WRITE
THE MAGAZINE OF THE WRITERS’
UNION OF VOLUME 46 NUMBER 2 CANADA SUMMER 2018
Cross-country Funding Opportunities 14
Tomson Highway Talks Language 18
On Poetry & Carpentry 28
From the Chair By Eric Enno Tamm
If economics is the “dismal science,” as one Victorian historian once wrote, then bookonomics is surely its even uglier offshoot.
The mechanics of this market — the push of supply and pull of why we, as writers, are so consumed by copyright battles. demand for books — has faced some unprecedented upheavals At its heart, copyright infringement is really about suppressing of late. Schools and universities wantonly copy our works without demand for our commercial creations. If you can freely copy part recompense. Big-box bookstores are closing across the continent. of a book in a university course pack, then you don’t need to buy Publishers are merging or dissolving in bankruptcy. While self- it, reducing its sales and ultimately royalties to us, the authors. So, publishing has created welcomed opportunities for professional while strong copyright protection may not increase demand for writers, it has also flooded the market with cheap, amateurish our books, at least it stops it from sliding. supply. Apple, Amazon, and Alphabet (Google) appear to be the Yet even if we win all of our copyright battles, we may not be able new publishing oligarchs. The traditional book industry, at times, to stop the decline in writers’ income. Why? Because bookonomics feels like it’s in the remainder bin of history. and the business model behind it are broken — at least for writers. Bookonomics is indeed more Malthusian than Malthus, freakier How did the economics of books get into such a shattered state? than Freakonomics. The publishing industry is as odd as it is brutal. Three words: Supply. Supply. Supply. Traditionally, there’s been a But as writers, we already knew that. high barrier to entry to publish a book with most first-time authors And so, while I cast a dark cloud over you on this surely sun- being established professionals in their forties. Publishers also splashed day in July as you peel open this summer edition of systematically excluded many marginal voices, due to the brutality Write, I don’t mean to depress you, but refresh you. Diving into of mass-market bookonomics and, frankly, discrimination. the cold, clear reality of bookonomics, I believe, can invigorate us, Self-publishing, ebooks, and digital printing have lowered these perhaps even awaken us to new possibilities. barriers, making even small print runs viable for niche audiences. I was told that members of the Writers’ Union are curious to As a result, authors are going to be younger and more diverse in know what the Chair is “thinking,” which is one of the purposes the future. At the Margaret Laurence Lecture in June, for example, of the Chair’s Report. Well, I’m thinking bookonomics — the Tomson Highway pointed out the recent explosion of published unsparing dynamics of supply and demand on which every writer Indigenous writing. That’s the good news. swims or sinks. But the result has been what I call the “killer content So, let’s start with demand. The challenge here is that tsunami,” a world awash in digital content where nothing ever demand can only grow with the sheer number of readers (think goes out of print. A recent search of Amazon’s Kindle Store population), how much each Canadian actually reads (think retrieved 7,278,530 titles. This deluge of supply — much of it habits), and what they are willing to pay for our writing (think unprofessional and posted online for a pittance or free — has copyright royalties). Writers may be able to influence population made making a living as a writer tougher and tougher. Indeed, the growth by perhaps writing more (and better) romance and erotica, number of traditionally published titles in Canada slipped by 6 but even the best writers among us will have only a marginal percent between 2014 and 2016. And most of us have personally effect on Canadians’ libidos. We know that habits are best formed felt the pinch on our writing income. when young, and so promoting CanLit in schools — the earlier, My sense is that the Writers’ Union should invest more time the better — is likely more effective at nurturing a hunger for investigating the supply challenge. How do we increase income Canadian culture and stories in the long term. for writers in a market flooded with digital content? Proactively Ironically, it has been the least sexy topic of all — copyright exploring new ideas and business models for publishing and — that has preoccupied the Writers’ Union since the Copyright writing is trying work. There’s no easy answer. Act was revised in 2012. Behavioural economists call this “loss Over the course of my one year as Chair, I hope to provoke aversion”— a cognitive bias in humans and other animals designed thinking on this important issue. It is time for us to think beyond to give priority to bad news. Losses loom larger than gains, which is copyright.
Summer 2018 3 national council twuc national office Chair Executive Director Eric Enno Tamm John Degen, ext. 221 First Vice-Chair [email protected] Anita Daher Contents SUMMER 2018 Associate Director Second Vice-Chair Siobhan O’Connor, ext. 222 Heather Wood [email protected] Treasurer Fund Development & Julia Lin Projects Manager Gaeby Abrahams, ext. 223 BC/Yukon Representative [email protected] Sapha Burnell Office Administrator Alberta/NWT/Nunavut 3 Chair’s Report Valerie Laws, ext. 224 Representative [email protected] 5 Writing Rights Gail Sidonie Sobat Equity, Membership & Manitoba/Saskatchewan 5 Editor’s Note Engagement Coordinator Representative Rebecca Benson, ext. 226 6 News Bruce Rice [email protected] 7 Community Corner Ontario Representative Mia Herrera WRITER’S BLOT Quebec Representative Shelagh Plunkett 8 Industry Q & A Atlantic Representative 9 Wellspring Chuck Bowie Advocates FEATURES Benj Gallander 10 Writers Finding Inspiration in Other Art Forms Carmen Rodriguez Anna Marie Sewell BY SHARI NARINE 14 Something from (Almost) Nothing Editor Doyali Islam [email protected] BY LEAH HORLICK Deadline for Fall issue August 27, 2018 18 Languages like Plants Editorial Board Sylvia Gunnery, Ava Homa, Anna Marie Sewell BY TOMSON HIGHWAY Copyeditor Nancy MacLeod
21 Prelude to a Score Write Magazine Advertising Gaeby Abrahams [email protected] BY JIM SELLERS Design soapboxdesign.com Layout Gaeby Abrahams DISPATCHES Cover Illustration Hayden Maynard haydenmaynard.com 24 Four Reasons Coworking Might Work for You BY NANCY FORNASIERO Views expressed in Write do not necessarily reflect those of The 26 A Spotlight on Four Disabled Writers Writers’ Union of Canada. As a member magazine, Write provides space for writers’ individual opinions. We welcome a diversity of views BY ADAM POTTLE and respectful debate in these pages. All submissions are welcome. 27 Poetry on the Trails: A Sudbury Initiative Services advertised are not necessarily endorsed by the Union. BY THOMAS LEDUC We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, which last year 28 Constructing Language invested $153 million to bring the arts to Canadians throughout Canada. BY KATE BRAID 29 Editing Marriage BY FIONA TINWEI LAM & JANE SILCOTT We acknowledge funding support from the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the 30 La Palabra en el Tiempo: Poetry and Flamenco Government of Ontario. BY GARTH MARTENS
32 COLLABORATION Write is produced four times yearly by The Writers’ Union of Canada, 34 MEMBER NEWS & AWARDS 460 Richmond Street West, Suite 600, Toronto, Ontario, M5v 1Y1 T 416.703.8982, F 416.504.9090, [email protected], www.writersunion.ca. 37 IN MEMORIAM © The Writers’ Union of Canada, 2018. The text paper used for this issue contains 100 percent post-consumer fibre, is accredited EcoLogo and Processed Chlorine Free, and is processed in a mill that uses biogas. If you would like to help us save on paper, please contact [email protected] or 416-703-8982 ext. 223 to request future online editions of the magazine. Thank you.
4 write Writing Rights Post-secondary Relationship Status: It’s Complicated By John Degen
You will (hopefully) have seen the announcement in June that needed a good news story to tell itself. Laval was not that. Laval University reached a settlement agreement with Quebec’s I have written a series of articles on Medium about Canada’s collective licensing agency COPIBEC, effectively ending the class- copyright review. In that series, I wonder why educational action lawsuit that was making its way through Quebec courts. administrators have so completely locked themselves into the Details of the settlement were not immediately available as the terrible legal strategy of not paying their bills. The folks from agreement awaited court approval, but The Writers’ Union of education who arrive on the Hill these days are often different Canada put out an immediate statement in support of the very idea from those who were there five years ago. This is a file they’ve that a settlement — any settlement — was reached. inherited, and it is full of decisions made by people who are now In today’s Canada, any time a post-secondary institution agrees not required to justify them in the hot seat of a Parliamentary to stop fighting about collective licensing and return to a licensed Committee. I believe you can read on these new folks’ faces how environment for its copying, that’s a very good news story for much they resent carrying these decisions forward when over and Canadian writers. We can haggle over price, and both sides may again they appear like unrepentant scofflaws by doing so. not always feel we’re getting all that we deserve from licensing, In the meantime, I’ve accepted a role on the Professional but at least Quebec showed the rest of Canada that there can be Advisory Council for Sheridan College’s unique Creative Writing agreement between education and culture on the efficiencies and and Publishing degree program, an exciting hybrid that should value of licensing as a means of providing students with broad encourage greater understanding across the two silos of our access, and cultural workers with their rightful compensation. industry. This is a voluntary position, and it takes up time on Laval’s decision to remove itself from the block of universities my already busy schedule, but I know it’s worth the effort. Since who are steadfastly refusing payment to authors was greeted announcing this news, I’ve been asked by several of you about with a rather dark silence from the education sector. After Sheridan’s policy on copying. I can tell you, it’s not what we’d the embarrassing York University loss in Federal Court, an like. But helping them to realize the error of that policy from a underwhelming showing of educational representatives at the cooperative position at one of their tables feels a whole lot more federal copyright review on Parliament Hill, and the terrible PR effective than drawn-out and expensive litigation and scrapping move of having schools and education ministers sue authors for in Ottawa. I drive out to Sheridan in the spirit of Copibec’s Laval a “refund” of copyright royalties, the education sector desperately settlement. Negotiation is always a better strategy.
Editor’s Note By Doyali Islam
LI ISLAM PHOTO: PATRICK SOO LI ISLAM PHOTO: PATRICK The Summer 2018 issue of Write centres on interdisciplinary and Leduc brings us a breath of fresh air and the news from Sudbury collaborative practices. From the delightful cover image to the final Writers’ Guild’s Poetry on the Trails initiative; and the summer page, I am sure, O reader, you will find something for your toolkit. iteration of Adam Pottle’s ongoing disability and accessibility I hope this issue encourages you to refresh your current artistic column celebrates the voices and lived experiences of Canadian practice by pushing it in new directions. disabled writers who are making vibrant and challenging works. In the Features section, peek inside a classical composer’s mind This issue also introduces a new element to Writer’s Blot: Write is produced four times yearly by The Writers’ Union of Canada, 460 Richmond Street West, Suite 600, Toronto, Ontario, M5v 1Y1 and delve into the interdisciplinary experiences of four writers Wellspring. (I like to think of it as a tiny oasis of thought.) The T 416.703.8982, F 416.504.9090, [email protected], www.writersunion.ca. spread out across Canada. Spend time with Tomson Highway’s goal of Wellspring is to encourage us to refresh our current artistic © The Writers’ Union of Canada, 2018. humorous, insightful, and generous reflections, excerpted from practices — either by pushing them in new directions or by the 2018 Writer’s Trust Margaret Laurence Lecture. Don’t skip over bringing us back to solid foundations and to the value of art. Leah Horlick’s extremely practical national and regional look at Whatever gems you discover in this issue, stash them away for Canadian funding opportunities within the literary arts. the short and long term. Perhaps you’ll be inspired to reach out to Among this issue’s Dispatches, Kate Braid offers up a treasure other artists/communities and to make new friends. Together, you
JOHN DEGEN PHOTO: CLAUDETTE BOCKSTAEL; DO YA JOHN DEGEN PHOTO: CLAUDETTE BOCKSTAEL; of thought at the intersection of poetry and construction; Thomas just might build something that our world desperately needs.
