Ross River musician Dennis Shorty grew up in a musical family that spoke Kaska and performed at social events. Now he is sharing his love of the language through the musical duo he formed with his wife, Jennifer Froehling, is called Dena Zagi, meaning “people’s voice”. In August, they toured in Germany with their first …
Late at night around a campfire, a local miner may share their story. This one was told on an informal basis, but, there’s no need to name names. We all know someone like this. If not, imagine this is you: you’re lured to the Yukon to mine for gold. Maybe you don’t have to tax …
Five years ago Hidden Memories started as a one-act play Lillian Nakamura Maguire drafted to improve her dialogue skills for a creative writing class. Now the full-length version will be featured in the Vancouver Fringe Festival’s Advance Theatre: New Works by Diverse Women on September 13. “It’s the first time Hidden Memories will be read …
I’m not a miner, but on a recent visit to Germany my friends took me on impromptu mining tours of their regions. First Clemens and I drove 100 kilometres west of Leipzig to Wangen and the Arc of Nebra (Arche Nebra) museum, where the Himmelsscheibe (Star Chart) of Nebra was discovered in 1999. Dating back …
Yukon Women in Mining wants to raise the profile of mining as a vibrant career option, especially for Yukon women and youth. To do that in May they launched the Experiential Extravaganza in three Yukon communities. Over 30 representatives from 20 companies built a travelling exploration camp in Pelly Crossing, Faro and Dawson City to …
When Yukon playwright Patti Flather launched the book of her highly acclaimed play, Paradise, on a warm June evening at Baked Café in Whitehorse, Mac’s Fireweed Books sold out all their copies. “The thing about a play, is after it’s produced it’s done. A book lasts,” says Flather. Flather is a co-founder of Gwaandak Theatre, …
You wouldn’t think a person could go ghost hunting in the middle of the day in the middle of summer, but MacBride Museum offers six to 12-year-olds a chance to do just that from August 14 to 18. “To hunt ghosts, and tell Yukon ghost stories, you need the historical perspective,” says Angela Drainville, manager …
November, 1972. California-born musician Mike Stockstill and two friends packed their instruments into the car and headed for Alaska. The car was a 1942 Dodge truck that had six months earlier been a chicken coop. Mike, a mechanic, and his friends turned it back into a truck. “It broke down every 300 miles so we …
Visit the Academic and Skills Development office in the A-wing of Yukon College, and you’ll be greeted with words of empowerment on the backs of a stream of 16 cedar salmon in a work of art created by local artist Cheryl Teya. On each salmon plaque is a core value, such as kindness, respect, goals. …
Whitehorse resident Dianne Homan knows people make the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage for many reasons. So on March 15, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., she and the Yukon chapter of the Company of Canadian Pilgrims are hosting an informal presentation about “the Camino experience” at Hidden Valley School. Located in western Europe, the Camino …
Now he is upgrading his education and learning English at the Yukon College in preparation to study pharmacy. He concentrates to force his hand write left to right, which is opposite to Arabic, as he writes out the names of his family. At school, it’s impossible to overlook Hasan’s notoriety. “We’re famous now.” He shifts …
Practically unheard of – the top 10 books reviewed last year were evenly split between male and female authors. And never before: the number of men and women reviewing books in Canada is nearly equal. That’s what the Canadian Women in the Literary Arts (CWILA) discovered in its annual investigation of female representation among reviewers …
Ploytida Samanachangphunk had one sister living in Whitehorse before she immigrated to Canada. Now she has three sisters and an extended family here. Ploytida’s sister would return for family visits to their hometown of Nan, in northern Thailand, and tell her about life in the Yukon. Ploytida became intrigued. “I love my country. Thailand is …
While others hunker down against winter’s wrath, the local literary scene is hotter than ever. The winter Writers’ Roundtable organized by the Friends of the Whitehorse Library (FOWL) provides a thorough overview of events for the coming season. Ongoing events include: Every Wednesday writers work from noon to 3 p.m. at Bean North Cafe, kilometre …
