| Calgary poet Tom Wayman’s name may well be among those announced on the morning of Wednesday, November 12, when this year’s Governor General’s Awards for Literature are announced.
Wayman recently moved to Calgary from Winlaw, B.C., in order to take up a post in the University of Calgary’s creative writing program. His book My Father’s Cup is one of three volumes by Western Canadian poets selected for this year’s GG short list. Edmonton poet Tim Bowling has also been nominated for The Witness Ghost, along with Tim Lilburn of Saskatoon for Kill-site.
In the drama category, Edmonton playwright Vern Thiessen, Winnipeg’s Brian Drader and Marie Clements of Vancouver are all nominees. Calgary writer and translator Susan Ouriou is nominated for Necessary Betrayals, her translation of Chercher le vent by Guillaume Vigneault.
In the children’s literature category, a third Calgarian, Judd Palmer, is nominated for his story The Maestro. The versatile Palmer is also a driving force behind the Old Trout Puppet Workshop. (The children’s literature winners are announced earlier, on Monday, November 10.)
Meanwhile, it’s a busy week of readings in Calgary. At Pages, Vancouver poet, painter and orthographic adventurer Bill Bissett launches a new spoken-verse CD, Rumours uv Hurricane, on Friday, November 7. On Wednesday, November 12, Peter Steele reads from his new book The Man Who Mapped the Arctic. (Who was that man? He was George Back, Franklin’s lieutenant.) Then on Friday, November 14, you can hear what kind of writing Richard Harrison is doing these days when he reads from his work-in-progress. Along with Harrison, West Coast poet Crystal Hurdle will read from her timely first book of poetry, After Ted and Sylvia, which reflects on Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath. (You know, the poets in that movie.) All of these events start at 7:30 p.m.
Pages will also be there when biographer Charlotte Gray reads on Thursday, November 13 at 7:30 p.m. in the John Dutton Theatre at the W.R. Castell Central Library downtown. Gray presents her new book Canada: A Portrait in Letters.
Calgary poet, editor and teacher Ian Adam launches a new book of poetry, The Nomadic Marchesa, at McNally Robinson Booksellers on Wednesday, November 12 at 7:30 p.m. And the very next evening at McNally Robinson marks the start of a new reading series. filling Station magazine launches flywheel, a series featuring writers both known and less known, scheduled for the second Thursday of each month. The inaugural event on November 13 at 7 p.m. features the well-known Sarah Murphy, author of The Forgotten Voices of Jane Dark and Die Tinkerbell Die, among other volumes. She is joined by the increasingly known Andre Rodrigues, Jordan Scott, Nikki Reimer and Andrew Wedderburn (guitarist and vocalist of the quite well-known Hot Little Rocket).
Each year in the Massey Lecture Series, a thoughtful Canadian addresses important issues in a fresh way. This year you can hear the 2003 Massey lecturer Thomas King deliver Part 4 of his five-part series "One Million Porcupines Crying in the Hills." The novelist, photographer and scholar addresses history, literature and politics in an effort to understand the relations between North American society and its aboriginal people. King speaks on Wednesday, November 12 at 8 p.m. at the U of C’s University Theatre. Tickets are available from the Campus Ticket Centre or by phone at 220-7202. The full Massey Lectures air November 17 to 21 on CBC Radio One’s Ideas. |
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