Summer 2018 5 THE LATEST ON WRITING AND PUBLISHING News IN CANADA AND BEYOND
COPYRIGHT Rights licensing group honoured in the Swedish Academy, there will be no with lifetime membership to Nobel Prize in Literature in 2018. Seven Extensive review of Canada’s Association of Canadian Publishers members of the Academy have departed Copyright Act underway since an associate of the Academy, Jean- On June 5 the Association of Canadian Claude Arnault, was accused of sexually Parliament’s Standing Committee on Publishers (ACP) presented a lifetime assaulting at least eighteen women. In a Industry, Science, and Technology is membership to Access Copyright, the rights May press release from the academy, it undertaking a statutory review of the licensing group that advocates for creators was announced that the prize would be Copyright Act and has heard testimony and independent publishers. The award delayed by one year, citing “reduced public from representatives of the publishing, was accepted by Access Copyright Board confidence” in the institution and a collective academic, software, and other professional Chair Cameron Macdonald at the annual understanding that its “operative practices sectors as well as other interest groups. general meeting of the ACP in Montreal. need to be evolved.” They did not specifically 2012’s Copyright Modernization Act name sexual harassment in the release. introduced poorly defined new practices LITERARY PRIZES for fair dealing and online infringement RIGHTS MARKETS $ and also compels lawmakers to make sure Two new monthly prizes for the legislation “remains responsive to a underrepresented writers Small band of Canadian publishers changing environment.” scope out New York Rights Fair A number of fair dealing court cases Rahim Gulamhussein Ladha has have pitted universities against copyright created Spark and Echo, two monthly Twelve Canadian publishers participated in licensing bodies such as Access Copyright literary prizes to amplify the voices of the inaugural New York Rights Fair this year, through a series of lawsuits, rulings, underrepresented Canadian writers. For which took place May 30 – June 1. Organized and appeals. Such licensing companies both contests, the first prize is $1000, by Livres Canada Books, presses including have seen notable losses in revenue, with runner-up prizes of $300 and $150. House of Anansi, Fernwood Publishing, while unlicensed academic use has Submissions have very few requirements Second Story Press, and Dundurn scoped steadily increased. Authors, publishing and no submission fees. The prize money out the fair under the banner of Canada houses, and other copyright holders have comes from Ladha’s personal funds. Stand. The fair is branding itself as a seen significant declines in royalties. Submissions are due the first of each platform for rights sales across formats, Many argue that fair dealing practices month, with prizes awarded on the 15th of including digital, audio, and film. in the digital age are responsible for each month. All pieces will be published on the academic sector’s shift away from Ladha’s website at shootforthemoon.art. VENDING MACHINE collective licensing. The Spark Prize is specifically for queer, One welcome development: A trans, and Two-Spirit writers as well as Airport project makes airport book settlement was reached in a class action Black, Indigenous, and Persons of Colour shopping as easy as buying candy copyright infringement suit between (BIPOC), and is formed as a response to Laval University and Copibec, Quebec’s marginalization and barriers in Canadian Toronto’s Billy Bishop Airport has a new collective licensing agency. “It’s a very writing and publishing. book shop, and it’s not your typical runway welcome development that Copibec and The Echo Prize is specifically for disabled romance rack. Instead, the CarryOnBooks Laval have managed to agree on a licensing writers in Canada, including but not limited vending machine will carry twenty titles solution for educational copying,” stated those who are physically/invisibly disabled, of fresh CanLit for travellers to peruse and TWUC Chair Eric Enno Tamm. “This d/Deaf, blind, neurodivergent, chronically ill, purchase before their flights. Inspired will reduce both costs and confusion or suffering from mental health issues. by short-story machines in airports in for Laval professors and students and For prize details, visit shootforthemoon.art. Edmonton and Paris, the Literary Press ensure the best educational materials Group initiated this project with support are widely accessible. It sets an example Annual Nobel literature prize from the Canada Book Fund. After its to other universities across Canada that “reserved” for one year summer run in Toronto, the vending have refused to pay for copying the works machine will find a new home, so keep of writers and have wasted millions on Wracked by controversy following recent your eyes peeled next time you look for a pointless lawsuits.” allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct snack at your departure gate.
6 write Community Corner
Joanna Streetly’s April appointment as the inaugural Tofino Poet Laureate coincided with the launch of her memoir, Wild Fierce Life: Dangerous Moments on the Outer Coast (Caitlin Press), making 2018 a busy year for her. Streetly plans to draw local poets out of the woodwork with a performance-poetry workshop, and will encourage poetry submissions to Hearing Range, a project that will look at the creeping intrusion of artificial sound into the Clayoquot area. Once students return to school in the autumn, she will embark “Jane Silcott and Fiona Lam have put on a history-based venture, Before the Road. Local elders and together the best book on marriage historians — with Indigenous, settler, and Japanese backgrounds I’ve read—and I’ve read a bunch! ” — will share stories of early life in Tofino from which students will —Mandy Len Carton, build a variety of short poems and poetic statements in time for author of How to Fall in Love with Anyone the Pacific Rim Art Society’s Cultural Heritage Festival in 2019. Streetly is already booked for several public presentations and plans to hold a poetry night in conjunction with the Tofino Winterlights festival in December 2018. She is expected to write and present a minimum of three poems per year that give voice to community events, issues, and values. The inaugural position is a one-year trial, which will be evaluated with an eye to continuing for a second year.
Member Yvonne Blomer, now in her fourth and final term as the City of Victoria’s poet laureate, has spent her time drawing attention to the plight of the Pacific Ocean. In 2017, her legacy project included the editing of Refugium: Poems for the Pacific (Caitlin Press), an anthology of over eighty poets with concern for the ocean. In 2017, Blomer also published her own travel memoir, Sugar Ride: Cycling from Hanoi to Kuala Lumpur (Palimpsest Press), and won the Overleaf Chapbook Contest, after which Elegies for Earth was published with Leaf Press. This autumn, Yvonne will be working with the Robert Bateman Centre in Victoria to co-curate a show that will include her poems in response to some of Bateman’s art. Please check here for more details: batemancentre.org/exhibits.
Calling All Writers-in-Residence & Poets Laureate!
Write seeks writers-in-residence and poets laureate to submit community engagement news briefs (50–150 words). Community Corner is an opportunity to share project updates about the valuable work you’re doing for your community. For more information or to submit, contact Write Editor Doyali Islam at [email protected].
Summer 2018 7 Writer’s Blot
INDUSTRY Q+A / “To Break Down Barriers”
Doyali Islam converses with Each event has two dancers, two musicians, a wordsmith, and Artistic Director Gerry Morita a visual artist. They usually have little or no previous working about her interdisciplinary relationship and may or may not arrive ready with material to work on. One of the most memorable performances, for me, approach to Mile Zero Dance was seeing performance artist Cindy Baker lolling around all in Edmonton. evening in her giant pill capsule while other events occurred. The juxtaposition and intimacy really created tension. Other favourite moments were filmmaker Dylan Rhys Howard’s How did Mile Zero Dance (MZD) begin, and how do you view interview-style live feed with Jen Mesch and Ben Gorodetsky your role as its current artistic director? performing and the stellar trumpet playing of Nate Wooley. Unfortunately both Jen and Allison are retiring from curation Mile Zero Dance was formed in 1985 by Debra Shantz and at the end of this season, so MZD will be shelving the event Andrea Rabinovich as a space for professional dance production, indefinitely and focussing on other events and initiatives to creation, and education. It was tied to the now-defunct Grant occupy our space. MacEwan Dance program, and was conceived as a space for new beginnings, experimentation, and growth. What events and initiatives will replace SubArctic Improv? I have been at MZD for twelve years. What is important to me is to maintain a space that makes all sorts of people welcome, Subarctic Improv and another initiative, the Dirt Buffet Cabaret, both as artists and as audience. To break down barriers between started up at the same time, when we moved to our storefront artistic disciplines — and between people, in the process. And Little Italy space three years ago. Dirt Buffet — which will as a dance artist, I want all artists to pay more attention to their continue next season — follows a variety-show format: any art own bodies and to all the communication that goes unnoticed medium, ten minutes max, and almost no further restrictions. and unrecorded in everyday life especially as we move to a more Next season, I will go back to curating Mile Zero Dance and more digital world. Salons, which are themed multidisciplinary events. They were the thing that I shelved in order to initiate Dirt Buffet and MZD runs a lot of interesting programming, such as its SubArctic. interdisciplinary SubArctic Improv nights. Can you think of a As an organization, we are always limited by time and money particularly memorable night? and choosing which things to get behind. As an avid improviser, I will definitely be looking at more future events with artists of I chose Jen Mesch and Allison Balcetis to co-curate these all stripes. events on MZD’s behalf. Allison is a saxophonist and member of the new music scene in Edmonton, and Jen is a dancer, Originally from rural Saskatchewan, Gerry Morita has a BA in choreographer, and now filmmaker. The impetus of the series Dance from Simon Fraser University and an MFA in Theatre was to place six artists together in a room with little or no Practice from the University of Alberta. She became Mile Zero preparation and different disciplines/backgrounds, to see what Dance’s Artistic Director in 2006. Learn about current programming would unfold over a 1.5- to 2-hour evening. at milezerodance.com.
8 write WELLSPRING / On Innovation
“Breakthrough innovation occurs when we bring down boundaries and encourage disciplines to learn from each other.”
Gyan Nagpal, in Talent Economics: The Fine Line between Winning and Losing the Global War for Talent (Kogan Page, 2012)
COMIC BY SCOT RITCHIE
Summer 2018 9 Writers Finding Inspiration in Other Art Forms
BY SHARI NARINE
Writers find inspiration and direction in a variety of ways — for example, by participating in music and drama, or by collaborating with those who work in other artistic disciplines. For comic book writer Mariko Tamaki, short-story writer Sandra Campbell, novelist Dawn Dumont, and poet Steve Venright, interdisciplinary practices play an important role in creative processes and written work.
10 write Mariko Tamaki Sandra Campbell Dawn Dumont Steve Venright
MARIKO TAMAKI, WRITER OF PROSE AND COMIC BOOKS goal of the event was to engage peoples’ hearts, minds, and spirits to fall in love with the land, and my idea was [that] if people cared “Working in theatre,” says Mariko Tamaki, who got her start as a about the land they would become advocates for the land,” says queer writer crafting for feminist presses, “absolutely gave me an Campbell. “The project was very much a co-creation.” The visit was appreciation for art-making as a collaborative process.” recorded and posted online. Tamaki credits her work in queer theatre as both a playwright While Campbell wasn’t behind the camera for this project, her and a technician — along with two years of graduate work in work before retiring included writing, directing, and producing linguistic anthropology — with allowing her to focus on dialogue two documentaries on Sick Children’s Hospital in Toronto, which as a method of storytelling. This method is integral to her work involved collaborating with artists, poets, potters, musicians, as a comic-book writer for superheroes She Hulk and Supergirl. puppeteers, and therapeutic clowns. In turn, her focus on comic books has allowed her to find success Campbell says that she is often inspired by music and visual in her newest endeavour, middle-grade prose books based on the arts. “Reading text is a very cerebral process, and good writers Lumberjanes comic series. “I’m constantly inspired by the people write in a way that enables us also to engage our feelings — to I work with in comics. I definitely bring the things I learn [about engage much more than just our mind. But dance and art take us pacing and character] from editors to the prose I write,” she says. into even deeper places.” Tamaki has also done stand up and, “in a former life,” did performance art, although being on stage never felt natural for DAWN DUMONT, NOVELIST AND COMEDIAN her. “I would say I have rarely turned down an opportunity to work with other artists, and I have been very lucky to have collaborated Dawn Dumont’s latest novel, Glass Beads, which uses linked short with some amazing people.” stories to relate the lives of four Indigenous friends living off reserve, has been racking up awards, nominations, and accolades. SANDRA CAMPBELL, SHORT-PROSE WRITER AND ESSAYIST A Quill & Quire review points out that Dumont’s “talent for comedy shines in a great deal of snappy, wry wit.” In 2016, Sandra Campbell worked with poets, dancers, musicians, Dumont’s first novel, Nobody Cries at Bingo, was acknowledged and an Indigenous ceremonial leader in delivering a tour for forty by CBC Books as “a warm and funny portrait of a quiet girl who of Toronto’s civic officials of land that had been expropriated by loves to read, loves her family, and struggles to bridge the cultural the federal government forty-five years earlier for another airport. divide between life on the reservation and the world outside the Since that time, the arable land has only been available to individual community she calls home.” growers through yearly leases. Campbell was drawn into the It’s not surprising that Dumont’s work has been recognized for campaign when a group contacted her about The Moveable Airport, bringing the funny. Dumont is, after all, a stand-up comedian. the book she wrote in 1974 defining the expropriation process and “Being a comedian teaches me to think critically about the world, the impact it had on the people who had lived on that land. “The beyond the masks that people wear, and find the truth. Truth is the
Summer 2018 11 “I can’t imagine only being a fan of one medium or one style of writing or art. I had such an amazing time, as a young artist, living in a city where I knew so many people working in different mediums. I think it’s good to love more than one.”
most important consent for funny. It is the thing that will make an “That’s what I love about the small press in Canada… They’re audience laugh and then remember the joke for years later,” says bringing their own specialty and sensibility to it. If you all have the Dumont. vision of what it can become in mind and can share your ideas, Acting — being able to audition and perform on stage — is what that’s very satisfying.... And, for my own experiences, that comes led Dumont into becoming a comedian. But acting opened other closest to being in a studio with musicians and engineers and all doors for her, too: “Acting introduced me to new material and new the toys to play with.” writers and helped to inspire me into new areas,” she says. Reaching Wider Audiences Steve Venright, poet, visual artist, and music producer The different art forms that these four writers engage in provide them with the opportunity to reach wider and more varied Torpor Vigil Records is not only the name of Steve Venright’s audiences. Dumont suspects that her writing, acting, and stand-up music label, it’s also his philosophy when it comes to creating: “I comedy each appeal to different groups of people. love the idea of an extremely relaxed, languid, dreamlike state. I But there may be crossover audiences, too, says Tamaki, and think a lot of creative materials — visions — can come from that, they would be the richer for it. “I can’t imagine only being a fan of but especially if it has the alertness, too — the vigil. So ideally, the one medium or one style of writing or art. I had such an amazing ultimate creative state for me would be to have both of those going time, as a young artist, living in a city where I knew so many at once.” people working in different mediums. I think it’s good to love Venright’s latest collection of new and selected writings, The more than one.” Least You Can Do Is Be Magnificent, was released in November. Flip Campbell hopes that audiences derive the same message the cover and the reader will glimpse Venright as visual artist. regardless of the medium: “Whether they’re readers or visual “When I’m making my abstracts, I might think of myself as a viewers or whatever, art is an opportunity to see something new, to visual artist. If I’m working on a soundscape or something like see anew in a way that can engage them to actually connect to this that, which isn’t very often, I could think of myself as an audio vision and maybe be given hope, or given challenge or be given artist; but with poetry, even when I’m not writing, I think of myself curiosity to follow a road.” as a poet,” he says. Regardless of which art forms Dumont, Tamaki, Campbell, and Switching from writing to variegraphy (digitally manipulating Venright identify themselves with, they all agree that they are first an original painting to create psychedelic abstracts, sometimes and foremost writers. “Having written for so long, eventually the in repeating patterns) provides Venright with restorative breaks. day arrives when you think, ‘Okay, I am a writer. Whether I’m a While those switches can happen within the same day, he usually good one or not, I’m a writer,’” says Venright. dedicates months to each art form. With both writing and visual art being, for the most part, solitary Shari Narine is the author of Oil Change at Rath’s Garage endeavours, Venright admits he enjoys the collaborative aspect (Thistledown Press, 2017) and is currently working on her second of being in the recording studio. He adds, though, that he has adult fiction novel. She is a freelance journalist and editor. She resides experienced similar “synergy” when he’s had a book published. in Edmonton.
