Issue archives

#183 (Winter 2004)
Writers Talking

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Editorial

Réjean Beaudoin and Laurie Ricou

• De quoi l’on cause / Talking Point (p. 7 - 11)
• Subjects: Education/Pedagogy, Oral , Poetry
• PDF available

Articles

Anne Compton and Elisabeth Harvor

• The Theatre of the Body: Extreme States in Elisabeth Harvor’s Poetry (p. 13 - 27)
• Abstract: Show/hide

  AC: Is it fair to say that this area — the Kingston Peninsula and the Kennebecasis River — is the psychological underground of your writing?
  
  EH: Because I am no longer a child or an adolescent, no landscape, in the present or future, will ever affect me in the same way. A lot of the adolescent feelings about sexuality, or safety, might have been landscape-connected. Romantic ideas about the future occurred while I was walking in the country. I remember coming home, so tired, as a student nurse, dragging a mattress out into the orchard, falling asleep there with apple blossoms falling all around me. I often dream now of living in the country, yet I don't think I would like it day-to-day. I don't even think of the country as a safe place any more. It's become a sinister place since Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. Movies like Easy Rider, and its descendants, have certainly also helped to demystify the romance and safety of the country.
  
  AC: The Maritime landscape obtains to a greater degree in your poetry than in your fiction. Why is that?
  
  EH: Partly because poetry — even my poetry — doesn't require characters. Although there are many poems about women and landscape, or women in the landscape, come to think of it. And then the ability of landscape to offer up images is so much more useful to a poem, and can even be the life of the poem whereas imagery and scenery can sometimes get in the way of the narrative in a story.
  
  

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  Elisabeth Harvor, who received the Alden Nowlan Award (2000), the Marian Engel Award (2003), and the Malahat Novella Prize (2004), grew up in New Brunswick. The mother of two sons, Harvor has published several collections of short stories, including Let Me Be the One, a finalist for the Governor-General's Award for Fiction in 1996. Harvor published her first novel, Excessive Joy Injures the Heart, in 2000, and a second novel, All Times Have Been Modern, in 2004. She has also published award-winning collections of poetry. Returning to the Kennebecasis Valley for a writers' workshop in May 2001, Harvor discussed the poetry that has won her the Confederation Poets' Prize, First Prize in The League of Canadian Poets' National Poetry Competition, the Malahat Long Poem Prize, and a national Magazine Award for Poetry with Anne Compton.
  
  Anne Compton is an author and editor who teaches at the University of New Brunswick.

• Subjects: Atlantic Canada, Authorship, Home & Family, Landscape/Space
• PDF available

Réjean Beaudoin and Lise Gauvin

• La Pensée de la langue: entretien de Lise Gauvin (p. 29 - 38)
• Abstract: Show/hide

  Suite à la publication, au printemps 2004, de son dernier livre, La Fabrique de la langue De François Rabelais à Réjean Ducharme (Paris, Éditions du Seuil, Collection “POINTS”), Lise Gauvin a accepté de répondre aux questions de Réjean Beaudoin dans cette entrevue conduite par écrit pour les lecteurs de Littérature canadienne.
  
  Réjean Beaudoin (RB): J’ai souvent songé, au cours de ma lecture de votre essai, à l’artificialité des styles écrits, qui sont pourtant des sortes de conquêtes du caractère vivant et direct des échanges parlés. Et je me suis demandé comment la langue littéraire parvenait à imiter précisément les langages “naturels”, ou du moins à en créer l’impression chez le lecteur. C’est l’art (ou le génie) de qui tient la plume, mais n’est-ce pas également affaire de prospection théorique des possibilités de l’écriture? Vous traitez cette question en profondeur et dans toute sa complexité dans votre essai. Y a-t-il une réponse concise et (relativement) simple à la question de la fameuse “clarté” (de la langue) française?
  
  Lise Gauvin (LG): Il me semble qu’il y a une double orientation dans votre question. D’une part, celle de l’artificialité des styles écrits, et d’autre part, celle de la clarté de la langue française.
  
  

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  Auteure de plusieurs ouvrages sur les rapports entre la langue et la littérature, spécialiste de la francophonie, nouvelliste, Lise Gauvin est professeure à l’Université de Montréal. Ses recherches interdisciplinaires sur le sujet qui constitue la matière de cet essai font autorité non seulement au pays mais sont largement connus, commentés et cités à l’étranger.

