weekly update with Michael Van Rooy
SEPTEMBER 3, 2010 WRITERS’ COLLECTIVE UPDATE
*WRITERS’ COLLECTIVE ANNOUNCEMENTS
*WRITERS’ COLLECTIVE MEMBER NEWS
*PROGRAMS AROUND AND ABOUT
*OPPORTUNITIES AND SUBMISSIONS
*CONTESTS
*SOURCES AND RESOURCES
*NEWS RANDOM AND OTHERWISE
*QUOTE OF THE WEEK
ANNOUNCEMENTS
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IMPORTANT REMINDER: The 2010-2011 Writers Circles are filling up fast! Have you registered yet? If not send me an email as quickly as you can at writerscollective@uwinnipeg.ca
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Just a reminder that the Writers’ Collective Office will be closed on Tuesdays for the summer. I will still be answering email and phone calls remotely however!
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Please check out the Writers’ Collective NEW AND IMPROVED WEBSITE (and Yes, it is still improving!) athttp://thewriterscollective.org/
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WRITERS’ COLLECTIVE TENTH ANNIVERSARY!
We are looking for submissions for the Collective Consciousness magazine about the upcoming tenth anniversary of the Collective!
Give us your thoughts, your ideas and what the Collective means to you . . .
For More Information: Contact Michael Van Rooy, Writers’ Collective Program Coordinator at writerscollective@uwinnipeg.ca or by phone at (204) 786-9468 or submit to wc.journal@gmail.com
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THIN AIR Winnipeg International Writers Festival
The new programs are here, the new programs are here! The THIN AIR 2010 Programs will be hitting the streets of Winnipeg TODAY!
That is Friday, September 03, 2010!
They are available at McNally Robinson Booksellers, all Winnipeg City Libraries, The Forks Market, and various cafes, restaurants and shopping malls around Winnipeg.
Want an online version? Check out our schedule at www.thinairwinnipeg.ca.
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WRITERS’ COLLECTIVE MEMBER NEWS
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COLLECTIVE MEMBER DEBBIE STRANGE TO HOLD PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBIT AT THE ASSINIBOINE PARK CONSERVATORY
Collective member Debbie Strange will have her abstract photography exhibit, The Poetry of Light, hosted at the Assiniboine Park Conservatory from December 6, 2010 to January 10, 2011.
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WRITERS’ COLLECTIVE MEMBER ARIEL GORDON TO APPEAR ON TONIGHTS KELLY HUGHES LIVE AT AQUA BOOKS!
Tonight at 7:00pm THIN AIR Director Extraordinaire CHARLENE DIEHL and two of our 2010 guests, ARIEL GORDON and JORDAN WHEELER, will be interviewed at Kelly Hughes Live: Into THIN AIR I.
Kelly Hughes Live (KHL) is Winnipeg’s only live talk show and will take place upstairs in the Stone Angel Room at 274 Garry Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Charlene is the brains behind THIN AIR and a talented poet and supporter of the arts in her own rights. Ariel is a Winnipeg-based writer and the author of Hump, one of the books featured in this year’s festival. Jordan is a professional writer of books and for television and movies, he will be appearing around the city at this year’s THIN AIR School Program.
KHL is an entertaining blend of comedy, music and chaos that truly has to be seen to be believed (and understood!)
This week the musical guest is Skender Sefa, classical guitarist.
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WRITING OPPORTUNITY FROM KRISTIAN ENRIGHT (WRITERS’ COLLECTIVE MEMBER)
Environmental degradation is a growing concern in Lake Winnipeg and its associated river systems. The water quality of the Lake Winnipeg watershed has been negatively affected by human activities that have changed the flow of nutrients and water into the region.
Are you concerned about the situation in the Lake Winnipeg watershed? About your own environmental impact?
Move past guilt to action! We invite creative and/or scientific responses to the environmental situation in the Lake Winnipeg region. Part of the goal is for individuals to present a vision of nature that gives it value so as to appreciate it in any way imaginable.
Selected respondents will present their work in an innovative community dialogue, in which artistic responses to the crisis will be complemented by scientific analysis of the problem and potential solutions.
Submit a finished copy of the work you would like to present (poems, plays, art pieces and scientific analysis are all welcome) to susie.k.taylor@gmail.com or quietspeaker@hotmail.com by September 10, 2010. Please send full contact information along with your submission. Try and limit your response to being presentable in a read time period of 5-10 minutes. Selected respondents will be notified by the 15th, and the event/ dialogue will be held later in September towards the end of the month.
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FINDING YOUR VOICE
A free writing group for newcomers to Canada.
An 8-week creative writing program for New Canadians that builds intercultural communications and writing skills. The group will discuss access to writing and publishing resources, provide an opportunity for networking, and help you build your writing, editing and storytelling skills. Sessions will be moderated by Janine LeGal (Writers’ Collective Member), writer and human rights activist and co-moderator Alan Balingit, journalist and new Canadian.
Basic English writing skills are necessary. This is not an English language course.
Millennium Library, Meeting Room 1, 2nd Floor, 251 Donald Street
Tuesdays from 7-9 pm, September 7 to November 2 or Saturdays from 10 am to 12 noon September 11 to October 30.
To register call 986-6779.
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ON THE SAME PAGE VOTING CONTINUES!
Read the same book Speak the same language.
Vote! Help select the next chapter for On the Same Page!