Every December since 2009, Lise Schonewille, manager of Mac’s Fireweed Books, celebrates Winterval, the start of the holiday season, with local authors in the store. Over the years the event has showcased a diverse collection of Yukon literature, subjects and writers as our literary talent grows. This year is no different with a mix of …
To talk to her, you wouldn’t think the quiet needleworker Karen Nicloux was once in the upper echelons of our local drug circuit. She was one of two debut artists chosen to display work at the newly opened Art House Carcross, a permanent visual showcase to promote Yukon art in the Carcross Commons in partnership …
Saturday, Nov. 19 is the Yukon Chamber of Mines’ Family Day and on Sunday the Forum Trade Show showcases the industry. Monday the Core Shack opens with drilling samples of recent prospects. Mann, an independent consultant, hasn’t missed the Geoscience Forum since the late ’80s. “If you live and work in this territory it’s the …
The status of one’s permanent residency quickly becomes the crux of conversation among the Yukon’s new Canadians. And it’s the crux of this column. No two people have the same story to tell. Not only are there various ways to immigrate, each person’s reason to immigrate is different. Some are poignant, others humorous, like this …
After you’ve picked your first few batches of mushrooms, and haven’t landed in the hospital, you’ll find the mushroom conversation branches into themes of field testing, drying, and alternate uses, such as medicines, dyes and crafts. The best mushrooming advice I ever got was from experienced mushroom picker Esa Ekdahl. She told me to start …
Kluane Country has long inspired writers. Three such writers will be doing readings in Haines Junction and Whitehorse on May 17 to 19. Whitehorse writer David Thompson set his adventure novel Haines Junction in the community; Haines Junction author Elisabeth Weigand wrote memoirs about Kluane pioneer Mabel Brewster; and Ottawa, Ontario writer Claudia Coutu Radmore, …
Lise Schonewille, bookbuyer at Mac’s Fireweed Books, pegs Northern books as her biggest sellers, followed by general fiction, sci-fi/fantasy, mystery and crime. Her counterpart, in Anchorage, Angela Lebeau of Title Wave Books, agrees. They sell primarly used books, Alaskana discovered in attics and sheds throughout the state. For mass market titles, however, a bestseller is …
For Barb Dunlop and Marcelle Dubé, organizers of Yukon Writers’ Conference, distance and destination were real advantages to attract editors, agents and publishers north for this weekend’s event. Howard White of Harbour Publishing knows the territory. Years ago, Harbour bought Lost Moose Publishing from founder Max Fraser. In 2006, they published Dick North’s book, Sailor …
Yukon legend Dick Stevenson earned his status honestly, which, according to Captain Dick’s Au’toe’biography: One Toe of a Tale, is a rarity for the captain of the Yukon Lou and the creator of the SourToe Cocktail. The “au’toe’biography” answers frequently asked questions such as this one: What is the history of the wooden-hulled barge commissioned …
When local poet Michael Reynolds reads at the 2009 Whitehorse Poetry Festival, he’ll join a closely connected group of guests that includes Michael Ondaatje, Don McKay, CD Wright, Adam Sol and Erin Mouré. “It’s exciting that we will all meet in Whitehorse!” said Mouré from Montréal. Organizer Clea Roberts said the June 19-21 festival attracts …
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Why does Snoopy always stop typing after “It was a dark and stormy night”? Lily Gontard, former editor of Yukon, North of Ordinary would suggest that the sentence, accepted as the worst opening line in the English language, doesn’t establish a character. Author Shyam Selvadurai would say it raises no expectations. And editor for Mira …
Montreal poet and essayist Erin Mouré is an Albertan with roots in Galicia, Spain. “I think in three languages all at once and every day,” she said: Galician, her father’s language, French and English. Mouré, also a professional translator, mastered Galician, a root language of Portuguese, “to preserve the richly poetic culture” of Spain’s mountainous …
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“Yukoners are definitely hitting above their weight,” polar scientist David Hik told Claire Eamer after the Canadian Science Writers’ Association (CSWA) presented her with the Science in Society Youth Book Award, in May. Locals may be familiar with Eamer’s contributions to the Northern Research Institute’s column Your Yukon or may have read her near-future fiction …
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Celebrate Northern literature on August 13 during Authors on 8th, a literary walking tour through the lives of Klondike authors Jack London, Robert Service and the Bertons, Laura and Pierre. “There’s a huge mythology about the North that both Jack London and Robert Service created,” says Rachel Wiegers, the marketing and special events co-ordinator for …
