Calgary Public Library will be hosting Gail Bowen as the 2010 Writer in Residence at Memorial Park Library, thanks to a grant from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.
Gail Bowen was selected from a strong list of applicants by a panel of librarians at Calgary Public Library. She ably fulfills our requirements for a published writer with teaching experience who is able to critique a wide variety of genres in both creative and non-fiction writing.
Gail Bowen’s series features Joanne Kilbourn, a university professor, sometime political columnist and a wife, mother and grandmother. McClelland and Stewart will publish The Nesting Dolls, the 12th book in the series in August 2010.
The first six books in the Kilbourn series – Deadly Appearances (1990); Murder at the Mendel (1991); The Wandering Soul Murders (1992); A Colder Kind of Death (1994), winner of the Crime Writers of Canada Arthur Ellis Award; A Killing Spring (1996) and Verdict in Blood (1998) – have appeared as made-for-television movies with world-wide distribution. Buring Ariel (2000); The Glass Coffin (2002); The Last Good Day (2004); The Endless Knot (2006) and The Brutal Heart (2008) have met with critical and commercial success. In June 2008, Reader’s Digest named Bowen “Canada’s Best Mystery Novelist”.
Bowen’s short story “The King of Charles Street West”, which appeared in Toronto Noir (2008) published by Akashic Books, New York, was singled out for special praise by Publisher’s Weekly.
Bowen has had four plays produced at Regina’s Globe Theatre – Dancing in Poppies (1993) which was presented in a special performance for Prince Edward, Beauty and the Beast (1993), The Tree (1994) and an adaptation of Peter Pan (1997). Manitoba Theatre for Young People chose Peter Pan as its 2000 Christmas production. The Grand Theatre in London, Ontario presented Dancing in Poppies in 2002 and Peter Pan in 2003.
Bowen’s adaptation of Doctor Doolittle was broadcast on CBC’s Showcase in April 2006, and the University of Regina produced a theatrical version of the play simultaneously. Saving Lonesome George, Bowen’s original play about the last of the Galapagos tortoises, was produced by Persephone Theatre in 2008 and will be produced by Carousel Players in spring 2010.
Bowen’s radio play The Word According to Charlie D was broadcast on CBC’s Showcase in October 2006. Her Long Time Listener/First Time Caller is CBC’s World Play for 2008 and was rebroadcast on CBC on May 18, 2009. She is now adapting the play for Orca’s new series, Raven Books.
Bowen has taught Creative Writing at a university level for the past ten years and has conducted several workshops in the Banff “Writing with Style” program. She was Writer-in-Residence for the Toronto Reference Library in May and June of 2009. She has extensive experience critiquing a wide variety of genres in both creative and non-fiction writing, and has dealt with writers at varying levels of their writing careers. She was Associate Professor of English at First Nations University of Canada before retiring from teaching.
We look forward to hosting Gail Bowen as our Writer in Residence in fall 2010.
Thursday, December 10 is the last day of the 2009 Writer in Residence program at Memorial Park Library. We are very sad to see Betty Jane Hegerat leave the Memorial Park Library and what has been a most successful writer in residence program.
Two other Writer in Residence programs continue on in Calgary in 2010. The Markin-Flanagan Distinguished Writers Program is offered at the University of Calgary. For more information see: http://www.ucalgary.ca/markinflanagan/
As mentioned in the last post, The Canadian Authors Association Alberta Branch Writer in Residence is based in the W.R. Castell Central Library. For more information see: http://www.canauthorsalberta.ca/id/187?secondary_id
Calgary Public Library has plans to make our Writer in Residence program an annual event. Please watch the CPL website for announcements of upcoming writers in residence at Memorial Park Library.
Betty Jane Hegerat's residency is drawing to a close. Her last day as Writer in Residence at Memorial Park will be December 10.
The last day that we can accept manuscripts is Wednesday, December 2. Betty Jane will need the intervening time to read and respond to the submissions.
We are pleased to note that Lori Hahnel is a Canadian Authors Association Writer in Residence and her residency continues on into April 2010. Please check out the website for more information: http://www.canauthorsalberta.ca/id/187?secondary_id
Many thanks to all who have visited Betty Jane Hegerat and attended her programs and readings. You have helped support our program with your interest and attention.
On November 12, I had the pleasure of reading with Marcello Di Cintio, the Markin Flanagan Writer in Residence, and talking about the experiences we’ve had to this point at our respective “residences”.
