Famous Canadian Authors from Saskatchewan

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Saskatchewan

William Ormond (W.O.) Mitchell was born on March 13, 1914 in Weyburn Saskatchewan. His father died when he was seven and he contracted bovine tuberculosis of his wrist when he was twelve. The disease is contagious and it is spread by contact between infected domestic animals, such as cattle, and humans. It can be spread through inhaling infected droplets from coughing or by contact with a wound. He had to withdraw from school and spent his time wandering the open prairie around the town. Through this he became attuned to the beauty, vibrancy, and energy of the land. This would play a major role in this later writing.

     In an effort to cure his TB his family spent the winters from 1927 to 1931 in California and later Florida. They returned to their cottage on White Bear Lake in Saskatchewan each summer. W.O. majored in philosophy at the University of Manitoba, studied journalism and play writing at the University of Washington in Seattle, then spent four years working odd jobs in Alberta. He got his teaching certificate through the University of Alberta and married Merna Hirtle in 1942. He also had two short stories published in Maclean’s and Queen’s Quarterly that same year.

     Mitchell spent the next couple of years as a principal in small town schools then he and his wife moved to High River, just south of Calgary, where he began freelance writing. His first novel Who Has Seen the Wind was published in 1947 and was loosely based on his father’s death. It has been called one of the best Canadian books ever written.

     William moved to Toronto in 1948 and became the fiction editor at Maclean’s. He also began writing his radio series Jake and the Kid for CBC. The series, which ran from 1950 to 1956 had over two hundred episodes and was about a fatherless boy, his mother, and a hired hand who lived on a farm in Saskatchewan. Mitchell adapted the story into a CBC television series in 1961. He also had two very successful plays, The Devil’s Instrument (1962) and Back to Beulah (1974) televised on CBC. Throughout the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s he wrote many plays that were featured in theatres throughout Saskatchewan.

     By the time the Mitchells moved to Calgary in 1968, W.O. was one of the most recognized authors in Canada. He held readings and book signings across the country. Besides his radio, television and stage plays Mitchell wrote a total of nine books. He spent much of his time putting on workshops for aspiring and established writers. He founded and ran the creative writing program at the Banff Centre from 1974 to 1986.

     William received nine honorary degrees, two Stephen Leacock Awards for humour, a Lifetime Award for Excellence in the Arts from the Saskatchewan Arts Board, became an officer of the Order of Canada, and was named to the Queen’s Privy Council.

     W.O. Mitchell died in Calgary on February 25, 1998. He is remembered as the author who put the Saskatchewan prairie on the literary map of Canada.

Virtual Writing Conferences VS Physical Writing Conferences

Virtual Writing Conferences Vs Physical Writing Conferences

Last weekend I took part in my first virtual writing conference put on by my publisher Renaissance Press. I was both a panelist and in the audience for some sessions. I have attended physical writing conferences in Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary, and Edmonton and there is a definite difference between the two. In my opinion each has its own pros and cons.

     There is a lot of coordinating and cost for the organizers of the physical conference. They have to find a venue usually a hotel with boardrooms. This allows the panelists and attendees to book a room and stay close to the conference. There are usually guests of honour who have to be paid. Besides monetary costs it takes a lot of time to figure out the panels: subjects, panelists, and the timing of sessions to accommodate writers or editors publishers who are on more than one panel. They also have to recruit volunteers to look after the rooms. These volunteers make sure the moderator runs on schedule, the audience clears out in time for the next one, and there are fresh glasses and jugs of water for each new session.

     There are also costs for the panelists and audience members of the physical conference. If they don’t live in the city where the conference is being held they have to travel which entails gas, hotel, and meals or plane tickets and car rental plus hotel and meals. If a presenter wants to be in the audience of any of the sessions they have to pay the registration fee just like everyone else. There is the also the extra cost of a banquet ticket if one is planned.

     I live on Vancouver Island and in order to attend a physical conference I have to drive 1.5 hours to the ferry, and to make sure I get on it I have to be there about an hour early or pay for a reservation. Then it is almost two hours ferry travel to Vancouver. So that is four hours. If I am going to Calgary or Edmonton, it is another day’s drive. I could fly which is quicker but I would still have to pay for the ticket and to rent a vehicle to get around once there.

     Like the physical conference it would have taken a lot of time to plan the arrangement of the panels and panelists of the virtual conference. Monetary costs were probably low because there was no venue, no banquet, and no guests of honour.

     It cost me, and everyone else who took part, nothing to attend the virtual conference either as a panelist or an audience member. I had no plane ticket or vehicle gas and parking to pay for, no hotel room to book, and no new clothes.

     The length of the physical conference has to work around the time frame of the panelists and attendees. Unless they take a day off work the first panels can’t start too early on the Friday because of ability to get there. For that same reason, it has to close early on the Sunday so those leaving can start their long drive home or get to the airport in time to catch their plane.

     Because there is no travel involved, the first session of a virtual conference can start around the time people get home from work on the Friday. The only thing everyone has to remember is the difference between time zones. Being on the west coast the morning sessions started very early for me. The evening sessions ended before my supper time.

     When it was time to be a panelist I set my computer up and clicked on the link a few minutes before the session was to start. Pictures of the other panelists showed up on my screen and we visited a few minutes before the moderator started the session. When I was in the audience I clicked on the link and waited for the panelists to show up on my screen.

     For a virtual conference because it is basically a shoulders and head shot I just have to wear a good top and comb my hair. I have to make sure there is no light like a window behind to put my face in shadow. Also, depending on where I am I could have some unexpected interruptions—pets, children, phone ringing.

