2 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2011 People
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2 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2011 people alone, hunched over my keyboard, star- Life is about taking risks… WHO’S NOT AFRAID OF ing at a glowing screen, and thinking to Meg Tilly of Victoria has a myself, as I stretched the kinks out of growing reputation as a novel- my back, that just writing wasn’t suffi- cient anymore. That if plugging out an- ist, with four titles under her other manuscript and another, and belt. Her young adult novel Por- VIRGINIA WOOLF another, was all that I did to the end of cupine (Tundra 2007) was nomi- Former Hollywood star Meg Tilly decides, my days, I would have squandered too nated for a B.C. Book Prize. many of life’s precious hours. I made an effort to contact old But she is revisiting her act- “It is never too late to be what you might have been.” friends, to try to make new ones. I started ing career by taking the starring OULD ANYONE IN THEIR RIGHT MIND VOLUNTEER TO going on long walks, trying to absorb the role as Martha in Edward Albee’s smells of the woods, the cold slap of salty memorize a hefty two-hundred-and-fifty-seven pages Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, ocean-scented air, the crunch and slide from July 5-17 at Victoria’s of dialogue, then exacerbate the situation by not of pebbles under my feet, smoothed out from being tossed on countless shores, MacPherson Playhouse. only agreeing to rattle off said two-hundred-and- and it was good. It did help, but still it Although Oscar-nominated Wfifty-seven pages of material while trying to climb into the skin of an wasn’t enough. Tilly appeared in films such as incredibly complicated woman, but agreeing to do it under bright lights, And then, this Christmas, after the The Big Chill and Agnes of God, hustle and bustle of stockings and on a nightly basis, in a theatre full of hundreds of strangers? presents and turkey dinner, after my sis- this will be her first appearance ters had left and my visiting children had I don’t know the answer to that ques- like an unwieldy turkey vulture, day af- in live theatre. disappeared to their various corners of tion. I do know that not only did I agree ter day, as I try to cram all these lines We asked Meg Tilly to explain the house, I bent over to switch off the to play Martha in Edward Albee’s into my fifty-one-year-old premenopau- Christmas tree lights and I found a small her risk-taking gambit. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, but I re- sal brain, is, why? wrapped present that had been over- ally, really wanted to do it. I wish I had a simple answer for you, looked sitting forlornly under the tree. And the question but I don’t. It was a mishmash of events “A present!” I said, dropping to my that hovers that led me to this point. My youngest belly, so I could reach under the above me, child left home last year and after spend- branches and rescue it. circling ing the last twenty-six years of my life It was for me! For Meg, was on the raising, cooking, supporting and loving gift tag and love, Jennifer was scrawled my three kids, when the house emptied, underneath. And there was something there was a hole. magical about finding that present in I write novels, but even that was no the darkened living room, the house longer enough. I found myself getting quiet, the Christmas tree lights twin- up from my desk after spending hours kling. There was something about hold- ing that small little box in my hand that caused a tingle to go chasing through me. I went to my writing room, shut the door, sat at my desk and carefully un- wrapped it. Inside, nestled on a bed of cotton was a silver bracelet. “Hmm…” I said. There was something carved on the thin band. I held it closer so I could see more clearly, It is never too late to be what you might have been, a George Eliot quote. Oh pooh, I thought, sitting back in my chair, the bracelet resting on my up- turned palms. That’s silly. I am very happy with my life. And right on the heels of that, You’ve always wanted to do theatre, dropped into my head. Instantly, I was scared. Scared, but excited, because I knew there was no going back. One thing lead to another and within a matter of weeks I found myself com- mitted to performing in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, this July, at the MacPherson Playhouse. I vacillate between being thrilled and Novelist Meg Tilly totally terrified. Would I go back and waits for the ferry undo it? Absolutely not! And yes, I might after the first make a total fool of myself, fall on my ass or worse, but whatever happens, good or Galiano Island bad, at least I won’t die with