12 write THE WRITERS’ UNION OF CANADA ONWORDS & AGM May 30 – June 2, 2019 in Halifax
THE WRITERS’ UNION OF CANADA EXTENDS WARM THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING GENEROUS SPONSORS & DONORS for their support of the Union’s work on behalf of all writers in Canada
Summer 2018 13 Something from (Almost) Nothing Creating Large-scale Impact with Small-scale funding
BY LEAH HORLICK
Over the past month, I’ve been lucky enough to work with almost 1000 high school students across Surrey as part of a writer-in-residence program through the Surrey English Teachers’ Association.
t the end of each workshop, I open up a question an arts grant (I received Canada Council funding during the last period, letting students grades eight through cycle). It is strangely refreshing to be met with a chorus of students twelve know that as long as they keep it PG-13, shouting, “You mean the government just gives you money to they can ask me almost anything — including how write books?!” — and while they have the good sense to know I actually pay my bills as a working artist. Some of that it’s not quite that simple, it’s exciting to introduce students to these savvy students have the foresight (and sense the idea of arts funding after spending many an hour learning to Aof the fiscal calendar) to ask me how much money I made last navigate this particular Canadian hydra and lamenting the loss of year, and I have the privilege of introducing them to the concept of some of its heads over the years.
14 write When Estlin McPhee and I ran REVERB, a Vancouver-based reading series for LGBTQ writers, we struggled to figure out where exactly our project fit.
Sadly, in an hour-and-twenty-minute high school workshop, I grant. Fortunately, provincial and territorial funding is catching never have enough time to introduce students to the provincial up, with Quebec’s Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec nuances and regional opportunities that exist outside of the major (CALQ) specifically naming a funding branch for literature and funding sources (like Toronto’s so-called “tri-secta”). Smaller-scale storytelling. opportunities like neighbourhood or community grants don’t Provincial and territorial funding also tends to reflect the always come with an equivalent bag (who says purse anymore, challenges and unique features of the regional arts landscape. It really?), but they can in some instances allow for more flexibility, is worth noting that the Yukon houses their Arts Advisory under less rigorous reporting, and greater receptivity to interdisciplinary the Tourism and Culture Department. Similarly, Nunavut provides projects. arts funding through the Department of Culture and Heritage, When Estlin McPhee and I ran REVERB, a Vancouver-based which supports initiatives related to elders and youth, heritage, reading series for LGBTQ writers, we struggled to figure out where Inuit societal values, and official language programs. The Prince exactly our project fit: We were mostly quarterly, and we highlighted Edward Island Arts Grants program, funded through Innovation both emerging and established writers but worked within a PEI — an economic acceleration initiative that also supports small specifically anti-oppressive framework (providing a scent-reduced, businesses and emerging sectors like bioscience — includes sober, and wheelchair-accessible space with ASL interpretation) and specific funding for established and emerging professional artists centred the work of femme-identified writers of colour, especially and recognizes interdisciplinary arts alongside the traditional trans and gender-nonconforming writers with disabilities. Our single disciplines. The Alberta Arts Council specifically names venue, Gallery Gachet, was also located in the Downtown East Side, “new media” along with visual arts, an exciting opportunity for which meant we worked specifically to integrate our programming artists working in digital forms. into the neighbourhood rather than be another gentrifying art- I know many of the arts programs available to Saskatchewan bomb in search of another affordable venue. artists working with young people are funded through For writers who are struggling less with venue-related costs SaskLotteries, with political dilemmas emerging — as they and more with the somewhat rigid genre brackets of traditional inevitably do in every province and territory — related to additional funding, Canada has an incredible resource in the work of funding provided through the energy sector. (This tension spoken-word artists and storytellers, since programs and granting threatens wherever artists choose to seek funding, of course, and bodies have only recently recognized their work. Organizations is not absent for many artists when they apply through traditional like Vancouver Poetry House continue to provide smaller-scale federal and provincial programs.) It’s important to note that many funding for local projects — such as slam poetry mentorship funders are responding to the gig economy and providing — or and high school workshops — which can still be a challenge have provided, for some time now — granting streams that to place into the framework of a traditional discipline-specific recognize the multiple forms of writing work that require support.
Summer 2018 15 When in doubt, just call the granting officer. If their program is not the right fit, no one knows better where else you could pursue funding.
Beyond subsistence and creation, research and travel grants emerging and/or millennial artists, who may find municipal remain an important option for writers to consider. or cultural funding sources more accessible in the midst of For writers working in languages other than the official navigating transience, relocation, and the changing economy. languages or involved in a language revitalization project, Ultimately, Estlin and I chose to pursue funding for REVERB opportunities may also exist through heritage funding or based on another tacit agreement in the granting process — our culturally specific organizations. The Saskatchewan Arts Board energy levels. Grant applications take work and time; Estlin and has two streams of funding for Indigenous and Métis artists: one I had too much of the former and not enough of the latter. We supporting independent Indigenous artists working in either a successfully applied and continued to seek funding through the traditional or contemporary art form, and another that supports Vancouver Foundation Neighbourhood Small Grants program, both Indigenous artists and Traditional Knowledge Keepers or which ended up being a suitable fix for us as far as low-stakes Elders in facilitating community projects. The Manitoba Arts applications, high receptivity to our mandate, and a fairly luxurious Council offers a Community Connections and Access Program, turnaround time with low reporting expectations. Had we only which purports to “address specific needs identified by artists looked to see where in the provincial matrix we fit, we would who face barriers to equal opportunities in artists, professional have remained discouraged and likely would not have been able development, and presentation,” in addition to offering an to sustain the series for its nearly five-year run. (Of course, we’ve Artists in the Schools program and recognizing what they term since learned that we likely would have qualified for BC Arts “multidisciplinary arts” in their application streams. Council funding, since it’s possible to apply as a collective — a new In the Maritimes, Arts Nova Scotia funding offers a similar possibility within the last few years that improves accessibility for Arts Equity Funding Initiative and specifically designates groups groups.) I relied and continue to rely heavily on the advice of my that have faced historical barriers in the province, including Deaf mentor and MFA supervisor, Rhea Tregebov, when it comes to arts artists, artists living with disabilities and/or mental illness, artists funding — when in doubt, just call the granting officer. They want from the Mi’kmaq Nation, and African-Nova Scotian artists. (It’s to talk to you, a real person and artist; in most cases, they (and their worth noting that these funding opportunities have an ongoing juries) want to give you money! If their program is not the right fit, application intake with no deadlines!) The challenge faced by no one knows better where else you could pursue funding. artists who struggle to meet the definitions of either professional As grantors respond to the changing landscape of the arts or emerging artist is apparent — particularly, I imagine, for — and increasing expectations of equity and representation for artists in Newfoundland and Labrador where the council solely marginalized artists — I’m hopeful that councils will continue to recognizes professional artists and organizations or community respond by diversifying their programs to meet the needs of artists organizations with their grants. However, one oft-ignored barrier and audiences. to provincial and territorial funding is the residency requirement — for example, the Northwest Territories requires that artists Leah Horlick is the author of two books: Riot Lung (Thistledown applying for funding through their Arts Council be a resident Press, 2012) and For Your Own Good (Caitlin Press, 2015), which of the Northwest Territories for at least two years prior to the was a 2016 Stonewall Honor Title. She lives on unceded Coast Salish deadline. Such guidelines may pose a particular challenge to territories in Vancouver. leahhorlick.com
16 write USEFUL LINKS BY PROVINCE/TERRITORY
British Columbia BC Arts Council • bcartscouncil.ca/artists/creativewriters.htm • bcartscouncil.ca/organizations/publishers.htm
Alberta Alberta Foundation for the Arts • affta.ab.ca/funding/find-funding
Saskatchewan Saskatchewan Arts Board • saskartsboard.com/menu/grants/grant-programs/independent-artists-program.html • saskartsboard.com/menu/grants/grant-programs/indigenous-metis-art-and-artists.html Saskatchewan Writers Guild • skwriter.com/programs-and-services/swg-writers-groups-grants
Manitoba Manitoba Arts Council • artscouncil.mb.ca/apply-for-a-grant/grants-for-artists-and-individuals/
Ontario Ontario Arts Council • arts.on.ca/grants/discipline/literature
Quebec Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec • calq.gouv.qc.ca/en/aide/discipline/literature-storytelling/
New Brunswick ArtsNB • artsnb.ca/site/en • artsnb.ca/site/fr
Nova Scotia Arts Nova Scotia • artsns.ca/grants-awards/grants/grants-individuals
Newfoundland & Labrador ArtsNL • nlac.ca/index.htm
Prince Edward Island PEI Arts Grants • princeedwardisland.ca/en/information/innovation-pei/arts-grants-program
Yukon Yukon Arts Advisory – Tourism & Culture Department • tc.gov.yk.ca/arts_funding.html
Northwest Territories NWT Arts Council • www.nwtartscouncil.ca/forms/NWTAC-CATNO-2017-guidelines-lignes.pdf
Nunavut Arts Development Program • gov.nu.ca/culture-and-heritage/information/grants-and-contributions-0
Summer 2018 17 Languages like Plants
BY TOMSON HIGHWAY
Good evening, ladies and gentleman, my deer friends and colleagues, my heroes, my idols, my loved ones. I know my mother did it first — but thank you for having me, thank you for being here, thank you for being you even though it must be incredibly difficult being you.
don’t know how you do it. No, but seriously, thank you you wore when you wanted to have safe sex. I mean, it was only from the bottom of my heart to the folks at the Writers’ recently that I learned the difference between “flattery” and Trust of Canada for seeing it within their hearts and “flatulence” — not much difference, as it turns out — mutilation minds to invite me to this august occasion. I’m not used and titillation and, particularly challenging, matriculation and to august occasions. Humble occasions are more my ejaculation — as in, “I suffered from premature matriculation as style. In fact, I didn’t even know what “august” meant a young man; I graduated from high school too early.” My point Iuntil some ten years ago. Up until then, I thought it meant “to being, one can’t go around assuming that English is the mother brush the teeth” — just like I thought that a “bitch” was a place tongue of every person in this country. For many of us, it isn’t. you went to go swimming and a “conservative” was something For many of us, it took years of very hard work to learn it, years
18 write One can’t go around assuming that English is the mother tongue of every person in this country. For many of us, it isn’t. For many of us, it took years of very hard work to learn it, years of pain and suffering.
of pain and suffering and writhing discomfort and asphyxiating denuded of its original population.) Two: they were stripped of humiliation, just to be able to wrap our tongues around such their dignity — much as German was stripped of its in the 1930s syllables as “uncharacteristically” or “philosophical substraction” — and are presently wallowing in muck and mire, barely alive. or even “remove it. It hurts.”Because, you see, if we hadn’t gone In fact, many of them are already dead. Only three will survive, through this ordeal — for you — we wouldn’t have been able to linguists tell us. And they should know because linguists, as you read and appreciate the literature that we are about to talk about know, can be very cunning. And those three are Cree, Ojibway, tonight and to which Margaret Laurence was such an illustrious and Inuktituk — though the Innu of northeastern Quebec would contributor. argue hard to have theirs included in the list, as would the Navaho But what better way to thank and remember the woman for in the American Southwest. And we, the Native writers of this her place in the history of Canadian letters and culture than with country today, have simply inherited the responsibility of re- this lecture series, huh? And double whammy for me personally building those languages, of giving them back their dignity, their because she was, and is, a fellow Manitoban, which sterling fact beauty. And their brilliance. automatically makes her a Rez Sister, at least in a corner of the Yes, language, that quintessential tool of the craft of writing. blackboard of my heart. (Sorry; I write country song lyrics for a Without it, it wouldn’t get very far, would it now? But why is it so living or, at least, a part thereof! Hey, rent costs money.) important to save these particular languages at this point in our I never had the honour of meeting the woman myself, not in history? Because languages are like plants. If they say that each the flesh, because, of course, her career flourished at a time when plant, herb, and leaf in the Amazon jungle holds the possible key my English was still in development but I understand, from to the curing of physical illnesses such as AIDS, MS, and cancer, people whom I know who have, that she was a very kind woman then so does each syllable and vowel and consonant of any and who cared deerly about people and the human condition which, all languages. Each has its genius. Each holds the secret to the of course, is why she wrote about it with such conviction and so curing perhaps not of physical but of the mental, emotional, and well. But I’ve seen her pictures. I’ve seen the house in Lakefield, spiritual maladies that haunt us, that have been known to cause Ontario where she lived out her last years. And I’ve read all her such conditions as depression that lead up to suicide. books. In fact, I think that hers might have been the very first To cut to the chase, English is the quintessential intellectual works of Canadian fiction that I ever read. Which, of course, takes language. It lives in the head, and most brilliantly, but the head us back to the days of the construction of the stynx (which is Cree only. Anything below the neck and it freezes with terror. […] If for “sphynx,” by the way, because, you see, the sound “f” doesn’t you want to laugh and laugh until you cry — that is, if you want exist in our language). to go back into the Garden — you will have to resort to other languages, ones that come not from the head or from the heart * * * or from the stomach... but from the part of the human body that Our languages, of course, have undergone two traumas. One: they looks most ridiculous but is most pleasurable, the home of the were nipped in the bud at a crucial point in their development, Trickster, that Cosmic Clown, that garden of pleasure at the heart most directly as a result of germ warfare levelled at them. (Read: of which stands a certain tree that, in some languages, you are small pox blankets where millions died, the land effectively not supposed to touch but in others, should, ten times minimum
Summer 2018 19 Languages are like plants. If they say that each plant, herb, and leaf in the Amazon jungle holds the possible key to the curing of physical illnesses such as AIDS, MS, and cancer, then so does each syllable and vowel and consonant of any and all languages. Each has its genius.
