Margaret Atwood kicks Harper’s ‘A’ and proves why she’s the grand dame of Canadian letters

MARGARET ATWOOD took a swipe at the Prime Minister’s anti-arts stance on Thursday in the Globe and Mail. (Read the entire piece here – )

My favourite part is below, where she rallies to the defence of ordinary people and our innate capacity and desire to be creative. Even when it actually costs us money.

“In fact, less than 10 per cent of writers actually make a living by their writing, however modest that living may be. They have other jobs. But people write, and want to write, and pack into creative writing classes, because they love this activity – not because they think they’ll be millionaires.

Every single one of those people is an “ordinary person.” Mr. Harper’s idea of an ordinary person is that of an envious hater without a scrap of artistic talent or creativity or curiosity, and no appreciation for
anything that’s attractive or beautiful. My idea of an ordinary person is quite different. Human beings are creative by nature. For millenniums we have been putting our creativity into our cultures – cultures with unique languages, architecture, religious ceremonies, dances, music, furnishings, textiles, clothing and special cuisines. “Ordinary people” pack into the cheap seats at concerts and fill theatres where operas are brought to them live. The total attendance for “the arts” in Canada in fact exceeds that for sports events. “The arts” are not a “niche interest.” They are part of being human.

Moreover, “ordinary people” are participants. They form book clubs and join classes of all kinds – painting, dancing, drawing, pottery, photography – for the sheer joy of it. They sing in choirs, church and other, and play in marching bands. Kids start garage bands and make their own videos and web art, and put their music on the Net, and draw their own graphic novels. “Ordinary people” have other outlets for their creativity, as well: Knitting and quilting have made comebacks; gardening is taken very seriously; the home woodworking shop is active. Add origami, costume design, egg decorating, flower arranging, and on and on … Canadians, it seems, like making things, and they like appreciating things that are made.”

Spooks of Sea to Sky

Creepy Crawly Halloween Writing Contest

Halloween is right around the corner, and Pique is looking for your horrifying, harrowing tales for a short story competition. Submit as many of your original, unpublished scary stories, poems or scripts as you like (up to a maximum 2,500 words each with no minimum). The winner will take home $300, the runner up wins $100, and top entries will be published in the Oct. 30 issue. All entries should include a short biography of the writer, and be sent to andrew@piquenewsmagazine.com by Monday, Oct. 20. All entries will be posted online, unless they are deemed offensive.

Pique reserves the right to edit stories for clarity, language, etc. Pique’s editorial staff will judge this event. 

Harbour Publishing extends kudos to their author for his success in the Whistler Select Writing Awards

Harbour Author Wins National Award for Travel Writing - September 8, 2008

Harbour Publishing would like to congratulate Stephen Vogler, author of Top of the Pass, on receiving the Whistler Select Writing Award for travel writing. Award recipients are selected based on submissions from three categories–published journalism featuring Whistler from the past year, the telling of an untold Whistler story, and the best undiscovered fiction from the Whistler region. Stephen’s piece “The Bomb Shack Ski Patrol Museum,” published in Mountain Life Magazine, took the $1,000 prize. As the Whistler Select Writing Awards offer one of the largest cash prizes available in North America in the field of travel writing, this is a tremendous achievement for Stephen. Congratulations once again from everyone at Harbour Publishing.

Vogler’s story was published in Mountain Life in the Winter of 2007, and can be read here, at page 17-18.

Vote for the Postcard Grand Poobah

And in the end, there were 3 postcard people, whose stories would win prizes, and they would open the Pique tomorrow, and read them there. As would 60,000 other people, over their morning coffees, or grapefuit juice, or hair-of-the-dog-that-bit-me-Caesars. 

And those three would come to jam out. Before a crowd of supporters. 300 word jam sessions. To see who would win the crown of Postcard Grand Poobah.

You, too, can vote. By applause and hootin’ and hollerin’. But you’ve got to be there, amongst the melee, at MY place on Saturday.

All hail the Poobah.

Leslie Anthony brings joy to the Vancouver Sun

Today, the Sun’s books editor, Rebecca Wigod, scopes out this fall’s crop of coming books, and is looking forward to Leslie Anthony’s forthcoming non-fiction title, Snakebit: Confessions of a Herpetologist, in which he leads the reader through desert and jungle to reveal the strange world of snakes and the often stranger fraternity that pursues them.

We chatted with Anthony, in anticipation of his appearance at the 7th annual Whistler Readers and Writers Festival next weekend, and discovered that Snakebit started as a lauded magazine article in Explore, and is best described as The Far Side meets The Orchid Thief.

Said Anthony, “When I look at the Far Side, I see myself, or at least, I see everyone I know. I was award that I spent my career lockstep with these pith-helmet clad nerds in the jungle, but I never considered myself one, which admittedly is a weird optic.”

