it has become evident that late membership renewals are costly and create additional time-consuming administrative tasks on our already strained resources. Over 10% of our members were three to six months late in renewing in 2007 and lapsed memberships had an immediate effect on our operating budget. We are encouraging the membership to renew promptly or even a month or two early, as this allows our focus to remain on delivery of our programs and services. Membership renewal notices are sent via email. continued on next page
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FEDERATION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA WRITERS
Website Events Editor Margo Lamont
Executive Director Fernanda Viveiros accepting flowers from new Board President Sylvia Taylor.
In the past year, a higher public profile within BC’s literary community resulted in more established authors joining the Federation. They are joining, primarily, for three reasons: the opportunity to participate in our Off The Page writers-inschools program; paid work opportunities (which include direct referrals from the Fed office, new clients via the online Hire A Writer directory, and teaching Fed-sponsored workshops); and the opportunity to participate in readings and festivals organized and hosted by Federation board members.
Federation Staff & Volunteers Staffing at the Federation continues to be a challenge; there is enough work for two full-time positions but our operating budget does not support the hiring of even a part-time office assistant at this time. Barbara Coleman, who works six to ten hours per week, took on the responsibility of membership coordinator halfway through the year, allowing me to devote more time to the administration of programs and services. In addition, Margo Lamont came on board as our volunteer website events editor and has proved indispensable, regularly updating pages and suggesting improvements to our site.
2008/2009 Board The board for 2008/2009 consists of several long-time regional representatives continuing their terms and a handful of enthusiastic newcomers. At the AGM, long-time Fraser Valley regional representative Sylvia Taylor was appointed our new President and Douglas P. Welbanks stepped into the treasurer’s position. Joining Kay McCracken (Central region) and David Fraser (the Islands) are Hilary Crowley as our new North regional representative, Anne DeGrace in the SouthEast position and Lois Peterson taking on the Fraser Valley regional rep position. I would like to thank out-going 4
Membership coordinator Barbara Coleman with Secretary Andrea Lowe.
directors Andrea Lowe, Anne Strachan, Audrey L’Heureux, Jan Drabek and Joy Huebert for their contributions and wish them continued success with their writing projects.
In closing… Nearly two and half years ago, shortly after I took on the position of ED, the board met with an ArtsPOD facilitator to evaluate our services and discuss the organization’s vision, mission and values. The assessment stressed the need for the Federation to seek out private and corporate sponsorship rather than rely so heavily on government grants but we have made little progress on that front. It is my hope that our new board will concentrate its efforts on a corporate fundraising campaign that will allow us to operate with the staffing and resources needed to serve a growing membership. Despite various challenges, I think it’s an exciting time to be a writer in British Columbia. It is our vision that the Federation continues to play a vital role in developing the potential of our members in the years ahead. Our goal is to provide such excellent services and programs that membership in the Federation of BC Writers becomes a necessity for all writers in the province! I’d like to acknowledge the work and dedication of membership coordinator Barbara Coleman and our board members, especially our hard-working regional representatives whose work on behalf of Federation members is highly appreciated. I also thank our editorial board and desktop publisher, our website events editor and all those Federation members who have assisted with staffing booths and volunteering their time and expertise on various projects this past year. Thank you, Fernanda Viveiros, Executive Director The Annual Report can be read in its entirety online at www.bcwriters.com/reports.php WORDWORKS–SUMMER 2008
— MINUTES — of the F ederation of British Columbia W riters Federation Writers Annual General Meeting May 9, 2008; Listel Hotel, V ancouver Vancouver ancouver,, B.C. Members and guests were registered at the door by membership co-ordinator Barbara Coleman, and given AGM packages containing copies of all agenda reports in full. 1. Call to Order and Welcome • Meeting called to order, with quorum, at 6:40 p.m. by outgoing President Jan Drabek.
2. Approval of Agenda • Moved to accept by Margaret Hume; seconded by Ben Nuttall-Smith; carried.
3. Approval of Minutes of 2007 AGM • Moved to accept by Barbara Murray; seconded by Andrew Boden; carried.
4. President’s Report • Report by outgoing President Jan Drabek. Moved to accept by Guillaume Levesque; seconded by Andrew Boden; carried.
5. Treasurer’s Report • Report by acting Treasurer Douglas Welbanks. No questions from the floor. Moved to accept by Guillaume Levesque; seconded by Andrew Boden; carried.
6. Executive Director’s Report • Comprehensive annual report presented by Executive Director Fernanda Viveiros. Moved to accept by Leila Kulpas; seconded by Guillaume Levesque; carried.
7. Committee and Program Reports • WordWorks report. Prepared by Margaret Thompson and read by Fernanda in Margaret’s absence. Moved to accept by Ben Nuttall-Smith; seconded by Ruth Kozak; carried. • Off the Page report. Given by Sylvia Taylor. Moved to accept by Ruth Kozak; seconded by Inge Bolin; carried. • Website report. Given by Guillaume Levesque. Moved to accept by Leila Kulpas; seconded by Margaret Hume; carried. • New Fed Anthology report. Given by Fernanda Viveiros. Moved to accept by Ben Nuttall-Smith; seconded by Ruth Kozak; carried. • Community Outreach/Regional reports. Given by Sylvia Taylor. Moved to accept by Andrew Boden; seconded by Ruth Kozak; carried.
• Nominations from the floor called for; None made. Moved to accept by Ben Nuttall-Smith; seconded by Guillaume Levesque; carried. • Regional Directors elected by members in their regions for 2008-2009: North –Hilary Crowley; Southeast – Anne DeGrace; Central – Kay McCracken; Fraser Valley – Lois J. Peterson; Islands – David Fraser; Lower Mainland – open for nominations. • Regional Directors comments and report by Sylvia Taylor, and by incoming North rep Hilary Crowley. • Incoming President’s report and greeting by Sylvia Taylor. • Several questions from the floor: How do we determine the regional reps; What are the voting procedures for the regional reps versus the board; Do/can regional reps meet together as a group; How effective is email voting. Responses by Fernanda and Sylvia. • Motion from Sylvia Taylor to accept the slate of Regional Directors. Moved by Pam Galloway; seconded by Ben Nuttall-Smith; carried.
9. Open Floor to Membership • Sylvia Taylor calls for questions and comments from the floor. • Suggestion by Guillaume Levesque to approach Telus to donate the use of conference room. Noted by Treasurer Doug Welbanks. • Question by Hilary Crowley regarding availability of funds to the north region for readings and other activities. Addressed by Sylvia and Fernanda. • Questions by Michael Hetherington for clarification on how the budget is determined, who prepares it, and how it is executed. Addressed by Fernanda. • Suggestion by Guillaume to use PayPal on the internet as vehicle to facilitate donations to the Fed. Noted by Doug. • Question as to the Fed’s charity status; Fernanda confirms we are a registered non-profit society. • Executive Director reminds the membership that it is critically important to keep membership dues up to date and paid on time. Several questions from the floor as to how members are notified and reminded to renew membership. Addressed by Fernanda. Some comments/ concerns from the floor about whether members are actually receiving the notices. Conclusion: Problem of lapsed memberships reiterated.
10. Other Business and Adjournment With no other business declared, incoming President Sylvia Taylor calls for motion to adjourn: Moved by Margaret Hume; seconded by Ben Nuttall-Smith; carried. Special note of thanks and appreciation given to Executive Director Fernanda Viveiros. Sylvia invites members to enjoy refreshments and reminds of anthology readings and book sales at 8:00 p.m. The Annual General Meeting of the Federation of B.C. Writers is adjourned at 7:25 p.m.
8. Election of Directors Slate of Directors and regional reps for 2008/2009 read by Andrea Lowe. • Executive Board: President, Sylvia Taylor; Past President, Jan Drabek; Vice President–open for nominations; Treasurer, Douglas Welbanks; Secretary–open for nominations.
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Minutes taken and compiled by outgoing Secretary, Andrea Lowe; May 2008.
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FEDERATION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA WRITERS
The Phoenix Alternative New technology gives out of print titles a second life. By Kathy Page
This is a story about how new technology, which so often seems to threaten the rights and livelihoods of writers and other artists, has finally come up trumps. It begins with a letter.
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here are some very good letters (your story, Squeezing Oranges, was placed first in...) and there are some spectacularly bad ones (Unfortu nately, your novel, The Disappearance, is not what we are looking for...). The letter which informed me that two of my titles were about to become “out of print” was definitely of the latter kind. I still remember the stab of anger I felt as I read it: they were hardly published! They’d had great reviews! A commercial decision? If they’d run out of them, didn’t that suggest that they might be able to sell some more? My publisher, Methuen UK, had been taken over by a bigger one, which soon would be swallowed up by an even bigger one. The UK industry was in the grip of what was called rationalisation. My editor had left, and my titles were of no significance at all. Besides, most books do eventually go out of print and have to in order to make room for what’s coming next. Still, it rankled. I felt their demise was premature, and so, it turned out, did the readers of my later books, who were always asking me where they could find Frankie Styne & the Silver Man, or As in Music. At one point, I noted, second-hand copies were selling for $90 online. Even so, my agent told me, republication was unlikely. Fast forward to the Writers’ Union of Canada’s 2007 AGM. Friends had mocked me for choosing to spend the sunniest day of the year sitting in a business meeting, but it turned out to be very exciting indeed: Howard White and Penney Kome, it was announced, had been working on something called a reprint service. The Writers’ Union was proposing to set up an imprint, Phoenix Books, which would reprint members’ out of print titles on a print on demand basis. They hoped that the imprint would be up and running within a year, and Brian Brett’s The Colour of Bones in a Stream had been taken through the process as a test case. During the coffee break, we were able to examine the books, which, bar a new logo and ISBN, were identical to the original. The whole process hinged on two things: the rights for the title reverting to the author, and the publisher being prepared to grant permission for Phoenix Books to use his layout and design. Once that was in place, it was a matter of the original book and jacket being scanned and then reproduced on demand. The book as originally written by the author and then professionally edited and designed by the original publisher would then come under the writer’s control.
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FEATURES
There is nothing like having a problem finally solved. “She was at my door!” Deborah Windsor, who manages Phoenix, said of my precipitous response in a recent interview for Quill and Quire. “Literally, the moment it was posted, she had an application in for two books.” Getting to the point of application, however, had involved more letters. At first there was no reply to my request for permission to use the layouts, but when my agent did finally track down the correct contact person in Random House’s contracts department, there was alarming news. “Don’t panic, Kathy,” she told me, “but they say they have no record of these two titles existing.” That being the case, we pointed out, they should have no objection to our using the non-existent layout? Many letters later, it was all resolved. The first copies of Frankie Styne and As in Music are about to be printed, and I’ll be celebrating their resurrection with a reading and talk at the Lions Hall on Salt Spring Island on June 19.
