May/June 2011Volume 40 Number 3

Members of the Saskatchewan Writers' Guild remember Gary Hyland.

Freelance

SWG STAFFExecutive Director: Judith SilverthorneFinance Officer: Lois SalterProgram Manager: Tracy Hamon (Regina)Program Coordinator: Christina Shah (Saskatoon)Communications Coordinator and Freelance Managing Editor: Jan MorierAdministrative Assistant: Milena Dzordeski Cover photo credit: Government of Saskatchewan Freelance is published six times per year for members of the Saskatchewan Writers' Guild. Submissions to Freelance are welcome for editorial review. If accepted, articles will be edited for clarity. The basic criteria to meet in submitting materials are readership interest, timeliness, and quality and following standard submission format (see web site. Viewpoints expressed in contributed articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of the SWG. Copyright remains with the writer and cannot be reprinted without permission. Services advertised are not necessarily endorsed by the SWG. We do not accept poetry or prose at this time.

Payment for reports and articles is 10¢ per word. Deadline for Freelance copy is the 1st of the month prior to the month of publication. Next deadline: 1st week in July.

Freelance ISSN 0705-1379

BOARD OF DIRECTORSCathy Fenwick, President, Regina Jerry Haigh, Past President, Saskatoon Lisa Wilson, Vice President, Saskatoon George Khng, Treasurer, Saskatoon Martine Noël-Maw, Secretary, Regina Danica Lorer, Maidstone R. P. MacIntyre, La Ronge Scott Miller, Estevan Marilyn Poitras, Saskatoon Kelly-Anne Riess, Regina Ex-Officio: Judith Silverthorne

Volume 40 Number 3May/June 2011

President's Report .....................................3 Cathy Fenwick

Executive Director's Report .........................5 Judith Silverthorne

Saskatoon Shenanigans .............................7 Christina Shah

Welcome New Staff ...................................8SWG Employment Opps .............................9Eulogy to Gary Hyland (exerpt)...................10 Robert Currie

Members' Tributes to Gary Hyland..............12 Glen Sorestad ..................Judith Krause Doris Bircham ..................Anne Slade Anne Campbell ................gillian russell

Poetry Month Reading ..............................16Windscript Launch ...................................17Talking Fresh 9 - SK Poetry Summit............18 Cassidy McFadzean SWG Short Manuscript Awards..................20John V. Hicks Long Manuscript Awards.......21Hyland Award Nominations .......................22Kloppenburg Award - Literary Excellence........23Culture Days ...........................................24Words in the Park ....................................25SWG Conference Teaser ...........................26Writers Group Grants Deadlines..................27Flexible Loans SAB ..................................28

Perils of Forgetfulness, Rewards of Remembrance David Carpenter.............................................................30The Space-Time Continuum ......................32 Edward Willett

Books by Members ..................................34Letter to the Editor ..................................36Markets & Competitions ...........................37

We gratefully acknowledge the support of SaskCulture, Saskatchewan Lotteries Trust Fund and the Saskatchewan Arts BoardMailing Address:

Saskatchewan Writers' GuildBox 3986, Regina, SK S4P 3R9

Regina Courier or Drop-off Address:205–2314 11th AvenueRegina, SK S4P 0K1

Contact:Phone: (306) 757-6310 Toll Free: 1-800-667-6788Fax: (306) 565-8554Email: info@skwriter.com or communications@skwriter.comWeb site: www.skwriter.com

Saskatoon Courier or Drop-off Address:205A Pacific AvenueSaskatoon, SK S7K 1N9

CONTENTS

May/June 2011

My favourite philo-sophical writers in graduate school

were the Existentialists – Hei-degger, Kierkegaard, Camus, Sartre, de Beauvoir, and the Existential psychiatrist Vik-tor Frankl. Their philosophy fits with my worldview and with my experiences of living in Canada. I offer here the proviso that a philosophy of personal responsibility may be difficult or impossible to ap-ply under conditions of fam-ine, living in a war zone, or in a situation of extreme abuse – I have no direct experience of these conditions and read-ily accept that there are situa-tions over which people have no control and often very little influence. I’m also in the privileged position of having the opportunity to acquire an education, whereby I am able to read and consider such august writings.

Viktor Frankl says that even under the worst circum-stances, we still have choice. In Man’s Search for Mean-ing (1963), Frankl writes about his experiences in the concentration camps of the Second World War. He wrote, “We who lived in concentra-tion camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that every-thing can be taken from a

man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way." I have read this book many times.

Frankl writes, “Man is capa-ble of changing the world for the better if possible, and of changing himself for the bet-ter if necessary.” His writings were especially helpful to me when, several years ago, I managed to survive a cancer diagno-sis and the very difficult treatments that fol-lowed. He says, “When we are no longer able to change a situation – just think of an incurable disease such as inoper-able cancer – we are challenged to change ourselves.”

Every few years I reread Sartre’s No Exit. In the play three deceased people are forced to spend eternity together in a locked room with no windows and no door – punishment for lives that were not well lived. The irony of this hell is that the torture is not famine, disease, nor fire and brimstone, but the burning humiliation of being stripped of all pretences. Sar-tre dramatizes his existential philosophy by showing three characters continuously chal-lenged to come to grips with their true selves. Sartre’s

dramatic conclusion is, l'enfer c'est les autres (Hell is other people).

On the other hand, our rela-tionship with others makes life worthwhile. One might even say it can be empyrean. Whether people make of life a heaven or a hell is influenced by the way we interact with one another. I like living in Saskatchewan, not just for

the sunshine and long sea-sons of cross-country skiing, but because of the people and our cooperative spirit. The Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild has a well-deserved reputation for cooperation among our members. We don’t just say we’re writers helping other writers, we ac-tually put it into practice. Our writing community is known across Canada for being ex-ceptionally supportive of writ-ers. We do this by our willing-ness to learn and by being compassionate and genuinely helpful teachers. This quality of human interaction builds bridges instead of walls.

Cathy Fenwick

FREELANCE 3

We are most effective when

we make the existential choice to be responsible

and compassionate communicators.

PrESidENT'S rEpOrT

May/June 2011

We are most effective when we make the existential choice to be responsible and compassionate communi-cators. Occasionally there are times when we need to communicate more than we do, share information and meet each other half way. The destructive nature of incomplete information, and the pitfalls of jumping to a conclusion, is dramatically presented in the 1957 film, 12 Angry Men, a story about the dangers of rushing to judgement. The film is about a jury who must decide on the guilt or innocence of a defendant, a young man from a poor neighbourhood, accused of murder. The evidence is circumstantial and the only witnesses are an “old man” and “the lady across the street”. After closing arguments, the jury is instructed to consider the evidence and must come to a unanimous decision. If the defendant is found guilty, he will face the death penalty.

The verdict after the first vote, results in eleven guilty and one not guilty. Jurors revisit the facts and explore the many difficulties of con-sensus building among the twelve, who represent a wide range of personality types. Two groups emerge in the beginning, those who take their responsibility seriously enough to weigh the evidence and those who want a quick decision so they can get on with their own lives. The vote goes back and forth several times around the con-cerns of “reasonable doubt”, until a unanimous agreement is reached. I won’t tell you

the verdict so as not to spoil the ending. By the way, if you’re interested in foreign films, there is an excellent Russian film, двенадцать (12), based on the American ver-sion. Here the defendant is a Chechen youth accused of killing his Russian military of-ficer stepfather.

Though most of our discus-sions and choices don’t involve life or death conse-quences, thoughtful consid-eration of others helps to make life less hellish. I know as well as anyone how dif-ficult it is to hear critiques of my work. I also know that constructive criticism helps me to become better at whatever it is I’m doing. For example, in my career development and job search skills class, I use the sand-wich method when giving feedback (this is especially helpful for students going “on-camera” to role-play job interviews). When viewing the tapes with each student, I use the sandwich method – first say what was good, then mention things one could do to make it better, top it off with something positive and supportive. It’s always about the behaviour, never about the person. It takes more time than simply pointing out one’s errors, but it’s more compassionate and much more effective.

