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Bookends by Harry Vandervlist He's been called a prophet of doom. Sometimes his predictions come true: in the 1980s, Robert Kaplan warned about war in the former Yugoslavia. Not long ago he predicted a coming war over access to fresh water. In books like The Ends of the Earth and An Empire Wilderness he develops ideas first presented in long articles in Atlantic Monthly, researched through personal travel to areas of the planet where change is making havoc. Kaplan reads at The Banff Centre's Rolston Recital Hall on Monday, July 26 at 8 p.m. The reading is free. Doug Gibson, publisher of McClelland & Stewart, will be at Pages on Kensington on Wednesday, July 28t at 7pm. He'll give a short talk about the publishing biz, then answer any and all questions – and it’s free. Science fiction and fantasy writing is the focus of ConVersion XVI this weekend. Writers Ben Bova, Tanya Huff, L.E. Modesitt Jr. and Dave Wolverton appear (Wolverton is the writers workshop guest). There's a short story contest, and all kinds of panels going on at the Carriage House Inn, 9030 Macleod Trail S.W. Further info is available from www.con-version.ab.ca, Brenna Toblan at toblanr@cadvision.com or Paul Bushell at paul.bushell@crestar-energy.com. Tickets at The Sentry Box, Chinook Hobbies or Star Wares in Sunridge Mall. Since Canada doesn't really have passenger rail travel anymore (except for a bit of an Eastern rump between Windsor and Montreal), we can't precisely emulate Britain's new railway poet-in-residence idea. Ian McMillan is the first poet-in-residence on the Northern Spirit rail service. He gives readings of "humorous and populist" poetry in Northern England's train stations and on railcars in transit. Perhaps a Canadian adaptation could involve Greyhound-bus poets? Squeegee poets at intersections in major cities? Moving-sidewalk haiku (humorous and populist) at airports? To tutor future cohorts of creative versifiers, Lindsay Tipping is offering workshops on creative writing for high school students later this month. She'll start with "generative exercises," i.e. getting poems started through experiments with source texts, translation, collaboration and cut-up technologies. Publishing will also be discussed, and at the end of the workshop all of the participants will receive a copy of an anthology of work created over the weekend. The workshop runs Saturday, July 31 and Sunday, August 1 from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the University of Calgary. Tipping founded the literary publication in grave ink; presides over the U of C's English Literature Student's Society; and she's published two poetry chapbooks as well as running several creative writing workshops and poetry slams. You know who should really sponsor a whole network of poets-in-residence? Microsoft. Are you having someone read this for you, Bill?

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