per day. Try it tonight; guaranteed, you will scream with pleasure, Margaret Laurence helped me. In her own way — reading pleasure that the English language is absolutely terrified by, the through the lines — I could tell that she loved me, that she cared gate to which — that is, the neck — a certain, very vengeful angel deeply for me and my people. And for my language. Because guards with a flaming sword. she knew, instinctively, the wisdom that rested deep inside the Example: neeee, awinuk awa oota kaapee-pitig’weet. We Cree folds of its syllables. And its vowels and its consonants. And even laugh at that. We laugh and laugh and laugh. We laugh until we its sighs. And she wanted us, its future caregivers, to share that cry. See how it affects the movement of your body? I’ll say it again. wisdom before those languages died; she wanted us to write. In Even if you don’t know what I’m saying, your body has already fact, she more than likely would have been tickled pink to know started to shake and jiggle and rock and roll. Now I’ll say it in that this new body of literature, this voice that is now heard clean English. “Hey, who just came in the door?” See what your body around the world... She would have been tickled pink to know that does by comparison? It does nothing, absolutely nothing. It stops it lives, that it’s here, and that it’s here to stay. And what a thrill moving and sits there penitent, afraid. (Read: In one language, the it’s been for me to be along for the ride. reason for existence on planet Earth is penitence; in the other, it Thank you, Margaret Laurence, thank you from the bottom is laughter. Who on Earth — what evil genius or what benevolent of our hearts. We love you. We will always love you. For us, the genius — constructed these fascinating structures?) Native writers of this country — the most beautiful garden on Earth or in Heaven — for us, the honoured members of this * * * movement to whom you gave birth, if inadvertently, you will [A]t death, in the Cree language, one’s soul, theoretically, does not always be… a Rez Sister. go up to heaven or down to hell which is the most terrifying of straight lines that I can think of, one that has made death such Excerpted from the 2018 Writers’ Trust Margaret Laurence Lecture, a traumatic experience for way too many. Rather does one “get which Tomson Highway delivered on June 15 as a keynote speaker translated” from one part of the circle of life (that is, the part with during the Canadian Writers’ Summit at Harbourfront Centre in the soul) to another part of the circle (the part with no soul). But Toronto (recording available at soundcloud.com/writerstrust). The he/she remains on the circle. Margaret Laurence hasn’t gone Margaret Laurence Lecture is a program of the Writers’ Trust of anywhere. Her soul has merely been translated from one side of Canada and is delivered annually on the occasion of The Writers’ the circle to the other. She is still here with us — in the leaf of that Union of Canada’s AGM. tree, in that blade of grass on her lawn in Lakefield, Ontario, in the ray of sunshine that falls on your forearm in the morning, in Tomson Highway grew up in two languages, Cree, his mother tongue, the words she has left us. and Dene, the language of the neighbouring nation. He is best known for The Rez Sisters, Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapusakasing, as * * * well as Kiss of the Fur Queen.
20 write Prelude to a Score An Interview with a Classical Composer on “Outlining”
BY JIM SELLERS
Let me start with a bit of background about this interview. I’m fascinated with classical music. I like to imagine images and stories inspired by the music as it pours over me, either in the concert hall or from my home stereo system dialled to 11.
hile I’m enjoying the music, I know that I thirty to sixty minutes of music for anywhere from one to 150 am only experiencing the end product of musicians in a variety of parts? What process do composers use months or years of a composer’s work, much when starting a major work while facing a blank sheet of paper? in the same way readers consume a novel Fortunately, I knew a guy to ask. Actually, I know a few after an author has written, edited, rehashed, composers, each of whom have produced impressive oeuvres, and struggled to put it out. It occurred to me but my go-to guy for this question was the SOCAN Songwriting Wthat there must be similarities between the process of composing Prize winner and Juno-nominated musician John Estacio. John music and writing prose. I wondered: Do composers outline their is a prolific creator of concertos, symphonies, operas, ballets, and work? How does (did) a composer face the daunting task of writing choral works. Symphonies and opera companies in Canada, the
Summer 2018 21 “What are the parameters of this world? What are the flavours? Who are the characters? You have to be conscious of how to create a musical phrase, a moment. How is that going to fit into the entire structure?”
U.S., China, and the U.K. have performed his music. In 1998, CBC so that this musical phrase can sustain the next few moments? I released a CD of John’s compositions — Frenergy — performed spend a lot of time thinking about that. by the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, and, in 2017, Canada Post released a stamp commemorating Filumena, an opera John Me: Okay, but in an opera you’re working with a collaborator, composed with librettist John Murrell. writing music to tell the story written by the librettist. What about I have known John for twenty years but have never had the when you are working on your own? How do you start the creative opportunity to sit and talk with him about the process he uses in process completely from scratch? composing. When I approached him with this question, he was intrigued and a little confused. Why would I want to know about John: Some pieces are evocative of visuals, like the northern lights the steps he takes before writing the music? (Borealis 1997). In that instance, it was bending lights. That was the I explained the process of outlining from a writer’s point of image I wanted to capture in music. You sit down and brainstorm; view. The differences between “plotters” and “pantsers.” The you ask yourself how the hell do I create this so it has some differences in approaches by the scene-by-scene outliner and the semblance to the title, the image that’s driving the piece? How do start-writing-and-see what-happens discovery writer. I put it to him, I bend music, how do I bend harmony to match the image of the as a composer who has many times faced the challenge of creating northern lights? the musical equivalent of a novel: Does he outline his work before I just wrote a trumpet concerto; I can walk you through that starting to write music? (Estacio’s Trumpet Concerto). There’s an image of the concerto as one player versus sixty. For this composition, I started there: was it John: Hmmm, yes… and no. It depends on the composition. I may going to be a conflict or harmony? Are they together or adversaries? have an idea, that’s the plotter side of me, but then the pants side As a citizen of the world I’ve noticed a wave of populism, most has to spin it out to make music. If it’s going to be a short piece, obviously what’s going on in the United States. There’s this wave obviously, you’re going to do less planning. If it’s an opera or a of incivility cropping up. It feels threatening, and I thought about ballet score that’s going to be an entire evening — two hours of how I would show that in music. What would it be like if I was a music and drama — you have to do a lot more. Sometimes I have voice alone in the wilderness? Thinking this is the way things are very specific plans. I have a theme, an argument, or an emotion and then suddenly being overwhelmed by hidden truths that are that I’m trying to express via music. Other times I’m pushing the popping up. How would that sound? That’s how the piece starts. cart, trying to put something round in a square hole. Some ideas I researched the history of the trumpet — how it’s been used just don’t translate easily into a musical structure. throughout the ages. In the military, funerals, and celebrations, it runs the gamut. Triton used a trumpet to make the oceans rise. Me: So, how do you outline a musical composition? The first movement is “Triton’s Trumpet.” It starts with him just playing peacefully, the waters are calm around him, and then, John: In terms of planning, for the sake of conversation, I think it gradually, they start to churn and build. That can be transferred into would be better to look at an opera or a ballet because you have to musical expression. What I do is map out this movement. I knew imagine the world the piece will live in. What are the parameters there would be this adversarial relationship between the trumpet of this world? What are the flavours? Who are the characters? You and the orchestra, the orchestra being waves and the trumpet being have to be conscious of how to create a musical phrase, a moment. surrounded and overwhelmed, trying to calm the sea. How is that going to fit into the entire structure? Maybe it will pop up again in the piece and be an identifiable entity. Is it going to fit Me: Most books, plays, or screenplays are broken into acts: in the middle [or] at the end — and what happens around that? introduction, crisis/climax, resolution/ denouement. Most musical How is it going to yield more ideas, more interesting developments compositions are divided into movements. Are those the same
22 write thing, physical separations of story segments to highlight a part of a design, why it’s working. Sort of like: Aha, it’s these three notes that the story, or an emotion? lead to this phrase, that’s the real flavour of the piece. It could be one or two bars of music that fuel that inspiration, and the rest is sort of JOHN: Movements are acts, but within each movement there are building on that. That’s when your skills come into play. scenes. This concerto is in three “acts” but each one is divided into Then it’s a question of pacing. When is a phrase too long, or segments. You want to have contours and geography within the when can you sustain it longer? So often, it’s just knowing when act. That’s the way we absorb art, absorb culture; it’s just classic you have overstayed your welcome with a musical idea. Like, this storytelling. doesn’t need to be here. I get it, let’s move on. You still want to You want to make sure that in each scene, at least three things make sure the essence of the piece — the radiance and the beauty happen to shift the story or move it along. You want to have a that you imagined — are there. That comes from experience and strong introduction, a development of musical thoughts, and an knowing how you want it to sound. But if the DNA of the piece is important moment — loudest moment, saddest moment, silence, strong, if there’s something that works for me and is compelling, [or] whatever works for the composition. I’m constantly thinking of that’s what’s going to make the composition work. those things. John Estacio’s trumpet concerto is being performed by orchestras across ME: Do you ever find your compositions going a different way from Canada. His CD, Frenergy, can be purchased at edmontonsymphony.com/ what you had planned? index.php/about/recordings/frenergy-music-of-john-estacio. His website is www.johnestacio.com, and he’s on Twitter at @EstacioComposer. JOHN: Oh, yeah. I’ve had to put on the brakes. There’s lots of garbage that no one will ever hear, lots that I will never hear again. Jim Sellers began writing professionally for television in 1994, writing It’s a wrong syntax, the wrong feeling — so you put it away. The series and documentary scripts. He currently works in communications next day you improvise something, and maybe it’s a little better. management. He has two published YA novels and is currently working Once you start writing it on the page, you can start to see a shape, on his first contemporary fiction for adults.
Summer 2018 23 Dispatches NOTES ON THE WRITING LIFE
WORK ENVIRONMENT / Four Reasons Coworking Might Work for You
BY NANCY FORNASIERO
Coworking is exploding in popularity. With 2. DEFINED BOUNDARIES over 300 shared workspaces in Canada When you work from home, work tends to spill over into personal time, and, conversely, personal stuff interferes with (and more opening every day), thousands work. Your neighbour drops by. Friends call in the middle of the of freelancers are proving that working at a day. It’s always your job to run that “one quick errand.” Flexibility is great, but when too many non-work obligations creep into coworking space beats working from home. work hours, it’s a problem. And don’t forget the flip side of the Here’s why: coin: Do you know when to power off your laptop? Many writers allow work to spill over into family time, couple time, and down 1. ENHANCED PRODUCTIVITY time. “Setting boundaries is something I struggle with,” admits Leonard. “Having a designated place to do my writing, one that Home can be handy, but it’s also full of temptations to I can travel to and from, helps a lot in separating my work and procrastinate. Whether your distraction is “just a bit” of family life.” housework, refrigerator raids, or the lure of Netflix, hours can easily slip away while the keyboard sits idle. In a coworking 3. PROFESSIONAL IMAGE space, with no distractions in sight, work gets done. “Our members tell us that being surrounded by other productive Camping out at Starbucks is an okay temporary fix for the work- people is infectious,” says Edward Wensing, co-founder of at-home blues, but it’s not ideal. Connecting with a prospective Toronto’s Verkspace. Danielle Leonard, a YA novelist who writes client or an interviewee in a professional location with privacy at Oakville’s ACE Coworking, agrees: “Seeing other people work makes a better impression than meeting in a noisy café. Most in a focussed way helps me focus too. It’s amazing how much coworking spaces offer lounges, as well as meeting rooms that more I get done away from home.” can be rented on an hourly basis. Copywriter Don Kerr uses
24 write ACE Coworking when he needs to collaborate on a project. “I writers. “Our members span so many verticals, from sports to actually like working from home,” says Kerr. “But when I meet digital start-ups to the entertainment business,” says Wensing. with a client or colleague, I prefer to not have them to my place.” “One of my favourite things is seeing friendships and business Other professional touches offered by coworking spaces include relationships blossom here. It happens all the time.” In a front-desk reception and a business mailing address. And don’t coworking space, your mood is boosted, referrals happen, advice forget that your stay at Starbucks is limited, whereas coworking is shared, and there’s someone (other than your cat) to take a facilities are typically open 24/7. lunch break with.
4. HUMAN INTERACTION Most coworking spaces offer a free trial day: Why not try it out and see what it does for your mood, image, network, and The community of a coworking space can be a great antidote to productivity? the loneliness we sometimes experience as writers. This point is important since studies have proven that social isolation can Nancy Fornasiero is an author, editor and ghostwriter of nonfiction be a serious mental-health risk. And besides the psychological books. Her work has appeared in The Globe and Mail, Toronto benefits that coworking offers, there are professional ones too: Star, En Route, Canadian Living, Parents Canada, and other None of us is building a network alone at home! Coworking leads regional and national publications. She does most of her writing in to connections with interesting professionals — not just other coworking spaces.