In her writing classes, Judy McCrosky, SWG board presi-dent from 2004 to 2006, does excellent work with students on tips for critiquing each other’s work. She says, “Start with the strengths of the story. Here’s what I like.

Here’s what makes the story really good”. You may not like the content of the story, you don’t have to – your feedback should focus on structure, character, setting, grammar, clarity, facts, etc. Then give suggestions on how the writing could be improved. Be specific about what and how you think your suggestions might be helpful. Critiquing focuses on the writing, never on the person. For clarification it’s better if we can ask a question rather than make a statement. “I was unclear about _____. Could you describe the scene more clearly?” Good teachers and good writers, like good jurors, take their responsibili-ties seriously.

Responsible and compassion-ate critiquing of our work, especially for beginning writers can make the differ-ence between the decision to carry on with our writing, or to give up and do something else. If your story is being critiqued, be open to learning and don’t take it personally, stay open to well-meaning critique. Supportive and careful critiquing is of tre-mendous value in helping us build confidence and become better writers. When offering feedback, treat everyone’s work with utmost respect, read it as carefully as you would read your own work. We want to be supportive, while offering concrete sug-gestions. Respect for people and for their work helps to ease some of the distresses of life that we all must face.

Best Regards,Cathy Fenwick

FREELANCE 4

May/June 2011

Judith Silverthorne

It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change. Charles Darwin, (1809-1882) English Naturalist

The ‘Winds of Change’ is not just the name of a Scor-

pion ballad, a British Prime Minister’s speech, a day spa or used in many other ways; it’s a reality in today’s world and a powerful force around and within the SWG. Besides having a history of being forerunners in many areas, the Guild seems to thrive best when generating its own airstreams of newness and growth.

Rapid developments are in-evitable given today’s globali-zation, precarious economic and environmental condi-tions, and wafting political and government adjustments. These all affect the Guild at some level, and closer to home change is ongoing, sometimes on a daily basis, which for the most part we are learning to embrace and roll out as quickly as pos-sible. From the technologi-cal, business and financial fronts to the staffing and operational structure, we are thrust into responding in inno-vative ways to accommodate evolving membership needs, and adjust to the writing and publishing climate.

As many of you know, the Guild receives the majority of our operating from the generosity of Saskatchewan Lotteries system, through SaskCulture and the Sas-katchewan Arts Board. All of these bodies are regulated by government, which in turn is prone to prevailing currents. Changes may come through new legislation, different political party’s pressures, or outside forces from so-ciety, economics, environ-ment, legal designations and other influences. Sometimes changes occur simply because of drifting towards new di-rections or trends. There is no doubt we see whirlwinds of change hap-pening in the technological world on a regular basis and often faster than we can keep up. The Guild is now sailing forward with RSS feed capabilities, with social networking on Twitter and Facebook, and will soon have even more internet streama-bility with YouTube uploads and member interactivity on our web site. Watch for both of these sometime this sum-mer.

On the people front, Chris-tina Shah wafted into her new position with the Guild team in the Saskatoon office. She’s bursting with energy and ideas for programming in Saskatoon and area, so give

her a hearty welcome when you see her gliding about the community making things happen.

Meanwhile, on another jet stream of excitement and en-thusiasm, Jan Morier soared into the Regina office as the newly appointed Commu-nications Coordinator. You may already have seen some of the results of her work in embracing a new communi-cations strategy, which will be unfolded zephyr-like in the coming months. Send her your news and views: com-munications@skwriter.com

One of our summer students is U of S English major Kel-sey Gottfried, who is gaining additional experience on the administrative, research and business angles of writing. One of her main tasks is to assist in the generation of materials to complement the Arts Profession Act require-ments and our Professional Development ventures, par-ticularly in the business of writing areas. Basically, along with a myriad of other impor-tant aspects, she’s replicat-ing the Literary Arts Hand-book of some years back, albeit with the added twists of state-of-the-art resources, all of which will be available on our web site.

Blowing with the Winds of Change

continued

FREELANCE 5

ExEcuTivE dirEcTOr'S rEpOrT

May/June 2011

move, old files and records will be culled and saved for posterity within the SK Ar-chives Board complex where a large number of our mate-rial is already stored; and un-

necessary equipment, etc. will be discarded, though we’ve done some major clearing over the past. We are excited about be-ing able to

further streamline operations, while at the same time gain-ing some extra perks, such as more offices and free parking for all the staff mem-bers. We will be able to hold workshops once again at the Guild office, and we will have easy accessibility and ample (free) parking for everyone visiting us.

On the programming scene, the Emma Lake retreat was cancelled this year simply because there were too few applicants (3); however, Anne Pennylegion is at the helm of finding other suitable and more affordable accom-modations for our future, and we looking at offering a series of new writing retreats for our members, with vary-ing lengths. The St. Peter’s summer retreat is forging ahead as planned at almost full capacity.

The Guild Board undertook a facilitated Strategic Planning meeting in mid-May to out-line goals for the next three to five years. The results of

We are also pleased that we’ve received funding from Service Canada to hire an Aboriginal student for the summer, who will be respon-sible for networking and establishing program-ming for Aboriginal writers, and all that entails. You’ll meet this per-son in the next issue of Free-lance. We are already in the throes of organizing various Aboriginal programs, including a later summer writing retreat for Aboriginal writers, lining up a mentorship program and we have one that Christina will oversee in Saskatoon. Find out more about “Buffalo Chips” and other upcoming programs and resources on the web site www.skwriter.com / Programs and Services / Aboriginal Programming.

In other related organiza-tions, Stacy Riggs is the new Executive Director of the Saskatchewan Book Awards replacing Jackie Lay, who is moving into new directions. Patrick Close of CARFAC is retiring at the end of the calendar year, and Caroline Selinger from the SK Library Association is also resigning shortly to seek another path.

In office news, SWG is in the final negotiations for establishing our new Regina space, which we will be moving into at the end of Au-gust. In preparation for the

this will see some enhance-ments to the operations and additional opportunities for our members, including ex-panding and experimenting in new directions. “Sometimes in the winds of change we find our true direction.” (Mac Anderson)

The board and staff are stimulated and ready for the challenges that come with change, which according to Charles Darwin is a good thing: “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”

Whether or not the Guild moves forward like a gentle summer breeze into new realms, the winds of change are definitely fluttering through.

FREELANCE 6

Sometimesin the

winds of change we find our

true direction.Mac Anderson

May/June 2011

Saskatoon Shenanigans: Hot Time - Summer in the City of Bridges

By Christina Shah

The warm winds of change have swept

through SWG Saskatoon – and so far I’ve been enjoying my new role in helping shape Saskatoon’s red-hot writing scene! Thanks for the warm welcome, everyone – and thanks, Pam, for your sense of humour and your patience during the transition. I wish you the best. We’re sad to see you go, but it’s all in service of good writing!

Speaking of good writing, we wrapped up our Appren-ticeship 2011 program with a springtime reading and reception hosted by George Khng on Thursday, April 28th at the Refinery. Five New Voices: The Apprentice Readings featured Caitlin Ward, dee Hobsbawn-Smith, Jess Boyachek, Moira Mc-Kinnon, and Gary Chappell, who were mentored by Dave Margoshes, Elizabeth Phillips, Ted Dyck, Harriet Richards, and Don Kerr. The reading was a smash – and the cali-bre of the apprentices’ work

was exceptional. It was won-derful to have the mentors introduce their apprentices and share their insights on the process, and to celebrate Pam’s time as Saskatoon Program Coordinator.

Those lazy days of summer are prime time to get crack-ing on our writing! We have some exciting workshops and readings happening this summer. The SWG, in part-nership with the Global Gath-ering Place, is presenting Weaving Words – a work-shop for new immigrants, with a focus on memoir writing. There will be a cel-ebration and a public reading the evening of August 18th at the GGP (#307-506 25th Street East).