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ow does it work, and is it for you? The reprint scheme is open to all members of the Writer’s Union of Canada with out of print titles. The first thing to check is your existing contract: hopefully it will contain a reversion clause stating that once the book no longer sells in commercial volume, the rights to it return to the author. Beware, as you sign new contracts, of clauses which allow the publisher to retain control so long as even a single copy is being sold per annum; in that case, he, not you, would likely be taking the lion’s share of print on demand revenues. It is important to remember that you’ll have no opportunity to revise the text. The book will be reprinted as it stands. As for the economics of the scheme, set up costs have largely been waived and the 50% discount on fifty or more copies is attractive, as is the 20% royalty. But let’s be clear that this is reprinting, rather than republication. Neither
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TWUC nor the printer, Island Blue of Victoria, will be promoting or distributing the book other than via their websites. The vast majority of sales will be generated by the author. If you sell good numbers of books at readings or other events, have a strong local market, or lots of visitors to your website, then you may make a little money: a hundred copies could bring in $1000, provided you have not spent anything on promotion in order to sell them. More importantly, I feel, given that the titles have already been published and paid for once, you can keep your readers happy by giving them access to your previous work. Your book can enjoy a second life. A thank you letter to TWUC is next on my list! Kathy Page is the author of six novels, including The Story of My Face, which was short listed for the Orange Prize in 2002, and Alphabet, which was nominated for a Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction in 2005. Page has also written short fiction and script for radio and TV. She was born in the UK and is an accomplished workshop leader who has taught writing in universities and other institutions in the UK, Finland, Estonia – and now in Canada, where she has lived with her husband and two children since 2001. For more information, visit her website at www.KathyPage.info. For information on Phoenix Books, contact Deborah Windsor at dwindsor@writersunion.ca
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FEDERATION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA WRITERS
Writing from Away
Cornwall, In Words and Memory By Lois J. Peterson
I’ve moved around a lot in my life. But if anywhere feels like home to me it’s Cornwall, England. Cornwall is where my love of books comes from; I first discovered the world of libraries while at boarding school in Truro in the middle of the county. After I had finished reading every book in the Rashleigh library, Miss Nichols, our school housemistress, set me to work “cataloguing” the lot. I was about ten.
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against a backdrop of seethhe had no idea what she ing Atlantic Ocean. I came started—I have just retired after here on village outings with a 30-year career as a library my grandmother in the fifties worker. Thank you Miss Nichols! and sixties, long before the In May, on my first return journey visitors centre was established to the southwest of England in about to record and celebrate the 15 years, I sought out some of the achievements of Rowena places touched by the pens or imagiCade. Assisted often by her nations of writers from Cornwall or gardener, Cade painstakingly those writing about this evocative carved the theatre out of the place. I didn’t need to go far; in granite cliffs, and even hauled Cornwall the ghosts of various lengths of timber and tons of writerly types—and echoes of their sand, sack by sack, up the writing—pop up from behind many a treacherous path from stone hedge and rugged cliff. Porthcurno beach far below. Winston Graham wrote some of I saw several plays here his famous Poldark books at when I was a kid, swaddled Perranporth. As kids, during summers in rough woolen blankets, at low tide we swam in the rock pool sipping hot chocolate from gouged into a cliff on this north coast Gran’s red flask. And I was beach. Although Graham’s books are mesmerized by the 1967 set further inland, the television series The author “performs” at the Minack Theatre based on them brought the history of nighttime performance of Wuthering Heights as Kathy Cornish tin-mining to life for many and Heathcliff ran from the wings of the rocky crags to viewers in the UK and North America in the mid-seventies. embrace at centre stage in front of a living backdrop of My favourite south coast place in all Cornwall remains raging sea, sky and stars. the Minack Theatre, perched impossibly on ragged cliffs
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FEATURES
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erek Tangye wrote evocatively of this coastal area in the Minack Chronicles, a series of books coauthored with his wife Jeannie. His legacy continues in the nearby Derek and Jeannie Tangye Minack Chronicles Nature Reserve. At Truro High School, boarders celebrated every Ascension Day with a half-day outing. Laden with swimsuits, towels and bag lunches, we sang endless rounds of Ten Green Bottles as our bus rocked along the narrow lanes. More than once we went to Marazion, also on the south coast. Across Mount’s Bay looms St. Michaels’ Mount, reached by causeway at low tide. I don’t recall making my way across on foot then—although in my perpetual work-in-progress Who Do You Wish Was With Us, a child is drowned trying to swim across at high tide on just such a school outing. On our recent trip, with the tide just on the turn, my husband and I were ferried across the choppy waters in a small boat that charged £1.50 for adults and £1.00 for children; sheep travel free. Once a self-sufficient community with its own farm, and now managed by the National Trust, St. Michael’s Mount has been occupied by the St. Aubyn family for the past 300 years. As we descended the winding stone steps after a tour of the castle, a small boy was busy searching underfoot for the black heart-shaped stone said to be the only remaining relic of the children’s legend Jack the Giant Killer, an incident that reputedly took place here. While we waited for a boat to carry us back across Mount’s Bay, we explored the cobbled streets and granite buildings around the harbour. We were the sole customers in the small gift shop, an unwelcome distraction to the manager who lives next door in what had once been the harbour master’s house. E.V. Thompson used this house as
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Tresillian, Near Truro.
the setting for his Winds of Fortune. In an odd bit of serendipity we arrived to find the manager reading this very book. She resumed her reading before the door had even closed behind us. Perhaps the book was already overdue at the library—Cornishman Thompson regularly tops the list of authors whose books are borrowed most often from Cornish libraries. I don’t know where Daphne du Maurier stands on that list although interest in her work endures. Annually in early May, the riverside town of Fowey attracts thousands of visitors for ten days of readings and literary events during the Daphne du Maurier Festival of Arts and Literature. From high above the town we caught a glimpse between houses of the Fowey River, looking just as it might when the author wrote The Loving Spirit—a favourite of mine as a sentimental teenager. Du Maurier lived at nearby Bodinnick for a number of years in a house teetering at the edge of the water; she later moved to Menabilly just above Fowey. This house served as the model for Manderley in Rebecca, but is now in private hands, hidden from view behind high walls. As my husband and I criss-crossed the county, we made a quick stop in Bodmin to use the loos in the town’s meticulously restored 1776 gaol (jail) and museum. But we did not linger for the reenactment of an infamous 1884 murder case tried in these very courtrooms—long before continued next page
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stood at her window waiting for her to trudge back up the lane after church to make Sunday lunch. No search for Cornish literary spots would be complete without the Fed’s first President David a visit to Tintagel, home to the Watmough might have covered legendary King Arthur and such incidents as a reporter on Merlin. We set off to see if Arthur the Cornish Guardian newspacould still be found anywhere in per. The only other association I this tourist-trap of a town. have with this North Cornwall Although we found little more town is having heard—from my than knick-knack and pasty shops prematurely sophisticated lining the main street, Tintagel boarding school friend Babs— castle still stands resolutely that Bodmin had more pubs per overlooking the roiling seas on capita than any town in England. the edge of town. We did not stop to test this Whether King Arthur and his theory, nor did we venture to cohorts were ever actually here, or Jamaica Inn on the edge of even existed, remains the subject Bodmin Moor, made famous by of debate. But writers such as Daphne du Maurier’s book of Mary Stewart and BC’s own Jack the same name. I imagined that Whyte prove that imagination is it would now be just a gloried often enough to bring memory theme park, with the sound of and legend alive. horses’ hooves clattering across Of the various places I’ve cobbles issuing from parking lot lived, Cornwall is still rife with speakers. enough stories, sights, and Instead, we turned southward evocative scenery to fuel a lifetime again for a last look at my of writing and dreaming about grandmother’s village. St. Michael’s Mount, home of Jack the Giant Killer writing. I doubt there were any Why, just last night I dreamt I authors living in Tresillian—or went to Manderley again. writing about it—when I was a kid. But the hissing geese in White House at the end of the road, and the village’s competing C of E church and Methodist chapel have shown Lois Peterson is the author of the upcoming children’s novel Meeting Miss 405 (Orca Book Publishers, Fall 2008). Her up in more than one of my stories. newest story is set in a house built into the cliffs on Porthcurno Little has changed here in 40 years. Standing outside Beach, just below Cornwall’s Minack Theatre. what had been Gran’s house, I felt as I had so often when I
Writing from Away, cont’d
The Winston Graham and Poldark Literary Society: www.poldark.org.uk Daphne du Maurier: www.dumaurier.org Derek and Jeannie Tangye: www.minackchronicles.com The Minack Theatre: www.minack.com St. Michael’s Mount: www.stmichaelsmount.co.uk David Watmough: www.abcbookworld.com Jack Whyte: www.camulod.com
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FEATURES
Writer! Writer!
Not Reading Too Much Into It By Shirley Rudolph
My friend Shauna Paull asked me to join her at a community poetry bash in April, to read with her at the launch of her new book of poems. I’m flattered, but wonder why she’s asking me. I think, maybe she wants me to read first so she’ll look better! But no, that can’t be, she hasn’t an iota of deviousness. Anyway, she’s asked several others to read and they are good writers, so she must actually think I write well! Ooh, I like that thought.
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things, like what to wear. It occurred to me that if I dressed like a poet, people might be fooled into thinking I was one. And then amazingly, I’d pulled out enough poems to fill my time, even occasionally being wowed by my own brilliance, a feeling that alternated with much despondency at the pedestrian efforts I was reading. So I sent out emails to family and friends, secretly hoping they wouldn’t come out to see my public humiliation. And then it was the night of the poetry bash. Anxiety puts a lovely flush to my cheeks, but it’s the only external sign, and most people will comment how well I look. This is helpful I guess. photo courtesy David Riehm
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had Shauna pegged as a kindred spirit back when our kids were together in kindergarten. It wasn’t just the harassed look of a fellow single parent that drew me (technically I wasn’t single then, though I could see it coming).This was long before either of us had come out of the closet as writers (which she’s now done much more convincingly, see the reference above to her book). But there was something in her gracious and generous manner that I couldn’t resist back then, and I still can’t. So I didn’t say no when she asked me to be one of the other poets to read with her as she celebrated the publication by Leaf Press of roughened in undercurrent. Even though I’m not a poet. I mean, I do write poems sometimes, but that doesn’t make me a poet, does it? I am a writer, I’ll admit to that. How do I know? Well, it has something to do with how I’m either always writing something or thinking about writing something or wishing I were writing something or rewriting something or reading something about writing or feeling sheepish that I haven’t written anything for awhile. Familiar? Poeting is different somehow. But I’m a good friend, so I dug out some poems, and went to work on them, because really, none of them are finished. I mean, it’s not like I’ve got a book out or anything. Ten minutes she said, and my goodness that’s a lot of minutes. I know, because I spent many more pacing the floor reading out loud to myself, and rewriting and rewriting. When is a poem finished? It’s really hard to tell, especially when you are not a poet. And I didn’t feel any of these poems were finished. Ah well, I did remember this wasn’t all about me, so pulled myself together, and started to think about more important
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he Shadbolt Centre for the Arts is a serene building, the backdrop of the park is beautiful, the room was full. Four other equally nervous poets read before me (why are they nervous? I wondered) and then it was my turn. The audience was quiet, no one hooted; in fact they seemed attentive, rapt even. I said thank you, they applauded, I sat down, I wanted to read more. Imagine. There were three more readers to go, then Shauna had her turn finally (and it’s actually true I do think it was all about her). And then the night was done. A couple of people thanked me for reading; apparently what I read worked. They couldn’t tell the poems weren’t finished. When can I do it again? Shirley Rudolph was born, grew up, lives and writes in Vancouver. 11
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Meeting The Writer Next Door How one program successfully introduces BC writers to BC students By Margaret Thompson In 1978 I moved to the very small town of Fort St. James to teach English in the high school. One of the first things I did was to check out the English department book room, a narrow, unventilated cave on the top floor, between the French classroom and a janitor’s closet, that smelled uncannily like a church with a hint of locker room, the result, no doubt, of the mingled essence of dust, old paper and sundry boxes of junk, including mismatched running shoes, a ganglion of extension cords, stacks of mimeographed sheets covered in spidery purple handwriting, and used bottles of LePage’s glue, the brushes fossilized in white cement.