• Subjects: Authorship, Francophone
• PDF available

Susanna Fisher and Frances Itani

• Hear, Overhear, Observe, Remember: A Dialogue with Frances Itani (p. 40 - 56)
• Subjects: Authorship, Novel, Short Fiction
• PDF available

Valerie Raoul and Maggie de Vries

• You May Think This, But: An Interview with Maggie de Vries (p. 59 - 70)
• Subjects: Authorship, Autobiography
• PDF available

John Moffatt, Sandy Tait, and Drew Hayden Taylor

• I Just See Myself as an Old-Fashioned Storyteller: A Conversation with Drew Hayden Taylor (p. 72 - 86)
• Subjects: Authorship
• PDF available

Poems

Shane Rhodes

• Of Flowers (p. 12)

John Donlan

• Bedford Social (p. 28)

Jane Munro

• Monk (p. 39)

Michael deBeyer

• Whale Sound Trilogy (p. 57 - 58)

Michael deBeyer

• The Stationary Sound (p. 71)

Hendrik Slegtenhorst

• Self-portraits in Youth (p. 87 - 88)

Book Reviews

Reviews section PDF available

Organic Re-membering (p. 89 - 90)

by Jes Battis

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Blessings by Bernice Laver
2. Bones About to Bloom by Shari Andrews
3. Concrete and Wild Carrot by Margaret Avison
4. Snow Formations by Carolyn Souaid

Subjects: Poetry

Atwood on Writing (p. 90 - 92)

by Janice Fiamengo

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Negotiating with the Dead: A Writer on Writing by Margaret Atwood

Subjects: Authorship, Essays, Literary Criticism

Bad News (p. 92 - 93)

by Coral Ann Howell

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

Subjects: Novel, Speculative Fiction

Film and Form (p. 94 - 95)

by Brenda Austin-Smith

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Gaslight Melodrama: From Victorian London to 1940s Hollywood by Guy Barefoot
2. Maya Deren and the American Avant-Garde by Bill Nichols
3. The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film by Michael Ondaatje

Subjects: Biography, Crime & Detective, Film

Fat, Fiction, Frogs (p. 96 - 97)

by Roderick McGillis

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Seeing Stars by Gary Barwin
2. The Fat Princess by Mario Girard and Susan Ouriou

Subjects: Novel, Speculative Fiction

From Routes to Rails (p. 97 - 98)

by Bryan N. S. Gooch

Book(s) reviewed:

1. A Year Inland: The Journal of a Hudson's Bay Company Wanderer by Barbara Belyea
2. McCulloch's Wonder: The Story of the Kettle Valley Railway by Barrie Sanford
3. The Wilderness Profound: Victorian Life on the Gulf of Georgia by Richard Somerset Mackie

Subjects: Biography, British Columbia, Exploration, History, Landscape/Space, Settler Writing

BC Before the Logo (p. 99 - 100)

by Charles Dawson

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Downriver Drift by Tim Bowling
2. The Paperboy's Winter by Tim Bowling

Subjects: British Columbia, Landscape/Space, Novel, Poetry

Island Ideas (p. 100 - 101)

by Kristjana Gunnars

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Message in a Bottle: The Literature of Small Islands by Laurie Brinklow, Frank Ledwell, and Jane Ledwell

Subjects: Ecocriticism, Essays, Historiography

The Best Defence (p. 101 - 102)

by Greg Yavorsky

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Almost Unseen: Selected Haiku of George Swede by Randy M. Brooks and George Swede
2. Celtic Highway by Trevor Carolan

Subjects: Poetry

Artistry to What End? (p. 102 - 104)

by R. W. Stedingh

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Cartography and Walking by Adam Dickinson
2. Colours: Poems by Michael Bullock
3. The Work of Snow by Gary Hyland

Subjects: Poetry

Nothings Safe (p. 105 - 107)

by Charles Barbour

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Parables for the Virtual: Movement, Affect, Sensation by Brian Massumi
2. Postmodernism: A Very Short Introduction by Christopher Butler
3. Poststructuralism: A Very Short Introduction by Catherine Besley
4. Reading Simulacra: Fatal Theories for Postmodernity by M.W. Smith

Subjects: Literary Theory, Philosophy, Postmodernism

Private Lives of Girls and Women (p. 107 - 108)

by Laurie McNeill

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Small Details of Life: Twenty Diaries by Women in Canada, 1830-1996 by Kathryn Carter

Subjects: Autobiography, Nineteenth Century, Twentieth Century, Women's Literature

Québec Studies in Translation (p. 108)

by Jane Moss

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Methodology, Problems and Perspectives in Québec Studies by Daniel Chartier