Which Manitoba book, by a Manitoba author, do you think should get Manitobans On the Same Page this year? From the short list below, select the title you’d like for Manitoba’s biggest book club. The book that receives the greatest public support before the end of September 2010 will be featured.
The choices are:
An Ordinary Decent Criminal by Michael Van Rooy (Writers’ Collective Member)
Beautiful Girl Thumbby Melissa Steele
Dead of Midnight by Catherine Hunter (Writers’ Collective Member)
Juliana and the Medicine Fish by Jake MacDonald
To vote simply go to: http://www.wpgfdn.org/programsprojects-otsp.php#vote
And make your selection at the bottom of the page!
Currently there are 672 votes cast!
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Kerry Ryan (Writers’ Collective Member)
Date: September 28, October 13 and 26, November 3, 16 and 24
Time: 7:00 to 9:00 pm
Location: Aqua Books, 274 Garry Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3C 1H3, Phone: 204-943-7555.
Event: Writers’ Support Group with poet Kerry Ryan
Cost: $20 plus GST. Contact kelly@aquabooks.ca or 943-7555 to register.
Notes: The workshop is limited to 16 people. Bring a notebook and pen.
Ready to share your writing, but not sure where to start? Looking for an extra set of eyes but can’t commit to a writing group?
Writers working in all genres are invited to take part in a series of drop-in,workshop-style sessions hosted by Aqua Books Writer-in-Residence Kerry Ryan. Participants will be expected to both share work and give feedback to others.
Six sessions will take place over the fall. Participants can sign up in advance for workshop slots (everyone will be guaranteed three slots, but they’ll be assigned first come, first served), and are welcome to attend any/all sessions to comment on others’ work.
All participants who wish can take part in a public, wind-up reading at Aqua Books on December 1.
Kerry Ryan lives and writes in Winnipeg. Her first collection of poetry, The Sleeping Life, was published by The Muses’ Company in 2008 and nominated for the Aqua Lansdowne Prize for Poetry in 2009. She has had poetry published in a number of journals, including Prairie Fire, Grain, Room, CV2 and Carousel. Her second collection, Vs., is forthcoming from Anvil Press, fall 2010.
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THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS WITH ANITA DAHER (WRITERS’ COLLECTIVE MEMBER)
Date: Nine Thursdays this fall: September 30, October 7, 14, 21, 28, November 4, 18, 25, and December 2, 2010.
Time: 7:00 to 9:00 pm
Location: Aqua Books, 274 Garry Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3C 1H3, Phone: 204-943-7555.
Event: A Writing Intensive Workshop
Cost: $225.00 plus GST ($200 plus GST before September 1). Contact kelly@aquabooks.ca or 943-7555 to register.
Notes: The workshop is limited to 12 people. Bring a notebook and pen.
Tickle your muse and develop skills as Anita Daher leads you on a journey into the world of writing picture books, children’s periodicals, middle grade and teen novels. Take your vitamins and prepare to absorb in-depth information on the genre, and the children’s writing and publishing industry in Canada. There will be exercises, assignments, dynamic interaction, and at the end—a party!
Anita Daher has been entrenched in the book publishing industry for more than fifteen years. She feels “place” infuses her writing, and is grateful to have lived in communities like Summerside, PEI, Moose Jaw, SK, Churchill, MB, Baker Lake, NU, and Yellowknife, NT. Her short stories have appeared in Prairie Fire Magazine, and she is author of seven youth novels, including Arthur Ellis and MB Book Award finalist Spider’s Song (2006), and Arthur Ellis, Hackmatack and Diamond Willow finalist Racing for Diamonds(2006). She has led workshops across the country, and has been a popular presenter at conferences and festivals. When not teaching, presenting, or working on her own stories, Anita edits teen novels for Great Plains Publications.
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JOHN TOONE (WRITERS’ COLLECTIVE MEMBER AND BEST DRESSED MALE AT THE 2010 MANITOBA BOOK AWARDS)
John Toone will be appearing all over the place this summer and fall:
Fort Whyte Alive, Kids Event – September 19th
Brandon University, Reading and workshop – October 2nd
Tonight it’s Poetry – Saskatoon, Reading – October 3rd
Vertigo Series – Regina, Reading -October 4th
Imagination Manifesto: Book Two, McNally Launch – October 28th
Central Canada Comic Con, The Strange Market – October 30th and 31st
Have a great summer, – JT
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IT’S ABOUT THE STORIES . . . IT’S ALWAYS ABOUT THE STORIES!
An Initiative by Michael Van Rooy (Writers’ Collective Member), the Literary Arts Ambassador for the Winnipeg Cultural Capital of Canada Project 2010 ARTS FOR ALL Program!
Winnipeg has produced some of the best writers in the world and here’s the proof!
To celebrate Winnipeg’s well-earned designation as Cultural Capital of Canada for 2010 we have chosen books by Winnipeggers to offer to other Winnipeggers. These are interesting, smart, funny, touching, scary . . . just plain good books! Fiction, non-fiction, it’s all here. And there’s something for both the dedicated and casual reader!
There are several copies of each of these books and we are giving them away to anyone on a first come, first served, basis. There are only three things we ask in return:
First: Read the book! If you decide it’s not for you then hand it back or hand it forward to someone who might like it!
