HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2016-06-02, Page 18PAGE 18.THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JUNE 2, 2016.
Coady to lead two book talks, lectureforfestival
LYNN COADY
As part of the 2016 Alice Munro
Festival of the Short Story, Canadian
novelist and journalist Lynn Coady
will be talking about some of
her literary works and experiences
in three different events. recent, as she has published works
Coady, a Giller Prize recipient, has going back to 1998.
written fiction and non-fiction in Saturday morning, Coady will be
many different forms including nov- doing a reading from her Giller Prize
els and short stories and is going to award-winning short story collection
be talking about two of her most Hellgoing.
recent books, The Antagonist and The book is her most recent fiction
Hellgoing in separate events at the work, published in 2013, and fea-
festival this weekend. tures short stories wherein each
Coady was asked to be a part of character is facing their own version
the festival and said she was very of hell.
happy to be invited. The reading, which will run from
"It's a beautiful part of the country 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., is something
and I have family up there, so I was that Coady said should be exciting. It
happy to say yes," she said. "Munro will be held in Wingham.
was also a huge influence for me. I "I've read a lot from that book
think every Canadian writer, espe- over the past few years," she said in
cially those who work in short sto- an interview with The Citizen. "I
ries, are intimate with her work and haven't picked the selection yet. It
she is hugely influential." will be a bit of a surprise until I've
The two books are her most talked to the organizers and found
out what they are looking for and
looked at the audience to find out
what they might be interested in.
Later that day she will be talking
about The Antagonist, released in
2011.
The book takes the form of a letter
written to a friend and has what she
calls a very angry narrator.
"It's interesting to see how people
react to the story," she said. "It starts
out angry, addressing someone, a
friend, throughout the story.
I find that some people find it intim-
idating to have the first page of a
book being a narrator that yells at
you."
The book talk will be held in
Wingham and start at 2 p.m.
Lastly, Coady will be hosting a
lecture based on her Canadian
Literary Centre Kreisel Lecture
Series Who Needs Books? Reading
in the Digital Age.
The lecture, which has been tran-
scribed in a short book by the
University of Alberta Press, is based
on Coady's own experiences of
being an author while digital media
has evolved.
She said the lecture series is great
because it allowed her to research
something she both wanted to talk
about and found interesting. She said
she would be elaborating upon the
talk since it was published in March
of this year.
The lecture will start at 2 p.m. on
Sunday, June 5 at the Huron County
Museum in Goderich.
For more information about the
festival, visit alicemunrofestival.ca
Tamaki talks about voice during festival masterclass
MARIKO TAMAKI
She Talks", will be hosted by
Caldecott Award nominee, Mariko
Tamaki
Tamaki, who has found literary
success with books like Skim, This
One Summer and Saving
Montgomery Sole, says her work-
shop will look at what makes a char-
acter sound and talk like they do.
"My workshop is about `talk,'
which in writing translates to 'dia-
logue' and `voice'," she said in an e-
mail to The Citizen. "For me talk is
fundamental, talk says everything
about who your characters are,
where they are from and what they
The Alice Munro Festival of the are feeling. My goal is to highlight
Short Story is set to take over local this as a way to get into a story, as a
cultural venues this weekend with way to 'show and not tell' which is
big names in the literary world and something writers are supposed to be
several master classes. very good at."
One of those classes, called "How Tamaki said she is obsessed with
talk, having studied linguistic
Busy weekend anthropology including the achieve-
ment of a Master's degree.
"I love the details of talk, from the
set for Brussels
Continued from page 2
Fishing Tips. In clear current and
often humourous language we were
offered tips to make Christianity rel-
evant and real. The phrase "shifts
happen" brought smiles often, as we
were reminded that life is not fair or
reasonable or guaranteed.
Age, children, employment, mar-
riage, education, death are but a few
of the things that cause shifts in our
lives. Jesus was a "shift disturber"
we were reminded. He was among
the people challenging the status
quo to make a better world.
In recent years, church is not rele-
vant to many, and the phrase "I'm
spiritual, not religious" is popular.
John Pentland challenges us to pro-
mote "good religion" and uses rea-
sonable, recovery, rigorous, real, rit-
ual, relevant and resurrection as key
words to help us be the church now.
So, using the "shifts happen"
phrase it's reassuring to hear and
know that new things will come just
as they do to us every day and if we
adapt to the shifts, we will live.
Kenji Mauri is our new presi-
dent — another shift — moving us
along life's road. His life experience
and knowledge of the United
Church of Canada makes trust of
change easier. Lots of other activity
and action took place at the Hellenic
Centre, but the John Pentland time is
what's on my mind this morning.
Rhubarb from Brussels — the
Fritz patch — goes with me to
Jeanette each year on conference
weekend, a tradition not ready for a
shift just yet.
Busy week coming up — check the
ads for the ball park and the com-
munity centre, to be sure you get to
the Lions party on time and still
make your chosen ball games.
Bye now. Betty G.W.
'urns' to `yah -nos' to accents that
seem to magically come and go in
people when they are talking about
different things," she said. "For me,
talk can anchor or kill a book. If a
character doesn't sound legit to me,
or if their style of speaking is incon-
sistent, I can't enjoy a story."
Tamaki says she hopes to "gener-
ate an army of eavesdroppers"
through her workshop by encourag-
ing people to love listening to how
people talk instead of just what they
say.
The workshop will be beneficial,
according to Tamaki, to anyone who
wants to work on a story, novel or
play.
"I would say anyone... who wants
to sit in a room and really think
about how to write dialogue or how
to create a character will get some-
thing like this," she said.
Tamaki was invited to be part of
the festival and was thrilled to do so,
saying she loves Munro's work.
"Alice Munro is a master story-
teller," she said. "She is pretty much
it, right? I'm rereading her short
story collection and every story I
read I had to go take a walk after-
wards because they're just so good. I
thought she was good when I was a
teenager reading The Lives of Girls
and Women in part because I had
never read stories like that, stories
about what it means to be in a pre-
carious girl body in a precarious
place. Now I know that beyond that
she is just a Level -10 genius in the
art of crafting narrative. I'm a huge
fan, basically."
The class happens on Saturday at
the North Huron Museum in
Wingham and costs $20 to attend.
Tamaki is also featured in a panel
discussion called "That's So Gay".
The discussion will be an interac-
tive event being put on by Tamaki,
alongside authors Shawn Syms
and Vivek Shraya as well as
Gay Straight Alliance Clubs
from local secondary schools.
The panel will look at Lesbian,
Gay, Bisexual and Transgender
(LBGT) youth experiences and
Continued on page 19
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