Subjects: Quebec

Mine Not Mine (p. 109 - 110)

by Robert Stanton

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Mine by Stephen Collis
2. Sledgehammer by John MacKenzie
3. The Asthmatic Glassblower and other poems by Billeh Nickerson

Subjects: Poetry

Atlantic Canada Refocused (p. 110 - 112)

by Ian G. Lumsden

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Atlantic Canada: A Region in the Making by James Hiller and Margaret R. Conrad
2. Coalescence of Styles: The Ethnic Heritage of St. John River Valley Regional Furniture, 1763-1851 by Jane L. Cook

Subjects: Culture

Alienations (p. 112 - 114)

by Andrew Lesk

Book(s) reviewed:

1. All Families are Psychotic by Douglas Coupland
2. Bitten by Kelley Armstrong
3. Everyone in Silico by Jim Munroe
4. How Did You Sleep? by Paul Glennon

Subjects: Novel, Science Fiction, Short Fiction, Speculative Fiction

The Unexpurgated Carr (p. 114 - 115)

by Linda M. Morra

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Opposite Contraries: The Unknown Journal of Emily Carr and Other Writings by Susan Crean

Subjects: Autobiography, British Columbia, Correspondence

Self-Mutilation (p. 115)

by Adrienne Kertzer

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Jumping Off by Laura J. Cutler

Subjects: Short Fiction, Trauma

Emerging Solitudes (p. 116 - 117)

by Nasrin Rahimieh

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Voices in the Desert: An Anthology of Arabic-Canadian Women Writers by Elizabeth Drahab

Subjects: Afro-Canadian, Anthologies, Canadian Studies, Diaspora, Francophone, Israeli-Canadian , Women's Literature

The Trickster Discourse of Thomas King (p. 117 - 118)

by Marlene Goldman

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Border Crossings: Thomas King's Cultural Inversions by Arnold E. Davidson, Jennifer Andrews, and Priscilla L. Walton

Subjects: Cultural Studies, First Nations, Gender, Novel

Disorders and Early Sorrow (p. 118 - 120)

by Hilary Turner

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Chance and the Butterfly by Maggie de Vries
2. Edge by Diane Tullson
3. Jeannie and the Gentle Giants by Luanne Armstrong

Subjects: Body & Health, Children's Literature

Scènes d'automne (p. 120 - 122)

by François Paré

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Hennissements by Patrice Desbiens
2. Humains paysages en temps de paix relative by Robert Dickson
3. Le roseau by Serge Patrice Thibodeau

Subjects: Atlantic Canada, Francophone, Novel, Ontario, Poetry

Par-dèla la frontière (p. 122 - 124)

by Anne-Marie Fortier

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Audioguide by Bertrand Laverdure
2. La leçon du silence by Nicole Richard
3. Vigile by Jean Gagnon

Subjects: Francophone, Poetry

Women Write Nature (p. 124 - 125)

by Andrea Lebowitz

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Here in Hope: A Natural History by J.M. Bridgeman
2. In Nature's Name: An Anthology of Women's Writing and Illustration, 1780-1930 by Barbara T. Gates

Subjects: British Columbia, Landscape/Space, Nature Writing, Nineteenth Century, Twentieth Century, Women's Literature

Frye and Modernity (p. 125 - 127)

by Graham Good

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Collected Works of Northrop Frye, Vol. 11: Northrop Frye on Modern Culture by Jane Gorak

Subjects: Culture

Palm Prints (p. 127)

by Robert Amussen

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Kilter: 55 Fictions by John Gould

Subjects: Modernism, Short Fiction

Abelard and Hell-Louise (p. 128 - 129)

by Marta Dvorak

Book(s) reviewed:

1. The Romantic by Barbara Gowdy

Subjects: Novel

City Tensions (p. 129 - 130)

by Ian Dennis

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Ascension by Steven Galloway
2. The Fiend in Human by John Morgan Gray

Subjects: Crime & Detective, Historical Fiction, Media & Communications, Novel, Urban Novel

Star Girls (p. 130 - 132)

by J. Kieran Kealy

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Criss Cross, Double Cross by Norma M. Charles
2. Dancing for Danger: a Meggy Tale by Margot Griffin
3. Jo's Triumph by Nikki Tate
4. Shadows of Disaster by Cathy Beveridge
5. Who Owns Kelly Paddik? by Beth Goodie