Second: Tell us what you think of the book! Write us a letter, send us an email or go onto Facebook and write what you think! Tell us you love the book or you hate it, whatever. We want to know!
Third: When you’re done with the book, pass it along to someone, anyone, with the same instructions. Share the wealth, share the stories. Opinions and reviews will all be posted anonymously on the Facebook page for everyone to read!
Titles
Crown Fire by David Annandale
The Dragon and the Dry Goods Princess by David Arnason
The Imagined City: A Literary History of Winnipeg edited by David Arnason and Mhari Mackintosh
Exploits of a Reluctant (But Extremely Goodlooking) Hero by Maureen Fergus
Juliana and the Medicine Fish by Jake MacDonald
Cherry by Chandra Mayor
Yuletide Bandit by Mike McIntyre
A Dry Spell by Susie Moloney
In Search of April Raintree by Beatrice (Culleton) Mosionier
Bonheur d’occasion by Gabrielle Roy
Be Wolf by Wayne Tefs
An Ordinary Decent Criminal by Michael Van Rooy
How to Comment on the Books or Ask for Another!
You can reach Michael by email at vanrooy1@hotmail.com.
You can reach Michael by regular mail at About the Stories at 103–110 Princess Street,
Winnipeg, MB, R3B 1K7.
You can go onto Facebook at the Cultural Capital Literary Arts 2010 Program page.
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PROGRAMS AROUND AND ABOUT
This week the quotes come from Alfred Elton van Vogt (1912-2000), a prominent science fiction writer born near Gretna, Manitoba. Opinions on his writings are mixed but passionate and entertaining! But, somewhere in there, I did have the thought that this really fits in with my thinking about what I wanted to do; with what has to be done by a writer in order to stay alive as a writer. A.E. van Vogt
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Pat Pattan
Date: September 7, Tuesday
Time: 1:00-3:00 pm, 5:00-7:00 pm
Location: By the Cash Desk at the McNally Robinson Booksellers, 1120 Grant Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3M 2A6, Phone: 204-475-0483, Toll Free 1-800-561-1833.
Event: Signing When We Were Growing Up.
Cost: Free!
What was it like to be growing up when kids could spend the day at the movies for twenty-five cents, the Model-T had to be cranked up to get it started, and the streets were dark until the lamplighter lit the gas lamps? When We Were Growing Up gives a person-to-person account of life from the 1920’s to 1960’s as seen through the eyes of the children growing up during events such as WWI & II and the Great Depression. Interspersed with the stories of the 14 people featured in this book, the author Pat Pattan (née Yeo) adds her own story of her birth in 1943 and childhood growing up as a “war baby” in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Pat graduated from Manitoba Teachers College in 1963. Moving to New Jersey in 1965, she became a U.S. citizen in 1976. She has written articles and reviews for local newspapers and has had radio commercials on the air. She has two sons, Jonathan and Eric Mol. Author Pat Pattan (née Yeo), will be on-hand to sign from 1:00-3:00 pm and again from 5:00-7:00 pm.
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Linda Leonard
Date: September 8, Wednesday
Time: 7:00pm
Location: In the Atrium of the McNally Robinson Booksellers, 1120 Grant Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3M 2A6, Phone: 204-475-0483, Toll Free 1-800-561-1833.
Event: Launch of Living the Dream in Mexico: Our RV Travels and Experiences in Mexico.
Cost: Free!
Linda Leonard and her husband Paul live in Grand Marais, Manitoba, during the summer and in Zihuatanejo, Mexico in the winter. They are both retired teachers with four grown children and three grandchildren. They spent six years RVing and travelling throughout Mexico and helped Linda’s elderly Mom to share some amazing experiences from her wheelchair. Linda has written extensively on the internet, helping many people to enjoy travelling in Mexico. 2011 will bring the publication of her next book, Living the Dream in Europe, based on their RV travels and experiences throughout Western Europe.
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Martha Brooks
Date: September 8, Wednesday
Time: 7:30 pm
Location: In the Prairie Ink Restaurant of the McNally Robinson Booksellers, 1120 Grant Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3M 2A6, Phone: 204-475-0483, Toll Free 1-800-561-1833.
Event: Launch of Queen of Hearts
Cost: Free!
Two years into the Second World War, fifteen-year-old Marie-Claire Côté begins a war of her own as she, her brother and sister, all stricken with tuberculosis, are taken to the Pembina Hills Sanatorium in rural Manitoba. Queen of Hearts is a story about surviving loss — and finding friendship, and love, in surprising places. Critically acclaimed playwright, novelist and short fiction writer Martha Brooks was born and raised in a medical family on the grounds of the now defunct Manitoba Sanatorium at Ninette, Manitoba and resides with her husband, Brian, in Winnipeg. She has penned award-winning short stories and several powerful novels for young readers, as well as several plays, all of which deal with the universal themes of love and loss. Frequently appearing on the American Library Association Best Books Lists, Brooks has been nominated four times for the Governor General’s Award – an award she received in 2002 for True Confessions of a Heartless Girl.
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Janet Lewis Anderson
Date: September 9, 2010
Time: 7:00 pm
Location: In the Atrium of the McNally Robinson Booksellers, 1120 Grant Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3M 2A6, Phone: 204-475-0483, Toll Free 1-800-561-1833.
Event: Launch of In the Arms of the Angels
Cost: Free!
