Journey with No Maps
Review of Journey With No Maps: A Life of P.K. Page by Sandra Djwa (McGill Queen’s University Press) 2012: 418 pages. For the past few weeks I have been immersed […]
Dem Bones
Writing about P.K. Page’s first meeting with the group putting out the poetry magazine Preview, biographer Sandra Djwa explains that after Page passed around her poems, she was met by […]
Writers by the Dozen: Peter Wilkins’ Portraits
Last night I was at Canada House to hear Angela Hewitt and Gerald Finley perform in an enchanted evening (that was the closing song). If you have never been to […]
Partisans and Books: Antanas Sileika in Lithuania
Antanas Sileika is the author of the novels Underground (Thomas Allen and Son 2011), Woman in Bronze (Random House 2004), and Dinner at the End of the World (Mosaic 1994). […]
Canadian Buzz at the London Book Fair 2013
There were over 20 Canadian publishers at the London Book Fair this year, as well as some agents. I asked a few of them if it was worth their while, […]
Rhonda Douglas in Thailand
The Shoemaker and the Rooster: Rhonda Douglas in Thailand. Canadian Writers Abroad Mini-Interview with Rhonda Douglas Rhonda Douglas is a poet and writer based (most of the time) in Ottawa, […]
A deluge of fat words
White. White stones on the beach, white buildings, white stones in the paving of streets, white marble steps with flat red brick edging. Olive trees hiking up the hills, agriculture […]
Christmas on Toy
Island in the Clouds by Susan M. Toy, IslandCat Editions (2012), 183 pp. Reviewed by Jane Christmas There’s a body face down in a swimming pool and a motley cast […]
Postcards
You are on a trip somewhere. You spin the rack, buy some postcards, some stamps, go sit at a cafe and write a postcard to your lover, your parents, your […]
Kate Pullinger
She found London was a place she could sink deep into, sink everything, and yet not drown. -from The Last Time I Saw Jane Best known in Canada for winning […]
Jane Austen and…
January 28, 2013, was the 200th anniversary of the publication of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. There was a readathon in Bath on the day, and by Jane Austen societies […]
Place and the Blues
“My lifelong involvement with Mrs. Dempster began at 5:58 o’clock p.m. on the 27th of December, 1908, at which time I was ten year and seven months old. I am […]
2012 Thanks
This is the last post for 2012. Canadian Writers Abroad has now been going for just over a year. Since November 23, 2011, I have posted 45 entries. The site […]
Solstice
I was thinking of wintry poems for this holiday post, and hit upon Robyn Sarah’s “Solstice.” So I emailed her to ask if I could post her poem, and she […]
Leonard Cohen Gives Back
This is not breaking news, but I forgot to mention it last week. When Leonard Cohen was awarded the Glenn Gould prize, he gave the money back to the Canada […]
When one is gone and far — Leonard Cohen
Audrey Thomas isn’t the only Canadian writer to have spent time in Greece. I almost called today’s post “resurrection man” because he resurrected his career, but I didn’t because something […]
From British Columbia to Ghana
At the beginning of November I took my daughter to British Columbia to see big trees, mountains, and relatives. (Her priorities; mine were in reverse order.) Which got me to […]
Laurence of Africa last
Here is the last excerpt from my essay, “Laurence of Africa,” which brings us to the end of it. The focus is on the novel, This Side Jordan, which is […]
Laurence of Africa 2
This continues last week’s post, with excerpts from my essay, “Laurence of Africa.” Nearly a decade later, in her 1970 Preface to A Tree for Poverty, Laurence regrets that she […]
