What an honour it was to be Vancouver mentor for the 2019 Shoe Project. This year’s performance takes place Saturday, January 11 at 7 PM and
Sunday, January 12 at 2 PM at the BMO Theatre Centre. Our story tellers come from Brazil, Nepal, Syria, Russia, the Philippines, Chile, Kurdistan, Kosovo, China, Iran, and Tajikistan. Click here for tickets to this inspiring event.
“Now in its 49th year, Best Canadian Stories has long championed the short story form and highlighted the work of many writers who have gone on to shape the Canadian literary canon.” And in 2019, I had the honour of being the cannon-shaper selector in my role as guest editor. Best Canadian Short Stories 2019 is now available!
I’m honoured to be included in Oxford University Press’ doorstopping Anthology of Canadian Literature in English. I’m between the covers with two of my idols, Mavis Gallant and Alice Munro, along with many other writers I admire. “Bringing together a wide range of short fiction, poetry, and settler narratives, this anthology includes the country’s earliest English-language writers, beloved favourites, and important new writers.”
I’m so pleased to be coming back to the Vancouver Writers Fest for three events. I’ll be presenting The Mostly True Story of Pudding Tat, Adventuring Cat on Thursday October 24th at 1:00pm as well as hosting two events, Writing the Edge of the World with Joan Thomas and Marina Endicott, and Big Stories, Small Packages, with Philip Huynh, Anosh Irani, Bill Richardson and Zalika Reid-Benta. I hope to see you there!
I’m thrilled to have been invited to the inaugural AfterWords Festival in Halifax, Nova Scotia. I’ll be sharing the stage Friday, October 4th with Cary Fagan, then presenting a workshop the following morning. Click here for a full festival program. Click here for details about the workshop.
One of the pleasures of teaching my annual workshop on Denman Island is the surprise of new roadside installations. The one pictured here is at the “golf course” which doubles as a sheep pasture. Wildlife abounded. I particularly enjoyed visiting a stare of Barred Owls on my evening walks. (Look carefully at the picture and you’ll see three owls.) Thanks as always to the organizing committee of this charming festival and to my hard-working participants.
On May 6th, 2019, I received a Heritage Award of Honour from the City of Vancouver. From the citation: “This award recognizes her leadership in illustrating, informing, influencing, and educating the public of issues around the loss of neighbourhood heritage character and community cohesiveness as it contributes to advocacy.” While I am gratified to be recognized for this work, I would have preferred effective policy. Nonetheless, I thank my co-contributors on the book: Kerry Gold, John Atkin, Elise & Stephen Partridge, John Mackie, Eve Lazarus, Evelyn Lau, Bren Simmers, Michael Kluckner and Tracey Ayton.
Click here to see the full list of award recipients.
Click here to read more about Vancouver Vanishes, the book.
Click here for the Facebook page.
I’m so pleased to be hosting some of the Shoe Project writers at Growing Room 2019. Come and hear women from Syria, Kurdistan, Bangladesh, Tibet and Eritrea speak about their experiences that brought them to Canada. Thursday 14 March at 7:30 pm. Click here for details.
A quarter century after it was first published, Bad Imaginings is back. A huge thanks for Biblioasis for republishing it, my first book. Click here for more information.
It is an honour to be included in this nearly 700-page love letter to the short story by the venerable author and critic, John Metcalf. More than half the book is dedicated to his “century list”— the collections of Canadian short stories he deems worthy to be read into the next century. Read more about The Canadian Short Story here.