The Commons Calgary COWORKING SPACES: A SAMPLER 1206 20 Avenue SE, Calgary, Alberta 403-452-7938 / [email protected] ACE Coworking Barrier-free access? Yes. 295 Robinson St, Suite 100, Oakville, Ontario 289-242-4873 / [email protected] L’Atelier Coworking Barrier-free access? No. 319 W Hastings St, #400, Vancouver, British Columbia (604) 652-4448 / [email protected] Verkspace Barrier-free access? Partially. There is a freight elevator but advance 32 Britain St, Suite 100, Toronto, Ontario notice is required to use it. It is not always available and only a few 416-286-5749 / [email protected] people know how to operate it, so it is not ideal for everyday use. Barrier-free access? No. The kitchen is accessed by stairs. Many Hats Workspace ACME Works 3rd Floor, Bedford Basin Farmer’s Market 229 Niagara St, Toronto, Ontario 397 Bedford Highway, Halifax, Nova Scotia 416-479-4458 / [email protected] 902-456-1623 / [email protected] Barrier-free access? No. The main entrance to the space has Barrier-free access? Yes. a small one-inch step leading into the main floor, which includes the kitchen, washrooms, games room, shared tables, Montréal CoWork and private offices. In addition, there are five private offices 4388 St-Denis, Suite 200, Montreal, Quebec and our rooftop patio on the second floor, which is only 514-613-7564 / [email protected] accessible by stairs. Barrier-free access? Yes.
Summer 2018 25 Dispatches
gender, sexuality — can be vital perspectives from which to create. ACCESSIBILITY.DOC / In no particular order, here are four disabled Canadian writers who have created and continue to create beautiful and challenging work.
LEAH LAKSHMI PIEPZNA-SAMARASINHA A Spotlight on Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha’s works include the poetry collections Consensual Genocide, Love Cake, and Bodymap, and the Four Disabled memoir Dirty River: A Queer Femme of Color Dreaming Her Way Home. They have won the Lambda Award for Love Cake and have been shortlisted for several other awards. They identify as “a queer Writers disabled non-binary femme writer and cultural worker of Burger/ Tamil Sri Lankan and Irish/Roma ascent.” Piepzna-Samarasinha’s BY ADAM POTTLE work explores intersectionality from multiple perspectives: disability, gender, sexuality, and race. This fall, they will publish an essay collection titled Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice; a new poetry collection, Tonguebreaker, will follow in Spring 2019. Piepzna- Samarasinha has been a lead artist with the disability justice I feel like a curmudgeon, a bitter dusty old prick performance collective Sins Invalid since 2009. They blog about disability, chronic illness, and other subjects at brownstargirl.org. trying to ignite a glow in his heart. They divide their time between Toronto and South Seattle. I’ve written in Quill & Quire and on All Lit Up about how disabled KIM CLARK people are drastically underrepresented in literature, film, television, theatre, and… well, the arts in general. I’ve written about how A novelist, playwright, and poet, Kim Clark frequently incorporates even though disabled people make up the world’s largest minority disability, including her own condition, multiple sclerosis, into her — approximately one in five people is disabled — they are not work. This past spring, she published A One-Handed Novel, which proportionally represented in the arts, in terms of both the number boldly explores disability and sexuality within a comic structure. of creators who are given the opportunity to share their work with the Her previous books include the short story collection Attemptations public and the amount of portrayals in artistic mediums. and the poetry collection Sit You Waiting. She was a finalist in Disability discomforts people. To live a disabled life is to live Theatre BC’s playwriting competition and has a novella under with one’s vulnerabilities completely in the open. Because of that, option for a feature film. Her website is kimclarkwriter.com; she able-bodied and able-minded people typically prefer disabled people can also be found on Twitter @kimclarkwriter and on Facebook at remain silent. Every day, whenever I open a newspaper or log onto facebook.com/kimclarkwriting. Twitter, I see dozens of instances where a disabled person has been denied access to a public facility, has been unable to make a living ARLEY CRUTHERS for themselves due to inaccessibility, has been forcibly removed Arley Cruthers has published two novels, Post and The Time We All from a protest, or has been ignored, mocked, harassed, or assaulted. Went Marching, both of which were published under the name Arley To live a disabled life is to continually fight against being silenced. McNeney. Post, which explores disability, athletics, and womanhood, Constantly reading, writing, and thinking about such things was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First has made me bitter — made me into a thirty-four-year old Book. Cruthers is a former Paralympic basketball player who lives curmudgeon. As a result, I often feel that oppression is the central and teaches in Vancouver. Her Twitter handle is @Arley_McNeney. story of disability. But that’s not necessarily true. LYNX SAINTE-MARIE I’ve written plenty about the pessimistic side, but I haven’t written enough about the optimistic side — specifically, about the According to their website, Sainte-Marie identifies as a “disabled/ work that disabled artists are creating. I have a terrible tendency to chronically ill, non-binary/genderfluid person.” They produce focus too much on oppression rather than on celebration; I have poetry in various mediums, including writing, performance, to persistently remind myself that oppression is one of the stories visual art, storytelling, multimedia art installations, short films, about disability, but it doesn’t need to be the main story. and songs. They have presented at galleries, universities, and Disabled artists, and especially writers, are creating some of institutions across Canada, as well as in American, Britain, and the most innovative and challenging work in Canada. They are Australia. Their Twitter handle is @afrogothmusings, and their taking familiar stories and flipping them on their heads. They website is lynxsaintemarie.com. They live in Toronto. are fleshing out and expanding our history by hauling their predecessors from the background to the foreground. They are Adam Pottle’s writing explores deafness and disability from a variety of deconstructing old and harmful ways of speaking and showing perspectives. His three published books have won and been shortlisted us new ways of employing language. Most importantly, they are for several awards; his fourth book, a memoir and craft exploration, will demonstrating that disability and what it intersects with — race, be released in Spring 2019. He lives in Saskatoon.
26 write plate, on a light beige background with black text, at a cost of about POETRY IN PUBLIC SPACE / $10 each. This allowed each poem to be five to seven lines and complemented the signs that were already planned to be posted. The idea wasn’t to slap hikers in face with poetry but rather to say, “If you take a moment, you will see poetry everywhere.” Poetry on the The first poems were by the laureates in May of 2017. To kick off the project, we joined forces with Reading Town, an organization that works toward making reading a national priority by picking a Trails: A Sudbury host city every year and putting on various events. It was a perfect collaboration: the trails, the poets, the city, and Reading Town. On Initiative a cool windy day in May, we stood with the trees on the shore of Lake Laurentian and the land was smudged by Will Morin, who BY THOMAS LEDUC belongs to the Michipicoten First Nation. After the smudging ceremony, we presented our poems and I called out to the city’s poets, for their works for the following year. In the fall of 2017, I became the president of the Sudbury Writers’ Guild, and, in doing so, I recruited the Guild as part of my “poetry on the trails” initiative. Together, we collected It’s Sunday afternoon. My family and I stand at approximately sixty poems which were judged via blind the peak of a trail — a lookout point — over Lake submission by the former poet laureates. Eleven poems were chosen and read once again on the shores of Lake Laurentian, this Laurentian in Sudbury. The water is calm, the air time hosted by the city’s current poet laureate, Chloé LaDuchesse, is cool, and the sun dances off the colours of the to an even larger crowd. leaves, like light on a stained-glass window. I tell my children, “This is the universe writing poetry.”
If we turn and look behind us the scene looks quite different. There is a spiralling rock garden of a city, one that looks strikingly greener than when I was a child in the Seventies. The city has put a world-renowned effort into rewriting our landscape, and it’s paying off in spades. I point out to my kids some of the places that still need work and explain to them what the landscape looked like when I was young. The idea to put poetry on city hiking trails first came to life at a book launch for one of Sudbury poet Roger Nash’s collections of poetry, in the spring of 2016, at the main branch of the city library. I was there, along with another former city poet laureate, Daniel Aubin, and poet laureate Kim Fahner. We were speaking about our projects as laureates. A city councilor approached us and asked me The audience looks down the trail as the poets read. if there was another project I wished I could have done as laureate, other than put poetry on city buses. I mentioned my “poetry on the Poetry on the Trails is growing — evolving much like the city trails” idea, and, low and behold, she was on the board of directors itself. This year, we have plans to work with a new trail system and for the Lake Laurentian Conservation Area! They were in the to pull poems from past Sudbury poets or famous poets who have process of putting up new signage for the trails. written about our city. We also hope to have a phone app that lets Together, we agreed this project would make a worthwhile you listen and see the poet read their work. This will bring a unique endeavor. Poetry and nature are natural — no pun intended — literary tourist attraction to our city, which is a win for everyone. companions, like peanut butter and jam or Simon and Garfunkel. For me, the idea of seeing our text poems placed in the poetry They work in perfect harmony to provide a place to escape the of the universe is like launching a space probe. What if the trees world and ponder life. I have on occasion mentioned to my wife are trying to read our words? What if the lakes and the stars are that I need to get out into the forest, to surround myself with trees listening? Our poetry says to the universe, “We are here, we are or sit out on the lake in my canoe. I have also asked for time to listening, and we are learning.” read and write my poetry. The outdoors and poetry seem to centre me. They give me perspective and a sense of peace within my life. Thomas Leduc was Poet Laureate of Sudbury, 2014–2016. He’s been Over the next several months, we lined up meetings, and published in anthologies and magazines. Currently, he’s president of the the path before us began to clear. The signs were printed on Sudbury Writers’ Guild. His first book of poetry, Slagflower (Latitude aluminum stock in both official languages — one poem per 5” x 5” 46), will be published in the spring of 2019.
Summer 2018 27 Dispatches
up two-by-fours and with nails and skill and effort, creates a house. INTERDISCIPLINARY REFLECTION / It’s all structure; only the materials are different. But being a construction worker was more than just the work; there were the guys to figure out, and having no other women to talk to about this strange new culture, I turned to journalling. Constructing Every night I came home and wrote three or four single-spaced pages about what had happened that day, trying to figure it out, Language one small soprano in a world of basses.
BY KATE BRAID It’s all structure; only the materials are different.