A number of authors have passed through both our doors, and I know that some of these same people have also visited Lori Hahnel, who is doing consultations for the Canadian Author’s Association at the Central Library on Sunday afternoons. Why have they sought us out, and why should you? I can only answer that from my own experience on both sides of the WIR desk. In the fifteen years I’ve been working at fiction, I have visited a number of Writers in Residence, sometimes looking for feedback on a manuscript, sometimes just wanting to talk about a project. Always, part of my motivation is that the service is free and why would I pass up such an opportunity? My work has benefitted from those consultations, and so has my perception of how we all fit together in a writing community. I have had the good fortune to find mentors along the way, and believe fervently that the support of a strong writing community and the generosity of established writers sustain us in our art.
I have reviewed about 45 manuscripts since September, talked with the writers. I have read poetry, memoir, novel excerpts (romance, suspense, mystery, fantasy, literary fiction that ranges from the traditional to the highly experimental). I have talked with new writers, emerging writers, unpublished writers, writers with books, writers who have been toiling alone in their garrets, writers who have a strong community. Every manuscript, every hour spent with a writer has given me something to think about.
For me, this time spent as Writer in Residence at Memorial Park has been a gift. And such programs, I believe, are a gift to the community. I leave this position on December 10, but Marcello di Cintio and Lori Hahnel will be in their respective chairs until June. Take advantage. Demand for these programs demonstrates the need and ensures their continuation.
Betty Jane Hegerat
We are very pleased to announce that Betty Jane Hegerat's term as writer in residence has been extended to December 10. The Alberta Foundation for the Arts has kindly agreed to our redeploying some of the grant money that had been ear-marked for promotions to allow for this extension.
Betty Jane has held individual consultations with over forty writers so far. Will your manuscript be next? If you are considering submitting a manuscript, please do so soon. While the term has been extended, there are only thee weeks left in the program and Betty Jane will need time to read your submission before she meets with you!
Calling all Calgary writers! Right now, there are two Writers-in-Residence in Calgary who would be happy to review your manuscript and give you some one-on-one feedback on your writing. Find out more about these opportunities by attending a unique program at Memorial Park Library when Writers-in-Residence Betty Jane Hegerat of Calgary Public Library and Marcello Di Cintio of the University of Calgary’s Markin-Flanagan Distinguished Writers Program, will talk about what to expect from a visit to a writer-in-residence. Both Betty Jane and Marcello are professional writers and they will read from new works.
Memorial Park Library
Thursday, November 12, 7:00 – 8:30 pm
Call 403-221-2006 for more information
Last week was one of the busiest and most exciting in a long while. I did presentations at two branch libraries—at Nose Hill to their two book clubs, and at Crowfoot to the 55+ group— launched my new novel, Delivery, on Thursday night, and on Saturday met with a group of writers in a “jam session” on writers’ block.
At both Nose Hill and Crowfoot, I was struck with the same thoughts that came to me after the book launch. Once my fiction is published, finally out in the world, the story no longer belongs to me. For better or worse, my characters have fledged. Out of the nest and gone for good—unlike my three children who, thank goodness, do keep coming home.
I’ve had the pleasure of speaking to many book clubs and it amazes me how often other people view these characters of my conjuring so differently from how I perceived them in the telling of the story. I’m sure reaction to the characters in Delivery will surprise me too, and I look forward to meeting with readers to talk about this new novel.
And I continue to look forward, as always, to the writers who’ve been sending their manuscripts and coming in to talk about what we do and how we do it.
To the huge audience who celebrated the release of this book, my thanks. You made that reading one of the best I’ve ever had.
Here’s a guide for book discussion that I brought to the Nose Hill readers as my practical-rather-than-profound method of reviewing what I’ve read:
How did you choose this book? If you read the book because it was someone else’s choice, do you think it’s one you would have picked up on your own?
What expectations did you have of the book before you began to read? Did the cover appeal to you? Did the “blurb” on the back, the précis on the inside cover suggest a story that would engage you? Were you influenced in your expectations by reviews or award nominations or recommendations from other people?
Whose story is this?
Who is telling the story? (The narrator is not always the main character, or even someone directly involved in the story.) Does the story unfold in the reading, or does it have a retrospective feel – a story being told after some time has passed, some distance between then and now?
What does the character (or characters if there are multiple main characters) want? Is there enough believable motivation to keep the story moving forward? How do you feel about the character? Do you care about what happens to him/her? Is the narrator reliable? Do you trust his telling of the story?
How does the language and the style affect the telling and your reading of the story?
How satisfying is the story in the telling? Are there places where it sags? Is it believable, or does it at least so sufficiently enthral you that you are willing to suspend your disbelief? Is the ending earned? Does it feel like a good landing?
