I can’t remember ever going on the Stanley Park train, at least not since I was a wee tot. So when I heard that the Ghost Train theme this year was Alice in Nightmareland, complete with stilt-walkers and actors, I knew I had to go.
Several weeks ago I asked my dad if he wanted to go on the Vancouver Haunted Trolley Tour with me. He’s a fan of local history and even wrote a historical newsletter for the local community centre for several years. I’d heard great things about the Haunted Trolley Tour, and this year it included a visit to the Vancouver Police Museum which is the old city morgue. We certainly weren’t disappointed! The two hour tour began downtown with a spooky host in a decorated trolley. There were three trolleys all taking different routes through the city and ours went to visit the Vancouver Police Museum first. We passed several downtown landmarks which our host pointed out and told stories of hauntings and true tales of death and treachery. Very well narrated!
It’s a very exciting time for book people this time of year. All the major prizes are announcing their long lists, or shortlists, or winners. Lots of great book chatter happening. I’ll sum things up as best I can. In Canuckland (aka Canada), the three big literary prizes are: The Scotiabank Giller Prize, The Governor General’s Awards, and The Rogers’ Writer’s Trust Award. Both the GG’s and the Writer’s Trust awards have multiple categories (fiction, non-fiction, poetry, etc.), while the Giller’s are specifically for fiction. Here’s some more Canadian book award news: The Giller’s announced their shortlist on October 5, whittled down from the longlist announced September 20. The Giller longlist included Room by Emma Donoghue, and the shortlist includes Annabel by Kathleen Winter. They’re also having a reader contest to Guess the Giller. The Giller winner will be announced on November 9, 2010. The Canada Council for the Arts funds, administers and promotes the Governor General’s Awards. The GG’s have 14 categories (seven each in English and in French). The shortlist was announced on October 13 and the winners will be announced November 16, with award presentations on the 25th (with the Governor General present). The Writer’s Trust Award shortlist for fiction includes both Emma Donoghue and Kathleen Winter. A selection of finalists will read at the International Festival of Authors on October 27 in Toronto. CBC Literary Awards are for unpublished French and English books, the only award of it’s kind. Submissions close on November 1, 2010. Speaking [...]
On Wednesday night last week (October 20th)—the second day of the Vancouver International Writers & Readers Festival— I headed down to Granville Island to see four authors discuss writing about the parent/child relationship. The complex love between parent and child provides ample ground for novelists. Four Canadian writers have each taken a different tack on this theme in their new works. Emma Donoghue’s five-year-old narrator is trapped in a single room with his mother, while Kathleen Winter’s subject is trapped in a body that is neither fully male nor female. Pascale Quiviger and Robert J. Wiersema approach the theme of the parent-child bond by taking forays into the worlds of the fantastic and the imagination. But all four paint compelling portraits that show us the inescapable truth that who you are depends largely on how you were raised. Hosted by Shaena Lambert, Suffer The Little Children was an excellent panel. The authors each had their own chance to shine, a chance to read, and also discuss and comment upon the other authors’ works. It even seemed, judging by the comments from the authors, that they had read each others’ books. I had wanted to attend this VIWF event because I’d already read both Kathleen Winter’s novel Annabel and Emma Donoghue’s, Room. As you can probably tell by now, I enjoyed both books immensely. It’s difficult for me to comment on Robert J. Wiersema’s book and Pascale Quiviger’s novel because I haven’t read them. Robert J. Wiersema I am familiar with [...]
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