Writing for the Reluctant Reader Losing Her Voice: a Writer
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WRITE THE MAGAZINE OF THE WRITERS’ UNION OF VOLUME 42 NUMBER 3 CANADA WINTER 2015 Writing for the Reluctant Reader 8 Losing Her Voice: A Writer Struggles with a First Novel and a Dying Sister 10 The Authors’ Fest: Tips and Tricks From a Festival Insider 15 tbooks by Vivek 3 Shraya � CResidencies for Creative SHE OF THE MOUNTAINS A Globe and Mail “Globe 100” of 2014 and Cultural Exploration “A lyrical ode to love in all its many forms.” Creative spaces and —Publishers Weekly accommodation in a community and heritage setting Artists • Writers • Cultural Researchers GOD LOVES HAIR A Quill and Quire Best Book of 2014 “A moving and ultimately joyous portrait of growing up and the resiliency of youth.” 3401 Pleasant Valley Road —Canadian Children’s Book Centre Vernon, British Columbia, Canada V1T 4L4 arsenal pulp press arsenalpulp.com 250-275-1525 www.caetani.ca JOIN A HEALTH PLAN THAT’S EXCLUSIVE TO THE CANADIAN THE PLAN IS A SERVICE OF AFBS, A NOT-FOR-PROFIT INSURER WRITING COMMUNITY. IT’S EASY TO UNDERSTAND, AND COVERAGE IS GUARANTEED. CALL 1-800-387-8897 EXT. 238 OR EMAIL [email protected] TO LEARN MORE. From the Chair By Harry Thurston We are trying something new this winter in adapting our operations to the Digital Age. Instead of bringing National Council members together in Toronto for our January meeting, colleagues of the need for action, and to do so he needs the numbers. To that end we will be circulating an income survey in from all corners of this vast, snowbound country, the New Year to make our case for just how much worse things we are going to conduct our business remotely. have become since we last polled our membership in 2010. Please take time to fill in your numbers. This data will be critical Instead of three days in Toronto we will hold three meetings, in to putting planks supportive of writers and writing in party January, February, and April, connecting councillors wherever platforms in this election year. they happen to be via the Internet. It so happens that I’ll be in We already know that Access Copyright payments this year Portugal, still on the North Atlantic coast but on the other side declined on average by 22 per cent due to the education sector’s of “The Pond,” and still at my desk daily working on Union interpretation of “fair dealing” (and will continue to decline as business and, I hope, adding to my transatlantic cantos. This most collective licenses lapse in 2015). For that reason we are long distance experiment will yield considerable cost savings calling upon Parliament to review immediately the impact of but is worthwhile in itself, as we strive to make the organization the Copyright Modernization Act (C-11, 2012) rather than wait more nimble and responsive to members’ needs. for the mandatory five-year review mechanism to come into Sometimes, however, there are advantages to meeting in force in 2017. By then, the damage to writers and the Canadian person. With that in mind, TWUC Executive Director John publishing industry might well be irreparable. Degen and I were back in Ottawa in late November to meet with While these challenges to our livelihood are national, even members of the opposition parties, following on our meeting global in source and scale, politicians respond to local voices, for with Department of Heritage staff in October. We handed them it is those voices who translate into votes for their future. This the same package, “Regaining Ground: Tools To Build A Stronger point was made forcefully by another MP, a spirited supporter Sector”w, in which we outline strategies to ease the tax burden of the arts, who entreated me to have our members write to local on writers, including the elimination of tax on subsistence grants MPs about the issues negatively affecting their lives as writers, and income averaging for authors. and what politicians can do to address deficiencies in public One prominent Member of Parliament challenged us, pointing policy. To that end, we will be drafting a template letter that you out that a career in the arts has always been a precarious can adapt to send to your Member of Parliament. This kind of undertaking and asking, “Is it getting any worse?” To his query, I individual action might well be the critical element in swaying might have replied, “No, it’s getting much worse.” While we had opinion in favour of greater support for the arts in this election been well-prepared for such challenges, we left with a directive year. to make our case even more convincingly with hard numbers There is no doubt that Canada can do much more to make reflecting income decline. writing a more viable enterprise. Our job is to make the case that This