| In the letters pages of the current AlbertaViews magazine, you’ll find something unusual and refreshing: a dispute about newspaper coverage of Canadian literature!
Gordon Morash, former books editor at the Edmonton Journal, lit the fuse by criticizing the Calgary Herald for paying insufficient attention to "the literature of the country and province in which it publishes." Both the Herald’s new books co-ordinator Pamela Klaffke and general manager Peter Menzies reply, and Morash defends himself in a rebuttal.
Why do I think this is refreshing? Because appearances suggested, to me anyway, that many of Canada’s daily papers had just stopped caring about CanLit coverage. But if you don’t care, you can’t be stung by criticism. Does this mean books editors might start getting a little competitive?
Don’t get too excited, now. Good local and national books coverage takes resources few publications are willing – or in some cases able – to provide. So Canadian readers have to piece their book news together from many sources. But imagine if the books pages in newspapers were as well developed as the sports sections? Or the Hollywood-movie pages?
Speaking of the literature of this province, Tom Wayman, Larissa Lai and Derek Beaulieu will all read when filling Station launches its 29th issue this Friday, January 23 at 7:30 p.m. It’s free and takes place at The New Gallery (516D Ninth Ave. S.W., or just around the corner from Cowboys). And don’t forget that the next edition will celebrate the 30-issue landmark by offering the work of Calgary writers exclusively. So if you are one, or have been one, or know one, please note that the address for submissions is filling Station, P.O. Box 22135, Bankers Hall, T2P 4J5. The deadline is January 31, so get those pages in the mail.
A week after the filling Station event, dANDelion pops up with a launch of its own on Saturday, January 31. The new issue is number 29.2 and is called "The Poetic Project." Jonathon Wilcke, Wayde Compton, Julia Williams and many others appear between its bright white covers. At the event itself you will hear readings by Angela Rawlings (Toronto), Jon Paul Fiorentino (Winnipeg), Salma Hussain (Calgary) and the aforementioned Wilcke (Calgary). It’s taking place at The Unicorn (formerly The Dubliner) at 304 Eighth Ave. S.W. at 8 p.m.
Thanks to the Bentall Lectures in Education and Theology, offered through the University of Calgary’s Chair in Christian Thought, Calgarians have two chances to hear Rudy Wiebe speak this week.
Wiebe has published 16 books, including Stolen Life: The Journey of a Cree Woman, The Temptations of Big Bear and A Discovery of Strangers. He appears at Foothills Mennonite Church (2115 Urbana Rd. N.W.) on Monday, February 2 at 7:30 p.m. At this event he’ll deliver a public lecture/discussion entitled "Climbing Mountains That Do Not Yet Exist" on writing fiction informed by Anabaptist and Russian Mennonite worldviews "in a time when faith is difficult, if not impossible."
Then on Tuesday, February 3 at noon, Wiebe speaks in the Evans Room at the U of C’s Rosza Centre. Tuesday’s subject will be his 1970 novel The Blue Mountains. |
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