Couldn’t make it to the Writers Festival?
The Ottawa Citizen
OTTAWA — Starting Friday, the Ottawa International Writers Festival will post by noon videos of authors who appeared at the festival the previous day. The festival began Thursday and runs until Oct. 25. To watch a video of Ottawa’s Frances Itani and other authors who appeared Thursday, go to www.ottawacitizen. com/books. For the Itani video, press play in the screen below. For additional videos, visit the Books page throughout the weekend.
Music for Silenced Voices
Shostakovich and His Fifteen Quartets with Wendy Lesser and the Arthur-Leblanc Quartet
[Source: Music and Beyond press release]
This Sunday, a very special event celebrating Shostakovich’s remarkable cycle of string quartets will take place at Knox Presbyterian Church on Elgin Street. This event is presented by the Ottawa International Writers Festival in partnership with Music and Beyond. It will feature Canada’s Arthur-Leblanc String Quartet (who are about to release the first-ever complete set of Shostakovich string quartets by a Canadian ensemble) along with writer Wendy Lesser who has just written a new book on the Shostakovich quartets. It promises to be a fascinating evening filled with wonderful music. While it starts at 8:30 p.m., it will run for 90 minutes straight and will be finished by 10:00 p.m.
Each one changes Canada a little
You don’t have to be a Vietnamese boat person or a Chilean fleeing Pinochet or a child from the Holocaust to realize that Canada has the space to absorb you and not only that, to transform you, writes Adrienne Clarkson
Adrienne Clarkson, The Ottawa Citizen
believe there is room for all of us in Canada because so many of us share the same kind of experiences. These experiences have been so powerful that they have become our background – our shared background. Whether we are Jewish, Christian, Muslim, black or white, if we lost everything and then were taken in and became citizens of Canada, we have found that this country has the space for us all. And by “space,” I don’t mean just physical space; I mean the space in the collective consciousness of every Canadian.
When I was growing up in Ottawa in the ’40s and ’50s, it was a small city of fewer than 100,000 people. There were a half a dozen public schools and a half a dozen high schools. It was really a small town. We had a familiarity with the people we lived among, and although our family, the Poys, came out of the blue into the cold Ottawa winter of 1942, we too became part of this small city.
It was a time of war, rationing, and limited housing as the city swelled with the bureaucracy necessary to guide a government in a wartime situation. I remember the temporary buildings that covered the grounds where the National Gallery now stands and around the Supreme Court. There was always a feeling that somehow this little city was able to cope with everything; and our family benefitted from that.
Teach Ontario kids “food literacy,” says chef Michael Smith
Trevor Pritchard, Open File
Chef Michael Smith calls for Nutritional Literacy – Ottawa Writers Festival – September 26, 2011 from OTTAWA INTL WRITERS FESTIVAL on Vimeo.
Renowned P.E.I. chef and Food Network personality Michael Smith was in the city on Monday as part of the Ottawa International Writers Festival. And in this clip posted today by the festival on Vimeo, Smith talks about the need for a province-wide food literacy strategy:
I’m talking food literacy. Nutritional literacy. And I strongly believe that it needs to be in your kids’ schools from kindergarden all the way through to twelfth grade.
Smith’s timing is prescient: earlier this month, the Ontario government’s new guidelines around what foods can and can’t be sold in school cafeterias went into effect.
The host of such shows as Chef Abroad and The Inn Chef was at Ashbury College to talk about his new recipe collection, Chef Michael Smith’s Kitchen.
A blockbuster season for new books
Carla Luccheta, The Ottawa Citizen
The biggest literary event of the fall, by far, is a new book by Michael Ondaatje, his first since 2007’s Divisadero. Not to be outdone, however, are Frances Itani, David Gilmour, Wayne Johnston, Lynn Coady, Guy Vanderhaeghe, Marina Endicott, Ami McKay, David Davidar and Douglas Coupland. Non-fiction offerings come from Margaret Atwood on her love of science fiction, Adrienne Clarkson on multiculturalism, TV’s Arlene Dickinson and Kevin O’Leary on entrepreneurialism, Natalie McLean on good, bargain wines, Craig Oliver on his life as a parliamentary correspondent, Michael Bublé and Jann Arden on a life in music, and David Adams Richards on hunting.
