Writer in Residence - All Comments

re: Calgary Writers in Residence

betty jane hegerat — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:39:25 GMT

Yes, multi-author events do make it worthwhile to spend time out of a busy life. There is writers' weekend of presentations/panels/readings coming up in February at Central library. Writers and publishers will be presenting. Keep an eye out for the winter program guide.

We've tried, within the WIR program to accomodate busy lives as much as possible. I've been doing consultations in daytime, evening, and weekend hours and will continue to do so until the program ends in early December. Still time for manuscript submissions.

re: Calgary Writers in Residence

Connie Donoghue — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:28:05 GMT

Yes I did see the ad for Cecilia Frey's discussion at my local branch! And looking forward to Rick Hillier's discussion. I'm even debating changing my work schedule to attend some of them!

I guess it's difficult for the CPL to schedule events to meet everyone's schedule - but I figure it doesnt hurt trying to encourage more panel-style discussions or more-than-one readings to satisfy the 'intense-but-serious-but-also-very-busy' demographic.

re: Calgary Writers in Residence

betty jane hegerat — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:33:13 GMT

Hi, Connie.

Yes, I will be happy to post a summary of tonight's discussion sometime in the next few days.

As to showcasing other local writers as well writers from away, I think the CPL does a fine job of this. Since I began this WIR term in September, Memorial Park has hosted readings by Lori Hahnel, Trevor Herriott, Gail Bowen, and tonight's reading will include Marcello di Cintio. The Central library has had numerous events and readings, and in the next three weeks at various branches: Geoffrey Simmins, John Lathrop, Cecelia Frey, General Rick Hillier.

There are so many readings in this literary community, particularly in the fall, I think the problem for most of us is in finding the time to attend them all.

re: Calgary Writers in Residence

Connie Donoghue — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 02:27:53 GMT

A few weeks ago, I got an offer I couldnt refuse....the CPL counterclerk actually offered me a free library membership (only for a year tho') and at the end of the signup she flopped down a CPL program booklet and said "There. Now you can go to some of these things." Taking that as more of an order than a suggestion, I looked thru a few of the many offerings. Working afternoon/evenings limits your social life all around, however.

Nevertheless, would you be into posting a summary of your Nov 12 sessions' discussion on the website following the discussion?

And are you going to showcase the writings of other local writers? I attended a session a few years ago that was introduced and moderated by Austen Clark (when he was the w-i-r at the TO Public Library) that featured a few writers from the area, at least one of whom was a 'grad' of the TPL program. That session demonstrated the depth and variety of local writing and fostered a greater sense of professionalism about writing, and about establishing a body of published work. Even so, it was both informative and enjoyable.

re: When truth matters

betty jane hegerat — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:17:40 GMT

Hi, Connie. Thanks for your thoughtful posts. And for the apt invocation of Atwood.

For me the prairie landscape so defines my writing both in subject and style that departing from it is more the challenge. My experience in the Calgary writing community gives me a sense of a strong western presence that benefits from a steady stream of new voices.

To shift focus somewhat, the latest issue of This Magazine magazine had an interesting article by Darryl Whetter, titled: "Down on the farm

Canada is an urban nation. Why is our literature so relentlessly rural?"

this.org/.../canadian-farm-literature

re: When truth matters

Connie Donoghue — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:06:45 GMT

Dear Ms. Hegerat,

Congratulations on your award. I was wondering, are you going to post any comments whatsoever? I've been trying to be very provocative with my comments. We cant just treasure local art, we have to recognize it and use it.

I think the beauty and relevance of prairie art, regardless of the media or genre, is that it's always been part of the landscape of our lives. But there's no longer any intellectual or artistic western presence. For that, there has to be relevance and (I think) intellectual honesty.

re: When truth matters

Connie Donoghue — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 05:00:55 GMT

If freedom of expression has any meaning at all, there HAS to be room for dissension and discussion; there has to be room in a story even for dissembling discussion. "freedom of expression" is an ongoing process - the product of expression isnt. And to be perfectly honest, I'd much rather read those stories that have a complex relationship within "truth".

...and of course to use an example from Margaret Atwood - ok two examples....and that's because she always seems to trod the terrain first....

If we take an example from Atwood's "Blind Assassin", the family truth ultimately mattered to Iris re: her granddaughter, not to "Iris's" readers and adoring public.

If we take an example from Atwood's "Penelopiad", the truth-denied dearly mattered to the 12 slavemaids, but not to any of their peers, nor to most of the countless generations of audiences since that story was first launched on the world.

If your story is "truth", then as a reader I'm put in the role of judge or jury over your characters. I dont believe there is any other way of cutting that - to return to your metaphor of cutlery. And more often than not, I'll try to get out of that juryduty! Again, to be perfectly honest.

re: Liars and Thieves

Connie Donoghue — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 08:21:09 GMT

Decisions stall writers? If 'respectful' censors the irreverent and the spontaneous and the genuine creativity of any artistic moment, than it cant be a matter of 'decision'. And if 'decision' is a euphemism for 'unilateral judgment' than it also isnt part of any genuine artistic moment.