People who know I’ve published several books of Writing gave me not only a concrete product but a way to figure poetry and nonfiction are often surprised when out — and let go of — what was on my mind. There were other similarities: In construction, tools are vital, and you pay the most they find out I was a carpenter for fifteen years. you can afford for those that will serve you long and well — much To me, the transition was organic but, until now, the way a writer carefully picks the next computer, even the colour of her notepads. One of the things I’d loved about construction was unspoken. So how exactly did construction lead its intensity; one wrong step and you could hurt yourself badly. But to being a professional writer? poetry was intense too, took all my focus. And if I did it right, at the end of the day my work was beautiful. I could say, “I built that.” I’ve always loved language. Through high school and university, Oops, I mean, “I wrote that.” But mostly, I liked that construction I studied English literature and especially loved poetry — the — and poetry — slowed me down, made me pay attention. physical roll of it on my tongue. One day in a Chaucer class, the There were differences, of course: construction paid better — prof, who tended to overindulgence, turned up drunk. Instead of much better — and was more physical, more sociable, regardless a formal lesson, he spent the next two hours reciting Canterbury of what I sometimes thought of the company. But the work was Tales in the original Olde English, and I was mesmerized. Years physically hard and the hours long, especially after I started my later, the language of men in construction was almost as unique: own renovation business, so journalling grew steadily more one-liners, always one-upping the next guy, with extra points to the condensed until one day it struck me that my entries (mere “notes” man (or woman) who could make it funny. It was as much a form by now) looked almost like — could it be? — poems. as any sonnet. Tom Wayman, my first writing teacher, became and remains But after university I couldn’t get a decent job I liked, and, by a mentor: It was Tom who invited me into his writing group, the 1977, I was living on an island off the coast of Vancouver, running Vancouver Industrial Writers’ Union; Tom who told me I had out of money. Building a new school was the main employment at enough poems for a book — unimaginable as that was at the the time, and one of the men I knew encouraged me to apply. But time; Tom who helped me put together Covering Rough Ground, a woman? In 1977? Unheard of! When I stated the obvious — I which won the Pat Lowther Award in 1992 for best poetry book by didn’t know how to build anything — he replied, “That’s easy. Lie.” a Canadian woman. Later, it amazed me that other women asked And that’s how I learned the first rule of construction. Women me to come read and speak about my experience as a carpenter. I’d call it “lying.” Construction guys call it “bullshit.” Writers would written for tradeswomen, but it turns out women in construction call it fiction, and on a construction site it’s considered a work of aren’t the only ones who get lonely at work, who experience art — though I didn’t know that yet. isolation; here were women accountants, architects, lawyers…. The next morning, in fear and trembling, I dressed in my I never planned to be either carpenter or writer, and I often baggiest clothes (maybe they wouldn’t notice I was a woman?) and doubted myself — still do. But with that first book, I was launched, when asked for my experience, told the foreman I’d built houses, and it was construction that got me here and that continues to feed “up north.” The fiction worked, although it turned out later the me. I’ve since written a memoir and four poetry books directly man figured I’d be good for nothing except inspiring the guys to related to my building experience. You never know how one show off and work harder. But within a week I was in love with passion will carry you to the next. construction; I loved being outdoors, loved the camaraderie of a crew, loved the pay, but mostly I loved having a concrete product I Kate Braid has written, co-written, and co-edited fourteen books and could admire at the end of each day. chapbooks of nonfiction and prize-winning poetry. Though she once Even then, I could see the parallels — writing meant building worked in construction, she now builds entirely in words. Her latest individual words into sentences, the same way a carpenter picks book of poems is Elemental (Caitlin Press, 2018). katebraid.com
28 write marriages. Kevin Chong described becoming a stepfather. Ayelet CO-EDITING / Tsabari revealed her ambivalence about her wedding. Yasuko Thanh depicted her journey with a partner who has bipolar disorder. Some wrote new pieces: Mandy Len Catron about the complex backdrops to anniversaries, Monica Meneghetti about Editing polyamorous relationships, and Chelene Knight about remaining staunchly single. Marriage Summer blew past. By the fall, we were meeting in a coffee shop, working with caffeine and chocolate, the clatter of cups and the hiss of steam in the background. We found more poems to BY FIONA TINWEI LAM & JANE SILCOTT weave, like leaves, between the essays: Lorri Neilsen Glenn wrote her beautiful “Shorter Days” about her long marriage; Evelyn Lau had a terrific poem about infidelity; Julianne Okot Bitek offered “Sentry” about youth and passion; Betsy Warland sent her collage of poems and prose, “Dear Son;” Kara Stanley wrote about marriage to her partner after his spinal cord was irreparably “Marriage is like a lake,” says poet Rachel Rose. damaged from a fall at a construction site; and we found Samra Zafar’s powerful story of escaping an abusive arranged marriage. “When all is well, the surface is smooth, keeping its secrets…; As co-editors, we had long conversations about words: Which when a marriage is troubled, the waters are broken, and hidden were necessary? Which were not? Sometimes co-editing — that things rise from the depths.” is, untangling, restructuring, refining, and pruning — became Love Me True is an anthology born from conversations about challenging, feeling akin to performing or experiencing root canals marriage — the hazards and hidden things, the rough and the without anaesthetic. And, as the weeks went by, our editorial smooth — between two editors who came to the topic from widely relationship eerily began to resemble a form of marriage itself, divergent beginnings — one a former hippy, now a long-time not only because of all the coordination and negotiation involved, married mother of two; the other a former single parent who has but because of the feeling of being fully supported, of having one spent more of her adult life unpartnered than partnered. Our another’s editorial backs. Writing the preface went smoothly as we initial conversations were about how straightforward it would be took turns weaving our words together. to create such a book, given the wealth of great writing already Eventually, the anthology’s parts had to become a whole. Do published in books and slim volumes of poetry – award-winning we put suicide next to the death of a child next to the imminent pieces that delved deep beyond the surface sheen of this too-often death of a partner? Is this too much death? Too dark? We found glossed-over subject, this hallmark-card institution. a poem by Elise Partridge to her husband, her beautiful voice Our publisher’s mind sparked too: Vici Johnstone at Caitlin reaching from beyond death. Finally, we turned to the section on Press accepted us over the phone, and gave us a deadline less than celebration, to Joanne Arnott’s richly nuanced “Wedding Clothes a year away. “Fine,” we thought. “Easy,” we said. Meeting for lunch & Marriage Blanket” about incorporating her Métis background on Vancouver’s Main Street, the midpoint between our homes, we into her marriage ceremony. To close, we landed on Andreas agreed that we wanted to cover commitment, decisions, passion, Schroeder’s story of marrying his long-time common-law partner, struggles, death, and various rites and rituals of celebration. Our appreciating how it bookended Luanne Armstrong’s “The main goal was to include a diversity of voices on a diversity of Evolution of Marriage,” from the beginning of the anthology. themes: the acceptance and legalization of same-sex marriage; We were done. Have the conversations ended, the questions changes in gender roles and expectations; the decision not to get been answered? Not nearly. With every reading, with every married — or to get married despite ambivalence; the struggles in mention, people tell us their marriage stories — the fine, the marriage, minor and major; the conventions and mores around horrific, the wondrous, and the funny. The conversations and it — everything from arranged marriage to separation and divorce; the questions continue. The waters are smooth. The waters are and — not to forget — anniversaries and weddings. We also broken. Under the surface, hidden things. wanted to include a cross-section of Canada’s population in terms of sexual orientation, gender, and cultural background. We wanted Jane Silcott’s essay collection, Everything Rustles, was a BC Book Prize humour as well as serious self-examination and historical context. finalist. Her writing has earned recognition from the CBC Literary To begin, we decided not to do a call for submissions. This had Awards, the National and Western Magazine Awards, the Creative its risks, we knew: There were writers and thinkers and stories Nonfiction Collective Society, and Room. Jane is a mentor with the we would inevitably miss, but time was limited. We were excited Creative Nonfiction MFA Program at the University of King’s College, about the many wonderful poems and prose pieces we already Halifax. knew about. Lorna Crozier had a vivid and funny poem about sex over sixty, and Michael Crummey had one about stealing time for Fiona Tinwei Lam has authored two poetry books and a children’s book and sex from the chores and the child care. Jane Eaton Hamilton had been shortlisted for Event’s nonfiction prize and City of Vancouver Book a piece about the legalization of gay marriage. Musician Chris Award. She edited The Bright Well: Contemporary Canadian Poetry Tarry had written about his wildly self-destructive phase between about Facing Cancer. Her video poems have screened internationally.
Summer 2018 29 Dispatches
INTERDISCIPLINARY REFLECTION / La Palabra en el Tiempo: Poetry and Flamenco
BY GARTH MARTENS
nine years. I’ve known Denise for twelve, Gareth and Veronica for In 2017, I formed Palabra Flamenco with ten. Through trust, intimacy has cultivated vulnerability and risk: artistic director and dancer Denise Yeo, guitarist true faith to an art that accrues with time. Our show is seventy-five minutes. Without plot or recurring Gareth Owen, and singer Veronica Maguire. We character, it builds through an associative sequence of palos are a cuadro (ensemble) whose show Palabra (categories of cante and dance, not unlike strathspey or reel in traditional Scottish music, or villanelle or haiku in poetry). With en el Tiempo grafts English-language poetry Denise, whose direction for this show is witchy and robust, I comb with traditional flamenco. through my recent work for poems amenable to flamenco and then match them to palos such as seguiriya (clouded with lament, Although studied worldwide, flamenco is a distinctly Andalusian anguish, and despair), solea (solitude or loneliness), or alegría (joy), phenomenon, with gitano (Roma), Moorish (Muslim inhabitants ghostly perfumes of refusal, love, chewed tobacco, drop of honey, of the Iberian Peninsula), Judaic, and Catholic influence. The art a traveller lost where words-in-time, spoken, strummed, sung, or centres the voice alongside guitar, dance, and palmas (clapping as knocked out on the floor by a shoe, soak their way to dark corners. accompaniment). A dancer marks accents as the cantaora (singer) Beyond reason, resource extraction, and colonial enterprise, what hoarsely sings of earthen jugs beside a stream. These letras (lyrics), shunned inheritance might be restored? What inner dynamism stretched or hurried at a singer’s discretion, are a vase always on half-remembered through night consciousness? To astonish, the verge of tipping over — rippled with melismas, the singing of to confront what is too-long dormant, that is our work. To alert a syllable while moving through successive notes. As the song others and ourselves to a brimming present that holds death near intensifies, when does she hand it off — rhythmic urgency? When and affirms life. Along the way is joy, mockery, humour, sunlight: a letra glows hot. That coal, with its rhythmic necessities, is passed conscious and celebrated tools to reclaim ourselves. and incessant and necessary. With palmas, foot-tapping, and jaleos I don’t, as the Spanish do, elongate vowels and drop consonants. (encouragements shouted in rhythm), palmeros support a singer I speak the language as it’s spoken with signals or resolves. or dancer. They adjust to speed, pull up accents and syncopations, Stentorian force. I memorize so a poem is responsive, and shape the measure, preserve focus, even rescue a singer who is because, with Veronica’s injured shoulder, I’m needed, free- lost — no straightforward slap of the hands. For any age, style, and handed, as palmero. I relearn my palmas to prevent injury to body, flamenco is utmost structure and improvisation in service to my wrist. I strain to stay on target as Denise accelerates, wired restraint and uncomfortable emotion or experience. for ambitious shift in rhythm. I listen with ear and limb. If With Canadian audiences unlikely to understand Spanish, we I lose focus, I fall out. To speak from total engagement, my explore what flamenco is here and in this time, and restore lyric words are tethered to my heel, springing out in the sweat-shine. charge: a divining rod for what’s outside daylight consciousness. In performance, I’ve revised a stanza on the fly because of a We’re pushing for more than stereotypical “passionate and misspoken line. A vital element of flamenco is preparation for the fiery rhythms.” Flamenco is relational. It is oral — transmitted unexpected, so improvisation is wise. In our closing bulería por historically through family groupings. Tourist pop musicians who fiesta (a palo marked by liveliness, rhythmic flexibility, spontaneity, request a teaspoon of flamenco for one-off albums create work that and jest), I rap out lines in a kind of round with Veronica singing, hasn’t any dimension. They don’t want to inhale, but they want Gareth on palmas as Denise shores my delivery with pellizcos it on a t-shirt. I’ve studied flamenco cante, palmas, and dance for (pinches of salt) — a gratifying moment.
30 write One pleasure of this experiment is inviting into it poetry fans who don’t know flamenco, flamenco aficionados who don’t know poetry.
This is new for us. Where I once resisted crossing out a word for months, now, because I orate lines through rehearsal, I hasten revision. I worry a little: How will I reconcile split-off versions of a poem — one for stage, edited for clarity and an audience who will hear it once; one for the page, which retains complexities unfit for the show? Our cuadro? We love one another. We argue when the nights are long and something aspired to isn’t hanging together. One pleasure of this experiment is inviting into it poetry fans who don’t know flamenco, flamenco aficionados who don’t know poetry. We’re preparing for the Victoria and Vancouver fringe festivals this August and September, and the Victoria Festival of Authors in late September. I won’t ever learn enough, and judging by reactions — sobbing in the stands, loud applause, and jaleo when I slowly take centre stage — we’re doing more than we account for. This encounter honours what we’ve lost, what we’re going to lose. We are asked to listen, our entire being to listen, before we improvise.
Author’s Note: Among flamenco artists from Andalusia, gitano is the preferred name. Yet its use by non-Roma Spaniards has been derogatory, and some who might identify with gitano prefer terms like Roma or Calé or Kale. The word gitano evolved from a now-archaic Spanish word for Egyptian, which was applied erroneously to these populations by non-Roma and also adopted by early Roma who hoped for fairer treatment on arrival into Europe. Likewise, the term Moor has been applied — too broadly — to various distinct ethnographic groups, including Arabs, Muslim Europeans, and indigenous Berber people of the Maghreb in northern Africa, where the word seems to have originated. With respect to flamenco, the word Moor describes inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula from 711 to 1609 of Arab and Berber lineage.
Winner of the Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers, Garth Top: Palabra Flamenco prepares for two fringe theatre runs and a show at Martens was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award in the Victoria Festival of Authors. Photo: Lori Garcia-Meredith. Bottom: Garth Poetry for Prologue for the Age of Consequence (House of Anansi, does palmas while Denise swings her ruffled bata de cola at the 2017 Victoria 2014). His chapbook, Remediation, is forthcoming from JackPine Press. Flamenco Festival. Photo: Amity Skala.
Summer 2018 31 This three-way artistic collaboration is one of several songs-in- the-making from Clarence the Welder, a poetry comic book Collaboration underway by Pauline Conley and Anita Lahey.