Janet grew up in a small, but loving, Winnipeg family. Her parents, Janette and John Lewis, doted on their only child and so when it came time for them to leave this world, it was especially hard on her. As a way of dealing with the stress of caring for her Mother who was dying from Alzheimer’s disease, as well as with the grief of saying goodbye, she began chronicling this difficult journey. She hopes that by sharing her story, others travelling a similarly difficult road won’t feel quite so alone and that the book will serve as a source of compassion and inspiration, helping others to courageously face another day. A tribute to her late Mother, In the Arms of The Angels is truly a Mother – Daughter love story. After 31 years of service with Canadian National Railways, Janet Lewis Anderson retired in 2003 to stay home and look after her dying Mother. Marrying a year after her Mother passed away, Janet and her husband Bruce continue to reside in Winnipeg. They enjoy family get-togethers, cooking and travelling. A percentage of the proceeds will be donated to The Alzheimer Society of Manitoba.
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David Zinger
Date: September 9, Thursday
Time: 7:30 pm
Location: In the Travel Alcove of the McNally Robinson Booksellers, 1120 Grant Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3M 2A6, Phone: 204-475-0483, Toll Free 1-800-561-1833.
Event: Launch of Zengage: How to Get More INTO Your Work to Get More OUT of Your Work
Cost: Free!
Zengage combines the ancient art of Zen with the modern science of engagement. Zen meditation promotes direct acts of wisdom and understanding that lead to enlightenment. Engagement only happens when individuals take the time to understand themselves and act accordingly. This collection of inspiration is designed to help the reader connect in a deeper way with themselves and others, to help create a more meaningful life at work and at home. To help them learn the art of living by paying full attention to whatever they are doing in the moment. David Zinger, M.Ed, is a global expert on employee engagement and founder of the Employee Engagement Network. His website has over 1,000 articles on the topic. Mr. Zinger has worked with employee engagement from British Columbia to Barcelona and Warsaw to Winnipeg. Visit him at <www.davidzinger.com>.
David Zinger, Thursday September 9, 7:30 in the Travel Alcove. Launch of Zengage: How to Get More Into Your Work to Get More Out of Your Work.
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On the Same Page 2010-11 Nominee Read-Off
Date: September 9, Thursday
Time: 8:00 pm
Location: In the Prairie Ink Restaurant of the McNally Robinson Booksellers, 1120 Grant Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3M 2A6, Phone: 204-475-0483, Toll Free 1-800-561-1833.
Event: On the Same Page 2010-11 Nominee Read-Off
Cost: Free!
Which Manitoba book, by a Manitoba author, will get Manitobans On the Same Page and be the focus of Manitoba’s biggest book club this year? All four nominees will be on hand this special evening to read from their works and present their case in Prairie Ink Restaurant. Catherine Hunter, author of the nominated book The Dead of Midnight (Turnstone Press), is a teacher, editor, critic, poet, and avid reader of thrillers. She is the author of three books of poetry, three novels, and one novella. Jake MacDonald, author, short story writer and journalist, winner of three awards, including the Writers’ Trust Non-Fiction Prize will defend his work Juliana and the Medicine Fish(Great Plains Publications). Winner of the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Writing at the 1999 Manitoba Book Awards, Melissa Steele will read from her nominated collection of short stories Beautiful Girl Thumb (Turnstone Press). Michael Van Rooy: documentarian, reporter, ex-cheese-maker. Will the B.C. ex-pat win over the readers of Manitoba with the first volume of his Monty Haaviko crime series An Ordinary Decent Criminal (Turnstone Press)? This special night might just be the one that turns the tide and is presented in association with On The Same Page, an initiative of The Winnipeg Foundation and Winnipeg Public Library that encourages Manitobans to read the same book at the same time. Visit <http://www.wpgfdn.org/programsprojects-otsp.php> to vote for the book of your choice.
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Jane Urquart
Date: September 10, Friday
Time: 7:00 pm
Location: In the atrium of the McNally Robinson Booksellers, 1120 Grant Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3M 2A6, Phone: 204-475-0483, Toll Free 1-800-561-1833.
Event: Reading & Signing Sanctuary Line
Cost: Free!
Set in the present day on a farm at the shores of Lake Erie, Jane Urquhart’s new novel weaves elements from the nineteenth-century past, in Ireland and Ontario, into a gradually unfolding contemporary story of events in the lives of the members of one family that come to alter their futures irrevocably. There are ancestral lighthouse-keepers, seasonal Mexican workers; the migratory patterns and survival techniques of the Monarch butterfly; the tragedy of a young woman’s death during a tour of duty in Afghanistan; three very different but equally powerful love stories. Jane Urquhart brings to vivid life the things of the past that make us who we are, and reveals the sometimes difficult path to understanding and forgiveness. Jane Urquhart was born in Little Long Lac, Ontario, and grew up in Toronto. She is the author of five internationally acclaimed novels, one collection of short fiction, and four books of poetry, for which she has received and been shortlisted for many awards. Her work has been translated into numerous foreign languages. Urquhart has received the Marian Engel Award, and is a Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France and an Officer of the Order of Canada, as well as the recipient of numerous honorary degrees. She lives in southwestern Ontario.
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David Korinetz
Date: September 11, Saturday
Time: 1:00-4:00 pm
Location: By the Cash Desk of the McNally Robinson Booksellers, 1120 Grant Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3M 2A6, Phone: 204-475-0483, Toll Free 1-800-561-1833.