Also in August – Buffalo Chips, the SWG’s new pilot project, will be kicking up some serious dust. Buffalo Chips is a week-long writing workshop focusing on Abo-riginal youth between 15-19 in the urban core, and also provides a unique mentor-ship/teaching opportunity for an emerging Aboriginal writer. The SWG is partner-ing with the Core Neighbour-hood Youth Co-op to encour-age at-risk youth to tell their

stories. Award-winning Cree playwright Kenneth T. Wil-liams and emerging Métis poet and established journal-ist Andréa Ledding will be leading the workshop.

The young writers will have fun challenging themselves through writing exercises for scriptwriting, poetry and prose; discussions, peer critiquing, voice work and individual consultations. The workshop ends with a trip to Wanuskewin Heritage Park, where they will take in the “Step Back in Time” and Exhibit tours (with writing challenges), and then partici-pate in a sharing circle with an Elder, with a public read-ing to top it all off!

Have a great summer– and come out and enjoy fresh work from some of this city’s emerging talent!

vox audita perit, littera

scripta manet(the spoken word perishes, but the

written word remains)

FREELANCE 7

May/June 2011

Christina Shah Program Coordinator for Saskatoon Office Christina is a poet with several years’ experience as a journalist, editor and communications director for the mining exploration industry. She does free-lance writing (screenwrit-ing, copywriting and web content development) and editing for a variety of cor-porate and non-profit cli-ents, as well as manuscript editing. She enjoys read-ing, cooking, knitting and doing research in the field of integrative medicine.

She’s married to the Muse, and has a Border Collie/Rottweiler cross who manages to coax her away from her desk regularly.

Jan joins the SWG from the museum community where she enjoyed years of interpreting and promoting Regina and Saskatchewan history.

Besides gardening, Jan’s very favourite thing to do is design the written word for publication. She looks for-ward to creating SWG mate-rial to showcase your works in Windscript, Freelance, and Spring and news you can use through Ebriefs. A lover of language, her personal man-tra is "People think proofread-ing's all fun and games, 'til somebody loses an 'i'". Jan and her menagerie live in the vibrant Regina communi-ty of North Central. She also manages North Central Com-munity Connection newspa-per, a bi-monthly publication.

Kelsey is a full-time student at the University of Saskatche-wan, majoring in Honours English with a minor in His-tory. She joins the SWG for the summer as the Literary Arts Professional Develop-ment Coordinator. Kelsey will be researching and gathering professional development re-sources to assist writers in the business of writing.

WELcOMENEW STAff

FREELANCE 8

Jan Morier Communications Coordinator

Kelsey Gottfried Literary Arts Professional Development Coordinator

May/June 2011

The Saskatchewan Writers' Guild is organizing a retreat at St. Peter’s Abbey. As Writer in Residence at the Facilitated Retreat you will give a talk on an aspect of writing as reflected by the needs of the participants. You will also meet one-on-one with each of a maximum of twelve participants for a total of one hour to give them specific feedback on their writing and/or answers to their writing-related questions. You will be expected to be available for informal discussion with participants during meals and at other times for a minimum of seven hours over the course of the retreat. The object of the facilitated retreat is to encourage and offer advice to participants. Preference will be given to Saskatchewan residents.

The Facilitated Retreat will take place at St. Peter’s Abbey, Muenster, from November 10 to 13 2011, with arrival the evening of Thursday, November 10 and departure after lunch on Sunday, November 13. Payment is $1300 (plus GST if required). Private room and meals are provided, but you are responsible for your own transportation. If the retreat does not go ahead as planned because of lack of registration or other reasons no fee will be paid. A complete job description is available upon request. Previous Writers in Residence should allow five years before re-applying for this position.

Qualifications:• Experience in a teaching or mentoring situation

with beginning writers in different genres• An extensive publication history, including at least

one book

To apply, please submit your CV, the names and phone numbers of two people familiar with your teaching/mentoring ability, and one or two paragraphs describing your approach to teaching/mentoring writers. Please contact Anne Pennylegion, Retreat Coordinator, at skretreats@skwriter.com with any questions about the contract position.

Send your application to the SWG office made to the attention of the Retreat Coordinator, Box 3986, Regina, SK, S4P 3R9. Deadline for receipt of applications for this contract position is 4:30 p.m. Friday July 29.

The SWG is seeking two instructors (or one instructor who is interested in leading TWO workshops) for Weaving Words: Stories of the World. Weav-ing Words is a SWG program for new immigrants, offered in partnership with the Global Gathering Place (GGP). There will be a maximum of 15 par-ticipants per session. The summer session will take place in Saskatoon August 8, 9, 11, and 18th from 6 - 9 p.m. Winter 2012 dates TBA.

Ideal applicants are established profes-sional writers with experience leading creative writing workshops.

Weaving Words gives people from other cultures the chance to work with professional Canadian writers in a relaxed setting, to get some tips and hands-on experience telling their own stories and to meet others who are interested in learning the craft of crea-tive writing. This year’s focus is on the creation of memoirs in either prose or poetry.

Participants will explore ways to write their stories in English, while still keep-ing their distinctive voice and building on their writing, story structure and editing skills. The participants will also have the opportunity to experience live performance as they present their work to an audience upon completion of the program. They will also create a chapbook anthology during the work-shop.

Deadline for applications: June 17th

Please indicate whether you are inter-ested in both sessions – or one ses-sion specifically.

For details, please contact Christina Shah at saskatoon@skwriter.com phone: 306-955-5513.

CALL fOriNSTrucTOrS

WriTEr iN rESidENcE WANTEdfor fAciLiTATEd rETrEAT

SASKATCHeWAn WriTerS' GuiLD eMPLOyMenT OPPOrTuniTieS

FREELANCE 9

May/June 2011

Today we celebrate the remark-

able life of Gary Hyland. Since his death on Tuesday the emails have been pouring in to honour his legacy. Poet Bruce Hunter wrote from On-tario: “His influ-ence on my life was very profound and positive. I can only imagine the sense of loss felt in Moose Jaw... He was a great hu-man being.” Former student Heather Hodgson noted, “He left a lot of good in his wake and inspired so many of us to write.” The CBC’s Shelagh Rogers described him as “a massive intelligence, but all heart.” She told me her inter-view with Gary was one of her favourite radio moments of her entire career.

Gary spent his own career teaching at Riverview Colle-giate, where he was a master teacher, sharing his love of literature with his students, earning a Hilroy Fellowship, the Joe Duffy Memorial Award and the Marshall McLuhan Distinguished Teacher Award for his excellence in teach-ing and his devotion to his students. I’ve met some of those students, and they still rave about what a great teacher he was. A few of them even turned up to read

to him in the hospital. Gary and I were friends for over 40 years, but in some ways I too was a student of his. I used to teach a creative writing class at Central, and year after year the highlight of that class occurred when Gary Hyland gave a reading to my students, and every year I learned something from what he had to say.

Today we remember Gary in many ways, but I think of him first and foremost as a friend, someone who cared about others, someone with whom I travelled to many conferences and meetings, the two of us joyously sing-ing along to the car stereo, though neither of us could carry a tune in bushel bas-ket. I loved his sense of fun, his ability to make others

laugh with Monty Python skits - or his take on Stan Freberg’s Abominable Snow-man routine. I can almost hear it now - Gary putting on that deep nutty voice and saying, “I used to jump cen-tre for Abominable High.”

Throughout his life, Gary was the kind of guy who dreamed big dreams, and then worked his butt off to make those dreams come true. When there were no small presses on the prairies, he worked hard to help found Coteau Books. When the Saskatch-ewan Summer School of the Arts closed down, Gary helped found the Sage Hill Writing Experience. When Moose Jaw was without a cultural centre, he worked countless hours until we had

FREELANCE 10

delivered April 8th 2011 by Robert Currie (excerpts)

Old friends Robert Currie and Gary Hyland at AGM & Fall Conference, October 14-16, 2005, Regina

EuLOgy TO gAry hyLANd

May/June 2011

most active arts activist imaginable. He’s served on more Boards than most of us can imagine, often putting in eighty hours of volunteer work per week. For eleven years, in fact, until he came down with ALS, he was the unpaid artistic coordinator who made the Festival of Words fly. Lori Dean, who worked with him, once said, “He does the job of about ten people.”