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here were quite a lot of books crowding those shelves, arranged according to the grade levels for which they were authorized. Without exception, they looked as if they had collapsed there after long, gruelling lives. Some of the titles remain with me: I Never Promised You A Rose Garden; The Pig Man; The Outsiders; Sounder; The Pearl; The Red Pony; The Martian Chronicles; To Kill A Mockingbird. They varied wildly in what you might call literary worth; some were gems, while others were merely echoes of Sixties zeitgeist, the Ministry of Education’s lamentable attempts to be hip. They had one thing in common, though; they were all American. Later additions to the Authorized list introduced some good texts—Animal Farm, for example, and Lord of the Rings—but they were by English authors. The only Canadian writers who made it into the classrooms of BC were Margaret Laurence (The Stone Angel) and W.O. Mitchell (Who Has Seen The Wind?). I think I remember coming across some copies of Wallace Stegner’s Wolf Willow in that book room, too, but they had been gathering dust for years when I found them, and I never knew of anyone actually using them with a class. Southern Saskatchewan held little appeal for Northern Interior BC, apparently. Of those Canadian writers who were flourishing at that time— Margaret Atwood, Mordecai Richler, Robertson Davies,
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Leonard Cohen, Alice Munro—there was not a trace, although certain Atwood poems and selected Munro stories began to sneak into anthologies. Even when regulations changed and teachers were given more latitude to select texts themselves, things did not change all that much. Two reasons for that, perhaps: many teachers, products of the very system they now worked in, knew little about Canadian literature and tended to ignore those books that booksellers relegated to that Siberian section at the back of the store labelled “Canadiana”; and their newfound autonomy was somewhat compromised by the inroads computers made into the funding for new books. So it is probably still true that Canadian writers are sketchily represented in the classroom. It is extraordinary that Canada, a country determined to assert its difference from its elephantine neighbour and colonial parents, yet unable to say exactly what that difference is, should so resolutely exclude from school curricula the homegrown writers whose work it is to reflect and define Canadian culture. Ironically, governments, federal and provincial, always claim to champion culture, and can point to the millions they spend annually on supporting The Arts. In BC, every school district has a small budget dedicated to cultural enrichment which they can use to bring artists into the schools; usually, though, that funding is spent on
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performing artists—theatre groups, dance companies, musicians—who can entertain large groups, whole schools sometimes, giving the district the biggest bang for its buck. Solitary writers don’t often figure in this scenario. In the twenty years I worked in Fort St. James I can remember only two writers dropping in for visits, parachuted in, complaining rather, in the course of Canada Council tours.
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How is it then, that the Federation of BC Writers has managed to put an average of 32 members per year into BC classrooms over the last 11 years? That’s at least 352 school visits, affecting at least 11,000 schoolchildren. The answer, of course, is our Off The Page program. Six hundred and fifty of those 8,906 BC writers belong to the Federation, and any one of them with recent publications can apply to be part of the Off The Page program. The premise is very simple: after the selection process, the successful applicants seek out a teacher in a school in their own community who is willing to host an author visit, and arrange a specific time. Our website lists hints for both writers and teachers to help make the visit as profitable and trouble-free as possible for all concerned. On completion of the visit, both writer and teacher return a brief report to the Fed, at which point—and this is where Off The Page differs from any program run by other organizations, and probably the reason for its success—the Fed pays the writer $200 from the funding supplied by the Direct Access program.
overnment loudly proclaims its commitment to the young, to education, to literacy. Parents, by and large, understand the importance of reading and the need for content that is relevant to engage the interest of their children. Even while it gobbles up the latest episode of Survivor or American Idol, many of the general public are uneasy at the homogenization of the media, and obscurely elated when a local artist or show vaults into the headlines and provides some genuine Canadian content. But ask the man in the street to name five prominent Canadian writers and you probably wouldn’t be able to find one able to get much further than Atwood or Munro. Ask a child in high school ditto, and the result would probably be the same verybody is a winner in this arrangement. Our (elementary schoolchildren are far more familiar with those members live in every part of this sprawling province, who write for them, thanks to the Tree Awards). Narrow the so schools in small isolated communities which question further and ask for BC writers specifically, and seldom have cultural visitors because of the expense of travel there might well be an uncomfortable silence. benefit just as much as those in the larger urban centres. Yet if you Google ABCBookWorld you will find 8,906 Members have visited every grade level in schools ranging entries on their BC from Masset to Nelson, Ucluelet to Dawson Creek, Author Bank. from the First Nations school in Cecil Lake to Literally thousands inner city schools on Vancouver’s East side. I of writers actually recently visited a large high school in Central “Our website lists hints for living and working in Saanich, but up north I also found myself in both writers and teachers to this province, classrooms in Fraser Lake, Fort St. James, help make the visit as equipped with a Vanderhoof and Burns Lake. Children in those myriad skills and schools are enchanted to discover that real living profitable and trouble-free experience, expert and breathing writers, some of whom have written as possible.” communicators to the books they have enjoyed reading, are their close whom words and the neighbours. They discover, too, that even writers coruscating brilliance who have books published share the same difficulof language are the breath of life, originators, many of them, ties they experience: searching for inspiration, struggling for of the texts that inform and enrich our understanding of the the right word, labouring to make it better. Teachers, if their glowing reports are anything to go by, world and ourselves, yet a resource that is woefully underused. find these visits enormously helpful. Time and again they report that the presence of a writer has sparked an interest in Every writers’ organization, national or provincial, aims reading and writing among their students. Just as often, we to introduce its members into schools, recognizing that the hear students count visits such as these among the indelible young are the future, the repositories of our cultural values, memories of school life. Often, one visit leads to further our only chance of any meaningful immortality. The two literary visitors I had in twenty years in my isolated northern contact: follow-up classroom activities, letters from students, readings or workshops, frequently involving other teachers classroom suggest that their efforts, for a variety of reasons, are not very successful. continued next page
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Meeting the Writer Next Door, cont’d in the school and the parent advisory groups, who may arrange the extra funding. The writers nearly always report favourably on their visits, too. It doesn’t matter if they don’t actually write for children; all writers have skills and experience and passion they can share. Sometimes, contact with young children is revelatory; a writer of adult non-fiction like Rita Moir, for example, had a ball with children in her local elementary school in Winlaw, and to his surprise, so did Mel Dagg in Sointula. Many times writers comment on the penetrating questions even the very young can ask, even though someone always wants to know how much money you make! Even the chilly heart of the government funding agencies is gladdened by Off The Page. The fact that the program reaches into so many schools, especially those in out-of-theway places in the “heartland” that so often have a legitimate beef about neglect, and puts a human face on so many writers, ditto, allows them the satisfaction of translating at least some of the motherhood and apple pie concern for culture and education into reality.
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With this program the Federation succeeds in doing what so many individuals and organizations say they’d like to do. It’s simple; it works. Its only limitations are those imposed by the availability of funding and administrative time. The dream is to expand the number of applicants selected, and to diversify the kinds of contact to include such things as Writer in Residence programs in schools, or workshop series. To do that, though, we’d need to find corporate sponsors in tune with the program’s aims, able to see both the short- and the long-term benefits of linking their businesses to the promotion of such abstractions as culture and literacy, and willing to provide sustained financial support. A tall order, but there must be some corporations with vision and foresight in this province, right? Margaret Thompson came to Canada in 1967 and taught English at secondary and post-secondary levels until 1998. She is the author of five books, some for children and some for adults, as well as prize-winning short stories, essays, and poems in various literary magazines. She is a Past President of the Federation of BC Writers, and a member of the editorial committee of WordWorks. She lives in Victoria, BC, with two basset hounds, a Siamese cat and a flock of peacocks.
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“Hey, Are You the Author?” WordWorks in Conversation with Robin Stevenson Robin Stevenson began writing seriously while on maternity leave in 2005. Three years later, she is the author of two juvenile and three young adult novels. In spring 2008 Robin participated in the Federation’s Off The Page program for the first time and gave a presentation to a school close to her heart—and to her writing.