Read more on the Ottawa Citizen website: A blockbuster season for new books
Magnetic North Fundraising Auction
Show your support for Canada’s national festival of contemporary Canadian theatre in English – plus get some amazing prizes!
[Source: Magnetic North press release]
Like its polar namesake, the Magnetic North Theatre Festival roves around the country, visiting a new Canadian city every second year and returning to its hosts at the National Arts Centre in between. Designed to raise the profile of contemporary English Canadian theatre at home and abroad, Magnetic North is truly one of Canada’s great artistic success stories.
Meet Private Eye Jake Doyle on set in colourful St. John’s, NL
Flight and hotel accommodations included
A return trip to beautiful St. John’s Newfoundland from anywhere in Canada, where you will visit the set of the popular Canadian television series the Republic of Doyle. Enjoy the opportunity to meet the cast and co-star Allan Hawco, Private Eye Jake Doyle, and perform as an extra on the show. Flight and hotel accommodations are included in this auction package.
Private Eye Jake Doyle returns for a raucous third season of CBC’s Republic of Doyle, solving cases, dodging punches and chasing criminals through the hilly, colourful streets of seaside St. John’s. Allan Hawco stars as the charming and irreverent detective who struggles daily to navigate the complications of running the family P.I. business while keeping his very tangly private life in check.
A Taste of Newfoundland!
A private meal for 10 with special guests and music
Enjoy an evening hosted by Peter Herrndorf, President and CEO of the National Arts Centre, and Ann Connors, Executive Director of the Magnetic North Theatre Festival along with special guests. Let them entertain you and nine of your friends with authentic Maritimes cuisine, drinks and live music and see how they party on the Rock!
WRITERS FESTIVAL’S SPRING SEASON SETS THE STAGE FOR A STELLAR FALL
The Ottawa International Writers Festival wrapped up its 2011 Spring season with Fawzia Koofi, an influential Afghan MP and human rights advocate, who spoke about the future of Afghanistan and her plans to run for her country’s presidency in 2014. It was a fitting end to a successful Spring season, and a prelude to a Fall season that
will feature many more big thinkers and acclaimed imaginations.
“It wasn’t ideal to be competing with the federal election, but once again our community came out to welcome all the visiting authors. Attendance was up over last Spring and book sales jumped 30%,” says Sean Wilson, artistic director. “We also hit something of a milestone with our free literacy programs, since we managed to offer fifty of them this time around and reached more than 5,000 kids.”
Some of the highlights of the Spring included three-term U.S. poet laureate Robert Pinsky, Giller Prize-winning novelist Elizabeth Hay, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges and “Survivorman” Les Stroud.
Judging by the authors who have been confirmed so far, the Fall lineup will feature just as much talent and variety. The list includes former Governor General Adrienne Clarkson and Booker Prize-winning novelists Michael Ondaatje and Anne Enright, as well as Irshad Manji (The Trouble with Islam), Wayne Johnston (The Navigator of New York), Anita Rau Badami (Can You Hear the Nightbird Call?), celebrity chef Michael Smith, and renowned editor Douglas Gibson.
“There will definitely be something for everyone, and no shortage of bold ideas,” says Wilson. “We’re also excited to be curating some great events with a focus on songwriting and music.”
Another new development for Fall is the Festival’s change of venue. Most of the Fall Festival will take place at Knox Presbyterian Church at the corner of Lisgar and Elgin. “There’s enough space for a larger on-site bookstore and room to hold most events under one roof,” says community liaison manager Leslie Wilson. “So besides the convenience factor, there should also be a great social atmosphere running through the six days of the Fall edition.”
Fall events will begin in September, with the Fall edition proper spanning October 20 to 25. For more information, please visit www.writersfestival.org or call 613-562-1243.
AMBITIOUS, COURAGEOUS, INSPIRING: FAWZIA KOOFI AT THE WRITERS FESTIVAL
FAWZIA KOOFI, AFGHANISTAN’S FIRST FEMALE DEPUTY SPEAKER OF THE LOWER HOUSE, AT THE WRITERS FESTIVAL
On the day FAWZIA KOOFI was born, her mother left her to die in the wilderness, changing her mind only after the baby had suffered severe burns. This early brush with death may explain the remarkable tenacity of Afghanistan’s most popular female politician. The 35-year-old MP will run for president in 2014 despite serious security threats from Islamic extremists. On May 30, she will discuss her new memoir Letters to My Daughters in an event presented by the Ottawa International Writers Festival and hosted by CBC’s Lucy van Oldenbarneveld.