     Getting ready for a physical conference I have to pack enough clothes for the weekend. If I am on a panel I have to make sure I have all my material with me when I leave home. If I forget anything, I am out of luck. No packing for a virtual conference and all my material will be in my house somewhere.

     At a physical conference there are many panels taking place at the same time which can be frustrating if I want to attend more than one of them. For this virtual conference only one panel was offered each hour so I was able to take part in as many as I wanted. When I finished my panel or the presentation was over I could leave my office and pet my cats, pick strawberries, sit on my deck, or train my chickens to run an obstacle course.

     The downside to the virtual conference is that the only people I see are my fellow panelists. I don’t see the audience expressions so there is no interaction between me and them. I like to watch them to see if they are bored or glad that they came. I am happy to see that ‘ahah’ moment when something I say answers a problem they have been having.

     At both conferences there is time for the audience to ask questions. When answering a question at a physical conference I can speak with the audience face to face, I can judge to see if my answer is making sense. The questions at a virtual conference are typed so I don’t see the person asking. When I answer it I am only looking at my fellow panelists.

     Part of the fun of going to a physical conference is the contact with my fellow writers. We can meet for meals or a drink or have a quick chat between panels. I can walk through the conference centre soaking up the writing atmosphere. I meet readers, talk about books, and get feedback on my own books. It is wonderful when someone comes up to me and tells me they enjoyed a presentation I made or want some advice, or liked one of my books. This does stroke my ego because we writers need to have our egos stroked once in a while. We spend months, years alone writing a book, wondering if a publisher is going to like it and if a publisher does, will the readers like it and if they do will they tell us. It is a great feeling to go to the Vendor’s Room and see my books displayed on my publisher’s table. Even better to have someone buy one of mine and ask for an autograph.

     During a virtual conference, there is a Vendor’s Room showing a picture of all the panelists and their books. There is also a chat room where authors and readers can connect.

     There are a lot of differences between the two conferences. Most physical conferences have been cancelled for this year or turned into a virtual conference which is perfect in today’s time of lockdown and social distancing. In the future I am sure they will return as writers and readers decide what they like best: the convenience of the virtual conference or the comradery of the physical conference. I like both and if, in the future, I am able to attend either of them, I will.

Famous Canadian Author from Newfoundland/Labrador

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Newfoundland/Labrador

Margaret Iris Duley was born on September 27, 1894, in St. John’s, in the colony of Newfoundland (Newfoundland didn’t become a province of Canada until 1949). Her father, Thomas Duley, had emigrated from Birmingham, England, while her mother, Tryphena Soper was born in Carbonear, NFL. Margaret graduated from the Methodist College in St. John’s in 1910 and in 1911 she and her family went to England for a relative’s wedding. She decided to stay and study drama and elocution (distinct pronunciation and articulation of speech) at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Unfortunately, she had to return home when WWI broke out in Europe.

     Duley worked at the Women’s Patriotic Association to raise money and supplies for the Royal Newfoundland Regiment. Her older brother was injured during the war and her younger brother was killed.

     Duley’s father died in 1920 and left her an income of $250 a year. This allowed her some freedom and she joined the Ladies Reading Room and the Current Events Club. This club produced many leaders of the Newfoundland women’s suffrage movement. She was also a supporter of the Women’s Franchise League who petitioned island-wide for women to vote. The Newfoundland government passed a suffrage bill in March 1925, allowing women to vote at age 25, men at 21. In the 1928 general election, 90 per cent of women eligible to vote cast a ballot.

     In 1928, during a boat trip to the Labrador coast with her brother, a seagull with eyes like yellow ice hovered in front of Margaret. She used this fierce, yellow-eyed image in her first book titled, The Eyes of the Gull. It is the story of a thirty-year-old woman who wants to escape her outport life and leave an overpowering mother.

     Margaret’s second novel, Cold Pastoral, was published in 1939. It is about an orphaned young girl who is adopted into a wealthy family in St. John’s and is loosely based on a real case of a child lost in the woods.

     During WWII Margaret worked for the Women’s Patriotic Association and the St. John’s Ambulance. Later she because the Public Relations Officer for the Red Cross and started writing newspaper articles. In her third novel, Highway to Valour (1941), Margaret used the 1929 tidal wave that struck the Burin Peninsula as a backdrop for the life of the young heroine. Her fourth book Novelty on Earth was published in 1942 and the Caribou Hut (1949) was based on her volunteer work at the Caribou Hut, a hostel for returning servicemen. All her novels had a strong female characters.

     During this time she also did interviews and broadcast talks on CJON, a local radio station. The station sent her to England in 1952 to transmit stories on the coronation of Queen Elizabeth.

Margaret developed Parkinson’s disease and her health started to decline in 1955. She was unable to hold a pen by 1959 and moved in with her sister-in-law. She lived with her until her death on March 22, 1968, at the age of seventy-three.

     Margaret Iris Duley is considered Newfoundland’s first novelist (female or male) and was the first Newfoundland writer to gain an international audience. She was loved in England and the United States for her novels, yet belittled at home for her outspoken views on women’s rights and her novels’ bold portrayal of the female perspective. Her niece, author Margot Duley, described her as a free thinking, free spirited, outspoken and charismatic personality in a society where this was not encouraged.

     A Parks Canada historic plaque dedicated to Margaret Iris Duley is attached to the Education Building on the campus of the Memorial University in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. Her home at 51 Rennies Mill Road is part of a Women’s History Walking Tour of St. John’s. She was designated a National Historic Person by Parks Canada in September, 2007.