Photo courtesy Cheryl May
Just to set the scene, where did you arrange your Off The Page visit? Any special reason for choosing that school? My Off the Page visit was at Victoria High School, which is literally around the corner from my house. I chose it for two reasons. The high school and my house are both in Fernwood—a vibrant and diverse Victoria neighbourhood with a strong sense of community spirit and a strong commitment to the arts. I love this community and I was very happy to be able to offer a school presentation for the students here. Also, although neither is explicitly named in my book, a local reader would recognize the Fernwood neighbourhood and Victoria High School as the setting for my first young adult novel, Out of Order. Sophie, the main character in the novel, is starting grade ten after moving from Ontario to BC with her mother. Many scenes take place at the high school, in the adjacent Fernwood Square, and in the coffee shop and pizza place near the high school. It seemed very fitting—though slightly disconcerting—to be presenting in one of the classrooms that I had come to think of as belonging to Sophie and her friends! To what extent was the planning for your presentation a collaboration with the teacher? I had an initial phone conversation with the teacher-librarian at the school, who matched me with one of the English teachers. When I spoke with the teacher, I asked her about the class and she explained that it was a grade nine class of mostly boys. Together we decided that I would do a 60- to 80-minute interactive presentation focussed on the creative process. I had initially planned to discuss my teen novel Out of Order because of the local setting, but after hearing the teacher’s description of the class, I decided that my book Dead in the Water, a high-interest sailing adventure novel in the Orca Sports series, would be a better fit. Two weeks before the school visit date, I sent the teacher a confirmation letter outlining my plans for the presentation and asking her to contact me if she wished to speak to me beforehand. I included some material about my books, and said that it would be very helpful continued next page WORDWORKS–SUMMER 2008
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Robin Stevenson, cont’d if she could encourage students to think about any questions they might have regarding either the creative process or the publishing process. When I arrived to do the presentation, I found she had posted some of the information and written a synopsis of Dead in the Water on the chalkboard. The kids gave me a great welcome, and my impression was that they had been well prepared by their teacher. Can you give us a writerly thumbnail sketch of your visit to the classroom? I’m particularly interested in what you set out to accomplish, how you did it, what part the kids played, and so on. That’s an interesting question. I hoped to accomplish a few things: to share my excitement about both reading and writing books; to give a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the writing and publishing process; to share some strategies that I find useful in my writing and to encourage the students in their own; to make the process of writing—my own writing, anyway—more transparent; and finally to make the possibility of writing novels seem attainable. I wasn’t sure how much group participation to expect so I planned a presentation which was flexible enough that I could easily adjust it to fit the needs of an active group or a reserved one…and then I bribed the students. I told them that anyone who shared their ideas or asked a question could put their name into a draw for a free signed copy of Dead in the Water. I don’t think the bribe was needed, as this group was full of energy and ideas, but they enjoyed it anyway. My presentation included a look at how I became a writer, a discussion of the creative process and how I plan, write and revise a novel, some group brain-storming and creative writing exercises, and time for questions. Throughout the presentation, I drew on my book Dead In the Water. It was interesting to use this book as it’s the only one that I have written from an outline and is the most plot-driven of all my novels. This contrast provided a useful jumping-off point for a discussion of the varied approaches to writing that different people have, and that different projects call for. We discussed the importance of experimenting to figure out your own creative process, and the students shared their own experiences, frustrations and questions about writing. We also had a great conversation about how writers can draw on their own experiences to strengthen their writing by making scenes more vivid and characters more distinct and three-dimensional. We talked about how the seemingly mundane details of a job at a gas station or sub shop can provide a rich setting for a story, and how even less-than-enjoyable experiences like relationship break-ups and snow-boarding accidents can—once enough time has passed for perspective to be gained and bleeding to stop—provide us with all kinds of insight into how people relate to each other, how people react in a crisis, how people cope with difficult situations and so on. Again, students shared some wonderful and sometimes hilarious stories. Really, this grade nine class was a group that made my job very easy and I was very grateful to them all for making my first school presentation such a pleasure. Anything particularly striking or interesting about the kids’ response? How do you think they benefited most from your presentation? Their teacher later told me in a follow-up letter “the presentation was so inspiring that the students’ engagement with their own writing process improved as a result.” I was pretty happy to hear that! But what struck me the most was how welcoming and enthusiastic they were, and how open and generous they were in their response to my presentation. Despite
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being a very high-energy group, they were focused, attentive learning is a process, that it is on-going and lifelong, and and engaged for a full eighty-minute class. They asked that we are all learners and can all learn from each other. interesting and thought-provoking questions and were Talking about how I write makes me more conscious of my willing to take risks in sharing their own personal expericreative process, responding to students’ challenging quesences with writing stories and poetry. tions leads to new realizations, and of course, being in high My hope is that I was able to de-mystify the writing schools and talking to teenagers keeps me in touch with the process somewhat—to make the point that one doesn’t readers I am writing for. necessarily sit down at the computer and have words flow out, and that when they do, they’re not necessarily the right words Has your visit had an afterlife in the form of further contact of or in the right order. One student asked, Have you ever had any kind? difficulty with a particular chapter? Um, most chapters, I told Well, I had a very nice chat with the school’s teacherhim. Do you ever get stuck, or have trouble figuring out what librarian and signed copies of my books in the library. I am should happen next? Sure, all the time. Did you ever write definitely hoping that I will have the opportunity to present something and think it wasn’t that good? Yup, that’s why I write at the local high school again and will probably get in touch second drafts. And third drafts. And…you get the idea. in the fall. I loved books as a child and wanted to be a writer, but by the time I was in high school I had dropped the idea. It As a social worker you were involved with children, I believe. didn’t seem realistic. Although everyone in my family read Can you tell us something about that part of your life and how voraciously, no one we knew the experience served you as a writer? wrote novels and I don’t I’ve worked as a social worker, counselthink I ever met an author. I lor and therapist since 1995. I have worked wasn’t ever discouraged from with children and families in both hospital “We all live through stories— it by anyone—it just wasn’t and community settings; counselled stories guide how we act, one of the possibilities I was teenagers and adults who have survived think, feel, and make sense aware of. I hope that meeting sexual assault and childhood sexual abuse; an author and hearing about and, most recently, provided support for of our experience.” the writing and publishing individuals and families affected by process could encourage Huntington’s disease. Many of the people I students to pursue their own have worked with have been young women writing goals. I also believe that enthusiasm is contagious, in their teens and early twenties and I would say that the and I hope that my love of books, reading and writing might work has given me more insight into the challenges young help to foster that interest in students who are not strong adults face as they navigate the often intense and challenging readers or writers already. high school years. Listening to the stories of girls and women has helped deepen my understanding of the themes Any kind of presentation involves a workout for various skills. woven throughout many of my novels—identity, self-esteem, What particular demands did the presentation make on you? body image, sexuality, peer and family relationships, sorting What did it do for you, especially as a writer? out one’s beliefs and one’s place in the world. I expected to be nervous during this presentation—and I As a counsellor, one of the theoretical approaches that was quite anxious the night before! I teach social work to particularly interested me was narrative therapy. According university students, so I am used to being in front of a class. to this framework, we all live through stories—stories guide Still, the content of this presentation was different and so how we act, think, feel, and make sense of our experience. was the audience. My fear was that I would have difficulty Stories shape our perspectives of our lives, our pasts, and our engaging the group. I thought that they might be reluctant futures. I think this framework or lens is something I also to ask questions or share their ideas. I couldn’t have been bring to writing fiction. In Out of Order, for example, Sophie more wrong. I had barely got one foot through the door is stuck in an old story about herself which is socially when one student shouted, Hey, are you the author? My constructed and influenced both by her experiences with nervousness vanished immediately. This was going to be fun. peers and by the larger social context. Her ability to make And of course it was. changes in her life grows as she comes to recognize this old I think my best experiences as both student and teacher story as unhelpful, to understand how it affects her, and to continued next page have been the ones in which there is a recognition that WORDWORKS–SUMMER 2008
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What engages you most about writing for young adults? Perhaps more important, what engages young adults most successfully? I do enjoy writing for young adults, but even more than realize that she is in fact free to be the creator of a new and that, I am interested in writing about them—about that time more liberating story. in life when many people are so intensely engaged in figurWhen I used to tell people about my work as a counseling out who they are and what they believe. There is so lor, they nearly always commented that it must be very hard much change during the teen years and that fascinates me. or very sad. While it could of course be both of those things Even my short stories written for adults are most often about at times, what people often don’t realize is that as a counselpeople in their teens and twenties. lor one also witnesses the remarkable strength that people To be honest, I don’t really think about the reader when have. I have facilitated support groups for people dealing I am writing a first draft, though I am more conscious of with incredibly difficult situations and seen them offer support to each other, laugh together, cry together and move this when I am revising. And I don’t specifically think about the readers being teens. Teens are as diverse a group into new and more hopeful places together. So I think a as adults are, with hugely varied interests, personalities and respect for the strength, resilience and courage that people backgrounds, so it is hard to generalize about young adult have within them is something that also comes through in readers and what engages them. I don’t think I make an my writing and my characters. effort to write differently for teens or for adults, and I don’t Your first book was published in 2007 avoid writing particular scenes or and you have three YA novels published “Teens deal with tough language or issues because I am this year—an achievement by any issues in their everyday writing for teens. I don’t ever talk standards. A glance at the synopses reveals down to them—I just try to that you confront big issues head on— lives, and they don’t need focus on my characters and tell homosexuality, the potential for deception to be protected from these their stories. I have a lot of in on-line communication, the complexiin their reading.” respect for young adults—for ties of friendship, self-destructive their sense of social justice, their behaviour, for example. Why is this courage, their loyalty to friends, important to you? Well, I don’t consciously set out to confront issues, big or and their willingness to learn and shift their own beliefs. I small, in my writing. I tend to think of my books in terms of hope this comes across in my writing and that it is part of what engages my readers. their characters, first of all. But of course, people’s lives, whether they are real or fictional, are always crashing Inevitably, there will be works in progress. What are you headfirst into difficult and complex issues. working on, and what are the big issues this time? I am a feminist who is very interested in issues of social I have just finished a YA novel which will be released justice—so those concerns probably do come across in my writing. It is important to me to write strong characters that this fall. It is called A Thousand Shades of Blue and it don’t conform to gender stereotypes. I also think that there is focuses on a family struggling with conflict many years after a serious accident injures their eldest daughter. The a need for more teen fiction with queer characters—books that aren’t about coming out, or about coming to terms with novel explores the aftermath of trauma, the effects of secrets, the ramifications of losing trust in the people who one’s sexuality, but just good stories told from the point of are most important to us, and the question of what holds view of a character who happens to be gay. People often express concern about issues of drinking, drugs families together. I also have just signed a contract for a new YA novel, very and sex in contemporary teen fiction. But teens deal with tough tentatively titled Inferno, which will come out in the spring issues in their everyday lives, and they don’t need to be proof 2009. And my newest project is still a rough draft and as tected from these in their reading. I think it is a mistake to yet untitled, but the story explores ideas about family, censor reading in the name of protecting teens. The amazing forgiveness and self-acceptance. thing about fiction is that it allows us to play with different ideas, choices and realities. It allows teens to explore real life No shortage of material for your next Off The Page visit, dilemmas in the safe world of a book, to look at difficult issues then! I’m sure the students at Vic High will be happy to hear and choices without being told what to think or do. It allows that. them to think about what they want their own story to be.
Robin Stevenson, cont’d
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Launched! New Titles by
Federation Members
Little Emperors: A Year with the Future of China JoAnn Dionne Dundurn Press, December 2007 ISBN 9781550027563 $24.99 Much has been made about how the New China has become an economic juggernaut in today’s world while civil liberties and basic freedoms remain constricted. We know where the aging leadership has taken and is taking China, but what about the very young? What are they like? When JoAnn Dionne arrived in Guangzho, she came prepared to live and teach elementary school in a Communist country. She expected to see soldiers in the streets, people in grey Mao suits, and lineups to buy toilet paper. Instead she found the world’s oldest country, throwing itself headlong into the future. And she met the people who would live in that future — her students. Along with crisp insights into Chinese culture as seen through the eyes of a North American, Dionne provides a funny, often poignant glimpse of a nation undergoing rapid transformation. JoAnn Dionne has lived in Japan, Mexico, China, and more recently, Hong Kong — her home of five years, where she worked for a time as an editor at Oxford University Press. Little Emperors is her first book. Currently she lives in Victoria, but she grew up in Salmon Arm in the province‘s interior.
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Dinosaur Fever Marion Woodson Dundurn Press, February 2008 ISBN 1550026909 $11.99 It‘s the summer of 1988 and 15-year-old aspiring artist Adam Zapotica has a big problem. He’s crazy about dinosaurs, and a team of paleontologists and scientists at Milk River Ridge near Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park in southern Alberta has recently unearthed a major cache of dinosaur eggs. They need volunteers to assist them at the dig, but there’s a catch—you have to be 18! Adam soon figures a way to get around that, and faster than a raptor the Calgary youth finds himself part of the dinosaur crew and knee-deep in intrigue and romance, especially after he meets Jamie, the teenaged daughter of the camp’s boss. Someone is stealing fossils, and the suspects are almost as numerous as the dinosaur experts toiling amid the hoodoos and coulees. Adam and Jamie are determined to get to the bottom of the pilfering, but dinosaurs are big business and the danger could be deadly. Marion Woodson has published four previous novels for children, including My Brother’s Keeper (Raincoast) and Charlotte’s Vow (available from Dundurn), which was selected as Our Choice by the Canadian Children’s Book Centre. A former family services association coordinator and college instructor, she now writes full-time and lives in Nanaimo.
FEDERATION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA WRITERS
Impossible Things Robin Stevenson Orca Book Publishers, March 2008 ISBN 9781551437361 $8.95 Cassidy Silver is not having a good year. Her engineer father is in the Middle East, her artist mother is too busy to listen to the painful details of her daughter’s grade seven life, her genius younger brother is being bullied, and her best friend Chiaki has abandoned her to hang out with the meanest girls in school. Then Cassidy meets Victoria, who is telekinetic—she can move objects with her mind. Cassidy, desperate to not be the only ordinary person in her family, thinks learning telekinesis could be the answer to all her problems. But is Victoria telling the truth? And is telekinesis really the solution? 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. More information about Robin and her books is available on her website: www.robinstevenson.com.