No wonder honours have been heaped upon him. He received four volunteer awards on the provincial lev-el--and even had one named after him. In recent years he was invested in the Order of Canada by Governor General Adrienne Clarkson, he was named one of the One Hun-dred Alumni of Influence by the University of Saskatch-ewan, and he received an honorary degree from the University of Regina.

Here at home, Gary is the only one in the city’s history to be twice named Citizen of the Year. He always said that Moose Jaw was a great place to live. Hence, it meant a great deal to him when he received a third hometown award, the Moose Jaw Hon-ours Award.

When we think of Gary Hyland today - whether we think of him as husband, relative or friend; as teacher, volunteer, or poet - I think we all should have, ringing in our ears, some words voiced by Lorna Crozier at a ceremony when Gary was honoured with the title of “Poets’ Poet”: “Of course Gary is the poets’ poet. And the meadowlark’s poet, and the crow’s and the burrowing owl’s, and the go-pher’s. His voice is the land’s voice and the sky’s. And will forever be.”

FREELANCE 11

Audience Moose Jaw Festival of Words, 2006

one of the best ones in the country.

Back in 1996, while flying home from a meeting of Canadian Poets, Gary got to thinking that there really ought to be a literary fes-tival in Saskatchewan, and Moose Jaw was the place for it. A year later, he had the Festival of Words up and running - and in its 15th year it remains a symbol of his leadership.

He also helped Moose Jaw become a Cultural Capital of Canada. Elsewhere, this involves complex grant ap-plications which are a big job for large city administrations, but here it was the work of one citizen, with Gary spend-ing a full six weeks on the application.

It’s no surprise that many people consider him the

May/June 2011

When I began teaching high school in Saska-

toon in 1969, it didn’t take very long before I became very much aware of Gary Hyland and his lifelong pal, Bob Currie, who were high school teachers of English in Moose Jaw at the same time. Through the organi-zation of Saskatchewan’s English teachers, I soon met them both and took in more than one of their famous “Bob & Gary” sessions about teaching poetry to teenagers and not only surviving, but making them want to write their own poems. We soon became friends and encour-aged one another in our own writing of poems. Gary was possessed of a degree of en-thusiasm, the likes of which come along rarely. There was no measuring up to his level of verve and fire, but neither was there any escaping it. He influenced me greatly and in the most positive of ways, both as a teacher, as a poet, and as a friend. We won’t see the likes of Gary Hyland in a long, long time.

Glen Sorestad

It seems fitting then to conclude with that voice, through a few lines of Gary’s poetry that suggest his vision of the future:

The first sounds will be the bottle rattleof the milkman and the chattering sparrows.You don’t get up right away. You listento your mother clatter in the kitchen,your father shaking out the paper.

The endless sun spills through the window.You think of school. All your homeworkis ready and all correct. New clothes beckonin the closet. A playground of friends awaits.

Your father’s voice, low and casual, spreads warmth and your mother’s voice responds.One of them turns on the radio.

A voice declares eternal peace and welcomesyou to heaven. Stretching, you decide to rise.

*******

Farewell, old friend. May your spirit soar.

Bob Currie

Established for Windscript - the SWG Magazine of High School Writing, as a tribute to Robert Currie and Gary Hyland. The prize is awarded for excellence in poetry to a high school writer living outside Regina or Saska-toon. The 2011 recipient is Zane Adam of Swift Current.

FREELANCE 12

Hyland Luncheon at the Fall Conference October 13, 2007 Photo: Marie Powell Mendenhall

TribuTES frOMSWg MEMbErS

May/June 2011

Man from Moose Jaw

If I could see you again I would tell you how I couldn’t find you at your funeral, where all of Moose Jaw gatheredeach one of us lost in our own memory, mineof the first time I met you at SaskARTchewan,a conference of the arts in Saskatoon, at leastthirty-five years ago & there you are:

the writer from Moose Jawin red Pierre Cardin jacket at a downtown disco & how we show them how it’s done, me jivingall night with the first Moose Jaw Dreamboat,the other two – Currie & MacLean – yet to turnus into the Moose Jaw Movement.

You, the town’s poet laureate, the most honoured literary artist in our history, not there in coffin or grave, and lost without your defining presencewe gather outside the church, the literati of Saskatchewan lost on a plain of grief, bereft without you, yet still together moving strong in lines that circle each other, leap & torque like a Hyland poem full of new light, of love of place, of words

I would tell you about leaving the city, knowing I have not left you there behind me. I hear the explosive crack and boom and crashof ice breaking up on a fast-flowing river, its heave and heftof chunks rising and bashing against a bridge that takes meto my youth racing on my balloon-tired CCM to the steep banks of the Saskatchewan river when the ice moves so swiftly out,& looking back I know why you absented your funeral, not just because there can be no last word from you, now

I find you, oh such a fair boy on the bridge, straddling your own CCM & watching the swirl and spin of great wedges of ice, edges sharp as giant glass shards. All poetry, that eternal present held there, in you, & wheeling away from the river, leaving your town, I erect a signpost for all who love this land, this poet:

MOOSE JAW, The Home of Gary Hyland.

Byrna Barclay composed for the launch

of the Moose Jaw Festival April 21, 2011

i was lucky enough to have known Gary Hyland for

more than thirty-five years. He was a mentor and a critic and a wonderful friend. Gary was famous for his sharp eye for detail both on, and off, the page. The son of a hairdresser, he never failed, for example, to notice and comment on a new hairstyle, cut or colour! His powers of observation, combined with his wit, heart, intelligence and craft, and the drive to be the best poet he could be, resulted in an astonishing body of work.

Gary’s imagination was huge and as varied as the topogra-phy of this country. Through the years, he explored all kinds of poetic terrain - from the adventures of adoles-cence growing up in a small prairie city to the ups and downs of romantic life to the angst of human existence - all from the vantage point

FREELANCE 13

Gary Hyland, at left. Fort San in the 1970s Pat Krause Collection

******

May/June 2011

Tribute to Gary Hyland

He is a poet’s poet,his words call us backto the page, his poems a patchwork quilt, white cranehas wings, white crane flyingwhere? To a street of dreamsjust off main to the work of snow or perhaps towardshands reaching in watersearching with intensity,with elegance always findingthe poem with music and messageperfectly balanced. He is a poet’s poet, a people’s poet,creative beyond the muse,his themes crafted carefully with a frostingof humour, his wisdominspiring us to be more than we are.

Doris Bircham and Anne Slade

Gary Hyland

it is 1977 at the Fort San Writers' School. It is late,

very late at night; everything is quiet. This is my first time with a group of "real" writ-ers and I am nervous. Not sleeping I walk the hall in Residence 36, see a light in one of the rooms; the door is ajar. I glance in as Gary Hyland glances up from a desk where he is working. We talk. I barely remember what we spoke of, but his words were kind. Or they had the effect of kindness; or they put me at ease. Whatever we spoke of made a kind of loose bond that was just there in the following years, from Fort San, to shared rides to SWG Board meetings with wild replications of Monty Python skits, to the last days in

Regina at the Wascana Hospital where Gary listened as I and others read to him. I remember most clearly the look in Gary's eyes one day when I stopped reading, whatever I was reading at the time, picked up another book and read Gary Hyland poems to Gary. What an man; what a really amazing man.

Anne Campbell

of his home in Moose Jaw. Gary’s world was local and universal. His poems chal-lenge us, sometimes in witty smart ways, sometimes in dark unsettling ways. His poems may be primarily lyri-cal or narrative, or a combi-nation of the two, but they are always, always musi-cal. Gary was an inspired craftsman. Read any Hyland poem out loud to experience his mastery of vowels and consonants. If you were ever fortunate enough to listen to Gary perform his own work, you marveled at his ability to make words sing.

Poets in this part of the world owe a great deal to Gary. He was extremely generous with his time and went out of his way to help writers in need. Even during those times in his own long writing life when the muse temporarily abandoned him, Gary remained keenly interested in the work of others.