What do you feel your own life and experience has brought to your reading of the book?
How did the book make you feel? Were you glad you read it?
Join us for the launch of Betty Jane Hegerat’s second novel, Delivery.
The reading will be followed by a reception with book sales and signing.
Memorial Park Library
Thursday October 29, 7:00 – 8:30
Lynn Howard has just begun to appreciate the freedom of the empty nest when Heather, her acerbic, self-centered twenty-year-old daughter announces that she is pregnant. Heather decides that adoption is the practical solution. After the baby is born, stunned and furious to find her heart at war with her head, she declares that she needs more time and she and her baby come home to stay with Lynn. Three weeks later, Heather suddenly insists that Lynn deliver the baby to her adoptive parents before that resolve weakens again.
And this is where the novel begins. Lynn can no more make that delivery than she could give away her own first child, so she stows Beegee in a laundry basket, straps her into the back of the car and drives west out of Calgary.
There is a secret at the heart of this novel. Twenty-four years before, after the birth of their son and a speedy marriage, Lynn and Jack vowed that they would never disclose to anyone that they gave Marty up for adoption, then went through a heart-wrenching two weeks to get him back. Now Lynn can’t imagine facing off with Heather without disclosing that bit of history, but she is the one in this ruined marriage who keeps her promises. With Heather and Jack both on their way to the island, Lynn tends to her small tyrant of a granddaughter and broods over all that she has learned in a passive life.
Alternating between Lynn’s story and Heather’s, the novel explores the burden of too many choices, the indescribable emotional maelstrom of birth and motherhood, and the tangled threads that tie a child to a family.
Author and writer in residence, Betty Jane Hegerat will read from her latest book and talk about how the Alberta landscape has shaped her writing and finds its way into her stories.
Fish Creek Library, Third Floor
Wed Oct 21; 2:00 – 3:30
As a writer of fiction, I confess freely, cheerfully, to being a thief. And I confess, as well, that to resolve any ethical dilemmas I find myself struggling with because of my thieving nature, I resort to lying. When I began to write short stories after a long absence from any kind of creative writing, I struggled with using stories from my life and from the lives of people around me, and yet those were the stories I felt compelled to write. Were they fiction? I wanted them to be. I didn’t want to ask anyone’s permission for my writing. The whole point was that I’d finally found my voice, and given myself permission. But I came to writing after years in and out of the social work profession, carrying a steely commitment to privacy and confidentiality. I am also a very private person with no intention of reaping benefit from rattling the bones in the family closets. So how to turn life into fiction? A wise writer told me many years ago that we need to look at true stories through a prism, let the light splinter in every direction before it comes back together again to form the fiction. Sounds mystical and wonderful, but on a practical level, where do I find such a prism? In lies. Embellishment. In turning characters inside out and story upside down. With luck, after the first two or three drafts, the story will have taken on a life of its own and surpassed the original idea in colour and light.
What of the danger of others stealing our stories? When I teach, I occasionally run into people who are reluctant to even read pieces of their work aloud, much less share copies for discussion, for fear that someone will steal their “idea”, write the story and rush to a publisher before they’ve finished the masterpiece themselves. I try to be sympathetic to the protective instinct. But in my experience those of who are driven to write do so because we have so many stories of our own we have no need to steal from others. Original ideas? We can reduce them to such a slim file, it’s safe to say we’re all writing the same stories. Over and over and over again, but each from our own experiences, and in our own voices. The whole cloth of any story is pieced together from scraps and threads — borrowed, stolen, stitched, woven and dyed —to fit the author’s vision.
Sometimes borrowing from life becomes a handicap. When I read a story with a “tone” that suggests the author dislikes his character, is perhaps blatantly contemptuous, or veers in the other direction and is overly sympathetic, kid-gloved in the portrayal, I suspect a “character” lifted from the writer’s life. Such characters are often flat, stereotypical, so lacking in depth or motivation that they feel like pawns the writer is moving artlessly around the story board. Question the credibility, and the writer is likely to say, “But that’s exactly what she’s like and what she did! How can you tell me it’s not believable when it really happened?” Writing fiction is art and there is craft involved. If it was simply a case of transposing life and real people to the page, it might be easier, but not nearly so satisfying in the execution. Borrow some of your husband’s ex-wife’s attributes if you must, but keep her out of the story.