Event: Signing Sorceress: Chronicles of the Daemon Knights
Cost: Free!
Highly recommended by the Midwest Book Review, this book finds the Sorceress Magdalen stripped of her power with deadly foes at every turn. While seeking the safe haven of Toth, she becomes an unwilling witness to the murder of a FireDrake along the way, leading to her capture by a marauding band of Imperial Dog Soldiers led by the crazed fanatic Kaspar. Sir Rodney, the Balorian knight responsible for her downfall, forsakes his duty to the order for his compulsion to rescue the woman who continues to haunt his dreams. What is one man’s desire compared to the combined might of an empire, and are things truly the way they seem? Born and raised in Winnipeg and a resident for nearly four decades, David Korinetz attended Tec Voc High School and was an employee of Bristol Aerospace for nineteen years. Now relocated to the small resort community of Penticton, B.C., David has found that living in the Okanagan valley was instrumental in allowing him to visualize the Fantasy world in which his characters live. At one time employed as everything from a prairie fish plant worker, a railway worker, to an avionics technician, David finally found his true calling as a Fantasy author.
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Dr. Paul McCutcheon
Date: September 13, Monday
Time: 7:00 pm
Location: In the Travel Alcove of the McNally Robinson Booksellers, 1120 Grant Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3M 2A6, Phone: 204-475-0483, Toll Free 1-800-561-1833.
Event: Speaking and signing The New Holistic Way for Dogs and Cats: The Stress-Health Connection.
Cost: Free!
This special presentation will cover what “holistic” philosophy really means and how it applies to our pets and ourselves, some disturbing health trends, defining stress and its implication in health, outlining the negative stress factors that are significant in our pets’ lives and examine how we can control the negative stress and encourage total pet wellness. Dr. Paul D. McCutcheon graduated from Ontario Veterinary College in 1962. He founded and is currently Director of East York Animal Clinic Holistic Centre in Toronto. Dr. McCutcheon has a long history of media involvement and was awarded Veterinarian of the Year—Ontario Veterinary Association 1979 and Canadian Veterinary Medical Association 1983. He is past President of the Toronto Academy of Veterinary Medicine and past Director of the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association (AHVMA). Dog owners are invited and encouraged to bring their canine companions to this special event.
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Les MacDonald
Date: September 13, Monday
Time: 7:30 pm
Location: In the Atrium of the McNally Robinson Booksellers, 1120 Grant Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3M 2A6, Phone: 204-475-0483, Toll Free 1-800-561-1833.
Event: Launch of The Day the Music Died.
Cost: Free!
This new work probes into the lives and deaths of musicians that graced the airwaves and big domes from as early as 1790 to the contemporary music industry of the 1900s and through to the 21st century. The book takes an intimate look at the passing of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Elvis Presley, Brian Jones, Bob Marley, John Lennon, George Harrison, Tupac Shakur, Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, Selena, Michael Jackson, and many more. The Day the Music Died exposes the good, the bad, and the ugly sides of this much-celebrated industry, covering expected deaths from illness to the shocking news of a life taken away by suicide or murder. Les MacDonald first began writing sports articles for several sports magazines about five years ago. After writing a book about Hollywood tragedies (Hollywood’s Unhappiest Endings: Legends Never Die) he turned his attention to those that have occurred in the music industry resulting in this, his second book. Les lives with his son Tristan in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and splits his time between Winnipeg and Las Vegas,Nevada.
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Dr. Ruth Simkin
Date: September 14, Tuesday
Time: 7:30pm
Location: In the Atrium of the McNally Robinson Booksellers, 1120 Grant Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3M 2A6, Phone: 204-475-0483, Toll Free 1-800-561-1833.
Event: Reading & Signing The Jagged Years of Ruthie J. Winnipeg 1963
Cost: Free!
Eighteen year-old psychology student Ruthie J. is the bane of her traditional Jewish family. Briefly married, she drinks, swears, has casual sex and mixes with questionable characters, arguing incessantly with her father. When a bizarre car accident lands her in court, the confused teen is sent for testing and diagnosed with epilepsy – then considered a mental illness. Against her wishes, Ruthie’s family admits her to a posh Maryland mental hospital, Chestnut Lodge of I Never Promised You a Rose Garden fame, where she is put at the mercy of a sadistic psychiatrist. The Jagged Years of Ruthie J. is the story of the friendship and love of Ruthie’s fellow patients and the tale of how, with the help of a remarkable therapist, Ruthie J. managed to free herself, discover her true sexual orientation and persevere in her dream to become a physician. Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Dr. Ruth Simkin practiced family medicine for several decades and subsequently became a specialist in palliative care. She has studied all over the world and is the author of medical articles on women’s health as well as Like an Orange on a Seder Plate, a feminist Passover Haggadah. Retired from medicine, she now lives and writes in Victoria, BC.
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WHOSE VOICE? A LECTURE WITH JOAN THOMAS
Date: September 14, Tuesday
Time: 7 – 8:30 pm
Location: Burns Family Classroom 218-100 Arthur Street
Event: An evening lecture on narrative voice with Joan Thomas
Cost: Free for Writers’ Guild Members, $10.00 for non-members
The Manitoba Writers’ Guild is pleased to present an evening lecture on narrative voice with Joan Thomas
Tuesday September 14, 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM, Burns Family Classroom, 218-100 Arthur St.