Subjects: Historical Fiction

(Re)Construction Zones (p. 132 - 134)

by Maria Truchan-Tataryn

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Ephemeral Territories by Erin Manning
2. Literary Culture and Female Authorship in Canada 1760-2000 by Faye Hammill

Subjects: Authorship, Culture, Multiculturalism, Nationalism, Women's Literature, Women's Studies

Land, Culture, Property (p. 134 - 136)

by Sophie McCall

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Making Native Space: Colonialism, Resistance, and Reserves in British Columbia by Cole Harris
2. Preserving What is Valued: Museums, Conservation and First Nations by Miriam Clavir

Subjects: Art, British Columbia, First Nations, Native Studies

Wanted: The Author (p. 136 - 138)

by Meredith Quartermain

Book(s) reviewed:

1. A Painted Elephant by Jill Hartman
2. Alarum Within: Theatre Poems by Kimmy Beach
3. with wax by derek beaulieu

Subjects: Animal Studies, Drama, Language/Linguistics, Poetry

Knowing Qu'Appelle (p. 138 - 140)

by Marilyn Iwama

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Qu'Appelle: Tales of Two Valleys by Robert Stacey, Trevor Herriot, and Dan Ring
2. Rediscovering the Great Plains: Journey by Dog, Canoe, and Horse by Norman Henderson

Subjects: Art, Biography, First Nations, Landscape/Space, Native Studies, Nature Writing, Prairie Writing, Regionalism, Travel Writing

Compelling Fantasies (p. 140 - 142)

by Lynn (J.R.) Wytenbroek

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Dance of the Stones by Andrea Spalding
2. Spirit Singer by Edward Willet
3. The Maze by Monica Hughes

Subjects: Speculative Fiction

All About CanLit (p. 142 - 143)

by Rocío G. Davis

Book(s) reviewed:

1. The Cambridge Companion to Canadian Literature by Eva-Marie Kröller

Subjects: Canadian Studies, Essays, Literary Criticism, Nationalism

Écriture et hypertextes (p. 143 - 145)

by Guy Poirier

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Hypertextes. Espaces virtuels de lecture et d'écriture by Christian Vandendorpe and Denis Bachand
2. Lecture et écriture: une dynamique. Objets et défis de la recherche en création littérature. by Christiane Lahaie and Nathalie Watteyne

Subjects: Authorship, Hypertext, Media & Communications

Essays from Strange Lands (p. 145 - 146)

by Wendy Roy

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Heart of a Stranger by Nora Foster Stovel and Margaret Laurence

Subjects: Afro-Canadian, Essays, Travel Writing

Candid Eyes (p. 146 - 147)

by Mark Harris

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Candid Eyes: Essays on Canadian Documentaries by Jim Leach and Jeannette Sloniowski
2. Hiding the Audience: Viewing Arts & Arts Institutions on the Prairies by Frances W. Kaye

Subjects: Film, Prairie Writing

Dark Poems for Bedtime (p. 147 - 149)

by Kathryn Carter

Book(s) reviewed:

1. But If They Do by Bill Richardson
2. Daybreak, Nightfall by Jorge Lujáán
3. Trees Are Hanging From the Sky by Jorge Argueta

Subjects: Children's Literature, Poetry

Afraid of the Dark (p. 149 - 150)

by Lothar Honnighausen

Book(s) reviewed:

1. The Way The Crow Flies by Ann-Marie MacDonald

Subjects: Crime & Detective, International Conflict, Novel, Trauma

Global English (p. 150 - 151)

by Sarah Cummins

Book(s) reviewed:

1. The Oxford Guide to World English by Tom McArthur

Subjects: Language/Linguistics

Picturing History and Nature (p. 151 - 153)

by Lynn (J.R.) Wytenbroek

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Old Bird by Muriel Wood and Irene Morck
2. The Paint Box by Maxine Trottier and Stella East
3. Wild Babies by Margriet Ruurs and Andrew Kiss

Subjects: Art, Children's Literature, Historical Fiction, Nature Writing

Life at High Latitudes (p. 153 - 155)

by Sherrill Grace

Book(s) reviewed:

1. High Latitudes by Farley Mowat
2. Inuit Journey: The Co-operative Venture in Canada's North by Edith Iglauer
3. Thunder on the Tundra: Inuit Quajimajatuqangit of the Bathurst Cariboo by Natasha Thorpe, Naikak Hakongak, Sandra Eyegetok, and Kitikmeot Elders

Subjects: Cultural Studies, First Nations, Landscape/Space, Native Studies, Northern Canada