For more revelations, including why he’s afraid of a taxidermied fish, and how he narrowly escaped becoming a butterfly scientist, download this article.  the-doctor-is-in-leslie-anthony1

Anthony will lead a seminar on Breaking Into Magazines (details at writers-fest-08_v4), on Saturday September 13, at 4pm, Millennium Place.  Tickets are still available for purchase here.

Crime pays for William Deverell

Get the low-down on how to write a mystery novel from a master of the genre. William Deverell is profiled by Whistler mystery writer, Pam Barnsley, in the Pique, today, where he reveals not “whodunnit”, by how-he-dunnit.

A good vocabulary is sexy as hell…

But don’t just take our word for it. As Jennifer Miller of the Whistler Question writes today, Mel Hurtig, Canada’s prolific author, political activist and former bookseller and publisher, says he’s learned in his 76 years that “the most interesting people are people who read a lot.”

Read the full story here.

Hurtig is set to deliver the keynote address at the seventh annual Whistler Readers and Writers Festival, which takes place Sept. 12 and 13. He said he’ll talk about his latest book, The Truth About Canada: Some Important, Some Astonishing, and Some Truly Appalling Things All Canadians Should Know About Our Country.

After his talk at the Whistler festival, he’ll take questions from authors on how to prepare a manuscript, decide which publishers to send it to, and provide other tips, he said.

Whistler Select Writing Award winners announced

Breaking news from the Vicious Circle – the winners of the inaugural Whistler Select Writing Awards have been announced.  One of the largest cash prizes offered in the field of travel writing will be awarded to Stephen Vogler for his winter 07/08 magazine feature, “The bomb shack ski patrol museum” published originally in Mountain Life.

Vogler, a Whistler-based writer, and author of the book “Top of the Pass” wins $1000 for his piece.

Highly commended was Cathryn Atkinson’s article in the Globe and Mail, “Whistler’s Bioblitz unearths creatures from all walks of life”, and Steve Hainsworth’s piece from the Sea to SKy News, “Hail Himmelsbach.”

Pemberton’s Katherine Fawcett won the Whistler Untold award, winning $1000 for her story, “Sophie’s Cappuccino Bar”.

Snowboard Canada editor, Toronto-based Gerhard Gross was highly commended for his piece, “Rise and Shine.”

These awards will be presented at the Whistler Readers and Writers Festival’s opening night Gala, September 12, 2008, set to take place at the Whistler Library. The awards presentation and reception will be followed by a debate, “What the &)#)*$ Do Words Matter?”, a reception and a keynote speech from Mel Hurtig. Tickets are available online at www.theviciouscircle.ca.

The inaugural awards series was sponsored by Whistler Blackcomb, Watermark Communications and the Pique newsmagazine.

Postcard Jam winners announced today

The winners of the Postcard Jam competition were announced today.

The contest aimed to showcase the best undiscovered creative writing from the broader Whistler region. 40 entries were received before the August 25 deadline.

First prize was awarded to Rebecca Wood Barrett for her untitled story, “Don’t leave”, about a backcountry misadventure. The judges praised its real dialogue and drama.

Second prize was awarded to Feet Banks for “Mice are stupid.”

Third prize was awarded to Katherine Fawcett for “Perfect Match.”

Highly commended pieces were Pam Barnsley’s “Olympic Rap” and Nora Ryan’s “Bewitched.”

The 3 winning stories will appear in the September 11 issue of the Pique. The writers will participate in a Jam for Audience Choice award at the Whistler Readers and Writers Festival, Saturday September 13, at Millennium Place, 8pm. Tickets are available online at www.theviciouscircle.ca.

The judges for the Postcard Jam were Jules Older, Laura James and Stella Harvey.

Jules Older is a writer, broadcaster, speaker and editor-in-chief of Ski Press Canada and Ski Press USA. Currently based in San Francisco,  Jules is a five-time winner of the Harold Hirsch Award for Excellence in Snowsports Writing. He is a widely published freelance travel writer, and has written more than 20 children’s books, including COW, (Charlesbridge Publishing) which was named a “Pick of the Lists” by the American Booksellers Association.

 

Stella L. Harvey, Director of the Whistler Writers Festival, founded the Whistler Writers Group in May 2001 is at work on her second novel. Her short stories have been published in The New Orphic Review, the Dalhousie Review, Emerge, the Pique, the Question and been shortlisted in several Writers Union of Canada short story competitions.

 

Laura James, Tourism Whistler’s Manager of Media Relations has  20 years experience in the media industry as a producer, director and writer. She has produced, directed and written for many broadcasters including HGTV, Knowledge Network, TVO, Rogers, Shaw and YTV. Her work with TVO Kids was recognized with a Gemini nomination in 2002.