This special event is free to Guild members, $10 for non-members
How do fiction writers choose between first and third person voice? And having picked a point of view and narrative voice, how do we negotiate its limits and exploit its possibilities? Joan Thomas will lecture on narrative voice and point of view in the MWG classroom. All fiction writers and editors are welcome.
Joan Thomas is the author of two novels, Reading by Lightning and Curiosity. Her 2008 novel, Reading by Lightning, won the Commonwealth Prize for best First Book (Canada and the Carribbean) and the Amazon.ca First Novel Award. Her second novel, Curiosity, has just been published by McClelland and Stewart. Thomas has worked as a freelance writer, reviewer, and editor, and as Writing and Publishing consultant for the Manitoba Arts Council. She has been a frequent book reviewer for the Globe and Mail since 1993 and for two years wrote a biweekly feature review in the Globe. She was co-editor (with Heidi Harms) of Turn of the Story: Canadian Short Fiction on the Eve of the Millennium (House of Anansi Press, 1999).
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Forging the Muse – A workshop with poet Chandra Mayor
Date: September 15, 22, 29, October 6, 13, 20, 27, November 3, 10, 17, 24, December 1.
Time: 7:00 to 9:00 pm
Location: Aqua Books, 274 Garry Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3C 1H3, Phone: 204-943-7555.
Event: A workshop for poets (beginning or intermediate)
Cost: $250 plus GST. Contact kelly@aquabooks.ca or 943-7555 to register.
Notes: This workshop is appropriate for beginning or intermediate poets and is limited to 10 people. Bring a notebook and pen.
Does the Muse of Poetry come to you at night, streaming with the moon through your windows, the unseen hand guiding your pen as you fill page after page with (probably rhyming) verse of unspeakable beauty and profundity, while you, the passive vehicle for this marvel, surrender yourself up to the voices of Truth and Light?
Nope, me neither. `(And if that is indeed your poetic process, you’ll probably hate my course).
“Poetry is the way we give name to the nameless so that it can be thought,” said Audre Lorde. This 12 week course will help us understand how that happens – how each of us can transform images, ideas, and emotions into words that truly communicate in our writing. We will focus on the craft of poetry and of language (image and metaphor, place and point of view, voice, form poetry, line breaks, and how to give effective readings). We’ll learn how (and why) editing and workshopping is so important. We’ll explore personal mythologies, the world(s) of publishing, performativity, and whatever else seems interesting. We’ll play, and take risks, and create a community of writers – we won’t (and shouldn’t) always agree with each other, but we’ll each understand more about what we write, why we write, and how to get closer to the poems we really want to write. The course will include lots of reading, lots of discussion, and most importantly, lots of writing (and lots of feedback).
I don’t really believe in the notion of ‘the muse.’ But I do believe in inspiration, hard work, the creative urge, and learning the skills to express it. And I do believe, absolutely, that poetry can (and does) transform the world, and ourselves. Let’s light the fires and figure out how.
Chandra Mayor’s writing has appeared in several anthologies, including Interruptions: 30 Women Tell the Truth about Motherhood,Breathing Fire 2: Canada’s New Poets, and Post-Prairie. Her first book, August Witch: poems, was short-listed for four Manitoba book awards and won the Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book. She received the 2004 John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Writer, and the following year her novel, Cherry, won the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award. The title story from her most recent book, All the Pretty Girls (conundrum), was shortlisted for a 2008 CBC Literary Award,and the collection itself won a Lambda Award for Best Lesbian Fiction. Mayor lives in Winnipeg.
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THE WHOLE CABOODLE: ADVANCED POETICS WITH TED DYCK
Date: September 26, Sunday
Time: 10 am – 3 pm
Location: Burns Family Classroom 218-100 Arthur Street
Event: Advanced Poetry Workshop
Cost: $75 or $125
Application & submission deadline September 10th
Ted Dyck will be leading an advanced poetics workshop on the major tools at a poet’s disposal (Verse, Figure, and Form) on Sunday September 26th. It will be based on work submitted by participants. More information and details of the workshop are available from Victor Enns at venns@mts.net.
Cost $75 for members, $125 for non-members (includes a MWG membership)
Minimum number of participants:7, Maxiumum number of participants: 10
Selection process: First priority will be given to published writers, then unpublished writers on a first come first served basis. It is expected that this will be a multi-level workshop and all writers are encouraged to submit.
Method: All writers ill electronically submit five poems to a maximum of eight pages of new work. Poems for discussion will be selected by the facilitator. A syllabus (poems, summaries of concepts, writing exercises, and readings) will be circulated by email to all participants a week before the workshop. All poets will have their work discussed.
Registrations for the Advanced Poetics Workshop are now being accepted. Deadline for applications, which must include the submission of work, is September 10th.
All registrations and submissions should be made by email to venns@mts.net. Fees, however, are to be paid by cheque to “The Manitoba Writers’ Guild” and mailed to the MWG, 218-100 Arthur Street, Winnipeg, MB, R3B 1H3.