32 write Summer 2018 33 Member News & Awards
books this autumn. A Boy from Acadie: Romeo LeBlanc’s Journey to Announcements Rideau Hall tells the story of the Acadian boy who become Canada’s first Acadian Governor General. The biography will be released by A house salon hosted by Edmonton members Astrid Blodgett and Bouton d’or Acadie in both French and English. Heritage House in Audrey Whitson is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year. A Place Victoria will release Beryl’s novel Miles to Go. Set in Saskatchewan in for Prose salon was created to give new and lesser-known prose writers 1948, this middle-grade novel tells the story of two twelve-year-old girls opportunities to read a substantial piece of their work in public. who learn the meaning of loyalty and the value of keeping a promise. The salons are held two to four times a year in Astrid’s home. Since July 2008, Audrey and Astrid have hosted twenty-eight salons and Among the contributors to Tamaracks: Canadian Poetry for the sixty-four writers, most from Edmonton and area and others from 21st Century (Lummox Press) are many TWUC members: Henry central Alberta, Calgary, Tete Jaune Cache, Indian Head, and Prince Beissel, Nancy M. Bell, Sharon Berg, Frances Boyle, Lorna Crozier, George. The salon includes a visual artist who shares their work, Robert Currie, David Day, James Deahl, Bernadette Gabay Dyer, among them a felter, a mosaics artist, a book-maker, a soapstone Daniela Elza, Kate Marshall Flaherty, Linda Frank, Elizabeth sculptor, and most recently an artist who uses moose hair and road- Greene, (Betty) Carol Keller, Debbie Okun Hill, Susan Ioannou, kill porcupine quills. For the past four years, the March salon has Ellen S. Jaffe, John B. Lee, Norma West Linder, Carol Malyon, been part of SkirtsAfire, a fabulous Edmonton multidisciplinary Susan McMaster, Bruce Meyer, Michael Mirolla, Lynda Monahan, arts festival featuring and elevating the work of women. A.F. Moritz, Shane Neilson, Robert Priest, Linda Rogers, Glan Sorestad, J.J. Steinfeld, Dane Swan, Bruce Whiteman, and Elana Member Lillian Boraks-Nemetz has a new book out, Mouth of Wolff. Tamaracks is the first major survey of Canadian poetry to be Truth: Buried Secrets (Guernica Editions), inspired by true events. published in the U.S. in a generation
Charlottetown-based member Jeff Bursey’s exploratory fiction work, Verbatim: A Novel, originally published in hardcover in 2010, came Awards out in paperback in February 2018 from Verbivoracious Press, complete with new material: a preface by Dr. Sascha Pöhlmann of The Alberta Literary Awards recognized several members. For the Germany’s Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität and an afterword by R. Ross Annett Award for Children’s Literature (Chapter Books), Dr. David Hallett (MUN). The same publisher released in October Alex Lyttle was shortlisted for From Ant to Eagle (Central Avenue 2017 an anthology of oulipian works that includes two chapters Publishing) as was Lorna Schultz Nicholson for Bent Not Broken: from Bursey’s Ennead, a lipogrammatic domestic-centred novel-in- Madeline & Justin (Clockwise Press). For the James H. Gray Award for progress. For more information: verbivoraciouspress.org/verbatim Short Nonfiction, Sid Marty was shortlisted for “How I Did Not Try and verbivoraciouspress.org/festschrifts/the-oulipo. to Kill Andrew Suknaski” (Alberta Views). For the Howard O’Hagan Award for Short Story, Norma Dunning won for “Elipsee” (University Author, literary journalist, and member Deborah Campbell of Alberta Press). For the Wilfrid Eggleston Award for Nonfiction, has become the latest addition to the University of Victoria’s Bernadette McDonald was shortlisted for Art of Freedom: The Life and Department of Writing. As of July 1, 2018, Campbell is the new Climbs of Voytek Kurtyka (Rocky Mountain Books). The short list for the assistant professor of Creative Nonfiction. She will also become Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction included Kimmy Beach for Nuala: Director of the Professional Writing program in January 2019. A Fable (University of Alberta Press) and Suzette Mayr for Dr. Edith Vane and the Hares of Crawley Hall (Coach House Books). Halifax-based member Dr. Afua Cooper was recently appointed Halifax’s seventh poet laureate. Several members won Atlantic Book Awards: Joan Baxter won the Award for Scholarly Writing for The Mill: Fifty Years of Pulp and Protest BC-based member and Son of Canada Shawn Gale has launched (Pottersfield Press); Quentin Casey has won the Robbie Robertson Reveal — book two of his critically acclaimed YA fantasy series, Dartmouth Book Award (Non-fiction) for The Sea Was In Their World of Dawn (Xlbris Publishing). It is a coming-of-age story in Blood: The Disappearance of the Miss Ally’s Five-Man Crew (Nimbus which a journey to find a way home becomes a quest to save the Publishing); Charis Cotter won the Ann Connor Brimer Award for world. Although YA, it is definitely a story for all ages. Learn more: Children’s Literature for The Painting (Tundra Books); and Jen Powley worldofdawn.com. Join Gale on Facebook and Twitter. won the Margaret and John Savage First Book Award (Non-fiction) for Just Jen: Surviving Through Multiple Sclerosis (Roseway Publishing). Talonbooks recently published Daphne Marlatt’s Intertidal: The Collected Earlier Poems, 1968–2008, with a major critical essay on Additionally, several members were shortlisted for the Atlantic Book Marlatt’s writing by Susan Holbrook, editor of the volume, as well as a Awards: Don Aker for the Alistair MacLeod Prize for Short Fiction for very complete bibliography of Marlatt’s work and its critical reception. Scars and Other Stories (Pottersfield Press); Joan Baxter for the Robbie Vancouver-based member Beryl Young will be launching two new Robertson Dartmouth Book Award, the Democracy 250 Atlantic Book
34 write Award for Historical Writing, and the Evelyn Richardson Non-fiction Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award, Pat Carney won for On Island: Award for The Mill (Pottersfield Press); Carol Bruneau for both the Jim Life Among the Coast Dwellers (TouchWood Editions) and co-editor Connors Dartmouth Book Award (Fiction) and the Thomas Raddall Michael L. Hadley was shortlisted for Spindrift: A Canadian Book of the Atlantic Fiction Award for A Bird on Every Tree (Vagrant Press); Lesley Sea (Douglas & McIntyre). Choyce for the Jim Connors Dartmouth Book Award (Fiction) for The Unlikely Redemption of John Alexander MacNeil (Roseway Publishing); Three members were longlisted for the CBC Short Story Prize: Stan Dragland and Michael Crummey for the Best Atlantic-Published Robert Everett-Green for “2-Person Tent;” Ayelet Tsabari for “Green;” Book Award for Gerald Squires: An Artbook with Critical Text (Pedlar and Kelly Watt for “Fall of the High Flyers.” Press); Alison Dyer for the J.M. Abraham Poetry Award for I’d Write the Sea Like a Parlour Game (Breakwater Books); Sheree Fitch for Member Lorna Crozier became the twenty-fifth recipient of the the Ann Connor Brimer Award for Children’s Literature for Polly George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement for an outstanding literary MacCauley’s Finest Divinest, Wooliest Gift of All (Running the Goat Books career in British Columbia. and Broadsides); and Susan White for the Ann Connor Brimer Award for Children’s Literature for The Memory Chair (Acorn Press). Gone to Pot (Second Story Press) by Jennifer Craig won the 2018 Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour. Several members won or were shortlisted for the Arthur Ellis Awards for Excellence in Canadian Crime Writing. For Best Crime Novel, Gail Norma Dunning was shortlisted for the 2018 Robert Kroetsch Bowen was shortlisted for The Winners’ Circle (McClelland & Stewart). City of Edmonton Book Prize for Annie Muktuk and Other Stories For Best First Crime Novel, Dave Butler won for Full Curl (Dundurn (University of Alberta Press). She was also awarded the 2017 Press) and Roz Nay was shortlisted for Our Little Secret (Simon & Danuta Gleed Literary Award for the same title. Schuster Canada, Inc.). For Best Crime Short Story, Catherine Astolfo won for “The Outlier” (published in 13 Claws by Carrick Publishing) Karen Enns won the League of Canadian Poets’ Raymond Souster and Sylvia Maultash Warsh was shortlisted for “The Ranchero’s Award for Cloud Physics (University of Regina Press, 2017). Daughter” (published in 13 Claws by Carrick Publishing). For Best Nonfiction Crime Book, Trevor Cole won for The Whisky King Carole Giangrande won the Independent Publishers’ Award Gold (HarperCollins Publishers). Shortlisted for the same category were Medal for Literary Fiction for All That Is Solid Melts Into Air (Inanna). Eve Lazarus for Blood, Sweat and Fear (Arsenal Pulp Press) and Rachel Rose for The Dog Lover Unit (St. Martin’s Press). For Best Juvenile/ Aviaq Johnston won the inaugural Emerging Indigenous Voices Young Adult Crime Book, Linwood Barclay won for Chase — Get Ready Award for Most Significant Work of Prose in English for her YA to Run (Penguin Random House Puffin Canada) and Gillian Chan was book Those Who Run in the Sky (Inhabit Media). shortlisted for The Disappearance (Annick Press). Three members were finalists for the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize: Member Margaret Atwood has been awarded the 2018 Hay Festival in the Literary Fiction category, Shane Arbuthnott for Dominion Medal for prose for “a lifetime of ingenious and visionary fiction.” (Orca Book Publishers); and in the Genre category, Dave Butler for Full Curl (Dundurn Press) and Roz Nay for Our Little Secret (Simon Several members won or were finalists for the BC Book Prizes. For & Schuster Canada). the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, David Chariandy won for Brother (McClelland & Stewart). Finalists for the same category were Zoey Leigh Paul McAllister was a finalist for the New Brunswick Book Awards Peterson for Next Year, For Sure (Doubleday Canada); Eden Robinson Alice Kitts Memorial Award for Excellence in Children’s Writing, for Son of a Trickster (Knopf Canada); and Andrea MacPherson for What for New Song for Herman (Herman’s Monster House Publishing). We Once Believed (Caitlin Press). Finalists for the Hubert Evans Non- Fiction Prize were Theresa Kishkan for Euclid’s Orchard & Other Essays Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient won the Golden Man (Mother Tongue Publishing) and Paul Watson for Ice Ghosts: The Epic Booker Prize. The prize commemorates the fiftieth anniversary Hunt for the Lost Franklin Expedition (McClelland & Stewart). For the of the Man Booker Prize by choosing contenders from among Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize, Julie Paul was a finalist for The Rules of the previous winners. Kingdom (McGill-Queen’s University Press). For the Roderick Haig- Brown Regional Prize, Sarah de Leeuw was a finalist for Where It Hurts Several members won or were shortlisted for Manitoba Book Awards. (NeWest Press). Finalists for the Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Shortlisted for the Lansdowne Prize for Poetry were Karen Clavelle’s Prize were Anne Fleming for The Goat (Groundwood Books); Norma Iolaire (Turnstone Press) and Ted Landrum’s Midway Radicals & Charles for Runner: Harry Jerome, World’s Fastest Man (Red Deer Press); Archi-Poems (Signature Editions). Armin Wiebe was shortlisted for and Julie Burtinshaw for Saying Good-bye to London (Second Story the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction for Grandmother, Laughing Press). For the Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize, (Turnstone Press). For the Michael Van Rooy Award for Genre S.E. Hume was a finalist for Charles (Fitzhenry & Whiteside). For the Fiction, David A. Robertson’s Strangers (HighWater Press) won, and
Summer 2018 35 Member News & Awards
Allan Levine’s The Bootlegger’s Confession (Ravenstone Press) was for Islands of Grass (Coteau Books). Herriot was shortlisted for the shortlisted. Robertson was also shortlisted for the same book for the same book for the City of Regina Book Award and the University of McNally Robinson Book for Young People Awards (Older Category). Saskatchewan Non-Fiction Award. For the Saskatchewan Arts Board Karen Clavelle won and Craig Terlson was shortlisted for the John Poetry Award and the City of Regina Book Award, Anne Campbell was Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer. shortlisted for Fabric of Day (Thistledown Press). For the Children’s Literature Award, co-author and illustrator Miriam Körner was Members shortlisted for the Periodical Marketers of Canada Indigenous shortlisted for When the Trees Crackle with Cold (Your Nickel’s Worth Literature Award include David A. Robertson for When We Were Alone Publishing). (HighWater Press) and Monique Gray Smith was shortlisted for My Heart Fills with Happiness (Orca Book Publishers) in the Children’s Several members were shortlisted for the 2018 Trillium Book category; and Mary Beth Leatherdale for #NotYourPrincess: Voices of Awards: Catherine Hernandez for Scarborough (Arsenal Pulp Press); Native American Women (Annick Press) and Melanie Florence for He Kyo Maclear for Birds, Art, Life (Doubleday Canada) (winner); Who Dreams (Orca Book Publishers) in the Young Adult/Adult category, Rebecca Rosenblum for So Much Love (McClelland & Stewart); and, in the poetry category, Phoebe Wang for Admission Requirements Several members were shortlisted for the Saskatchewan Book Awards. (McClelland & Stewart). Wang was also shortlisted for both the Shortlisted for the Regina Public Library Book of the Year Award were League of Canadian Poets’ Gerald Lampert Memorial Award and David Carpenter for The Gold (Coteau Books) and Trevor Herriot Pat Lowther Memorial Award for the same title.