As poet, teacher, pub-lisher, editor, mentor, writing friend, cultural and community activist, Gary shared his extra-or-dinary skills and talents. Poetry mattered to Gary. Thank you, Gary, for everything you’ve given us. You are missed.

Judith Krause

FREELANCE 14

LAFS - Literary Arts Festival Saskatchewan Saskatoon, July 20-23, 1989

May/June 2011

random quantum memories Gary Hyland

i remember Gary from when I first arrived in Regina

twenty years ago. Always actively involved in the Sas-katchewan Writers’ Guild, Gary struck me as an upbeat personality, frequently crack-ing a joke. And his name, ”Gary Hyland” so light-heart-ed and jolly, reminded me a of Scottish highlander’s jig.

I remember how Gary sent me a signed copy of White Crane Spreads Wings after I mentioned some poems that I liked. He was that kind of person, remembering to send someone who appreciated his poems something to be shared: a man of most gener-ous details.

I remember Gary wore a red Mickey Mouse necktie when he was master of ceremonies at a Government House Christmas poetry and fic-tion reading on the theme of snow. On that fun occa-sion university drama stu-dents read our poems and, with the Right Honourable Linda Haverstock present, he added just the right comic flash to a formal occasion.

I remember seeing Gary at a meeting in a large dingy meeting place when the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild was in crisis, and he men-tioned that he was on meds (something I thought nothing about at the time, high-blood pressure pills perhaps?) and he didn’t need such foolish-ness going on in the Guild. The voice of balance and rea-son plus human irritation.

I remember when Gary and Bob Currie, Gerry Hill and I had twenty-minute plays produced at the Globe’s Sandbox series. Poets write unexpected types of plays, it turns out. While Bob’s was a more serious piece on racism, Gerry’s and Gary’s

plays were situation com-edies. I remember Gary at the Moose Jaw Festival of Words, summer after sum-mer (for awhile). His strong generous presence as the founder of that uniquely inspiring festival that has invited great writers rang-ing from Atwood to Zieroth (A to Z, get it? but not quite all those between yet) not to mention the hundreds of writers in attendance from around Saskatchewan and Canada, year after year.

I remember Gary bravely in attendance at the Hagios launch of Hands Reaching In Water when he stood up, and with difficulty read his own words. He spoke with a muffling I had to train my ear

to understand. His created persona, “Hammel” – which name reminds me of the conqueror’s name, Hannibal, but in an ironically truncated form – suggested to me a sinister foreshadowing of his blunted self and will sol-diering on.

I remember Gary at a Luther reading of his Hands Reach-ing in Water when he arrived totally hip and debonair wearing a leather jacket though he was confined to his wheelchair. We shook hands briefly and I remember the trapped look in his eye, so human and beseeching and kind, reaching out to me while treading water in a deep and lonely place.

I remember I missed the luncheon at the AGM in his favour, and couldn’t bear to attend the many Love of Mirrors events though I have read all his books. Like funer-als, such events are neces-sary celebrations of lifetime achievements but I have always been a coward.

gillian russell

FREELANCE 15

Gary Hyland and Students, Canora Lieutenant-Governor Centennial Libraries and Authors Tour, 2005

May/June 2011

Saskatchewan Poetry Month reading

left to right: Katherine Lawrence, Don Kerr, Judith Krause

FREELANCE 16

SWG Apprentice reading: Five new Voices

Five new voices were introduced on April 28 at The Refinery in Saskatoon.

Over 70 people came out on a fresh spring evening to hear Caitlin Ward, dee Hobsbawn-Smith, Jess Boyachek, Moira McKinnon and Gary Chappell read from their work.

This year’s apprentices in the four-month SWG Mentorship program kept the audience in their seats with a dazzling array of stories and poems. At the end of the program, we bid a fond farewell to Pam Bustin, Saskatoon Coordinator for the SWG and introduced Christina Shah, the incoming Coordinator. The reception after the reading provided the audience and readers with tasty appetizers from Saskatoon’s Caffe Sola and a chance for scandalous conversation.

In celebration of National Poetry month, the Lieutenant Governor and Government House hosted the third annual Poetry Month Reading on April 13.

The reading featured Saskatchewan’s newest Poet Laureate Don Kerr (Saskatoon), along with guest poet Judith Krause (Regina).

The host for the evening, poet Katherine Lawrence (Regina) introduced the poets and their readings to a full house of nearly 175 people. The authors were lively and engaging and gave the audience plenty of thoughtful poems. The reception was well attended and provided the audience with the chance to mingle and talk to the poets about poetry. April is National Poetry Month, a time dedicated to reading, writing, speaking and promoting poetry in Canada.

To ensure that the word of National Poetry Month is heard across the country, the League of Canadian Poets sponsors readings and performances across Canada and produces a blog that features the works of LCP members.

photo: Tracy Hamon

Workshop: Buffalo Chips - Stories from the Core (Saskatoon)

Listen to your inner Trickster! Buffalo Chips, one of the SWG’s newest programs (in partnership with the Core Neighbourhood Youth Co-op), is a creative writing work-shop led by professional Aboriginal writers, with a focus on Aboriginal youth from 15-19 who are living in Sas-katoon’s core neighbourhood. Preregistration is required (limit of 15). There is no cost to attend. The workshop will be held at the CNYC from August 22-26, concluding with a public reading and celebration.For more information, email Christina Shah at saskatoon@skwriter.com

May/June 2011 FREELANCE 17

Windscript has been publishing the best of writing by Saskatchewan students in grades nine to twelve since 1983. We welcome students to submit creative writing in any and all forms - poetry, prose, and creative non-fiction - for Volume 28 of Wind-Script.

In 2011, Windscript returned to its original printed format and will also be available on the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild’s web site at www.skwriter.com . Printed copies are available for $6. a copy. Students learn that as in all writing competitions, Windscript guidelines are very important and must be fol-lowed in order for submissions to be accepted.

Congratulations to this year's recipients of the Jerrett Enns Awards for Poetry - Alyssa Prudat, and for Prose - Kenton De Jong, both from Regina. The recipient of the Currie-Hyland Prize is Zane Adam of Swift Current. A launch and reading was held at the Connaught Library in Regina, as part of the Cathedral Village Arts Festival on May 25.

WindscriptThe Magazine of Saskatchewan High School Writing Volume 27 2011 AVAiLABLe nOW!

photo: Jan Morier

photos: Milena Dzordeski

Windscript Editor Lynda

Monahan

May/June 2011

Talking Fresh 9

By Cassidy McFadzean

Talking Fresh 9, “Sas-katchewan Poetry Sum-

mit,” was held March 4-5 at Luther College, and organized by Gerry Hill in collaboration with the Saskatchewan Writ-ers’ Guild. This year’s writ-ers were Brenda Schmidt, a writer and painter from Creighton, Saskatchewan; Michael Trussler, a teacher, writer, and poet originally from Southern Ontario who currently lives in Regina; Daniel Scott Tysdal, who grew up in Saskatchewan and currently teaches in Toronto; and Karen Solie, a poet from Saskatchewan, who now lives in Toronto. The weekend culminated with readings by Holly Luhn-ing and Jennifer Still, who were celebrating the launch of their new books, Quiver and Girlwood, respectively.

The weekend started off with a panel discussion on Saskatchewan Poetry moder-ated by Katherine Lawrence. Kathleen Wall summarized the panel beautifully on blueduets.blogspot.com. The panel was a great warm-up for Saturday’s discussions. Afterwards, the poets took to the stage to read their work. Schmidt read a haunt-ing nine-part poem, “Mystic Lake Road Corridor Game Preserve,” published in the spring 2010 issue of Grain; Trussler read new work and poems from his chapbook A Homemade Life, which responds to his photography; Solie read work from her

Griffin-award winning book, Pigeon as well as new po-ems; Tysdal read from The Mourner’s Book of Albums.