Ted Dyck was dropped into the short-grass prairie within sight of the South Saskatchewan River breaks on, approximately, 1939, 09.03. He has studied at, graduated from, and taught at a number of colleges and universities. He has edited three anthologies of critical essays and published four collections of poetry and over 100 articles. He writes in a number of genres – poetry, fiction, essay – and operates a writing, editing, and workshopping serviced called WorDoctor. His other interests include – fly-fishing, cross-country skiikng, snooker, Bach and Gould, the classical guitar, cognac. Recently (2007-2009) he was writer-in-residence with the Festival of Words (Moose Jaw). Currently, he directs a “Writing for Your Life Program” for CMHA(SK). He lives, writes, fishes, etc. in or near Shaunavon SK. [Full bio & resume atwww.wordoc.sasktelwebsite.net/]
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The University of Winnipeg is offering a new course, taught by two award-winning writers: ENGL-3102(1)-001 Creative Writing Field Research (one credit hour)
Fall section: “Luring the Knock: Inviting Poems to Linger” with Chandra Mayor (Writers’ Collective Member)
Saturday Oct 16 & Saturday Oct 23 from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM
Margaret Atwood says that inspiration knocks softly, and that if you don’t answer, she goes away. Ignore the knocking often enough, and she stops coming back. How can we better equip ourselves to hear that soft knocking? How can we learn to hear knocking as insistent hammering? Better yet, how can we wedge the door permanently open, inviting images and words and rhythms—poems—to walk freely in and out of our minds, pages, and even at home in our own kitchens?
Winter section: “Building the Story” with Jake MacDonald
Saturday Jan 8 & Saturday Jan 15, 2011 from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM
“Building the Story” will focus on various approaches to writing a story, both fiction and non fiction. Students will study the many elements of story construction—creating the setting, introducing characters, the importance of description in immersing the reader in the world of the story, and the function of plot and dramatic action in revealing character.
Questions? call the English department Chair, Catherine Hunter, at 786-9294. For full information on the UW’s Creative Writing program, go to http://www.uwinnipeg.ca/index/english-index
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OPPORTUNITIES AND SUBMISSIONS
We cannot guarantee any of the opportunities below! Please be careful and do your research. Quote: I had casually rented an apartment that cost $75 a month because I expected my writing to pay my way. A.E. van Vogt
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THE COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS IS SEEKING SUBMISSIONS
The Collective Consciousness is the journal of the Writers’ Collective and it is published four times a year. We are always seeking submissions by members of the Collective, in fact any interested writers can submit!
Simply submit to wc.journal@gmail.com
NOTE: Okay, I can guarantee this one . . .
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Local Call-to-Artists for Expressions of Interest
The Winnipeg Arts Council seeks an artist to create a literary-based fence for Millennium Library Park in downtown Winnipeg. The Park is undergoing a significant renovation, and will also be the site of a major public art project to mark the designation of Winnipeg as the Cultural Capital of Canada for 2010.
The artist must reside in, or in close proximity to, Winnipeg.
Budget: $90,000
Deadline for application: September 8, 2010
Interested artists must submit a complete application package to be considered. Please visit www.winnipegarts.ca for full details including eligibility criteria, application requirements and to download the Call-to-Artists as well as site plans and images.
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THE UNITER IS LOOKING FOR WRITERS
The Uniter, the University of Winnipeg’s newspaper, is looking for writers interested in current news events. Beginning writers will be paired with a current writer and learn how to write a news story.
For more information E-mail Andrew at news@uniter.ca or come to the office for the weekly news meeting, Friday at 12:30 in room ORM14 in the Bulman Mezzanine. The meeting is open to everyone.
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Mosaic: Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature, Special Issue: Romance
Deadline October 31, 2010
The OED has to give some three pages to defining the word ROMANCE that, with all of its rich history, is at the center of this Mosaic Call for Papers. We invite innovative interdisciplinary literary and critical submissions for a special issue we are planning on this theme. For this issue, our interests include, but are not limited to, the following: ‘the Romantics,’ who have undergone a renascence of late; the French novel, the roman; romantic fiction; Romanticism; the state of the love story in literature and/or film; and the figure of the “romantic.” Details:http://www.umanitoba.ca/publications/mosaic/whatsnew/#CallForSubmissions
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CARTE BLANCHE
The deadline for the fall issue of Montreal’s premier online literary journal, carte blanche (www.carte-blanche.org), is fast approaching!
Send us your poetry, fiction, nonfiction, graphic fiction, photography and translations. Upload it using our handy, new submissions manager.
Accepted fiction is now eligible for consideration to the Journey Prize, and our fiction and nonfiction may also be accepted for consideration to CellStories (www.cellstories.net), our mobile/iPhone partner. Published authors are paid $30 per submission.
DEADLINE: September 15, 2010
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Prism International is pleased to announce that we are ready to receive entries for our 2011 literary contests!
Entry fees for all contests are $28, and additional entries can be added for $7 each. Every participant receives a one-year subscription to Prism International.
The Non-Fiction Contest is first up, with a deadline of November 30th, 2010. The grand prize is $1500, and this contest is being judged by Brian Brett, a poet, novelist and non-fiction writer whose latest book, for Trauma Farm: A Rebel History of Rural Life, won the Writers’ Trust Non-Fiction Prize in 2009.
The Short Fiction Contest has a deadline of January 29, 2011. The best, unpublished story will receive $2000, as well as publication payment for our fiction contest issue. Three runner-up prizes of $200 dollars are also conferred. Works of translation are eligible. This year’s judge will be announced shortly. Hold on to your bifocals and lean on in.
