Yukoners Rosemary Oslund (l), Paige Hopkins, Emily Turner-Davis and Geri-Lee Buyck are heading to the Kingdom of eSwatini for 18 days to tell stories of gender equality through photography and journalism Winter had not yet fully set in in Whitehorse, but you wouldn’t know that on the grey and blustery day I met with four …
1949 History of Atlin & Tagish roads “decimated, through inanition, due wholly to the lack of adequate and vital transportation facilities.”
I’m sitting in my skivvies, contemplating what pearls of wisdom to cram into a 400-word space. As I advise my writing students, when you feel stuck, start with a word. Any word. Today, that word is “engagement”. In my days as a working journalist, I was supposed to remain officially objective, unengaged, a step removed …
“It’s like everybody knows the story,” muses a reporter to her colleague. “Except us.” The journalists of “Spotlight,” a legendary investigative unit at the Boston Globe, won a Pulitzer for a series of revelatory articles on the cover-up of child abuse in the Catholic Church, published in 2002. But as one of the characters ruefully …
Don’t bother asking Damien Atkins whether or not he believes in UFOs. He won’t tell you. What the Toronto-based playwright and actor will do instead is talk about his one-person play, We Are Not Alone, which he’s bringing to Whitehorse next month as part of the Magnetic North Theatre Festival. “When I do interviews about …
Murder, betrayal or New Year celebrations – these are the topics on the list. It is December 30 and we have to decide which story will be on the cover of tomorrow’s newspaper. Unfortunately, there will be blood leaking from the newspaper on New Year’s Day. The murder of a German-Namibian farmer is breaking news. …
Louise Burns, a Canadian singer-songwriter and former member of the girl band Lillix, just completed a month’s residency in Dawson City as the songwriter in residence. The Vancouver musician says it was her boyfriend who found the opportunity online. “I’m always complaining I have no time to write music, so when he saw the …
By the time you read this I’ll be “Exploring the Frontiers of Language” in Skagway, attending this year’s edition of the North Words Writers Symposium. I’ve been at most of these gatherings since the first one in 2010 and have found the trip a pleasant way to begin summer travels with our trailer. North Words …
Whitehorse-based singer-songwriter and comedian Claire Ness is right in her element; the local performer is releasing a new live album called Jackfish Girl, which will drop with a celebratory concert on September 26 at the Old Fire Hall. For Ness the concept of a live album contains a certain excitement not present in the studio …
Keno. The tiny mining town 60 km north of Mayo is just far enough off the beaten track to possess exotic appeal. Ask Lara Lewis, vocalist and keyboardist for the Whitehorse band, Black Iron Blossom.“Keno has a certain allure to it,” says Lewis. “It’s the town at the end of the road.”It’s an allure that …
At the age of 30, Jerome Stueart met his mother for the first time. It’s an unusual story, but not unique. So here’s the twist: Stueart knew he was adopted but hadn’t even been looking for his mother; she tracked him down. “I never had any inclination to find her,” he says. But Stueart, a …
I want to spend my life with you Don’t want to live all alone I can’t conceive of the years left in me Without you in our home —The Proclaimers, “Life with You” It is the Good Saturday, the one before the snow. You can call it summer. I go over to Mike Durham and …
by the Globe and Mail‘s Gary Mason A couple of years ago, I flew to Whitehorse for the opening of the Canada Winter Games. Prime Minister Stephen Harper was in town and, as a columnist with The Globe and Mail, I was sent to chronicle his time in the Yukon capital. It was my second …
A guest column: The Yukon’s peaceful, easy feeling Read More »
For 10 years, living in the United States, I read the Wall Street Journal to keep on top of developments in the business world. But it was the Friday edition I looked forward to with true delight. Every Friday was, and continues to be, some of the best writing on wine that I have ever …
Q: What do Brian Fidler, Barbara Chamberlin and Harreson Tanner have in common? A: Those of us in the media often spell their names wrong. I, personally, have allowed two of their names to be spelled wrong in this paper and I remember the circumstances of each one because we editors (and writers) really hate …
Guest Column by Tammy Beese I agree with some of the points made by Darrell Hookey in his column last week, “It’s worth the paper it’s written on,” on the troubling state of journalism today. Media business owners and the public do need to take some responsibility. But wouldn’t you say the journalist must also …
I remember back in the day when you could buy a great hamburger … a great hamburger as defined as a handful of meat, infused with Tabasco sauce — or a variety of secret family recipes — slapped into the shape of a patty and cooked over a flame. No two hamburgers were ever the …
“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 …
World of Words: Helping children explore the past in the present Read More »
Laying out the paper is like a controlled plane crash,” my editor said across the table from me at A&W, pausing with a knowing-turned-quizzical look that seemed to say, You do know what I’m talking about, don’t you? No, I don’t, was the only realistic, albeit mute choice as my expression struggled to remain neutral …
Just as a reformed smoker is often the first person to complain about a hotel room that smells of tobacco, I shall now complain bitterly about today’s society misusing the word “cool.” “Cool”, as I understand and appreciate the word, originated from jazz music: the saxophone player doesn’t acknowledge the audience; he leans into his …
It is with your support these past years that our community entertainment magazine has grown to what it is today. We didn’t create the events, shows, concerts, and games that are featured in this magazine… Yukoners did. It is our neighbour’s talents and creativity that is featured in story after story. Quite frankly, Yukoners have …
We would like to share this award with all of you Read More »
With the departure of What’s Up Yukon founding editor Darrell Hookey, last week (may he live out his retirement never again checking for typos), it falls to your guest editor to hold down the fort. You may remember me from my last stint here in June, when I filled in while Darrell was away on …
Last week, I visited the Wall Street Journal website to read the most recent article by my favourite wine writers, Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher … it wasn’t there! They retired at the end of 2009. They had my dream job: they are a married couple who, for a dozen years, had written the best …
Blogging is “a dangerous medium for personal exposure.” So says Andrew Robulack, a Whitehorse technophile, columnist and long-time blogger. He’s nailed the definition. Broadcasting your opinions, memories, successes, and frustrations, in the most public forum yet devised, is everything Andrew asserts. So you wouldn’t expect many people to write a “web log,” the name once …
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 …
When the good folks at What’s Up Yukon asked me to fill in for their editor, Darrell Hookey, during his well-deserved honeymoon vacation, two things went through my mind. First, I had sworn many years ago that I’d never again work on a weekly paper. I had done it many years ago in Vancouver, and …