Sessions started early Sat-urday morning. Brenda Schmidt’s seminar, “Lyric Trap-Lines: Thoughts on the Northbound poem,” was informed by her personal experiences living in Northern Saskatchewan. Schmidt drew a map on the blackboard, de-tailing her home in Creighton, the tailing pond next to her home, the mine where her husband works, and other

landmarks. These spaces in one sense represented the natural environment that inspires much of her poetry and at the same time, provid-ed a metaphor for the writing process; she spoke at some length on how the poem is a type of “home.” Schmidt also commented that the poet stands on the fringes of a community. This spurred much discussion among au-dience members and perhaps hinted at the strength of the writing community in Sas-katchewan.

In his seminar, “The Cos-mopolitan Mountain on the Prairie,” Michael Trussler spoke of the poet’s ability to perceive human temporality, that the poem is in dialogue with the dead, speaks to future writers, and is in many ways autonomous from the social constructions of time. Unlike narratives, which tell a story to a reader, Trussler suggested that poems might not choose to acknowledge that narratives even exist. He suggested a poem is like praying, except you don’t

know the words or who you’re talking to; a poem, he suggested, is terribly agnos-tic in that it accentuates how little we truly know about experience. Trussler also talked candidly about the influence Eli Mandel has had on his work, and hinted that the prairies may represent a poet’s contemporaries that he writes to, perhaps echo-ing a sense of community.

Karen Solie’s talk centred around nostalgia and mourn-ing. She suggested that she

photo: Tracy Hamon

FREELANCE 18

Gerry Hill and participants of Talking Fresh 9

May/June 2011

wanted to discover why she kept returning to the details of her childhood in South-west Saskatchewan, both in person, and in her writing. She suggested that it was not nostalgia, or the past im-agined and idealized through memory, that kept her com-ing back. She said that nos-talgia has the capacity to ex-ile us from the present, while mourning, which lives inside of nostalgia, is more outward and creative. Solie described how mourning actively seeks that which cannot be found and is a type of longing for and distancing at the same time; mourning, in this regard, is the work of poetry and of art. Solie also talked about collecting details and viewing images in jux-taposition, which made her talk simultaneously wide-reaching yet also focused and specific.

Dan Tysdal ended the panels with a hilarious

Powerpoint presentation. Tysdal discussed the state of Saskatchewan poetry as depicted by fictional Dr. Albert Potemkim, future Chief Chancellor of the Uni-versity of Moose Jaw, who had travelled through time to deliver his findings. The sheer absurdity, and in some cases, accuracy of Tysdal’s comments brought tears of laughter (and perhaps pain) to much of the audience. One of the funniest moments was when Tysdal shared a photoshopped image of “I, Tractor,” depicting Gerry Hill’s face superimposed over

an image of a tractor, or the future of Cyborg poetry in 2030. Tysdal also read from hybrid poetry that integrated the work of the other three presenters and many Sas-katchewan poets of the past and present. These poems made light of many stereo-types of prairie poets yet at the same time revealed Tysdal’s own creativity and refusal to be defined. In this sense, Talking Fresh 9 pro-vided a unique avenue of discussion that reflected the diversity of Saskatchewan poetry.

A joint project of the Saskatchewan Writers' Guild and the South Saskatchewan Community Foundation, has been developed with Gary and has two purposes. First, it will provide funding for the Gary Hyland Literary Endowment, which will annually award a grant to a Saskatchewan writer over the age of nineteen who shows promise but has not yet published a book. The second purpose of the Fund is to provide assistance to others afflicted with ALS by providing expensive respiratory and other equipment which will help those with ALS to remain active and productive for a much longer time than many now do.

We hope that you will consider giving generously to the Gary Hyland Endowment Fund, just as Gary has given so generously of himself to so many others. Honorary Directors of the Gary Hyland Endowment Fund Margaret Atwood Sharon Butala Lorna Crozier Robert Currie Patrick Lane Yann Martel Ken Mitchell Shelagh Rogers Jane Urquhart Guy Vanderhaeghe

For information: The South Saskatchewan Community Foundation 306-751-4756 sscf@sasktel.net

FREELANCE 19

Poetry Summit Panel - Michael Trussler, Karen Solie, Katherine Lawrence (moderator), Daniel Scott Tysdal, Brenda Schmidt

TheGary Hyland

EndowmentFund

photo: Tracy Hamon

May/June 2011

The SWG Short Manuscript Awards competition recognizes literary excellence in works of creative writing by Saskatchewan authors. Entries are judged by out-of-province judges who will be named when the winners of the awards are announced in October 2011. Copyright for all works remains with the author. Winning submissions will be published in Freelance and winners will receive a cash prize. The first place winners will read from their work at the Short Manuscript Awards Lunch at the SWG's Annual Fall Conference on Saturday, October 15 in Regina.

Rules:• Entrants must be Saskatchewan residents as of December 31, 2010.• Entrants must be 19 years of age or older.• This competition is open to both SWG members and non-members. • Entrants may not have published a book (or have had a book manuscript accepted

for publication) in the category or categories in which they are entering.• Entrants may submit one piece for each category for which they are eligible.• There is no entry fee for members of the SWG; non-members will pay a fee of $10

per entry (regardless of its length). Your fee must accompany your entry.• Make cheques and money orders payable to the Saskatchewan Writers' Guild• The word limits for the categories are as follows: •poetry:maximum100lines

•shortfiction:maximum5,000words •literarynon-fiction:maximum5,000words •children's/youngadultliterature(proseorpoetry):maximum5,000words for prose or 200 lines for poetry

Please format manuscripts using standard submission (see above). For complete guidelines, please visit our website at www.skwriter.comSubmissions must be received in the SWG office by 4:30 p.m. Thursday, June 30, 2011. We will accept email submissions as a Word attachment to info@skwriter.com

For more information, contact Tracy Hamon, Program Officer at (306) 791-7743 or programs@skwriter.com

SWg ShOrT MANuScripT AWArdS

Standard Submission Guidelines for Short Manuscript and Hicks Awards:

The following submission criteria must be followed or the entries will not be accepted: •entriesmustbeinEnglish •useplaintextfonts(e.g.TimesNewRoman,Arial,Courier)andnotindisplayfontssuchasAlgerian •12pointfont •useblackinkon8½x11-inchwhitecopybondpaper •entriesmustbesingle-sided •atleastaoneinchmarginonallsides •thetitleandpagenumbermustappearoneachpage •entriesmustbedouble-spaced •thepapermustbeclean(nosmudges,drawings,hand-writtencorrections,orstampedwords) •tofastensubmissions,usepaperclips(includingfold-backclips)-avoidstaplesoranyotherfas- tener which goes through the paper (including binders, presentation covers, or coil binding) •avoidholepunchedpaper •good-qualityphotocopiesareacceptable

FREELANCE 20

May/June 2011

The John V. Hicks Manuscript Awards recognizes three unpublished book-length manuscripts annually. The awards rotate between the genres of poetry, fiction, plays, and literary non-fic-tion. In 2011 the SWG will honour three unpublished, full-length manuscripts of literary non-fiction.