For several years now, issues of voice and representation have been a central concern to writers and to many academic disciplines. And sometimes the intellectual and emotional turmoil of that concern is incredibly creative. I've read that Zora Neale Hurston wrote the entire first draft of "Their Eyes Were Watching God" in only a few weeks, when she was supposed to be researching/writing her ethnography of a post-slave community in Haiti.

And...have you heard of a book called "The Red Leather Diary"? A woman - a writer and a student of writing - found old suitcases in a dumpster outside of her apartment building in NYC. Among the old clothes and furs was a red leather diary of a teen-aged girl from the 1930's. The woman had been trying to write something to publish and apparently 'knew' as soon as she saw the contents of the diary that there was 'her' book. And she actually started writing her book before (I think quite a few months before) she tried to find the author of the diary. There's an article about it in a recent edition of Shambhala Sun magazine. The woman writer (now that's a whole philosophical discussion right there)of the book not the diary, is a graduate of a big ivy-league Am university, has even taken courses with Robert Thurman (of course dad of Uma, a buddhist monk and personal friend of HH Dalai Lamai, with personal links to several creative communities)but she still used someone else's story, and is very proud of it. Thief indeed!??

Oh ya, and about 18 months ago, I took my cats to the vet and - this vet hospital is incredibly thorough and even photograph the animals so there's a visual id in case of emergency - well the vet techs thought that the picture of Moka where they had to hold her head up, they thought that one best represented Moka...and that I'd appreciate it as well. "See. She even looks like she's smiling! Isnt that cute?"

And it is too. I think about it and it makes me laugh.

...oh ya...I almost forgot...at the end of every Battlestar Galactica episode there's a little animated vignette of the writer/producer dudes (R & D)that of course is suitably gratuitously violent...and my absolute favourite vignette is the one where one dude asks the other, "Hmmm? Jot this down" and the second dude takes a pen stiffly in his fist and scratches "This" in animated-dripping-blood into the forehead of the first dude. That vignette is used a few times through the series.

Only in cartoons should the guy with the pen get the last word. If you imagine your audience to be the jury over your 'characters', then you may as well be writing for mushrooms - if you ask me that is.

The angst about voice and representation has even been the basis of what is arguably the greatest Canadian novel ever written, Margaret Atwood's "The Blind Assasin" ! And I think ultimately the reason (the angst over voice and representation) for her irritatingly persistent assertion that for her, creative inspiration is like "negotiating with the dead".

I dont think I'd wanna read any of her work if she ever actually resolved her angst. If she did, I fear much of her creativity and unique voice would disappear. And I dont think the poetry would be there at all - certainly not the poems of her sister's cat, poor dead Blackie, who ended up in the freezer near the fishtreats he loved so much in life {from a small volume entitled "The Door"...and I really dont do that poem justice!}

And I'm not sure I'd trust a vet that was entirely respectful of my feelings in telling me their opinion of my cat's health and disposition. I certainly wouldnt take my cats to any vet whom I couldnt tell my genuine and straight opinion. But then, I'm not sure I could look my vet in the eye and say "no, I'm not paying for those tests" if I'd written and published a poem about poor dead Blackie in the freezer.

Writing and representation like every other social act or situation, is negotiated. I know that I DONT read ANYTHING where the author doesnt at some level recognize that. Being respectful in a unilateral representation usually devolves into what the *author* deems as politically correct - producing writing that is often one-dimensional and just plain bad.

Of course, Margaret Atwood's already trod that terrain with the Penolopiad: a book and a play about the timeless and irreparable injustice of the unilateral judgment of the 'official' account. And of the "life sentence" for Penolope because of the perpetual judgment of 12 wronged servants. (And ya, I wondered while reading it if that book arose from a self-searching moment about her cultural icon status and of her 'example-to-otherness' situation.)

But then if we knew all of the origins of that, some of the mystery of creativity would be lost, and if you ask me a lot of the enjoyment of fiction would be lost. For instance, would it be an easy acceptance for audiences to find that Atwood's imagined society of Ithaca - where it was more acceptable to summarily hang 12 women than it was to discuss openly problems of leadership succession, where it was forbidden to discuss the necessity for all that offical state-level secrecy, deception and duplicity - wouldnt it be troubling to find that it was all somehow based on Canadian society and sadly prophetic of events. ? Would it still be 'fiction' if the author relinquished the creative source to her audience. ?

re: Alberta Arts Days

Aditijasra — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 03:07:44 GMT

Wonderful post Betty. I think we Calgarians need to promote our local Art and Culture but there is nothing wrong in aspiring for world recognition.

calgary.cityguide.ca/how-to-get-involved-in-albertas-art-and-culture-community-alberta-art-days-029804.php

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