In the writing of non-fiction the challenges around balancing privacy with creativity and artistic licence become even greater. Fiction is fiction, but when I write non-fiction, I do not allow myself wiggle room for changing the facts. Truth matters. But, my challengers tell me, my truth may not be someone else’s truth. And I argue back, that there is fact, and if we rely on fact, even if we are selective in which facts we choose to use, and if we make it clear from the outset that we know the limitations of memory and admit when we are relying on memory, then we establish the level of trust with which our story will be read. If we recreate scenes that happened thirty years ago and which we may not even have be party to, then we need to say, “This is how I imagine it may have happened.” If we begin embellishing those scenes with dialogue (set down as fact by quotation marks), extra “characters”, and motives that we attribute but have no way of proving, then I believe we have moved into the realm of fiction and we should call it fiction. The world is in enough trouble because of those who would rewrite history to their advantage and because o f “spin doctors” who distort fact to tell us what they want us to believe. We do not need to contribute to that kind of immorality with our writing.
And finally to the issue of privacy in non-fiction – memoir, life writing, creative non-fiction. When a story is burning to be told, how far do we go in disclosing information about the lives of others? The integrity of a story demands the truth. As artists we have a right to freedom of expression. But my truth (or reality) is filtered through my perceptions. And the limits around my freedom of expression are determined by my own moral compass. There are no hard answers to these hard questions. I believe that the best we can do is to keep returning to the reason for the writing. The stories that most need to be told often require great courage and the best we can hope is that there will always be heroic writers.
Betty Jane Hegerat
Whether we write fiction, memoir, poetry, we cannot escape the fact that we write from our own lives, and often our writing touches on the lives of those around us in risky ways. How do we find the right “tone” and deal respectfully with material that is close to the bone? Join CPL’s writer in residence, Betty Jane Hegerat for this workshop.
Shawnessy Library, Main Floor
Thurs Oct 8; 1:00 – 3:00
I was putting together a session called Forks in the Road earlier this week and, always wary lest I take myself too seriously, I let my juvenile sense of humour decide on the opening. Find a joke, I thought. Google “cutlery jokes”?
Where do cars get the most flat tires? Where there’s a fork in the road.
Yes, I got the groans I deserved, but I thought this was not so bad a beginning, metaphorically. Where do writers get stalled? Where there’s a decision to be made.
I wanted, in the presentations I planned for this WIR term, to go a little beyond the topics that come up over and over again in writing classes and groups -- submissions and markets, the writing life, where ideas come from. The marketing topic can be covered pretty quickly with a hand-out and a bit of advice. The other two usually raise questions that have generic answers. We live, we write, we write about what we learn from living. Each of us writes and works at learning the craft in her own time. All of us, I think, hope that we don’t pass up opportunities along the way. Courses, writing groups, mentorships, retreats, residencies; how to decide where to invest your time and money? These were the things we talked about at the downtown branch on Monday night. And after that discussion with a roomful of keen writers, I decided that I would like to continue talking about possibilities and choices.
On Saturday afternoons from October 31 to November 21, I’ll be here at Memorial Park, hoping writers will drop in to talk about anything that bubbles up. I’m adding forks to the list. Hope you can drop by.
Betty Jane Hegerat
How do we decide which paths to take to becoming writers? Do we need courses, degrees, other writers? Learn how to choose courses, find writing groups, survive criticism. Join CPL’s writer in residence, Betty Jane Hegerat for this workshop.
Central Library, 4th Floor North
Monday, September 28; 6:00 – 7:30 pm
Betty Jane Hegerat writes:
Of course we need days to stand up and shout for the arts and artists, but how do we ever get beyond preaching to the choir? I'm sure that almost everyone who reads this is already a convert. Of course we need to attend performances by local players, buy art by local painters and sculptors, buy books by local authors. But we all know we can't live on local art alone. We'd starve on the hundred mile diet. I need a rich diet of books from around the world -- pineapples and bananas and lychee nuts as well as carrots and Taber corn. We need balance. But it seems to me, typically Canadian, to believe with religious fervour in Canadian content and preserving the culture on the one hand, and on the other to secretly feel that the best art -- the most delicious -- comes from exotic places, wins big prizes, and gets loud accolades in the New York Times. If a work of art has resonance, familiarity, we appreciate it with almost guilty pleasure, a sense that it might somehow only be exciting at the local level. We are so humble. We don't want the world to think we're trying to make too much of our own artists. My manifesto for Alberta Arts Days and for the three months of my writer in residence gig at Memorial Park Library: Celebrate Alberta artists as though they are coming to you from exotic places with precious gifts in their hands. Because that is exactly what they are doing. Out of their wild and wonderful imagining of this place we share, they are producing art that is worthy of the world stage. Be amazed and proud.
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