Prizes will be as follows: 1st place: $1,000; 2nd place: $650; 3rd place: $350. The winners will read from their work at the John V. Hicks Luncheon on Saturday, October 15, 2011 at the SWG's annual Fall Conference in Regina (expenses paid). 1. Entries must be submitted by or postmarked by Thursday, June 30, 2011. If you are send- ing material close to this date, please consider Xpress Post, Priority Post, courier, or special delivery. Late submissions will not be accepted. 2. When mailing or dropping off your entry, please submit three hard copies of your manu- script. Please keep a copy of your manuscript, as manuscripts will not be returned. 3. A $25 entry fee must accompany the entry. Make cheques and money orders payable to the Saskatchewan Writers' Guild. 4. Due to the length of the manuscripts we will not accept email, fax or digital memory stick submissions. Rules: 1. Entrants must be Saskatchewan residents as of December 31, 2010. 2. Only one entry per person is allowed in the manuscript awards. 3. All entries must be original work. 4. Copyright for the entry remains with the author. 5. No more than 50% of the manuscript may have been published in magazines and antholo- gies or by broadcast media. 6. The manuscript must be for a full-length work (minimum 35,000 words). 7. The writer’s name and contact information should appear in the cover letter only. All entries will be numbered upon receipt so that they may be judged anonymously. If the writer’s name appears on any page of the manuscript, it will not be accepted for the competition. The name of the manuscript may appear on both the cover page and subsequent pages. 8. There is no application form; instead, please send the entry plus a cover letter that includes the following: • yournameandallcontactinformation(includingaddress,homeandworknumbers, and email address) • thenameofyourwork • confirmationofthefollowing: • thatyouwerearesidentofSaskatchewanasofDecember31,2010 • thattheworkisoriginaltoyou • thattheworkwillnothavebeenpublishedbeforetheannouncementofthe awards (although it may have been accepted for publication) • thatnomorethan50%ofthemanuscriptwillhavebeenpublishedorbroadcast before the announcement of the awards in October 10. The jury may decide not to award a particular prize if they believe no submission merits it. 11. The decisions of the jury will be final. 12. Winners agree to permit the use of their name and title of their work in promotion by the SWG. 13. Winners agree to acknowledge the SWG in any publication or production program of the winning scripts. Mailing Address: Saskatchewan Writers' Guild, Box 3986 Regina SK S4P 3R9 Courier or Drop-Off Address: Saskatchewan Writers' Guild, 205-2314 11th Ave. Regina SK S4P 0K1 For more information: Contact Tracy Hamon, Program Officer at 791-7743 (phone); 565-8554 (fax); or programs@skwriter.com

2011 JOhN v. hickSLONg MANuScripT AWArdS

FREELANCE 21

May/June 2011FREELANCE 22

This award has been established to recognize the many achievements of Saskatchewan Writers' Guild members through their volunteer support of the Saskatchewan literary community.

CRiTeRiA• The recipient must be an SWG member and a resident of the province.• Recognition is for volunteer contributions made within the writing community on a local, provincial, or national level.• The recipient must be a volunteer in the writing community for a minimum period of five years.• The Hyland Award recipient must have provided outstanding service to the growth and development of the Writers' Guild and the writing community. In a letter (maximum three pages), the nominating Guild member should provide the following information: • theparticularroleplayedbytherecipientintheSWG • theimpactofthecontributiononthegrowthanddevelopmentoftheGuildandthewriting community.• A maximum of two awards will be presented in any year. No award will be presented should the Board decide that a recipient cannot be selected from the nominations put forth.• Awards will not be made posthumously.• Selections should be popular in the sense that they reflect the membership’s aims and ideals and elicit its input and support. They should also be prestigious, recognizing excellence, achievement, and outstanding contributions to the organization.

NoMiNATioN LeTTeRNominators are asked to submit a letter as well as the prepared nomination form. This letter should include a description of the nominee's involvement in the Writers Guild or the writing community. The description should be as complete as possible, since it will used as the basis for the nomination.

The letter should include the following:• the particular role played by the recipient in the SWG.• the impact of the contribution on the growth and development of the Guild and the writing community.

Applications should be typed.

DeADLiNePlease note that applications must be received in the SWG office no later than 4:30 p.m. on Friday, September 2, 2011.

Submit nominations to the following address: Box 3986, Regina SK, S4P 3R9.

THe AWARDThe Hyland Award will consist of a pen and a certificate. The Hyland Award will be presented at the Annual General Meeting of the SWG (held in October each year).

SeLeCTioN CRiTeRiA: VoLuNTeeR LeADeRSHiP AWARDThe SWG Board will consider the following areas/topics when selecting the Hyland Award recipient.1. Personal Background • yearsinthewritingcommunityinSaskatchewan • evidenceorexamplesofageneralcommitmenttowritersandthewritingcommunity.

2. Growth of Interest • specificgroups/committeesinthewritingcommunitythathe/sheisinvolvedwith • examplesofhowhis/herinfluenceandleadershipmadethe"difference"neededtoexpandor begin new activities • lengthoftimeasavolunteer • specialskillsorqualitiesthatmakehim/hereffective • specialachievementsorprojectsthatareofparticularnote.

2011 hyLANd AWArd NOMiNATiONS

May/June 2011

CRiTeRiAThe award winner must have written a substantial a body of literary work.

eLiGiBiLiTY1. Writers must be Canadian citizens or Permanent Residents whose principal place of residence

has been Saskatchewan for the last 5 full years or who have spent at least 10 years of their writing careers in Saskatchewan.

2. Writers who have written books in the following genres will be considered:• Fiction • Poetry • Drama • Non-fiction

3. Books may have been published anywhere in the world.4. Deadline for submissions is annually on June 30th at 4:00 p.m. CST. 5. The prize will be a cash award of $10,000, and a commemorative print of a painting by

Saskatchewan artist Dorothy Knowles.6. There shall only be one award given each year, although an award will not necessarily be given

each year.7. The award shall not be made posthumously unless the writer was alive at the time of selection. NoMiNATioNSNominations will be accepted from the general public, publishers, and writing organizations. Nominations consist of a completed Nomination Form and a maximum of 10 pages of supporting material. There is no limit to the number of nominations an organization can submit. All nominations and their supporting material are considered confidential.• Note 1: If the nominee is not selected for an award in a given year, the nomination will be kept on file for consideration for future awards for 3 years. • Note 2: The nominators will be asked to keep the nomination confidential.

JuRYThe jury shall consist of three prominent Canadian literary figures, one of whom may be from Saskatchewan. The others must be from out-of-province. The jury will remain anonymous and its selection of a recipient will be final. PReSeNTATioNThe presentation will be made annually in Saskatoon in the fall by the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild. Cheryl and Henry Kloppenburg will present the award. This year’s award will be presented on September 7th, at 2:00 p.m. at the Saskatoon Club.

CALL FoR NoMiNATioNSThe Cheryl and Henry Kloppenburg Award for Literary Excellence recogniz-es Saskatchewan writers who have written a substantial body of literary work. The prize consists of an award of $10,000 donated by Cheryl and Henry Kloppenburg and a framed print of a work of art by Saskatchewan artist Dorothy Knowles. The presentation will be made annually in Sas-katoon in the fall hosted by the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild. Cheryl and Henry Kloppenburg will present the award. Submissions for this award must be in the SWG office annually by 4:30 p.m. on June 30. Nomina-tions Forms may be found on the SWG Web site at: www.skwriter.com/docs/23_kloppenburgaward/KLOPPENBURG_Award_ Nomination_Form.pdf

FREELANCE 23

2011 chEryL ANd hENry kLOppENburgAWArd fOr LiTErAry ExcELLENcE

May/June 2011

Plans for Culture Days were launched in Saskatchewan and three other provinces as part of a nation-wide media announcement. This will be the second year Saskatchewan has participated in this pan-Canadian event held in late September to increase the awareness, accessibility, participation and engagement of Canadians in cultural activities in their communities.

As part of the Culture Days Launch, Honourable Bill Hutchinson, Saskatchewan Minister of Tourism, Parks, Culture and Sport, announced that the Government of Sas-katchewan has proclaimed the week of September 26 – October 2, 2011 as Culture Days in Saskatchewan.

"Culture Days is a great way to celebrate Saskatchewan culture here at home and share it with the rest of

Canada," Minister Hutchin-son said. "Culture is central to our creativity and identity, essential to our individual and community quality of life and a valued and integral component of a vibrant and growing economy."

SaskCulture, along with its partners Saskatchewan Arts Board and Saskatchewan Ministry of Tourism, Parks, Culture and Sport, has been helping to support commu-nity activity organizers in preparing and registering for Culture Days 2011. Accord-ing to Rose Gilks, SaskCul-ture General Manager, "There are already several organiza-tions registered in Saskatch-ewan, and over 300 across the country."

"This year, SaskCulture is pleased to announce a new Culture Days Animateur program," Gilks said. "Four

professional artists will be hired to work with communi-ties throughout the province for the next six months on Culture Days initiatives." The program runs until November.