The Poetry Contest also has a January 29, 2011 deadline. Each entry can be up to three poems. This year’s poetry judge is Vancouver poet laureate, Brad Cran. He is a contributing editor at Geist magazine, and you can read some of his work on their site.
Contest entries must be sent to Prism through snail mail, accompanied by an entry form and cheque or receipt of credit card payment. For entry forms and the option to pay fees by credit card, please visit Prism’s contest page.
Entries can be sent to:
Prism International
Creative Writing Program
The University of British Columbia
BUCH E462-1866 Main Mall
Vancouver, BC
V6T 1Z1
CANADA
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SOURCES AND RESOURCES
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For more information about McNally Robinson Booksellers check out http://www.mcnallyrobinson.com/home, 1120 Grant Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3M 2A6, Phone: 204-475-0483, Toll Free 1-800-561-1833.
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To see the current list of Adult Programs at Winnipeg Public Library, please visit the address below:http://wpl.winnipeg.ca/library/pdfs/adultprograms.pdf.
Children’s programs: http://wpl.winnipeg.ca/library/pdfs/childrensprograms.pdf.
The July/August library newsletter is available at http://wpl.winnipeg.ca/library/pdfs/@thelibrary11.4.pdf.
The Millennium Library is at 251 Donald Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3C 3P5, 204-986-6450.
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For details on Aqua Books store events, go to http://aquabooks.ca/events.php Past events are at http://aquabooks.ca/past.php. 274 Garry Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3C 1H3, Phone: 204-943-7555.
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For more information on Literary Arts programs at The Banff Centre, check out:
http://www.banffcentre.ca/writing/
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A truly great mystery bookstore is Winnipeg’s Whodunit? Mystery Bookstore at 165 Lilac Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3M 2S1. Their telephone number is (204) 284-9100 or 1-800-468-421. Their website is at http://www.whodunitcanada.com/home.
Their hours are Mon-Thurs: 10 am to 5 pm, Fri: 10 am to 6 pm, Sat: 10 am to 5 pm and Sun: 12 pm to 4 pm.
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Funding for Writers– this is an incomplete list of funding sources for writers, please double check dates and facts if you are interested.
Canada Council for the Arts - www.canadacouncil.ca/writing
Grants for Professional Writers Creative Writing – English: October 1; French language: April 1
Travel Grants for Professional Writers – Applicants are advised to submit their request three months ahead of time if they wish to have the results before their departure date.
Grants to Aboriginal Writers, Storytellers, and Publishers – June 1
Aboriginal Emerging Writers Residencies – June 1
Spoken Word and Storytelling Program – April 15
International Translation Grants- Any time; applications must be submitted before the translation has been completed according to the date in the contract with the translator.
Grants for Arts Promotion: Project Grants and Artists & Community Collaboration Program – March 15 and September 15
Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Awards - www.canadacouncil.ca/prizes/victor_martin_lynch_staunton
CBC Literary Awards - www.canadacouncil.ca/prizes/cbc_literary
Canada-Japan Literary Awards - www.canadacouncil.ca/prizes/canada_japan_literary
Governor General’s Literary Awards- Application deadlines vary, www.canadacouncil.ca/prizes/ggla
Japan-Canada Fund - www.canadacouncil.ca/prizes/japan_canada_fund
Joseph S. Stauffer Prizes - www.canadacouncil.ca/prizes/joseph_s_stauffer
Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prizes – December 1, www.canadacouncil.ca/prizes/molson
Manitoba Arts Council- http://artscouncil.mb.ca/english/liter_grantind.html
Major Arts Grant – January 15
Writers’ Grants – (A, B, C), May 15 and September 15
Travel/ Professional Development Grant for Writers – Four weeks prior to project
Community Connections and Access Program – April 1 and October 1
Deep Bay Artists’ Residency in Riding Mountain National Park of Canada – December 15
Special Opportunities Grant – May 15 for projects beginning after June 30
Departures - December 15
Public Readings by Manitoba Writers- Ongoing
Manitoba/New Brunswick Creative Residency – January 15
Manitoba Arts Award for Distinction – December 15
Winnipeg Arts Council – http://www.winnipegarts.ca/index.php?/grants-artists/
Individual Artist Grant Programs – A and B Grants, March 2 and September 7
Professional Development Grant Programs – no deadline
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NEWS RANDOM AND OTHERWISE FROM THE PROGRAM DIRECTOR
Quote: My theory was that what I had to do was make a study of human behavior. A.E. van Vogt
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Good Day All!
This week I have no news, too much to do to gather any interesting tidbits whatsoever!
Michael
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK
You have to remember that I was a bright but simple fellow from Canada who seldom, if ever, met another writer, and then only a so-called literary type that occasionally sold a story and meanwhile worked in an office for a living. A.E. van Vogt
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FOR THEORIES, CRITIQUE, PROPHECY, GREIVANCES, DESIRES, DREAMS, COMMENTS, CONCEPTIONS. NIGHTMARES, OPINIONS, BELIEFS, IDEAS, CONJECTURE, THOUGHTS, COMPLAINTS, DATA, HOPES, VISIONS, AND CONCEPTS PLEASE CONTACT
Michael Van Rooy
Program Coordinator
The Writers’ Collective
University of Winnipeg
4th Floor Library
515 Portage Avenue
Winnipeg, Manitoba
R3B 2E9
(204) 786-9468.
writerscollective@uwinnipeg.ca
Katherena Vermette
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