Twice elected in her home province of Badakhshan, Koofi is the first female deputy speaker of the Lower House in her country. She is a well-known advocate for democracy and for human rights, especially those of women and children. The World Economic Forum recognized her as a Young Global Leader in 2009.
Koofi’s exposure to injustice began at an early age. Her father, also a parliamentarian, was executed by mujahedeen rebels when she was four years old, leaving behind seven wives and twenty-three children. He was a well-respected public servant, but at home he could be “a terrifying tyrant”; Koofi recalls how he would beat her mother, sometimes to the point of unconsciousness, if his guests’ rice was too sticky.
As the first girl in her family to be allowed to attend school, Koofi is part of a pivotal generation of Afghan women who are challenging traditional forms of inequality. Unfortunately, this has resulted in more than one attempt on her life. Last year, her convoy was attacked near Kabul, triggering a shootout that left two policemen dead.
In a letter to her 11- and 12-year-old daughters, Koofi writes, “…I would willingly sacrifice my life if it means a peaceful Afghanistan and a better future for the children of this country. I live this life so that you—my precious girls—will be free to live your lives and to dream all of your dreams.”
The event will take place at Southminster United Church (15 Aylmer Ave. at Bank) at 7:00 PM. Tickets are $15 for the general public, $10 for students and seniors, and free for Carleton students and Festival members. They are available at writersfestival.org or by calling (613) 562-1243.
STORIES OF WAR, KIDNAPPING AND SURVIVAL AT THE WRITERS FESTIVAL
The possibility of being kidnapped at gunpoint is not something the average Canadian thinks about while getting ready for work. Yet in some parts of the world, it is an ever-present threat. On May 17, MELLISSA FUNG and JAMES LONEY will speak about their experiences as captives in Afghanistan and Iraq, respectively. The event, hosted by Kate Heartfield, is presented by the Ottawa International Writers Festival.
In October 2008, CBC reporter Mellissa Fung was kidnapped by armed men as she was leaving a refugee camp near Kabul. She spent twenty-eight days imprisoned in a small hole in the ground with barely enough room to stand. A true journalist, she questioned her captors relentlessly, gaining rare insight into their motives and personal lives. Former Governor General Adrienne Clarkson calls Fung’s book Under an Afghan Sky: A Memoir of Captivity “a must-read for anyone interested in what’s happening in Afghanistan today.”
Born Again at the Writers Festival
The Easter season is the perfect time to re-examine our lives and discover deeper meaning and significance of the profound and the ordinary.
Join us at 8 PM Sunday, May 1 at Southminster United Church for the insights and inspiration of two of Canada’s most radical thinkers. Tom Harpur author of the highly controversial bestsellers The Pagan Christ and Water Into Wine launches his latest book Born Again, My Journey from Fundamentalism To Freedom and Robert Sibley, author of the critically acclaimed Northern Spirits takes the stage with A Rumor of God, Rekindling Belief in an Age of Disenchantment.
With references to literary and philosophical giants such as Blaise Pascal, William James, Virginia Wolf, Martin Buber, Martin Heidegger, Simone Weill, Gertrude Stein, and Philip Larkin to name but a few, Sibley astounds and entertains with his tapestry of profound imagery and pilgrimage set against a backdrop of the disenchantment of our contemporary world.
Tom Harpur, Canada’s leading writer on spirituality and religious issues may well deny the historical evidence of Jesus but, Born Again is a passionate even revolutionary appeal to ‘ordinary’ seekers to challenge the official religious status quo and to look to ourselves and the Christ within for true spiritual enlightenment.
Don’t miss this unique opportunity to hear from and ask questions of two original and brilliant writers.
Memberships, Festival passes and tickets are available online at writersfestival.org and over the phone at 613 562 1243.
The Spring Edition of the Festival runs from Thursday April 28 until Tuesday, May 3. Highlights include Chris Hedges, Elizabeth Hay, Jaron Lanier, Bernhard Schlink, Johanna Skibsrud, Neil Pasricha, John Gray, Les Stroud, Robert Pinsky, Sylvia Tyson, David Adams Richards, James Bartleman and Johanna Skibsrud.