regrets on PHOTO Writers Festival. my lips, disappointed in myself, that I had TWIGG this secret dream and I didn’t even try. Publication Mail Agreement #40010086 Contributors: Hannah Main-van der Kamp, John Moore, SUMMER Joan Givner, Sage Birchwater, Laurie Neale, Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: BC BookWorld, For this issue, we gratefully Mark Forsythe, Louise Donnelly, Roxana Necsulescu, 2011 3516 W. 13th Ave., Vancouver, BC V6R 2S3 acknowledge the unobtrusive Cherie Thiessen, Shane McCune, Joseph Farris assistance of Canada Council, a Produced with the sponsorship of Pacific BookWorld News Writing not otherwise credited is by staff. BC Issue, Consultants: Sharon Jackson, George Maddison continuous partner since 1988. Society. Publications Mail Registration No. 7800. BOOKWORLD BC BookWorld ISSN: 1701-5405 Photographers: Barry Peterson, Laura Sawchuk Vol. 25, No. 2 Proofreaders: Wendy Atkinson, Jeremy Twigg Advertising & editorial: BC BookWorld, 3516 W. 13th Ave., Design: Get-to-the-Point Graphics. Deliveries: Ken Reid In-Kind Supporters: Publisher/ Writer: Alan Twigg Vancouver, B.C., V6R 2S3. Tel/Fax: 604-736-4011 Simon Fraser University Library; Email: [email protected]. Annual subscription: $25 All BC BookWorld reviews are posted online at Editor/Production: David Lester www.abcbookworld.com Vancouver Public Library. 3 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2011 JEN SOOKFONG LEE’S BETTER MOTHERTHE “A poignant story of loss, truth and the power of friendship.” —Chatelaine “The Better Mother brilliantly invites us to see the forgotten lives that have populated our cities— their vulnerabilities, their luminous and indomitable energy.” —David Chariandy, author of Soucouyant “With great tenderness and poetry, Lee pulls aside the masks we wear to hide our raw emotions even while we yearn for the compassion of others.” —Billie Livingston, author of Greedy Little Eyes Also by Jen Sookfong Lee THE END OF EAST KNOPF CANADA Photo © Sherri Koop Photography www.RandomHouse.ca 4 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2011 book prizes B.C. Historical Basran not Federation's an also-ran awards Pupil eclipses Master for he British Columbia Historical Association was established on top fiction award TOctober 12, 1922, and on March 2, 1927, the association was registered HE LIVELIEST APPLAUSE AT THIS under the Societies Act. It was renamed year’s BC Book Prizes awards the British Columbia Historical Federa- Tceremony arose when debut tion on July 29, 1983. The BCHF has novelist Gurjinder Basran was an- 209 institutional members and through nounced as the winner of the Ethel them access to 25,875 individuals. Wilson Fiction prize for Everything Was Visit www.bchistory.ca for details. Good-Bye (Mother Tongue). This year the BCHF presented its His- Basran had earlier won the 2010 torical Writing awards at its annual gen- Search for the Great BC Novel Contest. eral meeting in Powell River in May. First The final judge for that competition, presented in 1983, the Lieutenant-Gov- Jack Hodgins, had his own novel, ernor’s Medal for Historical Writing went The Master of Happy Endings (Thomas to Sylvia Olsen for Working with Allen), appear on the shortlist as a run- Wool: A Coast Salish Legacy and the ner-up to Basran for the Wilson Prize. Cowichan Sweater (Sono Nis $38.95) Publisher Howard White cred- Runners-up were Dan Savard for ited his son, Silas, for alerting him to Images From the Likeness House pay attention to Grant Lawrence’s (Royal BC Museum $39.95) and manuscript Adventures in Solitude: What Dorothy Faulkner, Elaine Park Not to Wear to a Nude Potluck and Other and Cathy Jenks’ Women of Pender Stories from Desolation Sound (Har- Harbour: Their Voices, Their History bour), winner of the Bill Duthie BC (Pender Harbour Living Heritage $45). Booksellers’ Choice Award. Honorable mentions went to The Es- John Vaillant won the Hubert sentials: 150 Great BC Books & Authors Wilson Fiction Evans Non-Fiction Prize for The Tiger: A (Ronsdale $24.95); Voices of British Co- Prize winner True Story of Vengeance and Survival lumbia: Stories from Our Frontier (D&M Gurjinder Basran (Knopf), having $35) and The Railroader’s Wife: Letters will be one of previously won from the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway 26 writers at the this year’s B.C. 29th Festival of (Caitlin $24.95) National Award the Written Arts And, yes, for all you proofreaders out for Canadian in Sechelt, there : The BCHF still retains the hyphen Non-Fiction. August 4-7. in Lieutenant-Governor, whereas the Dan Savard hyphen for Governor-General has been won the Roderick dropped by the Governor General’s na- Dan Savard Haig-Brown Re- tional literary awards from Ottawa.