Archive for November 2009
A GG for Greener Grass
Last night Caroline Pignat received a Governor General’s award for her young adult novel, Greener Grass. Not surprising when you look at the reviews. And needless to say, she’s delighted. The book is set in Ireland, and she’s going to take her parents there with some of her prize money.
What makes Caroline’s win sweet for me and for my partner Peter Carver is knowing we both had a hand in helping this talented writer develop her story. Caroline brought her (very promising) manuscript to our first Nova Scotia Writing Workshop. I offered her feedback there, and she revised it. Peter, as editor at Red Deer Press, took it on, and the rest, as they say, is history. (A cliche, you might say, but an apt one, perhaps, given that Greener Grass is historical fiction.)
Peter and I will be setting dates for this year’s Nova Scotia workshop very soon. In the meantime, congratulations to Caroline Pignat!
(By the way, The Bite of the Mango which I wrote about in a previous blog post, won the Norma Fleck Award for Non-Fiction this week – another prestigious honour in the field of Canadian children’s literature. Congratulations to Mariatu Kamara and Susan McClelland.)
Add comment November 27, 2009
Coffee Shop Author
Could I write a book in a coffee shop? I’ve always thought of myself as a writer who needs a quiet room, free of distraction. I have trouble resisting the sound of human voices. So how could I possibly write anything more challenging than a shopping list in a coffee shop? Why would I even consider it?
Because a new literary contest has been announced, challenging authors to “write the bulk of a novel, short story collection, poetry collection or a work of creative nonâfiction at a coffee shop between November 2009 and April 2010.” I like the sound of the prizes being offered. And maybe shaking up how I normally write would help break me out of the writing funk I’ve been in lately. (No big deal, it happens.) I wonder, does it matter that I don’t drink coffee?
6 comments November 24, 2009
Inspirational Role Models
It seems fitting, it being Inspirational Role Models Month in the US, that I should meet this week with a professor from Smith College to discuss her work on a book about Cornelia Hahn Oberlander. “Like you,” she said in her initial email contact, “I was asked by Cornelia to write a book, and like you, I find her a tough nut to crack.” Cornelia was a tough nut to crack, but her passion for taking care of the environment through the work she does continues to inspire me.
Writing Love Every Leaf: the life of landscape architect Cornelia Hahn Oberlander has also influenced the way I look at many things as I go about my days – the groundcovers that grew on harsh terrains in Newfoundland last month for example, and trees that are well or poorly placed in relation to buildings and other features in a built landscape. Even the berm/hill/mound that provides a buffer between a playground in my neighbourhood and the houses beside it caught my attention recently.
I was in that playground with my seven year old granddaughter. She played on the equipment for a while, then abandoned it to climb to the top of the mound. I couldn’t help thinking of the mound in Jim Everett Park in Vancouver, designed by Cornelia where there was once just an unused triangle of soggy land. It’s the mound pictured on the cover of Love Every Leaf with Cornelia standing proudly on top of it. How well she understands children (although in her late 80s, she’s a long way from childhood herself) to know that a hill to climb is an important feature in a landscape for children. They love the element of surprise that hills provide opportuinvites for.
I suspect that whoever designed the park in my neighbourhood didn’t know that, because of course when my granddaughter climbed the hill there, she was delighted to discover the excellent view it provided of the “private” backyards on the other side!
I must write Cornelia and tell her how much I enjoyed meeting her next biographer, and thank her for inspiring me with her passion for her profession. If I were lots younger than I am, I’m sure I’d be inspired to join her in the exciting field of landscape architecture.
Add comment November 20, 2009
The Bite of the Mango
I have just finished reading The Bite of the Mango by Mariatu Kamara with Susan McClelland. It’s Mariatu’s story of how her life in Sierra Leone was changed when the rebel army attacked her village and cut off her hands. The back cover says it’s a story of “immense courage, resilience, and hope.”
Reading of the atrocities of war, and the sadness and anger that naturally follow, it was difficult to imagine how hope could possibly emerge. (Not only did Mariatu Kamara lose her hands, she had a baby when she was only twelve years old after being raped.) But knowing that Annick Press would not publish a book that left its subject or its readers in despair, I read on.
The courage and resilience of this young woman is truly inspiring. I was especially moved by her description of meeting former child soldier Ishmael Beah in Toronto, when he was there promoting A Long Way Gone.
After six years of living in Canada, Mariatu Kamara returns to Sierra Leone. She can’t give up the life she knows is available to her in Canada. But seeing living conditions of loved ones in Sierra Leone, now through the lens of having lived in Canada, how could she just “look forward”, as they all urged her to do? It’s impossible not to have profound admiration and respect for how she resolves this dilemma.
I hope high school English teachers are recognizing what an eye-opening and enriching experience reading the two books – A Long Way Gone and The Bite of the Mango – would be for their students. (Teaching guides are available online for both books.)
I also hope booksellers are placing copies of The Bite of the Mango on both young adult and adult bookshelves. It would be a shame for any of its potential readers to miss it.
Add comment November 13, 2009
Bringing Robert Frost Home From Newfoundland
A man carried stacks of National Geographic magazines from his truck to a table in the Deer Lake Library. They dated back to the 1950s. One issue caught my eye. The face on the cover was not one I expected to see on a NG cover.
It was the April 1976 issue. Inside, unrelated to the boy’s face, was a feature on Robert Frost, which included excerpts from his poetry, matched with beautiful New England photographs. I began reading the feature on the spot and was encouraged to take it home.
This week I found time to read it. In case it’s been a while since you’ve dipped into Frost, I’d like to share a few of his words:
Oh, give us pleasure
in the flowers today;
And give us not to think
so far away
As the uncertain harvest;
keep us here
All simply in the springing
of the year.
Being November, the piece might more aptly read (with apologies to Robert Frost):
Oh, give us pleasure
in the frost today;
And give us not to think
so far away
As the uncertain crocus;
keep us here
All simply in the falling
of the year.
Or, being a writer, I might remind myself and my writing friends and students:
Oh, give us pleasure
in the flow of words today;
And give us not to think
so far away
As the uncertain kudos;
keep us here
All simply in the writing
of the thing.
How do Frost’s words relate to your life?
And . . . about that boy on the cover (photo by Linda Bartlett). His name is Paudie Boland of Ireland’s Dingle Peninsula. I wonder if he’s still there (he’d be 40 or thereabouts by now). I wonder if his grandfather’s farm is still in the family. Hmm. A writer could talk herself into a trip to Ireland with thoughts like these.
4 comments November 6, 2009
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