| Two tremors shook the Canadian literary landscape last week.
Carol Shields was one those few authors whose readers felt a deep attachment to her personally. Her death on July 16 ended a career that could easily become symbolic. Shields wrote herself out of one world – that of postwar wife and mother – and into another. Apart from writing some good books, she did that other thing writers do: she gave imaginative reality to a world that wouldn’t otherwise recognize itself quite as well.
On a different scale, Greg Gatenby’s resignation from the International Festival of Authors in Toronto marks the end of an era. The festival will no doubt continue, but without Gatenby it will be a different kind of creature. The universe of book festivals in Canada, which Gatenby helped create, will shift in his absence. Nobody has said he was easy to be around, but he believed in writing in Canada and made a huge difference to it. In my sole meeting with him, nearly 20 years ago now, he spent lunch berating me about the feeble support he felt Canadian universities offered their nation’s writers. Both the lunch and the argument were memorable.
There’s a strong emphasis on independent-minded social critics at this year’s Cultural Journalism Conversations series at The Banff Centre. Following Terry Mosher and Andrew Nikiforuk, this week it’s June Callwood’s turn to speak. The Banff Centre’s blurb confidently describes her as "Canada’s leading social activist and journalist for more than 60 years." A look at her record shows the title’s not misplaced.
Callwood started writing for the Globe and Mail in 1943, then later went on to contribute to Maclean’s, host her own series on CBC and become one of those faces and voices that has simply always been present in postwar Canada. When not writing, she likes to start things up: she has founded or co-founded organizations such as PEN Canada, Casey House (a Toronto AIDS hospice named in memory of her son Casey Frayne), the Canadian Civil Liberties Foundation and Feminists Against Censorship.
What are the chances Callwood will have something interesting to say when she appears in Alberta? High, I’d say. See the interview with her in this issue and check out her talk Monday, July 28 at The Banff Centre’s Rolston Recital Hall. The event is at 8 p.m. and admission is free.
It was big news for poetry on video when the Alberta Motion Picture Industries Association (AMPIA) selected Sheri-D Wilson’s Spinsters Hanging in Trees for its Best Short or Vignette prize this spring. If you haven’t been able to catch the video on cable, you can see it screened along with other Bravo!FACT productions at The Banff Centre on Wednesday, July 30 at 7:30 p.m.
What’s more, at the Inside the Best of Bravo!FACT Screening and Reception, you can learn about the process of co-producing work with Bravo!FACT and the Banff New Media Institute. Judy Gladstone, the executive director of Bravo!FACT, will be there, and they’ll also be serving cocktails. All you have to do is find the Max Bell Auditorium – go to The Banff Centre and follow the signs. (The FACT in Bravo!FACT stands for Foundation to Assist Canadian Talent, by the way.)
Not that long ago, the Memorial Park branch of the Calgary Public Library (CPL) was threatened with closure. Luckily for thousands of users around the Beltline and 17th Avenue S.W., it’s still very much alive. This fall Faye Reineberg Holt will be writer-in-residence there, thanks to sponsorship from the CPL and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts. Her term runs from September to November, but this week there’s a chance to meet her and learn about how you, the aspiring writer, can benefit from the fall program. That’s on Tuesday, July 29 at noon. Call 221-2006 for information and to register. |
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