Of a Fire Beyond the Hills Ernest Hekkanen New Orphic Publishers, April 2008 ISBN 9781894842136 $25.00 Hekkanen’s novel, Of a Fire Beyond the Hills, is written in the tradition of Norman Mailer’s The Armies of the Night and Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People. During a time of war, an intrepid group of anti-war activists in Nelson, BC, decide to erect a War Resisters Monument to American draft dodgers and deserters. This act results in an angry outburst by right-wingers across North America, in particular by the Veterans of Foreign Wars, who encourage President Bush to condemn the project. The local Chamber of Commerce is flooded by hysterical hate mail urging Nelson’s city fathers to ban the War Resisters Monument. When author Ernest Hekkanen offers his front yard as a possible site for the statue, the mayor and city councilors seek to put a stop to it out of fear that it will ruin Nelson’s tourist industry. Born in Seattle in 1947, Ernest Hekkanen moved to Canada in 1969. A poet, short story writer, novelist, reviewer, essayist, playwright, anthologist, publisher, printmaker, painter, carver and sculptor, he and Margrith Schraner co-curate the home-based New Orphic Gallery in Nelson, BC. Hekkanen is also the Editor-in-Chief of The New Orphic Review.
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Watching July Christine Hart Sumach Press, April 2008 ISBN 9781894549714 $12.95 Sixteen-year-old July MacKenzie can hardly recognize her life anymore. A few months ago she was going to school and hanging out her friends but then her mom is killed in a hit and run accident. Suddenly, July and Marie, her other parent, have packed up and moved to the Interior. July meets a boy down the road and begins to see the possibility of building a new life. When it is revealed that her mother’s death was not what it seemed, July must face a shocking threat. In Watching July, author Christine Hart brings her readers into the innermost feelings, fears and joys of a contemporary teen. In the face of loss, relocation and the challenges of growing up, July gains the courage to move on from her past and confront the dangers in her present. Christine Hart lives in Victoria, BC. Hart, who is a communications specialist, has also done freelance writing for newspapers, magazines, websites and corporations. Watching July is her first novel. Visit her website at www.christine-hart.com
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Spar Trees & Mammoth Tusks Marianne Van Osch First Choice Books, May 2008 ISBN 9781897518441 $18.95 Harold Gangloff ’s story begins on a homestead in Ontario near the Manitoba border where he shares memories of a wilderness farm, a race with a wolf, less than happy school days and weasel trapping. When the family moves to BC, new roads stretch before Harold: the dangers of skyline logging, a gold dredge in the Yukon and a wide open life in Dawson, an Ocean Falls sawmill and remote Ontario pulpwood camps. He survives a serious injury in a mine cave-in at Mayo and meets an interesting cast of characters. There are gangsters, close calls as a “knight of the road,” Holocaust survivors and Doukhobors. Spar Trees & Mammoth Tusks is the rollicking good story of a man’s life, told with humour, enthusiasm and marvelous details. Marianne Van Osch is a retired teacher living in Forest Grove in the Cariboo District of British Columbia. She writes for the 100 Mile Free Press and has written articles for women’s and parenting publications. In 2006 her biography of a pioneer woman, The Homesteader’s Daughter, was a great success with four printings in the first year. Spar Trees and Mammoth Tusks was commissioned in 2003 as a small, private book for Harold Gangloff ’s family and friends. The present version has been expanded to include many new stories.
Double Lives: Writing and Motherhood
The Old Brown Suitcase (2nd Edition)
Edited by Shannon Cowan, Fiona Tinwei Lam & Cathy Stonehouse McGill-Queen’s University Press, May 2008 ISBN 9780773533776 $22.95
Lillian Boraks-Nemetz Ronsdale Press, May 2008 ISBN 9781553800576 $10.95
Writing is intellectual, solitary work, and mothering too often seen as its antithesis. Yet despite having writers such as Adrienne Rich, Alice Munro and Margaret Laurence to guide and inspire them, mothers who are writers still often feel overwhelmed – even in the 21st century, a writer new to mothering may wonder if she will ever write again. In Double Lives, the first Canadian literary anthology focusing on mothering and writing, twenty-two writers, who range in reputation from seasoned professionals to noteworthy new talents reveal the intimate challenges and private rewards of nurturing children while pursuing the passion to write. Varying widely in age, marital status, sexual orientation, culture/ ethnicity, and philosophical stance, authors such as Di Brandt, Stephanie Bolster, Linda Spalding, Janice Kulyk Keefer, Sharron Proulx-Turner, Sally Ito, Rachel Rose and Susan Olding, make illuminating contributions to our understanding of how writer and mother co-exist. Shannon Cowan is the author of Tin Angel (Lobster Press) and Leaving Winter (Oolichan Books) and the mother of two young children. Fiona Tinwei Lam is the author of Intimate Distances (Nightwood Editions), a former lawyer, and the single mother of a fiveyear-old. Cathy Stonehouse is the author of The Words I Know (Press Gang) and the mother of a preschooler.
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The Old Brown Suitcase, an award -winning book, now appears in a new edition by Ronsdale Press. It tells an absorbing story of a young girl who survived the Holocaust. Slava, a fourteen-year-old teen, comes to Canada with her family and a suitcase filled with memories. She cannot forget the hunger, stench and disease in the Warsaw Ghetto, nor the fear and humiliation of being incarcerated behind a high brick wall. She cannot forget her extraordinary escape from the Ghetto, leaving behind her beloved parents and sister. Nor can she forget surviving under a hidden identity in a strange and unknown place. The story juxtaposes heart-wrenching scenes from a child’s life in war-torn Poland with the life of a teenager trying to adjust to a new and peaceful country, Canada. Lillian Boraks-Nemetz was born in Warsaw, Poland, where she survived the Holocaust as a child. She has an MA in Comparative Literature and teaches Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia’s Writing Center. She is an author of poetry and fiction.
FEDERATION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA WRITERS
Marie’s Story
Bolivia: A Traveller’s History
Frankie Styne & the Silver Man
Nora Ryan Trafford, May 2008 ISBN 1425155359 $14.00
Vivien Lougheed Harbour Publishing, May 2008 ISBN 9781550174441 $24.95
Kathy Page Phoenix Books, May 2008 ISBN 9780969079651 $23.95
Orphaned after their mother dies from a mysterious illness, Marie and Gustaf live with their aunt on the slopes of Pic la Ferrière. The children earn a little money helping to guide tourists up to La Citadelle, a great fortress at the top of the mountain. Their fragile world starts to unravel as Marie too becomes ill and one of her best friends is sent to work as a domestic servant in the nearby city of Cap Haïtien. The terrible reality of her illness and its connection to her mother slowly works its way into the fabric of Marie’s life. This story puts a human face on the dismal statistics of AIDS and brings the reader into the lives of children, illuminating their struggles and triumphs in a haphazard and uncertain world.
Understanding Bolivia is a traveller’s history that reveals the backbone of local cultures from the Tihuanacans and Inca to present day Aymara and Quechua. The book describes what made Bolivia the second poorest country in the Americas and how it disposed of almost 200 presidents in the same number of years. The book is also a history of travellers. Some, like Colonel Percy Fawcett and his quest for the lost mines of the Muribeco, come to Bolivia with impossible dreams. A magnet for adventureseekers, the country’s isolation has also attracted those on the run—the “Butcher of Leon” Klaus Barbie, revolutionist Che Guevara and bank robbers Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid all sought haven in Bolivia.
Currently living in Squamish, Nora Ryan is the author of two previous books, Across the Great Divide and Cracked Conch. Her latest work, Marie’s Story, completes her Caribbean trilogy, a group of works inspired by her years living and traveling in the Caribbean. Nora’s poetry has been featured in an Ascent Aspirations anthology.
Understanding Bolivia takes over where the rest of the guidebooks end, offering visitors and armchair travellers a fascinating story of rich cultures and colourful characters in a land of extremes.
Frankie Styne has lived at 125 Onley Street for many years. Meticulous and obsessive, he lives a life of isolation, managing to keep both future and past at bay while he writes gruesome killer novels. Next door, number 127 has just been let to Liz Meredith, who has been told that her new baby, Jim, will never be like other children. But what Mrs. Purvis the social worker can’t see, as Liz can, is that Jim already knows things no ordinary person could. All she wants is to be left in peace so that she can imagine her way out of how things are, but when Frank hatches a real-life plot and begins to enact it, he, Liz and Jim find their lives unexpectedly transformed. Sifting through our collective nightmares, Kathy Page has written a novel that is powerful, humorous, tragic and thoroughly surprising
Born in Winnipeg, Vivien Lougheed was raised by her Polish grandparents who instilled within her a desire for adventure. From her home base of Prince George she has travelled extensively throughout BC, China, Pakistan, the Mediterranean, Central and South America, Africa, the Himalayas of Tibet and Nepal.
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Kathy Page is the author of six novels, including The Story of My Face, which was short listed for the Orange Prize in 2002, and Alphabet, which was nominated for a Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction in 2005. She lives on Salt Spring Island with her family. Check out her website at www.KathyPage.info
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Murder at Hotel Cinema A Five-Star Mystery Daniel Edward Craig Midnight Ink Books/ Llewellyn Worldwide, June 2008 ISBN 978 0738711195 $18.50 Dedicated hotelier Trevor Lambert moves to Los Angeles to manage Hotel Cinema, a multi-million-dollar rejuvenation of an Old Hollywood motor inn. It’s the scene of a fabulous opening party until Tinseltown’s hottest star, Chelsea Fricks, takes a fatal dive from the penthouse balcony. Rumors fly about a reckless publicity stunt or famedriven suicide, but Chelsea’s stab wounds tell another story. Hotel Cinema becomes the setting for a comical murder mystery starring Chelsea’s pit bull publicist, her pinup boyfriend, a tasteless tabloid reporter and a star-struck detective. Struggling to protect his prized employees from the incriminating glare of the LAPD and the prying eyes of reporters, Trevor is forced to step into the spotlight, risking everything to expose the true killer. With an insider’s view of the hotel industry, Daniel Edward Craig has worked for some of the world’s finest hotels, most recently as general manager of world-renowned Opus Hotel, where celebrity sightings are a regular occurrence. Today, Craig works as a writer and consultant in Vancouver. Visit him at www.danieledwardcraig.com
A Country Girl
Walking on Water
Jeanne Ainslie Xlibris, July 2008 ISBN 9781436331791 $19.99
Jancis M. Andrews Cormorant Books, July 2008 ISBN 9781897151174 $21.00
A Country Girl is the story of Angela, a young woman raised in a rural community, and her sexual awakening—from her first teenage love affair to the casual encounters of later years that threatened her innocence. From the boyish baseball player, William, to the rebellious Rex, to escapades with and without her husband, Angela unleashes her desires and opens up to the pleasurable adventures awaiting her beyond the borders of her country town. It is also a story that reflects the desires and search of one woman’s sexual identity, a woman with a passionate joy for living. It is a happy and tragic story, beautiful and deeply romantic, and frankly erotic.