Forty years ago, an undiscovered English painter, new to the Yukon, had his first Canadian art show at the Whitehorse Public Library. Now, that painter, Ted Harrison, is the subject of the biography Painting Paradise by Katherine Gibson. On August 26, at 5 p.m., Yukoners can join both artist and author at the Yukon Arts …
Dawson’s first public library opened in a tent on Front Street in 1897, with 1,500 volumes donated by the Forty Mile Prospectors to “the mushing parson” S. Hall Young. By 1903, the venture evolved into the Standard Library Restaurant and Hotel, which offered “books, board, bed, bath and bar” and writing tables for miners to …
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Eighty-one-year-old Larry Jacobsen, author of Jewel of the Kootenays, presented Yukon Public Libraries with an irresistible offer, a book tour “with all the work done when we were really busy,” says Mairi Macrae, public programs librarian. “Normally, Yukon public libraries wouldn’t have a situation like this,” she says, noting library tours are usually in conjunction …
Yukon poet Michael Eden Reynolds’ first book, Slant Room, released today by The Porcupine’s Quill, shows us a stark natural world, and us in it. The first half, titled “Migrations”, “is very spare imagery with little human contact,” Reynolds says. “In the second half of the book, the tension between humanity and the natural world …
“We’re a productive bunch!” said Claire Eamer when she was asked to attend the Yukon Authors book-signing bash at Mac’s Fireweed Books this Saturday, Dec. 5, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Eamer, who had Super Crocs & Monster Wings and Spiked Scorpions & Walking Whales released by Annick Press, this year, was the featured …
When Bette Colyer arrived in Whitehorse in 1961, her challenge was “to build a library system from a desk and a pencil.” Born in Cape Breton in 1920, the home-schooled Bette was 16 when she saw her first library, at Acadia University. Hooked, she studied and became librarian of the National Research Council Aeronautical Division …
Young Adult (YA) readers love adventure, and a look at work by Northern authors Joanne Bell, Keith Halliday and Anita Daher shows why. YA stories can teach life skills and bush skills, as Dawson writer Joanne Bell demonstrates. Her first book, Breaking Trail (Groundwood Press), is the story of a young girl mushing her own …
“If it hadn’t been for the hospital nearby,” says Saskatchewan playwright Kenneth Williams, “I would have been born in residential school.” The year was 1966, when the church and Indian Affairs wanted more native staff at the schools. He spent his first eight years at the institution where his parents worked and the experience is …
By now, bookworms from Whitehorse to Cape Spear know Trafford Press released numerous copies of Better Than a Cure without notifying the Yukon author, Ramesh Ferris, or his collaborator, John Firth. But, what’s most important, says Ferris, is that “the message of polio eradication not be diluted by this mistake.” Ferris’ fans know everything he …
Night Work: The Sawchuk Poems, opens with the autopsy report of hockey great Terry Sawchuk. It ends with a photo of his face, a jigsaw of quick stitches. In between, author Randall Maggs creates a biography of poems that takes readers on the roller coaster ride that was the life of the greatest goalie of …
May is National Crime Writing Month, and in celebration, Yukoners have reviewed work by finalists in three categories. A Nominee for Best Crime Novel: Arctic Blue Death, by R. J. Harlick (RendezVous Crime) This is a murder story that has a bit of a twist. Meg Harris has an intriguing past, some of which is …
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Cam Fenson got his start early; I’ve been reading his fishing column since he was about 14 years old. This month, I interviewed Fenson, now 20, at the Outdoor Writers of Canada (OWC) convention in Whitehorse. “I’ve always loved fishing and it’s something I’ll always do, until I can’t tie my own knots or something,” …
Every book needs a story, even a cookbook, and Miche Genest’s Boreal Gourmet, released this month by Harbour Publishing, is just that. Boreal Gourmet presents the story of “the experimentation, the exploration, the tasting, and the testing” of local ingredients Genest harvests from the land, and her trials to prepare them in interesting ways. “I …
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Chasing trends is a tricky game for writers, says Selina McLemore, editor of Grand Central Publishing’s Forever romance line. “Some can use trends to their advantage, some buck them successfully,” she told delegates to the recent San Diego Writers’ Conference. The key is to understand the trend and what makes it work. She uses examples …
