Writing Workshop in Vancouver: Wish You Were Here
I am running a writing workshop, ‘Wish You Were Here: Writing about Place‘, in Vancouver this fall. I am very excited about it. It will take place at the lovely Trout Lake Community Centre (one of my favourite spots in East Vancouver!) Here’s more information from the flyer: Evoking a profound sense of “being there” in writing is one of the most important elements of prose, and a way of immersing the reader in what John Gardner called “the fictional dream”. Mastery of place involves more than just using descriptive words. Vivid setting emerges as much from the character’s point…
Wordless Wednesday
The Amber Archives
I was invited to take part in a unique project this year. The Amber Archives is an annual participatory art project operated by artist John Paul Robinson. Artists of every discipline submit works to be included in the archive, which John then reproduces on ceramic disks encased in pine resin and sealed in Amber Time Capsules. Yes, you heard right. Time capsules. He calls it the Amber Archives, because it imitates the process by which tree resin is fossilized into amber. As written on the website, “Once the Amber Time Capsules are sealed they are placed in a secret geological location conducive to the…
Wordless Wednesday
Reviews, Interviews and Events (and Why I Love Book Bloggers)
Tickets for the Vancouver International Writers Festival have gone on sale today, and apparently some events are already sold out! Here are the links to my two events, Faces in the Conflict, with Nadeem Aslam, Michael Winter, and D.W. Wilson (buy it here) and Out of Place, with Xiaolu Guo and Silvia Moreno-Garcia (buy it here). More about how to buy tickets here. And here is a short video about the festival, just because. **** The Victoria Writers’ Festival has also started their ticket sale. I’m participating in two events; the first one is Love Familiar, readings and panel discussion with Dede Crane, Matt Rader, and Shaena Lambert.…
Wordless Wednesday
The Best Place on Earth is Going Places: Fall Events
I love summer. It is my favourite season. In my early twenties I chased sunshine and managed to live in perpetual summer for four years. I spent much of that time on beaches, dressed in sarongs and bikini tops, shells braided into my hair, swinging on hammocks and sleeping in huts on the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Sea, the Red Sea, the Med. I arrived in Vancouver at the end of this four-year stretch, on the first day of summer of all days. I brought with me a suitcase overflowing with tie-dye tank tops, flimsy halter tops, and summer dresses…
Wordless Wednesday
Wordless Wednesday
Okay, just a few words first. I recently discovered Wordless Wednesday. On Wednesdays, bloggers around the world post an untitled photo on their blog. No captions. No words. Because, you know, a photo is worth a thousand. So since this is my first time, here are a few more words by Susan Sontag, from her book On Photography: “To take a photograph is to participate in another person’s (or thing’s) mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time’s relentless melt.” —Susan Sontag And just a few more (and then I promise…