Walking on Water, the latest short story collection from award-winning author Jancis M. Andrews, searches for the intimate moments of life that reveal the fantastic amongst the mundane. In these nine stories, Andrews explores the jutting coasts and heaving mountains of British Columbia, crawls through the communities of poor Vancouverites, and brings to life characters fully imagined with tender care and aplomb. In each story, characters face a turning point in which they are forced to succumb to the suffocating crush, or rise above and walk away. In “Balancing,” a destitute mother of two and abused wife must deal with her inner demons to find a constructive release for the fear and frustration she faces daily at home. And in the chilling, autobiographical “Country of Evil,”Andrews leads the reader through a chaotic night during the London Blitz to question the origin of evil and if it can be contained within any set borders.
Jeanne Ainslie is a published author and experienced editor. Her first novel Angela, published by Dell in 1975, sold over 61,000 copies. A Country Girl is the sequel to Angela. Jeanne lives by the sea in White Rock, BC, where she edits science articles and writes. For more information, see www.acountrygirl.com
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Jancis M. Andrews was born and raised in England amongst the deafening clamour of the Second World War. She has won several awards for her short fiction and poetry, including “Country of Evil,” which won Event Magazine’s Non-Fiction Award and was a finalist in the Western Magazine Awards.
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FEDERATION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA WRITERS
Contests & Markets LOOMING DEADLINES Ascent AspIRations 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.
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.
THE MALAHAT REVIEW - 2008 CREATIVE NONFICTION PRIZE Deadline: August 1, 2008 postmarked http://web.uvic.ca/malahat
THE SUMMER DREAM POETRY CONTEST Deadline September 15, 2008 www.pandorascollective.com/ contest.html
Invites unpublished entries between 2,000 and 3,000 words. No restrictions as to subject matter or approach. Entry may be personal essay, memoir, cultural criticism, nature writing, or literary journalism. Entry fee: $35CDN for Canadian entries includes one year subscription. Blind judging applies, indicate word count on first page, include a cover letter with title and your name and contact details (including an email address). Mail entries to The Malahat Review, University of Victoria, P.O. Box 1700, Stn. CSC, Victoria, BC V8W 2Y2.
sub-TERRAIN Magazine Deadline: September 15, 2008 www.subterrain.ca
31st Annual 3-Day Novel Contest Deadline: Registration form and fee postmarked by August 29, 2008 www.3daynovel.com Here’s your chance to see if it’s really possible to write a novel in three days, August 30–September 1. Entries average 100 pages. Registration form is online.
16th Annual Surrey International Writing Contest Deadline: Received by 4 pm., September 5, 2008 www.siwc.ca/contest Four categories: short story 3,500–5,000 words; poem up to 36 lines; non-fiction to 1,500 words; and writing for young people in the form of a short story, maximum length 1,500 words. Mail entries to Surrey Conference Centre, Unit 400, 9260 - 140 Street, Surrey, BC, V3V 5Z4, or by email within the body of the message. Attachments will be deleted, unread. Entry fee of $15 per submission must be received before entry will be considered. First prize is $1,000 in each of the categories. Full details on website.
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Sponsored by Pandora’s Collective. Send unpublished poems, maximum 40 lines each, entry fee $5 per poem. Submissions must be in triplicate, with one cover letter that includes your name, age category, contact info, and title(s). Mail to: Pandora’s Collective, (Poetry Contest Submission), Delamont Postal Outlet, P.O. Box 29118, 1950 West Broadway, Vancouver BC, V6J 5C2. See website for full details.
Deadline is for winter ’08 issue’s theme of “religion,” which should be identified on the envelope. Theme issues also feature “regular” work in fiction, maximum 3,000 words or non-fiction to 4,000 words. Unsolicited poetry must relate to themes. Submissions will not be considered without SASE. Send to: sub-TERRAIN Magazine, PO Box 3008 MPO, Vancouver, BC V6B 3X5
Canadian Aid Literary Award Contest Deadline: September 15, 2008 www.canadianaid.com Submit your fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry or children’s book manuscript not previously published as a printed book. The 2008 Canadian Aid Literary Award Contest winning author will receive a Trade Book Publishing Contract with the contest sponsor BookLand Press. Blind judging. $45 entry fee per manuscript, multiple entries allowed. Award winner and finalists (short list and long list) will be announced by December 15, 2008. Please see website for details or email literarycontest@canadianaid.org.
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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!
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
MARKETS
On Spec www.onspec.ca
Broken Pencil www.brokenpencil.com
Quarterly magazine features speculative fiction, fantasy, and horror. Mostly prose, some poetry.
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.
The Fiddlehead www.lib.unb.ca/Texts/Fiddlehead Reads fiction to 4,000 words and poetry (3 to 5 poems). The Fiddlehead prides itself on its rejection notes, responds in up to 6 months, and requires a SASE if you want to hear back from them. Send to: The Fiddlehead, Campus House, 11 Garland Court, UNB, PO Box 4400, Fredericton NB E3B 5A3
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
Filling Station www.fillingstation.ca Fiction and poetry journal considers all contemporary writing, including poetry, fiction, one-act plays, essays, short film/ video treatments and scripts, as well as black-and-white artwork. Send to: Filling Station, PO Box 22135, Bankers Hall, Calgary, AB T2P 4J5. Better yet, send via e-mail. Include contact information and a short bio.
Other Voices www.othervoices.ab.ca Accepts submissions of unpublished poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction prose, essays, solicited reviews, photographs, and artwork. Publishes summer and winter. Send, with SASE if you want a reply, to: Other Voices, Box 52059, 8210-109 Street, Edmonton, AB T6G 2T5.
Prairie Fire www.prairiefire.ca Send a maximum of six poems OR one short story (maximum 10,000 words) per submission, along with a brief cover letter with a short bio, your contact information, and title(s) and genre of the piece you are sending. Let them know if you are just starting to send out your work. Send SASE if you want your manuscript back. If not, say so in your cover letter and send a small SASE or postcard, or your e-mail address, so they can respond. Prairie Fire Press, Inc. 423 - 100 Arthur Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 1H3.
Qwerty www.lib.unb.ca/Texts/QWERTY University of New Brunswick publication accepts innovative and unconventional poetry, fiction, nonfiction, plays, and more. Send up to 5 poems, fiction, or non-fiction (maximum 3000 words) to Qwerty, c/o UNB English Department, PO Box 4400, Fredericton, NB E3B 5A3. You MUST send SASE or your work will not be considered. Qwerty now accepts submissions via e-mail as well.
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RESOURCES FOR WRITERS Duotrope’s Digest www.duotrope.com Easy-to-sort database for over 2,225 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.
New Pages www.newpages.com “Good reading starts here”, says the website, and they’re not kidding. Great place to find lists of online lit mags, alternative magazines, indie bookstores, and more.
Places for Writers www.placesforwriters.com Good place for up-to-date market information. Lots of interesting content, including links to a variety of Canadian writers’ sites.
THE 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.
FEDERATION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA WRITERS
Regional Reports North Hilary Crowley, Summit Lake hcrowley@mag-net.com
Jacqueline Baldwin read poems from her books Threadbare Like Lace and A Northern Woman to students in the Bridges Program of Prince George School District 57 in April. Her poem “I Want The Pipes To Play The Flowers Of The Forest” was read by Michael Enright during his CBC radio program The Sunday Edition. In May she was a guest reader at a forum sponsored by Vancouver’s British Columbia Association of Specialized Victim Assistance and Counselling Programs. On May 18 she read her prose poem “River Reverie” on CBC Radio on North By Northwest during an interview with Sheryl Mackay and on May 21 read several poems as part of the Cultural Component of British Columbia’s Inland Rainforest Conservation and Community Conference held at the University of Northern B.C. Dan Boudreau has been doing some marketing and promotion at local business-related conferences. He launched his new e-commerce website and blog at www.riskbuster.com which complements his book Business Plan or Bust! Hilary Crowley read selections of her prose and poetry on an environmental and peace theme as part of the Local Writers Series at the Prince George Public Library on April 29. On May 21 she participated in the cultural program of the British Columbia Inland Rainforest Conference at UNBC by reading some of her poems inspired by the ancient inland rainforest. Vivien Lougheed held a book launch and slide show for her new book Understanding Bolivia, A Traveller’s History (Harbour), on June 3 at the Prince George Public Library. Vivien read several excerpts from her book before presenting a slide show covering some of the highlights of travel in 26
Bolivia. Vivien will be holding additional readings in the Yukon in late June. Doris Ray is presenting a playreading based on her daughter’s original play, Phases of the Moon or This is a Spoon, in local schools. The play is loosely based upon family members and events chronicled in Doris’ book, The Ghosts Behind Him (Caitlin Press). Doris adapted the original script to fit into a 40 minute interactive classroom reading and was invited to present the playreading in grade 10 classrooms as part of the Planning 10 curriculum. Doris encourages local writers to join Northern Scribblers Online at www.sandercott.com/writersgroup/. On April 27, science fiction author Lynda Williams gave a presentation to three classes of English students at D.P. Todd High School in Prince George. Lynda, author of the Okal Rel Science Fiction novels, was honoured to present awards in Vancouver for the West End Writers 19th Annual Writing Contest in June, with a culminating ceremony June 17. Lynda acted as contest judge. Elizabeth Woods’ story “Sword Crossed Paths” will appear in Lynda William’s Okal Rel Universe Third Anthology due for winter publication from Edge.This continues the Minerva story, “Where Passion Rules,” which appeared in the first anthology.
Southeast Region Anne DeGrace, South Slocan degraceanne@shaw.ca
A long, cold spring hasn’t kept Southeast writers in their dens, or if it has at all, they’ve been bearishly busy at their keyboards. Lorraine Dick of the Grand Forks Writers Guild reports that a Poetry Cafe was held on the evening of April 15 to celebrate National Poetry Month. The Grand Forks & District Public Library, which co-sponsored the evening, was transformed into a fifties-era Bohemian café courtesy of winebottle candles and checkered tablecloths. The guild is hoping this will be the first of many such events. The Cranbrook Writer’s Group had a reading April 25 to celebrate BC’s 150 Birthday week, with the theme History Through the Eyes of Fiction, resulting in some fine stories shared with an appreciative audience. The group said WORDWORKS–SUMMER 2008
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goodbye to Dorial Davis who has been a mentor and a friend for 14 years. Sioux Browning will be taking her place. Ernest Hekkanen launched his satirical novel Of a Fire Beyond the Hills at Oxygen Art Centre on April 25. In the novel, Ernest plays with a real-life Nelson controversy surrounding a sculptural ode to war resistance. In the same vein, on May 21 writers in Nelson came together to read selections from Crossing Lines: Poets Who Came to Canada in the Vietnam War Era (Seraphim Editions). Fed members Ernest Hekkanen and Judy Wapp, contributors to the anthology, were among the readers. Luanne Armstrong read at the launch of the new Fed anthology, Imagining British Columbia, at the Listel Hotel in Vancouver on May 9, and read again at the launch of Double Lives, Writing and Mothering on May 10. She also did a reading and workshop at the Shuswap Writer’s Festival in Salmon Arm. In March, Doctor Luanne, along with Anne DeGrace, spoke to the Castlegar Selkirk College creative writing class, after which the two met to plot future literary events. At Nelson’s Oxygen Arts Centre on May 9 Tom Wayman launched his collection of four novellas, A Vain Thing, published last fall by Turnstone Press. Tom’s Boundary Country (Eastern Washington University Press and Thistledown, April 2007) was shortlisted for the Danuta Gleed literary prize for best debut book of short fiction. On May 24, Wayman gave a workshop on creating intensity in writing at the Shuswap Lake International Writers Festival in Salmon Arm. South Slocan writer Anne DeGrace has been offered U.S. publication of her second novel, Wind Tails, (McArthur & Co. 2007) by Avon (HarperCollins). The novel has also been shortlisted for the Ontario Library Association Evergreen Award. Anne just finished an eight-library reading tour in the Kootenays coordinated by the Kootenay Library Federation through the Writers in Libraries program. Angie Abdou has started a monthly book column for The Fernie Fix, also published on her website. Angie recently performed in The Flywheel Experiment at McNally Robinson Booksellers in Calgary. This event was pitched as a “CrossPollination Experiment” in which a fiction writer and a poet were challenged to combine talents in a collaborative performance—in this case with Elko poet Joni Krats. This summer Angie will be teaching at the Sage Hill Teen Writing Experience in Moose Jaw, and will lead a session called How to Start Your Novel at the Fernie Writers’ Conference. A special thank you to outgoing Southeast Rep Anne Strachan, who will now have a lot more time to write. I’m the new rep, and quite stoked about it, too. Welcome to new SE Fed members Antonia Banyard, Frank Brummet, and Patricia Rogers.