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The Yukon holds some unusual species of bugs and plants that remain from when glaciers retreated, leaving a land bridge across the Bering Sea. And dragonflies are a part of this unique natural heritage. Syd Cannings has been studying bugs and other natural wonders since he was a boy growing up in the Okanagan Valley. …
With “publication” of Marcelle Dubé’s novel, On Her Trail, by Carina Press, she became the first e-published author in the Yukon. On Her Trail combines Dubé’s love of the Yukon with her familiarity of Montréal where she was raised. The fast-paced romantic suspense features feisty Laura Thorsen who returns to her Yukon home when her …
Justine Davidson has been the Whitehorse Star court reporter for three years. Recently I moderated her presentation at the Yukon Mystery Lounge. Below are highlights of the lively discussion. Jessica Simon (JS): How did you get into court reporting? Justine Davidson (JD): It’s the beat that’s often given to the most junior reporter because most …
Writing for the screen, and writing for children, share a common trait. They both depend on someone else’s creativity to convey ideas. That became apparent at a winter writing conference when both seminars were offered back-to-back. Each speaker stressed that authors have to leave room for actors or illustrators to do their job. Scriptwriting, for …
Writing is a challenge. Raw, chaotic emotions demand to be shaped into a coherent story. It’s even more challenging when the writer has to overcome physical or mental barriers to get the work done. Fortunately, the Yukon has the Ynklude Writing Group to support writers of varying abilities to produce plays, songs and musicals, and …
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Connections made at writer’s conferences can be career-changing, said Chris Vogler. The writer who worked on I am Legend, Hancock and 10,000 BC, told San Diego Writers Conference delegates, “You have no idea who will read your story.” “It’s almost like a pilgrimage,” said Julie Strong from Halifax, who spent three days travelling in gale …
According to John Firth’s new book One Mush, Jamaicans hate dogs. So what was Caribbean musher Newton Marshall doing on the Yukon Quest in 2009? One Mush, self-published jointly by Firth and the Jamaica Dogsled Team, tells that story. “I thought it was a great story because of the cultural gap between the beaches of …
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Writers lament, “Ohmigod, I’m 25 years old and I haven’t published a book yet!” Rubbish! says Antanas Sileika, artistic director of the Humber School for Writers, and author of Who Publishes When: An Analysis of Writing and Publishing Statistics released in October, 2010. “When I was 34 years old I felt washed up because I …
Thirty-three years ago, Haines Junction English teacher Elayne Hurlburt and a friend started the St. Elias Echo. It’s still published today and Hurlburt is still writing. Like many in her family, Hurlburt has written all her life. “There are times when a creative energy seems to sweep through me and I have to write,” she …
Karen Keeley’s first book, TeLLing TaLes, is a collection of short stories that “are not solely Yukon, mystery, romance, coming of age, or any of the ‘great’ themes,” she says, but feature all those genres, plus speculative fiction. It was Keeley’s twin, Carol, who motivated her to start writing in the 1990s, and her son …
Whatever happened to that English guy in Australia who sold his life on eBay? He moved to the Yukon and wrote a book about it. In November, A Life Sold by Ian Usher went on sale via Amazon, and is now available on Kindle. It recounts Usher’s adventures to sell his life and achieve 100 …
Writers, philosophers, activists for social justice, Germans – Whitehorse has plenty. So it was no surprise we filled the Old Fire Hall on May 10 to hear German-born Bernhard Schlink, author of the renowned The Reader, introduce his new book, The Weekend. The Weekend is a discussion among members of a defunct Red Army Faction …
In 2008, artist Val Hodgson wanted to paint something familiar to her: women over 50 years of age, and the links that exist among Yukon women. At the same time, Yukon writer Claire Festel was writing profiles for the magazine Yukon, North of Ordinary. “We decided to collaborate and I was going to interview the …
