There really is nothing better than reading a great book. Writers and readers work together to create a whole other world. And it all happens inside our heads, yet oh how real.
Sweet writing home, that is
I am more than greatly pleased to announce that the Center for the Writing Arts in Fairhope, Alabama has awarded me a three-month term as Writer-in-Residence. My residency will be from January to March 2017, a pretty nice time for a Nova Scotia boy to be south — living and writing in a temperate clime rather than enduring snow and sleet.
The cottage that houses the WIR looks to be a comfortable, charming spot, all a writer could want. Just as importantly, the community of Fairhope is a lively cultural place. Its citizens care deeply for the arts and natural world. Fairhope has a striking setting on a bank overlooking Mobile Bay, with the natural wonders of the vast delta — America’s Amazon — not too far away.
For more information on the program in Fairhope, please follow the link below.
I was cleaning up the furnace room this week and came across a sketch of me that the late Lewis Parker, the supremely talented painter and illustrator of Canadian historical scenes, did of me one day at Louisbourg back in the 1980s. Lew became a great friend, and something akin to a virtual grandfather to our three kids, as I advised and he painted two large murals depicting Louisbourg as we think it appeared in 1744. Those paintings are a highlight of any visit to the Fortress of Louisbourg NHS if one comes across them in the Commissaire-Ordonnateur’s House.
Here below is that sketch, and a photo taken by fellow historian Ken Donovan of Lewis and I laughing about something.
Here is a 28-minute film produced by the Potlotek Cultural Society that tells the story of the centuries-old altar that dates back to the French regime on Cape Breton Island (then Ile Royale) and how it finally returned to the care of the Mi’kmaq in 2015. Sandy Balcom and I were honoured to be asked to provide some historical background to the story.
Stories are not just at the heart of any civilization, they really are that civilization.
Stories are everything and everywhere — from gossip and oral traditions to religions to films, plays, radio, television, songs and poetry and of course books.
If you read, and even more if you write, you likely already know about the important new initiative in Nova Scotia called Books Start Here. If you have not yet heard of it, please check it out. Our distinctive Maritime culture, not to mention lots of jobs and economic impact, need all the help they can get in this era of global reductionism. That is, we need a vital publishing industry that connects with the stories of who we are and aspire to be, and examples of poets, novelists, historians, illustrators and editors who will inspire the generations to come. Or think of it this way: we should be providing some of our own self-reliant cultural reference points and not just consuming what is generated in LA, New York and Toronto.