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The Islands David Fraser, Nanoose Bay ascentaspirations@shaw.ca
SheLa E. Morrison’s “memory story” about a place that used to be in downtown Vancouver was chosen to be in The Downtown Memory Project at SFU. “The Montgomery Hotel” (Manager’s Lair) was on display, along with other chosen downtown memories, from May 12 to June 12 at SFU Harbour Centre. Margaret Cadwaladr had a short memoir of her experiences working as a cashier at Woodward’s Food Floor in the 1960s displayed at SFU as a part of the Downtown Memory Project. She has just returned from successful readings at the National Botanic Garden in Dublin and at Glin Castle, County Limerick. Stanley Evans’s novel, Seaweed Under Water, published by TouchWood Editions in September 2007, won Monday Magazine’s Best Fiction Book of 2007 Award. Kay Stewart stepped up from National Vice President to President of Crime Writers of Canada in June. She also took part in a panel discussion on “Sins of the Fathers” at the Bloody Words Conference in Toronto held in early June. Kathy Page hosted a celebration of the reprinting of two of her fiction titles, Frankie Styne & the Silver Man (a novel) and As in Music (collected stories) by Phoenix Books on Salt Spring Island on June 19. M.A.C. Farrant has recently signed contracts for books to appear in 2009: Notes on the Wedding, Key Porter Books, Spring, 2009, literary non-fiction; Down the Road to Eternity—New & Selected Fiction, Talonbooks, Fall, 2009. She appeared at the Calgary International Spoken Word Festival in April 2008. Joy Huebert was one of 12 finalists out of 834 submissions to the 2008 Writers’ Union of Canada Annual Postcard Story Competition. This spring she won first place in the Victoria Writers’ Society Fiction competition for a story called “Snack Bar Girl.” Cornelia C. Hornosty had two poems “Healing Lake” and “Lost” accepted by Blue Skies Poetry in April. K. Bannerman received a Canada Council Grant for Professional Writers to complete her next novel, a murder mystery that unfolds against the misty backdrop of the continued next page 27
FEDERATION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA WRITERS
British Columbian coast. Her short story, “Linoleum,” was published in Inkko Publishing’s Inscribed Anthology 2, released in the spring of 2008. Her poem, “Western Red Cedar,” was also included in the World Poetry Celebration, a display of poetry in the Vancouver Public Library in February 2008. The Fed’s new anthology, Imagining British Columbia: Land, Memory & Place, had its Victoria launch on May 30. Joy Huebert and Margaret Thompson organized the event which took place at the Victoria Community Arts Centre. Lynne Van Luven hosted the evening, introducing seven of the anthology contributors from the Islands region to an appreciative audience. The readers were Harold Rhenisch, Pauline Holdstock, M.A.C. Farrant, Mona Fertig, Katherine Gordon, Trisha Cull and Margaret Thompson. Writing the West Coast: In Love With Place, co-edited by Anita Sinner and Christine Lowther and published by Ronsdale Press, was launched in Tofino on June 13 and in Victoria on June 20. Rosemary I. Patterson published four novels through Booksurge Publishing this year. The novels include Money Child: A Romantic Comedy Set in Orange County California, second editions of her historical Hawaii novels, Kuhina Nui, based on the life of Ka’ahumanu, the Queen Regent of Hawaii; Kula Keiki Ali’i which is Hawaiian for The Chief ’s Children’s School, and Alaska Now about Alaskan oil, native corporations, wildlife, identity and love. Louis Druehl completed a four-month mentorship with Shaena Lambert of Vancouver Manuscript Intensive. They worked on his novel Cedar and Salmon which deals with youthful hippies who escaped to Bamfield, an isolated fishing village, in the 1970s. Pat Newson won sub-TERRAIN’s 2007 Lush Triumphant Competition in the poetry category with “a gathering of near-ghazals” titled “Familiar.” David Fraser had poems published in Mannequin Envy and A Little Poetry and in the anthology, Voices of Israel, in recent months. He also attended the Glenairley poetry retreat hosted by Patrick Lane and Wendy Morton. Watching July, a young adult novel by Christine Hart, published by Sumach Press was launched this May in Victoria. Shirley Skidmore has signed a new contract with Windshift for the second book, Murder in the Sooke Potholes, of her Sooke-based mystery trilogy. The first book, Murder on the Galloping Goose, sold well. Mary-Wynne Ashford’s book (with Guy Dauncey), Enough Blood Shed: 101 Solutions to Violence,
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Terror, and War (New Society Publishers, 2006), was released this past May in Japanese. The title for the Japanese edition is 101+2 Actions to End Violence, Terror, and War, published by Tuttle Mori Agency Inc. Mary-Wynne did a three-week book launch in Japan with 11 presentations at universities and citizen centers. Kim Goldberg has written and produced two photoillustrated chapbooks under her imprint, Pig Squash Press: The Dude Chronicles and Slugs only appear slow. She has short fiction in the May/June issue of Front magazine. She read poetry at both the Nanaimo and Vancouver launch parties for Crossing Lines (Seraphim Editions), an anthology of poets who came to Canada during the Vietnam War years. In May, she co-hosted an hour-long Urban Poetry Cafe on the poetry of peace for Radio CHLY in Nanaimo. Helen Heffernan, writer of The Trials of Charlie Coghlan, a historical fiction set in 1840s Guelph, Ontario, had the epilogue from the book published in Matrix magazine’s spring 2008 issue.
Fraser Valley Lois J. Peterson, Surrey lpwordsolutions@hotmail.com
While they waited – and waited – for spring (let’s not even talk about summer!) to come to the Valley, Fed members kept busy over the past few months. Work by new member Connie Braun recently appeared in Half in the Sun: Anthology of Mennonite Writing, and in the literary journal Rhubarb. Debbie McKeown continues to contribute destination articles to Snowshoe Magazine, most recently featuring Jasper National Park and the Maligne Canyon ice walk. Elsie K. Neufeld read poetry with Sandra Birdsell on June 6 as part of the Abbotsford writers conference “Many Strands: Celebrating the Art of Story.” Heidi Greco was one of the poets who read at the Vancouver launch of the new anthology, Crossing Lines (Seraphim Editions). On June 1 she served on the panel
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COMMUNITY
“Women in the Arts” with filmmaker Bonnie Sherr Klein and singer/songwriter Shari Ulrich. This was part of the Our Way Home Conference, hosted by SFU. June 8 saw her in Abbotsford, reading from her work and presenting a workshop on narrative poetry as part of the Many Strands Conference. Jane Hall’s first book, The Red Wall: a Woman in the RCMP has kept her busy with media and speaking engagements. In December she was interviewed on Studio 4 by Fanny Keefer and by Mark Forsythe of CBC Radio. In January she was on Breakfast TV, and in March on the Bill Good show. In April she was the keynote speaker at the 9th Annual Women in Law Enforcement Conference in Halifax. In May, Joei Carlton Hossack taught Memoir Writing and Writing with Humor for the Newton Senior Center. She’s recently done 15 book signings at various Save-On Foods stores. Her interview on a Florida radio station will be syndicated to 20 markets. She continues to contribute articles to the on-line travel magazine located on www.whattravelwriterssay.com. Lois Peterson taught the full-day workshop Writing in Leaps and Bounds for the CAA in May, and later that month began teaching a six-week Writing From Life course for the Surrey Creative Writing Diploma Program. Her website www.loispeterson.net now includes information about her first children’s book Meeting Miss 405 due out in October—which can be pre-ordered from Amazon. She recently completed its sequel Sink or Swim, thanks to a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts. Margaret Florczak’s prose poem was recently included in a display of work at Simon Fraser University’s Harbour Centre. Her piece “Working at 1166 West Pender in the 1990s” formed a part of The Downtown Memory Project sponsored by SFU. Susan McCaslin’s poems appeared in three recent anthologies: White Ink: Poems on Mothers and Motherhood, Ascent Aspirations Magazine and Crossing Lines: Poets Who Came to Canada in the Vietnam Era and in the journals Precipice, Room, Descant, The Merton Journal. Her recent book was reviewed in The Fiddlehead. Susan also delivered a paper on the peace poetry of Denise Levertov and Thomas Merton and had an essay on Blake and peace published in The Pacific Rim Review of Books. Since the launch of her latest book, Lifting the Stone (Seraphim Editions), she has read at the Fort Langley Fort Art Gallery, The Canadian Memorial Centre for Peace, the Planet Earth Poetry Series in Victoria, the Wired Monk in Vancouver, the UBC Robson Square Bookstore, the
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Vancouver Public Library, and for a conference of the Association of College and University Instructors of English at UBC. Finally, she moderated a workshop at the Our Way Home Conference at SFU Harbour Centre celebrating the contribution to arts and culture of women war resisters who immigrated to Canada from the States during the Vietnam era.
Central Kay McCracken, Salmon Arm kaymcc@telus.net
The Shuswap Lake International Writers’ Festival in Salmon Arm featured its share of Central Fed members. Dorothy Rolin organized The Coffee House on May 23 which included readings by Luanne Armstrong, Kay Johnston, Tom Wayman, Howard Brown, Deanna Kawatski, Jan Drabek, Kay McCracken (also the emcee), Lee Rawn and Alice Brown. continued next page
Luanne Armstrong reads from Blue Valley: An Ecological Memoir on May 23 at SAGA Public Art Gallery in Salmon Arm as the kick off to the Shuswap Lake International Writer’s Festival.
