World of Words columnist Jessica Simon covers the literary beat for What’s Up Yukon
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, …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Imagine that this is a story about you and a poem – 25 delicious lines about gathering pancake berries at Moosehide that you submitted to the 2009 Yukon Young Authors Contest. On the strength of your writing, Robert Service School sent you to the two-day Young Authors Conference at F.H. Collins starting April 30. Too …
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 …
World of Words: Poetry Festival reached for the stars Read More »
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 …
World of Words: A Poet shares her diverse sense of ‘Place’ Read More »
“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 »
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 City is featured in the novel Toronto writer Pasha Malla drafted about cities, this summer, at Berton House. But what the writer-in-residence could not explain was that his apartment in Brooklyn was quieter than the Klondike. “Here, there are dogs, crows, chainsaws, hammers, drills and, for reasons I still can’t fathom, car alarms!” Malla …
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 …
World of Words: The rugged history of Yukon libraries Read More »
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 …
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 …
An excerpt from Jessica Simon’s New Book Chapter One … Under the skiff of snow that blew across the parking lot, a row of footprints trailed from Fanger’s truck – a pile of rust so old it said Datsun on the tailgate – to a line of nearby trees. He opened the door and empties …
“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 …
“Think of our history as a smörgåsbord, upon which there is more than you can possibly eat,” says Michael Gates, author of the new book, History Hunting in the Yukon, published by Harbour Publishing. As Gates’ popular History Hunters column in the Yukon News shows, he gets personal about Yukon history: “I have always delighted …
“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 …
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,” …
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 …
World of Words: Graphic novels – no longer restricted reading Read More »
Anyone who’s sat in an outhouse in the Yukon, has frozen their backside reading the Outdoor Edge. It’s a quarterly magazine for hunters and anglers in Western Canada mailed to every fish and game association member west of Ontario. In those pages, we’ve read work by members of the Outdoor Writers of Canada (OWC). Short, …
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 …
World of Words: Boreal Gourmet serves up storied fare Read More »
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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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. …
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 …
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 …
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 …
World of Words: “Bodice Rippers” Evolve to “Flak Jacket Rippers” Read More »
Imagine a new book mailed to every child, every month, until they are five years old. That’s what Dolly Parton did. Now imagine literacy in every Yukon family. That’s what the Rendezvous Rotary Club did. The result is the Yukon Dolly Parton Imagination Library, central to a family literacy program, for 430 Yukon children. It …
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 …
World of Words: From Dryland to Northland: One Musher’s Tale Read More »
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 …
World of Words: Ynklude writes books for all abilities Read More »
Yukon writers are a prolific bunch, offering a new book every month or so. For the second year in a row, Lise Schonewille, bookbuyer at Mac’s Fireweed Books, has put together a mini book fair to showcase writers who had a book come out in 2010. “Last year I just realized how many wonderful authors …
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 …
Rhea Tregebov has loved poetry from an early age. “It wasn’t until university that I realized what a central place it would take in my life,” she admits. The multi-disciplinary writer and assistant professor of creative writing at UBC now juggles being a poet, novelist, editor and children’s author. “It’s nice to feel ambidextrous in …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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, …
World of Words: Concierge at a wilderness dog camp Read More »
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 …
World of Words: On assignment with Luke Dittrich Read More »
When Bob Hayes was in grade school, he was nearly accused of plagiarism for his story “The Flickering Flame.” The author Hayes emulated? Jack London. Readers of Hayes’ first book, Wolves of the Yukon, will spot the influence of Jack London, Robert Service and Pierre Berton. And like Alaska author James Michener, Wolves starts at …
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 …
It’s unusual for a writing conference to produce immediate results, but just one month after Northern Writes staged the Yukon Writer’s Conference, delegates were already using what they learned to explore emerging publishing models. Presenter Kristine Kathryn Rusch likened the growth of e-book options to network television plus cable. “Some people only deal with network; …
“Today’s kids are so fragmented by media, sports, school and hobbies that history is a tough sell,” says Whitehorse author Keith Halliday. Halliday recently discussed the challenges, and his solution, at a Yukon Historical and Museum Association heritage after hours presentation. “Writers need a ripping good story,” he told the informal audience of two dozen …
Old Crow poet and cartoonist Allan Benjamin caught himself when he said he carries a pen and paper in his pocket 24 hours a day. “Actually, it’s pencil. A pen freezes.” Not something you want to happen out on the Flats when inspiration strikes. The 56-year-old Benjamin, who is well-known by What’s Up Yukon readers …
It’s been two years since the last Yukon Writers’ Conference, which launched several local authors. This Thanksgiving is another, thanks to Northern Writes, the partnership of Barb Dunlop and Marcelle Dube. Early this year, the pair started to organize funding from the Cultural Industries Training Trust Fund and local business support to offer two days …
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 …
Much attention has been paid recently to the topic of Canadian content and national pride in literature. It seems we’re writing about everywhere except Canada. Granted, 2011 marked the first time crime fiction was considered by Scotiabank Giller Prize jurors, which may have contributed to the phenomenon. But, as local writer Tina Brobby says, “It …
When Yvonne Harris taught at Nunavut Arctic College, or Silattuqsarvik as it’s called in Pangnirtung, an elder guest lecturer told her students a remarkable story of her forced marriage to an old hunter. At that moment, the idea for Harris’ debut novel, Ashoona — Daughter of the Winds: an Inuit woman’s journey, was born. Now …
Enthusiasts of outdoor stories, adventure and romance will find all three at the preview of Roy Ness’s first novel, Rutting Season, at the Parking Lot Reading on Friday, July 27. The self-published book is a stand-alone adventure with a liberal dose of romance. In a September storm in the Selwyn Mountains grizzly bear eco-warrior Hannah …
No matter how much rain we get, young readers can climb the Chilkoot Trail at Well-Read Books this summer. The free project, called “Reading over the Chilkoot”, guides children aged 6-9 and 10-13 to read their way over the Trail. Just as on the real trail, they have to gear up first. Colourful canvas passports, …
Dalton’s Gold Rush Trail is a story of journeys; the 10-year journey of Jack Dalton to blaze a trail to the Klondike gold fields, and the 40-year journey of author Michael Gates to retrace those steps in southwest Yukon. Like the pioneer, “Michael shares Dalton’s own determination and concise, clear thinking,” said local author Ellen …
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 …
World of Words: Guerrilla editing: Get what you want Read More »
Ione Christensen, Yukon writer, mother, pioneer and politician, is writing an autobiography spanning three generations. The daughter of RCMP corporal G. I. Cameron and lay nurse Martha, Ione was raised in Fort Selkirk, a once quiet riverside community transformed each summer into a bustling paddlewheel stop where the Pelly and Yukon rivers meet. Ione credits …
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 …
World of Words: Be enchanted at the Yukon’s magic bookstore Read More »
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 …
World of Words: Clea Roberts shows Yukoners the nature of ourselves Read More »