The publishing industry is in some kind of spring flurry. In February this year, Amazon announced that, for the first month ever, their eBook sales outstripped paper sales. Then, in an article syndicated by the New York Times in March, HarperCollins announced lending limits for e-library books in an article called “Now at the library: …
I haven’t seen a Yukon Quest or Arctic Ultra race start in seven years now because, along with my husband Mike, I’m usually deep in the wilderness at a remote checkpoint. We initially honed our skills with the Arctic Ultra race at a wall tent camp at Dog Grave Lake, 40 miles south of Braeburn, …
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If you’ve flipped through a copy of Esquire Magazine in the past four years, there’s a 50 percent chance you’ve read a story by Whitehorse writer Luke Dittrich. And there’s a 40 percent chance you’re a woman. Although Equire is primarily a men’s interest magazine, Dittrich says, “Pretty much everything I write for them is …
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Many Yukon book-lovers are familiar with Claire Eamer’s science series for children, Super Crocs and Monster Wings, Spike Scorpions and Walking Whales, and the latest Lizards in the Sky. She’s also had science fiction published in Polaris: A Celebration of Polar Science. Alanna Mitchell writes about science and society. Although they have different approaches, they …
Tor Forsberg writes from Watson Lake. Her publishing credits include “Me Yukon”, which won the 2009 LUSH short story competition sponsored by subTerrain magazine, a story anthologized in Polar Express and numerous profiles and features for the Yukon News. In March 2010 her first book, North of Iskut, was published by Caitlin Press. Below is …
Over a dozen Yukon authors published books this year, and from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, December 3, readers can meet seven of them for refreshments and autographs at the annual Mac’s Fireweed Books holiday book bash. “I’ll have to see where I’m going to put everyone,” jokes manager Lise Schonewille. In the …
In 1949, writer Joseph Campbell launched the idea of the monomyth, or Hero’s Journey, as the most appealing way to tell a story to mass audiences across cultures. But critics, especially feminists, immediately asked, what about the Heroine? Local author Kim Hudson has responded in her book The Virgin’s Promise. “What was missing,” says Hudson, …
On the advice of writing mentor John Reed (www.writerswelcome.com), the Year of the Dragon is the year I face the dragon and stop being afraid of poetry. I’ve been putting this off for years because, after a long career as a public school student, “poetry is hard,” “I don’t get it,” and “I don’t want …
If you sat down to write the Great Canadian Novel, would it come out in a gush of first draft? Or are you one of the large number of “re-writers” who find the real story only comes to life after the editing process? “Whether writing or rewriting, at some point the word will be subjected …
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Ask David Thompson what he’s read, and you’ll get a varied list: George Orwell, J.D. Salinger and the adventures of Antarctic explorers. Doesn’t sound like the stuff of a storyteller whose short story collection, Talking at the Woodpile, reads with the quick humour of Stephen Leacock’s Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town. In this case …
With the simple tools of a canopy, lectern and public announcement system, six authors have banded together to create a Friday night reading program where none exists – in two parking slots outside the Whitehorse Coles on Chilkoot Way. The eight-week series is aimed at giving campers in the surrounding big box parking lot a …
Literature abounds with magic bookstores such as J.K. Rowling’s Obscurus Books where Hogwarts buy their texts, and Mr. Koreander’s shop where Michael Ende’s Bastian Bux steals The Neverending Story. But this column is about real bookstores where real magic happens. My own experience occurred in a Dutch bookstore where I found a German title on …
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When graphic novelist and Grade 7 teacher Rebecca Hicks was in school, reading “comics” under the desk would have earned her a trip to the principal’s office. Now, in her classroom, they’re required reading. “I’ve had great success using graphic novels to enhance reading instruction,” says Hicks. She guides more advanced readers to classical mythology …
Clea Roberts’ first collection of poetry, Here Is Where We Disembark, features every Yukoner she’s ever met. Roberts, a nature poet, shows us the nature of ourselves. On dressing: “The boots were rated to -50 C/– you wore an extra pair of socks.” At Rendezvous: “I don’t need/a hairy-leg contest/to tell me it’s been a …
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