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FEDERATION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA WRITERS
On May 24, the festival began with Deanna Kawatski presenting Writing Nature while in the afternoon, Shirley Jean Tucker of Salmon Arm offered Scriptwriting Improvisation: Spontaneity versus Structure. Deanna read her piece “Ghost Wharf ” at the wellattended launch for Imagining British Columbia, the Federation’s first non-fiction anthology. Other readers included Jan Drabek, Luanne Armstrong and Dawn Service. Deanna Kawatski’s 13th annual writers’ retreat was well attended on June 8 at her home, Garland Gracesprings Farm, near Celista. This spring Barbara Shave launched her new book of humorous short stories, Good Intentions Gone Bad, with wine and cheese at the Evan’s Art Gallery in downtown Kelowna. She read Saturday evening of the Shuswap Writers’ Festival. Also reading Saturday evening were Ken Forscutt, Ken Firth, Elizabeth Lute, and others. Emcee Karen Bissenden organized the children’s literature contest and the awards ceremony held Saturday evening. OWL [The Okanagan Writer’s League] has a column in the local newspaper eVent every other Sunday. Vicki Bissillion, Barbara Shave, and Sterling Haynes recently contributed their work to the column. Sterling won honours with Naji Namaan Literary Prizes in Paris, France, for his poems about mental diseases. The Vancouver Downtown Memory Project sponsored by SFU chose Sterling Haynes’ story “The Burn Unit” and he had two stories published by Rogers TV in May: “The Gentle Giant” and “The Reluctant Spy.” The story “Ogopogo” appeared in the newspaper North of 50 in May. Susan Fenner had a story, “Sense of Direction,” published in The Danforth Review (Issue # 23). The story had previously been short listed in the 2007 UBC-Okanagan short fiction contest. She has sold an article on Dance Outreach to Okanagan Arts magazine for publication in their Summer 2008 issue. Howard Brown’s “To Burn a Pontiac” appeared in the final issue of Pinebeetle (Spring 2008). He read at their open mic at Gallery Vertigo in Vernon on May 7 and his poem “Small Town Rodeo” is published online at http://blueskiespoetry.ca Following their joint exhibition at the Maple Ridge Arts Centre & Theatre, which resulted in publication of the gallery’s catalogue Natural Correspondences, Alexander Forbes has once again collaborated with the painter Tricia Sellmer to produce a new exhibition (and one more catalogue of their work) at the Island Mountain Arts Public Gallery in Wells. Titled “Sun Records & Texaco Stadiums” the exhibit runs from June to mid-July.
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Ann Walsh, co-author Kathleen Cook Waldron and photographer Bob Warick launched Forestry A-Z (Orca Books) at the 108 Mile Community Hall. More than 100 people attended and everyone left with seedlings, compliments of Roserim Forest Nurseries. Forestry A-Z is currently on the Association of BC Book Publishers Children’s Best Sellers list. Devon L. Muhlert launched her new studio and continues to write a weekly column Devon’s Delusions as well as articles for OK Arts magazine. Her recent presentations included Humour Writing and Music, Meditation, and Writing, where participants wrote haiku. Gail Anderson-Dargatz interviewed Susanna Kearsley on her online forum Gail’s Kitchen on May 31. They discussed the differences between writing literary and “commercial” fiction, and about the writing life in general. Visit the website at www.gailanderson-dargatz.ca/forums/index.php
Lower Mainland/Sunshine Coast Compiled In-house
Andrew Boden’s essay “Where Do the Books Go?” will be appearing in Nobody’s Father: Life Without Kids, edited by Bruce Gillespie and Lynn Van Luven, available from Touchwood Editions this September. His short story “Getting Rid of Lenny” has been reprinted in the June 2008 issue of the Taj Mahal Review and a short, untitled piece on obsession is appearing in Common Ties. Mandana Rastan’s interview with award-winning journalist Daniel Wood was published in the spring issue of WordWorks magazine. Half-way through her creative writing program in The Writer’s Studio at Simon Fraser University, Mandana is working with a TWS committee to create The Writer’s Studio website, which will include videos on workshops and readings. The website launch (www.thewritersstudio.ca) is scheduled for August. Mandana is also collaborating with her peers to produce this year’s TWS anthology emerge, which will be launched at the Vancouver International Writers and Readers Festival on October 26.
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COMMUNITY
Bonnie Nish is the contributing editor of Mutanabbi Street, an anthology that will be published this fall by Red Hen Press of Los Angeles. Bonnie and Sita Carboni, the founding directors of Pandora’s Collective, are once again leading workshops at Covenant House. Pandora’s Collective was one of the sponsors behind the very successful CWILL Spring Book Hatch at the VPL on June 14 and are busy organizing their annual Summer Dreams Literary Festival taking place at Stanley Park in July. Sandy Shreve is honoured that George McWhirter invited her to be the first guest poet on his new poet laureate’s website located at www.vancouververse.ca. Click onto Guest Poet to read “Whisper Songs” from her poetry collection Suddenly, So Much (Exile Editions). On May 23, Kevin Spenst read from his self-published collection of stories, Fast Fictions, at the Carnegie Centre. A documentary about his one-day, 50-venue book launch was also screened with the evening captured by Novus TV. In May, Tony Correia won Xtra!West’s Jane Rule memorial award for writer of the year. Tony writes the monthly humour column “Queen’s Logic” for Xtra! West and his essays have been published in The Globe & Mail and sub-TERRAIN magazine. On Sunday, June, 29 at Chapel Arts in East Vancouver, Tony, along with fellow Fed member Esmeralda Cabral and Eduardo Bettencourt Pinto, read at Listening to the Word, a Portuguese Heritage Month event organized and hosted by executive director Fernanda Viveiros. Susan Katz is providing a unique eight-week writing workshop program for adults with mental illness, which is now in its second year. She also maintains a unique blogsite called “HeartBeats” (http://heartbeats1.blogspot.com) that networks mental health and the written arts. Joan Rippel’s poem “Far Cries” was a runner-up in the Arborealis Prize for Poetry Contest (The Ontario Poetry Society) and published February 2008 in Arborealis-A Canadian Anthology of Poetry. Another poem, “The Red Boathouse” received an Honorable Mention from
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Pandora’s Collective’s “Kisses and Popsicles” Spring Poetry Contest. Irene Livingston won second prize for poetry in the “Kisses and Popsicles” contest plus an honorable Mention. She also has three poems published in a new anthology, Poems for Big Kids. From May 12 to June 15, 2008, memories of downtown Vancouver from some two dozen writers, including D.G. Peterson and Ursula Forrestal were framed and hung on the walls of Corridor 1500 as part of SFU Harbour Centre’s Downtown Memory Project. Thereafter the same pieces may be viewed on SFU’s website (www.sfu.ca/wp) sometime in September. At a reception given for the writers on May 12, it was mentioned the Geist magazine website may also showcase the pieces. A further call for submissions may be forthcoming in order to have enough material to create and publish an anthology. In May, Kate Braid spoke on a panel on women in leadership to the BC Human Resources Management Association (they hadn’t realized how integral poetry and non-fiction are to leadership!) and in June, taught a writing class to a conference of BC Post Secondary Support Staff. In April Allan Brown of Powell River gave three local readings from his new poetry chapbook Biblical Sonatas: at the launch at Breakwater Books, selections during the Jazz continued next page
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FEDERATION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA WRITERS
Vespers at St. David and St. Paul Anglican church, and a reading/discussion at the Powell River public library. Allan had one poem in the March issue of Hammered Out, a haiku in the anthology Geese Descending (Haiku Canada), and a poem on the “Monday’s Poem” site (Leaf Press, Lantzville) through June 9-15. He also had a review in the spring issue of the Pacific Rim Review of Books, three short reviews in Jones Av. (Toronto), and a review article in the May issue of Island Catholic News. Fed member Michèle Adams, author of the short story collection Bright Objects of Desire, led a lively “First Date” screenwriting workshop on May 10 at the Listel Hotel as part of the AGM weekend. Fiona Tinwei Lam was in Kingston, Ont. this spring to read at the Bronwen Wallace Common Magic Conference. In May she was back east again in Toronto, Kingston and Montreal to launch Double Lives: Writing and Motherhood, an anthology of literary personal essays by writers across the country published by McGill-Queen’s University Press, which she co-edited with former Event editor, Cathy Stonehouse and fellow Fed member Shannon Cowan. There was a standing room only crowd at the Vancouver launch to hear local contributors Luanne Armstrong, Cori Howard, Rachel Rose, Jane Silcott, Catherine Kirkness and Deirdre Maultsaid. Positive reviews across the country appeared on Mothers’ Day weekend: see www.double-lives.blogspot.com Andrew Boden’s essay “Where Do the Books Go?” will be appearing in Nobody’s Father: Life Without Kids, edited by Bruce Gillespie and Lynn Van Luven, available from Touchwood Editions this September. His short story “Getting Rid of Lenny” has been reprinted in the June 2008 issue of the Taj Mahal Review and a short, untitled piece on obsession is appearing in Common Ties. Lee Edward Födi has just returned from England, where he mixed a bit of work with pleasure, presenting at Gravely School in Hertfordshire. He led a workshop for about sixty young children, telling them about his Kendra Kandlestar books and following up with an exercise in which the students designed their own fantasy characters. Födi is happy to report that kids are kids, the world over…even though there were no rules for this exercise, it seemed that most kids ended up drawing creatures replete with all the usual beastly accoutrements—warts, boils, drool, and jagged teeth! (And let me add here, that it is always the girls that demand populating their creatures’ faces with longhaired warts!) After the workshop was completed, the kids went off to work on short stories based on the
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characters they had developed. All in all, the day was a big success! This spring, a high commendation was awarded to Pam Galloway for her poem “Away from you, with you” in the prestigious U.K./Canada joint venture Petra Kenney poetry contest. Pam was invited to go to the award ceremony at Canada House in London but sadly no air fare was offered so she wasn’t able to attend. She did however take her recent poetry collection Parallel Lines on the road in BC with readings in Terrace and Williams Lake. Pam also read from her essay “Beneath An Ocean, Under a Sky” which was published in the Fed’s new anthology Imagining British Columbia: Land, Memory and Place and from other work in progress to these two receptive audiences. Poems were also published and archived on the websites of blueskies online poetry journal (www.blueskiespoetry.ca) and of the Parliamentary Poet Laureate of Canada’s Poem of the Week. Amy Thomson is currently doing a writing internship with The Global Scoop (www.globalscoop.co.nr) and writes articles every week on topics such as restaurant reviews, Eat Vancouver and general news about our fair city. Amy has also completed work on her new writing website www.myownwriting.com. On February 29, Bernice Lever received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Vancouver Public Library and World Poets. She won first prize, the Wm. Henry Drummond prize, in the Spring Pulse Poetry Festival in Ontario and had poems published on several online magazines including Ink, Sweat and Tears On April 26th Shauna Paull celebrated the publication of her book, roughened in undercurrent at a community poetry bash at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts in Burnaby. She was joined by a handful of her poetry workshop participants, Jenny Chen, Andrew Orford, Christine Moore, Shirley Rudolph and Vaughan Chapman, as well as fellow Leaf Press author K. Louise Vincent. We’re happy to report—as we go to print!— that Lorraine Murphy has been appointed our new Lower Mainland/Sunshine Coast regional representative. Lorraine is the author of Terminal City: Vancouver’s Missing Women and a former Small Business Columnist at Business in Vancouver newspaper and Occupational Pursuit magazine. As one of the cornerstone volunteers in the WordPress.com technical help forums, she has long experience helping beginning bloggers develop fluency and achievement online and is looking forward to sharing her knowledge and expertise with Fed members.
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IMAGINING BRITISH COLUMBIA
T
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.
S
ome 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.
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