Kiyooka Collaborations (p. 155 - 156)

by Joanne Saul

Book(s) reviewed:

1. All Amazed for Roy Kiyooka by Scott Watson, John O'Brian, and Naomi Sawada

Subjects: Art, Biography, Essays, Poetry

Frye in China (p. 156 - 158)

by Graham Good

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Northrop Frye: Eastern and Western Perspectives by Wang Ning and Jean O'Grady

Subjects: Asian Canadian, Literary Theory

Chic Canadians (p. 158 - 159)

by Maria Noëlle Ng

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Couture and Commerce: The Transatlantic Fashion Trade in the 1950s by Alexandra Palmer

Subjects: Culture, Economics

Well-Versed in Signals (p. 159 - 161)

by Antje M. Rauwerda

Book(s) reviewed:

1. A Picnic on Ice by Matthew Sweeney
2. Calling Home by Richard Sanger
3. Fielder's Choice by Elise Partridge
4. Helix: New and Selected Poems by John Steffler

Subjects: Gothic, Music, Poetry

Lyrics and Larks (p. 161 - 163)

by Tim Conley

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Blue Pyramids: New and Selected Poems by Robert Priest
2. how we play at it: a list by matt robinson
3. The Spaces in Between: Selected Poems 1965-2001 by Stephen Scobie

Subjects: Poetry

Less is More (p. 163 - 164)

by Robert Amussen

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Country of Cold by Kevin Patterson
2. Fidelity by Michael Redhill

Subjects: Short Fiction

Recovering Maritime Popular Fiction (p. 165 - 166)

by Cecily Devereux

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Beautiful Joe by Margaret Marshall Saunders
2. The Sacrifice of the Shannon by W. Albert Hickman

Subjects: Animal Studies, Atlantic Canada, Nineteenth Century, Novel, Twentieth Century

Facing One's Inner Felines (p. 166 - 167)

by Linda M. Morra

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Max & the Cats by Moacyr Scliar and Eloah Giacomelli

Subjects: Animal Studies, Holocaust, Novel

The Two Cohens (p. 167 - 169)

by Norman Ravvin

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Intricate Preparations: Writing Leonard Cohen by Stephen Scobie
2. Uncommon Ground: A Celebration of Matt Cohen by Dennis Lee, Graeme Gibson, Wayne Grady, and Priscilla Uppal

Subjects: Jewish-Canadian , Music, Poetry, Twentieth Century, Twenty-First Century

Contextualizing Bill Reid (p. 169)

by Linda M. Morra

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Bill Reid by Doris Shadbolt

Subjects: Art, Biography

Trauma by Analogy (p. 170 - 171)

by Thomas Lamarre

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Tsubaki by Aki Shimazaki

Subjects: Asian Canadian, Historical Fiction, Trauma, World War II

Clueless in Cornwall (p. 171 - 172)

by Lawrence Mathews

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Cumberland by Michael V. Smith

Subjects: Novel, Ontario

Short (Canadian) Fiction (p. 172 - 173)

by Robert Thacker

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Short Fiction: An Anthology by Rosemary Sullivan and Mark Levene

Subjects: Short Fiction

Just be Natural, huh? (p. 174)

by John Moffatt

Book(s) reviewed:

1. The Buz'gem Blues by Drew Hayden Taylor

Subjects: First Nations, Native Studies, Novel

Geographical Attachment (p. 175 - 176)

by Deborah Bowen

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Falling into Place by John Terpstra

Subjects: Cultural Geography, Ecocriticism, Landscape/Space, Nature Writing, Poetry

Quêtes féminines (p. 176 - 178)

by Sylvain Marois

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Le nombril des aveugles by François Landry
2. Mademoiselle J.-J. by Louise Turcot
3. Zig-Zag by Laurette Lévy

Subjects: Francophone, Novel, Quebec, Short Fiction

Imagined Canadas (p. 178 - 179)

by Kathryn Grafton

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Imagined Nations: Reflections on Media in Canadian Fiction by David R. Williams

Subjects: Film, Literary Theory, Media & Communications, Nationalism, Novel

Opinions & Notes

Robert Bringhurst

• Finding Home: The Legacy of Bill Reid (p. 180 - 191)
• Subjects: Art, First Nations, Trauma

Janice Fiamengo

• Has Survival Survived? (p. 191 - 194)
• Subjects: Novel

Last Pages

Eva-Marie Kröller

• Naval Rank: Baby (p. 195 - 197)
• Subjects: Home & Family, Travel Writing, Women's Studies