Shawn Gale, World Kagiso Lesego Adulrahman Matar, Of Dawn: Arise, Molope, Dancing in Wild Mirage, Jadawel, New Members Xlilbris, 2017 the Dust, Mawenzi 2015 House, 2002 Carolyn Huizinga Andrew Coppolino, Mike Bechthold, Kate Marshall Donna Alward, The Mills, The Little Boy Jan Redford, End of Cooking With Flying to Victory: Flaherty, Reaching V, Crown Prince’s Bride, Who Lived Down the the Rope: Mountains, Shakespeare, ABC- Raymond Collishaw Guernica Editions, Swerve, 2018 Drain, Fitzhenry & Marriage and CLIO Greenwood, and the Western 2014 Judy LeBlanc, The Whiteside, 2017 Motherhood, Random 2008 Desert Campaign, Christine Higdon, Promise of Water, House Canada, 2018 1940 -1941, University Stevie Mikayane, Valérie Lefebvre- The Very Marrow Oolichan Books, of Oklahoma Press, UnCatholic Conduct, Brian Rigg, A False Faucher, Faire partie of Our Bones, ECW 2017 2017 Bold Strokes Books, Paradise, ECW Press, du monde, Editions Press, 2018 Rosanna Micelotta 2015 2001 du remue-menage, Tanaz Bhathena, A Darcie Friesen Battigelli, La 2017 Girl Like That, Farrar Elena Kaufman, Tommy Hossack, Brigantessa, Inanna Straus Giroux, 2018 Love Bites and Other Schnurmacher, Jillian Parsons, Say Mennonites Don’t Publications & Stories, Unbound/ Canada Is Not a Real No to Placenta Pics... Asa Boxer, The Dance, Thistledown Education Inc., 2018 Penguin Random Country, ECW Press, and Other Hilarious, Mechanical Bird, Press, 2010 House, 2018 1996 Unsolicited Advice for Vehicule Press Signal Sam Maggs, The Pregnant Women, Editions, 2007 Kathryn Kemp-Griffin, Marissa Slaven, Code Fangirl’s Guide to Skyhorse Publishing, Paris Undressed: The Blue, Moon Willow Jodi Carmichael, the Galaxy, Quirk 2018 Secrets of French Press, 2018 Forever Julia, Great Books, 2015 Lingerie, Ambrosia, V.S. McGrath, The Plains Publications, Debra Stratas, Diana, Megan Mueller, 2016 Devil’s Revolver, Brain 2015 A Spencer in Love, Colour Theory, Mill Press, 2017 Linda Kenyon, Indigo Sea Press, 2017 Julie Chadwick, The Guernica Editions, Rainforest Bird Rescue, Star Spider, Past Man Who Carried 2016 Anitha Robinson, Firefly Books, 2006 Tense, HarperCollins Cash, Dundurn, 2017 Broken Promises, Lorinda Stewart, Nicholas Bradley, Canada, 2018 Bonnie Klein, Slow CBAY Books, 2017 Nora Decter, How One Day Closer, Rain Shadow, Dance: A Story of Jean Van Loon, Far We Go and How Simon & Schuster, University of Alberta Bruce Geddes, The Stroke, Love and Building on River, Fast, Orca Book 2017 Press, 2018 Higher the Monkey Disability, Knopf Cormorant Books, Publishers, 2018 Climbs, Now or Never Thomas Trofimuk, Rick Conrad, White Canada, 1997 2018 Publishing, 2018 Charles Demers, Waiting for Point Then and Now: Lelia Marshy, The Melissa Yi, Montreal Property Values, Columbus, 90 Years of Making Cecilia Lyra, Sisters for Philistine, Linda Leith Noir, Akashic Press, Arsenal Pulp Press, McClelland & Memories, Nimbus a Summer, Fischer, Publishing, 2018 2017 2018 Stewart, 2009 Publishing, 2019 2018
36 write In Memoriam
Garfield Ellis
BY TERESE MASON PIERRE
1960–2018
This year has seen the loss of a great Caribbean storyteller: received glowing reviews. Kirkus called it “fast-paced,” “well- Garfield Ellis. Ellis passed away on March 16 at Scarborough constructed,” and “admirable.” Man Booker award-winning General Hospital at the age of fifty-seven. He was born in Jamaican author Marlon James considers Ellis a standout in Jamaica, one of the largest islands in the Caribbean, in the small Caribbean literature. community of Central Village, near Kingston, Jamaica’s capital. Despite praise for work, Ellis had never considered himself Ellis studied management and public relations at the Jamaica a writer before moving to Canada to support his daughter, who Institute of Management and maritime engineering at the attended the University of Toronto. In an interview with The Caribbean Maritime Institute. Later, he completed his Master of Globe and Mail, Ellis recounted that one “can’t live as a writer in Fine Arts degree at the University of Miami on full scholarship as Jamaica.” He likened his old community to a ghetto, and how a James Michener Fellow. strange it was for anyone to want to become a writer through During his life, Ellis published a total of six books. In Jamaica, those circumstances. When he shared his youthful writing the Una Marson Award — restored to motivate the emergence aspirations with his family, he was laughed at. However, as he got of new talent — honours writers of adult literature in English or older, writing still had a pull. Ellis tried his hand at fiction at age Jamaican Creole. Ellis won the Una Marson Award three times of thirty, and, when one of his short-fiction pieces won a literary for his works: Land We Love, Flaming Hearts and Other Stories, prize, he earned a spot in the University of Miami’s summer and Till I’m Laid to Rest. He also won the Canute A. Brodhurst program, which led to enrolling in the school’s MFA program. Award — a short-fiction prize hosted by The Caribbean Writers, After moving to Canada, in addition to writing, Ellis continued an international literary journal with a Caribbean focus. to teach, at Durham College. In 2011, he hosted Writer’s Block, a Ellis hadn’t always been a writer. Before moving to Canada, half-hour interview program for writers televised by the Public he worked at Caribbean Maritime Institute — now Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation of Jamaica. He also co-hosted a daytime Maritime University — as the chief marine engineering officer call-in program and an evening magazine program for Hot 102 and marketing director. He also worked at the newspaper Radio. Jamaica Observer as circulation manager and operations Ellis, as well as his publisher, Johnny Temple, recognized manager, and lectured part-time at the University of the West the need for infrastructure — agents and editors — to support Indies, the University of Technology, and the University of the Caribbean writers in the Caribbean, so they would not have to, as Commonwealth Caribbean, all in Jamaica. Ellis thought, move somewhere else to be considered a writer. To Ellis’s most recent book, The Angels’ Share (Akashic Books, remedy this issue, Temple — founder of Akashic Books — and 2016), recounts the story of a young marketing executive who British publisher Peepal Tree Press have founded an imprint that joins his estranged father on a mission across Jamaica in search they hope will provide a home to Caribbean writers like Ellis. of the father’s long-lost love, whom he has not seen in over three It is without a doubt that Ellis’s voice as a Caribbean writer will decades. The titular diction “angels’ share” is the alcohol that remain an inspiration for future Caribbean writers, both living on evaporates while spirits age in a container. The Angels’ Share the islands and in the diaspora.
Summer 2018 37 In Memoriam
American Welsh culture. In 1997, she received an Achievement Carol Bennett McCuaig Award from the Ontario Heritage Foundation, for her body of work in recording regional history. While most of McCuaig’s nonfiction books are meant to assist 1938–2018 people who are searching for their roots in Ontario’s Lanark and Renfrew Counties, her last two works were of general interest: Carol Bennett McCuaig was a former weekly newspaper editor. She The St Gabriel’s Memory Book (St. Gabriel’s Historical Preservation held two degrees from the University of Waterloo, one in history and Committee, 2012) is about a little pioneer church beside the the other in religious studies. She was a lifetime member of Heritage Madawaska River in Renfrew County, and Encountering the Wild Renfrew and a past president of North Lanark Historical Society. (Natural Heritage Books, 2011) recounted McCuaig’s encounters During her life, McCuaig wrote prolifically and in various with ermines, bears, cougars, turkey vultures, red foxes, and other genres. She wrote numerous magazine articles that were wildlife over a thirty-year period on her rural property, Poison Ivy published in Canada, Britain, Ireland, and the U.S., with subject Acres, in the Upper Ottawa Valley. matter ranging from history and genealogy to nature and religion. When writing fiction — with novels published in Britain — Furthermore, she authored sixty-three books, including historical McCuaig went by the name of Catriona McCuaig. When writing novels, regional histories, commissioned works, and books geared historical novels – namely, Woman of Ireland (Simon & Schuster); to helping people who were researching their Lanark and Renfrew Daughter of the Regiment (PaperJacks); and The Bittersweet Tree County, Ontario roots. In Search of the Red Dragon: The Welsh in (PaperJacks) – she went by the name of Jane Barrett. Whichever Canada received the Ninnau Award for its contribution to North- name her family, friends, and readers knew her by, she is missed.
specialists — was not wasted, and that she had many tales to tell. Joan Strathdee The culmination of her reporting life was in the six years spent in the House of Commons in Ottawa as a Hansard Reporter, soaking up the political give-and-take of debate. A beloved wife, d. 2018 she eventually moved to Mississauga, Ontario with her husband — the late Robert Strathdee — and three rescued cats. Joan Elizabeth Strathdee (née Fraser) passed away peacefully at With regard to her writing, Strathdee received myriad cards and home on January 9, 2018. email notes that expressed how much her readers enjoyed the book Strathdee spent her entire working life in the courtrooms of Till We Meet Again (edited by Jake Hogeterp), which researched Ontario. As a Supreme Court reporter, she reported the Assizes the horrors of World War II and described its devastations. These Court proceedings held in various places in Ontario. She was part horrors, with a love story woven through them, made readers of a team of reporters who travelled across Canada to report the reluctant to put the book down and captivated an audience at the National Energy Board Hearings, and was one of only two persons 2015 Spring Literary Festival at Mississauga’s Central Library. who reported a Royal Commission of Inquiry. Strathdee felt that the Aside from being a TWUC member, she was a member of Writers time spent in court, recording the testimonies of expert witnesses & Editors Network. A loving sister to Hazel, Mary, Jean, Andy, — such as psychiatrists, pathologists, and handwriting and blood Margaret, and Donald, she is missed by her many nieces and nephews.
language.” One sees this power and precision, but also an attention Julia Van Gorder to women and the elderly, in another one of her poems, “Way to Go.” By family, friends, and readers alike, she is missed. d. 2018
Julia Van Gorder published widely in literary magazines. In 1998, Classifieds Coteau Books published her book of historical fiction, Cyclone. Of this novel, one web reviewer notes, “With wonderful clarity, economy, and compassion, Julia Van Gorder chronicles the life CREATIVE SUITE RENTALS IN QUAINT VILLAGE of Agnes Jackson, a working-class woman from Manchester who BETWEEN TORONTO, OTTAWA, MONTREAL immigrated with her family to begin a life in Canada. Upon arrival, Bon Eco Design in Tamworth offers three separate they face not only the Regina cyclone of 1912, but the madness of furnished apartments in a century building. Rent by day, the First World War.” week or month. High speed Wi-Fi. Free parking. Smoke- In 2014, Van Gorder was a finalist for the 2014 Burnaby Writers’ free. Pet free. Shuttle service to Kingston bus or train Society’s writing contest on the theme of wood for her poem station available for $20 return. Tamworth is on the “Dragon Canoe II,” and in 2013 she won first place in the Burnaby edge of the Canadian Shield in Land O’Lakes. Groceries, Writers’ Society’s writing contest on the theme of air for the poem restaurants, drug store, bank, LCBO and more available “Closure 1966.” The judge’s citation for the latter poem noted in the village. www.bon-eco.com/suites.html that the work was “[p]owerful and personal, with precise use of
38 write THANK YOU The Writers’ Union of Canada would like to thank the following individuals for their generous donations:
Caroline Adderson Shari Graydon JoAnn McCaig Elle Andra-Warner N.E.S. Griffiths Marci McDonald Trysh Ashby-Rolls Stella Harvey Judy McFarlane Martha Attema Barbara Haworth- Robin McGrath Michelle Barker Attard Stephanie Simpson Janet Barkhouse Dorris Heffron McLellan Kate Barlow Suzanne Hillier Gloria Mehlmann Sharon Batt Alice Yen Ho Heather Menzies Andrea Beck Dee Horne Jennifer Mook-Sang Mayank Bhatt Dae-Tong Huh Roger Moore Ann Birch Margaret Anne Fran Muir Sandra Birdsell Hume David Mulholland Frederick Biro Hazel Hutchins Isabel Nanton Lillian Boraks- Edith Iglauer Jenny Nelson Nemetz Ellen Jaffe Dorothy O’Connell Paulette Bourgeois Peter Jailall Molly Peacock Lisa Bowes Sheila James Ruth Roach Pierson Ingeborg Boyens Karl E. Jirgens Kenneth Radu Frances Boyle Marthe Jocelyn Waubgeshig Rice Clare Braux Susan Kastner William N. Rowe Barry Callaghan Julie Keith Judy Ann Sadler Anne Campbell Heather Kellerhals- Robert Edison Judith Campbell Stewart Sandiford Norma Charles Stephen Kimber Pete Sarsfield Richard Clewes Ross Klatte Barbara Scott Jan Conn Marilyn Kleiber Emil Sher Afua Cooper Kim Aubrey Allan Smith Claudia Cornwall Klement Mary Lou Soutar- Exciting new poetry from Myrl Coulter Valerie Knowles Hynes Constance Crook Anita Lahey Heather Stemp Thistledown Press Nitin Deckha Mary Leask James R. Stevens Laurel Deedrick- Christopher Merna Summers Mayne Levenson H. Nigel Thomas Alexander Dolinin Liz Lundell Harry Thurston Maggie Dwyer Derek Lundy Mary Tilberg David Dyment Alex Lyttle Sonia Tilson Joan Levy Earle Frank Macdonald Aritha van Herk Anne Edwards Donna Macdonald Betsy Warland Virginia Edwards Wendy MacIntyre Star Weiss Elizabeth Epperly Jill MacLean Ian Williams Ann Farrell David Malcolm Elana Wolff For the Changing Moon: Mark Foss Daphne Marlatt Rachel Wyatt Poems and Songs Gary Geddes Yann Martel Betty Jane Wylie ISBN: 978-1-77187-168-6 Stephen Gill Bruce McBay Eric Zweig Available October 1, 2018 Anna Marie Sewell
And a special thank you to our monthly donors: Anna Marie Sewell’s poems court performance, incoporating the energy of slam and the beat structures of chant. ey encourage Janet Barkhouse Cynthia Flood Christopher us to enter their spells and incantations, always built with an ear Charles Bowie Peggy Gale McCreery for sound and with an eye for images of dream and wonder. Her Sandra Campbell Myrna Kostash Robert Munsch invitation is clear: “Come lovers of language, seekers of change, Jan Conn Julia Lin Carmen Rodriguez moon-mad prophets, come. Read and share these poems and Sheldon Currie Jane Lind Maggie Siggins songs, and answer them back with your own.” Anita Daher Daphne Marlatt Gloria Varley Marjorie Doyle Yann Martel Mary W. Walters Preorder at www.thistledownpress.com SPECIAL INDUSTRY BONUS! Save 50 when you use promo-code:% ��TH EDITION BOOKBIZ
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