MP, in fact, supports our efforts for better funding government can do better, and that’s what we’re doing, whether and fairer tax laws but he must be able to convince his party remotely or in person, wherever we are. Winter 2015 3 national council committee chairs Chair Nominating Harry Thurston Douglas Arthur Brown First Vice-Chair membership committee Heather Menzies Contents winter 2015 Jillian Dagg (Chair) Second Vice-Chair Paul Bowdring Larissa Lai Christine Cowley Treasurer 3 Chair’s Report Katharine Fletcher George Melnyk Fred Stenson 5 Writing Rights BC/Yukon Representative twuc national office Carellin Brooks 6 News Executive Director Alberta/NWT/Nunavut John Degen, ext. 221 Writer’S Blot Representative [email protected] Margaret Macpherson 8 Writer’s Prompt Associate Director Manitoba/Saskatchewan Siobhan O’Connor, ext. 222 9 Quote Notes Representative [email protected] Bob Armstrong Office Administrator DISPatches Ontario Representative Valerie Laws, ext. 224 10 Losing Her Voice: When Loss and Success Andrew J. Borkowski [email protected] Coincide, a New Novelist Stumbles Through Quebec Representative Membership Development & Merrily Weisbord Fund Researcher Conflicting Realities Atlantic Representative Nancy MacLeod, ext. 226 BY KRISTA FOSS Vicki Grant [email protected] 12 A Forked Tonge: Writing in Czech and English, Advocates Communications Coordinator with Triumphs and Tribulations Farzana Doctor Kristen Gentleman, ext. 223 Shauntay Grant [email protected] BY JAN DRABEK Renée Sarojini Saklikar Pacific Coordinator 14 A Slapp in the Face (of Libel Chill) Raquel Alvaro [email protected] BY RON BROWN Editor Hal Niedzviecki [email protected] Features Deadline for Fall issue March 1, 2015 15 Festival Fandango Editorial Board Wayne Grady, Andrew J. Borkowski, John Degen, Kelly-Anne BY MERILYN SIMONDS Riess, Allan Weiss 18 Writing in Canada Today: A Conversation with Editorial Liaisons Leslie Shimotakahara, Corey Redekop Copy Editor Alison Lang Emma Donoghue, Vincent Lam, and Emily Pohl- Weary Write Magazine Advertising Kristen Gentleman [email protected] Design soapboxdesign.com 23 Fiction Layout Kristen Gentleman Cover Illustration Louise Reimer business & rePorts Views expressed in Write do not necessarily reflect those of The Writers’ Union 25 Committee/Task Force Reports of Canada. Services advertised are not necessarily endorsed by the Union. All submissions are welcome. 27 Provincial Reports 28 Member Awards and News We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, which last year invested $154 million to bring the arts to Canadians throughout Canada. 29 New Members 30 in memoriam We acknowledge the support of the Ontario Arts Council (OAC), an agency of the Government of Ontario, which last year funded 1,681 individual artists in 216 communities across Ontario for a total of $52.8 million. Write is produced four times yearly by The Writers’ Union of Canada, 460 Richmond Street West, Suite 600, Toronto, Ontario, M5v 1Y1 T 416.703.8982, F 416.504.9090, [email protected], www.writersunion.ca. © The Writers’ Union of Canada, 2015. The text paper used for this issue contains 100 % post-consumer fibre, is accredited EcoLogo and Processed Chlorine Free, and 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 on-line editions of the Newsletter. Thank you. 4 write Writing Rights You Must Never Put Down Your Pen By John Degen As a student, I worked for a prominent bookstore chain, and I was on duty during the early days of the Salman Rushdie fatwa. Corporate management had us remove all copies of The Satanic Verses from the shelves, wrap them in brown paper, and store them under the front counter. Our instructions were to “assess” anyone who came into the store looking for a copy of Rushdie’s book. If they looked “harmless”, we would sell them a wrapped copy. I didn’t know then how to differentiate a harmless book-buyer from a dangerous one, and I still don’t. I remember a lot of embarrassed nodding and winking at the cash register. I also remember selling an awful lot of plain-brown copies of The Satanic Verses. All of a sudden, a relatively expensive book with not much more demand than any other was flying out of the store. I want to be challenged and annoyed. I think some of my best Halfway between work and my apartment there was a very small work comes from being annoyed. independent bookstore (remember the days when there might be Barely 24 hours after the attacks, many on social media were two or more book retailers in a single neighbourhood?). The owner injecting nuance into their reflexive support for freedom of of that store was not one for looking retail horses in the mouth. expression — removing Je Suis Charlie from their streams, and His entire display window was dedicated to Rushdie’s book.