According to David Kyle, executive director of the Saskatchewan Arts Board, "Culture Days is an exciting partnership ... and a great opportunity to be involved in a national initiative. The suc-cess of the arts and culture sector is built on this kind of collaboration. In Saskatch-ewan, we recognize that art is for everyone, and it makes a real difference in our qual-ity of life, both socially and economically."

Culture Days, as a Canada-wide celebration, represents the largest-ever collective public participation campaign undertaken by the arts and cultural community in this country.

The Board of Saskatchewan Book Awards is pleased to an-nounce the appointment of Stacy Riggs as Executive Director effective June 1, 2011. Stacy has a strong management back-ground in not-for-profit organizations, as well as working in the corporate/private and government sectors. Stacy brings to SBA a broad experience in marketing, revenue development, project management and communications.

Stacy takes over from Jackie Lay, Executive Director since 2009, who is leaving to pursue other interests. We wish her the best.

Saskatchewan Book Awards recognizes and celebrates excel-lence in Saskatchewan writers and publishers at an annual Awards Gala. The next Gala will be held in April 2012.

Welcome Stacy riggs, executive Director Saskatchewan Book Awards

Preparation for Culture Days 2011 in Saskatchewan

FREELANCE 24

May/June 2011

David Sealy has published work in magazines, literary journals, and anthologies. His plays, produced in Saskatch-ewan and Alberta, include Life's Like That, Runaway Barbies, and The Bob Shivery Show. He is currently writing the book for a musical set in medieval Europe.

M e Powell is a professional writer with work in print, broadcast, and online markets across Canada and internation-ally. Her award-winning short fiction and poetry appear in literary magazines and anthol-ogies, including Room Maga-zine, Transition, Pandora’s Collective, Close to Quitting Time, WindFire, and even the Winnipeg Free Press. Scholas-tic Canada recently published her book, Dragonflies Are Amazing!

Deana Driver is a journalist, au-thor, editor and book publisher based in Regina. Since 2001, she has written four books – true stories of fascinating Prairie people and unsung Ca-nadian heroes. Her latest book is Never Leave Your Wingman: Dionne and Graham Warner’s Story of Hope, about an inspir-ing seven-time cancer survivor and her humour-filled husband

who face her weekly chemo treatments with courage and costumes, bringing laughter and hope to everyone they meet.

Marion Mutala is a Sas-katoon author. She recently received the Anna Pidruchney Award for New Writers for her book Baba's Babushka: A Ukrainian Christmas. The award is given annually by Grant MacEwan College in Edmonton.

Annette Bower writes in a high rise overlooking the city of Regina. She writes short stories and novels about women in the community, as members of a family, women in love and women searching for love. Her short stories are published in anthologies, jour-nals and magazines in Canada, US and UK.

Lori Saigeon is an elementary school teacher, living and working in Regina. Her inter-est in children’s literature stems from reading first to her students and then to her own children. It was while teaching in inner-city Regina that Lori noticed a lack of fiction geared for urban children, particularly

those growing up in a small prairie city and most especially those with a First Nations/Mé-tis background.

Children in Regina's North Central community have ben-efitted from the zeal that Carol Morin brings - in her storytell-ing and drumming - highlight-ing cultural pride along with Aboriginal Teachings, which any child can adapt to their own situation. Her stories are original - but the teachings are age-old with a new twist.

Anne McDonald’s first novel To the Edge of the Sea, re-leased by Thistledown Press Spring 2011, explores the for-mation of Canada during the Confederation Conferences of 1864. Anne values the evo-cation of time and place and loves researching and finding the story behind the story – the reading between the lines of fact, of history.

FREELANCE 25

6 Marie Powell, Carol Morin13 Anne McDonald, Dave Sealy, Steve Miller20 Deana Driver, Judith Silverthorne27 Bob Friedrich, Lori Saigeon

10 Larry Warwaruk, Jillian Bell, Brenda Niskala17 Annette Bower, Tara Dawn Solheim24 Marion Mutala

confirmed, so far

JULY

AUGU

ST

Authors and publishers will be participating in Words in the Park, a program of reading performances in regina`s Victoria Park this summer!

readings in Victoria Park

July 6, 13, 20, 27 August 10, 17, 24

May/June 2011

Sunday October 16 Morning: 9:00 a.m.—12:00 p.m. AGM

Members in good standing who live more than 100 kilometres from Regina may apply for a travel subsidy of 20 cents per kilometre to help defray their costs. To qualify for this subsidy, members must attend the Annual General Meeting on Sunday.

A block of rooms has been reserved at the Ramada Hotel, 1818 Victoria Ave. Regina, SK 306-569-1666

Carpooling and billeting options will be presented.

FuLL ReGiSTRATioN PACKAGe will be published in the July/August issue of Freelance.

Friday October 14 Afternoon:

Into the Great Un/Known - Emerging vs Established

Guy Gavriel Kay, Sandra Birdsell, Brenda Niskala, and Lisa Wilson

Living Phenomena: Literary processes and adaptations

Allan Casey and Mari-Lou Rowley

Active Transport: The Chemistry of a Dramatic Scene

Daniel McDonald & Kelley Jo Burke

Con/Structions: The Pros and Cons of Self-publishing

James Anderson & Mark Sebanc

OR

Independent Variables: The Innovative Process

Jon Paul Fiorentino and Bruce Rice

Controlled Substances: Writers Groups/SWG Program Session

Alison Lohans & SWG Staff

Evening:Social/New Member Reception

Caroline Heath Lecture: Guy Gavriel KayPost-Heath Reception

Saturday October 15 Morning:

Stakeholders Session Research Lab

Allan Casey

Transforming Principles: Literary Translation and Transformation.

Rita Bouvier & Anne-Marie Wheeler

Short MS Awards Lunch

Afternoon:Genre-soluble: Insights, Reactions and Possible Solutions.

Guy Gavriel Kay & Jon Paul Fiorentino

The Science Within You: Biographical Methods

Alexandra Popoff & Cindy McKenzie

OR

Formal Hypotheses: Observations on the Oral/Written Relationship

Jesse Archibald-Barber, Thomas Roussin

Readings by Guy Gavriel Kay, Jon Paul Fiorentino

Cocktail Conversations: TWUC with Rep Anita Daher

Evening:John V. Hicks DinnerOpen Mic

The true method of

knowledge is experiment.

William Blake

FREELANCE 26

SWg CONfErENcE: uN/cONTrOLLEd ExpEriMENTSOcTObEr 14-16 2011

rAMAdA hOTEL, 1818 vicTOriA Ave.rEgiNA Sk (306-569-1666)

May/June 2011

Applications must be postmarked by Thursday June 30, 2011. Please note that applications and follow up reports must be submitted by mail. We do not accept applications submitted electronically.

Each writers group may apply for $500 for this upcoming fiscal year (August 1, 2011–July 31, 2012).

A local writing group is eligible for funding if it meets the following criteria:• it has a minimum of five members • two-thirds of the group are members of the SWG• it meets a minimum of six times per year to discuss writing by members• members meet in order to develop their craft• it has provided a follow-up report (with all the requested documentation) for the

previous grant

If the group is approved for funding, cheques will be issued in September 2011.

Groups who receive grants have the following responsibilities: •includementionofSWGsponsorshiponallappropriatepublicityissuedbythegroup •providefollow-upreportswiththenextyear’sgrantapplication •providecopiesofreceiptsorchequesaspartofthefollow-upreport

This grant is intended to help the members of the writers groups develop their craft, so allowable expenses may include, but are not limited to, the following: •feestoanauthortoofferaworkshop •membertravelexpensestoallowthemtoattendmeetingsandcraft-development sessions •memberparticipationfeesinconferences,workshops,andothercraft-development sessions

The following restrictions apply: •thegrantsmaynotbeusedforself-publication •thegrantsmaynotbeusedtobuybooksforthegroup •thegrantsmaynotbeusedforthecostsofawebsite •thegrantsmaynotbeusedtopromotethegrouporindividualmembers •grantsmaynotbeusedforsocialevents,food,alcohol,orpartyfavours •writinggroupsreceivingagrantthroughthisprogramarenoteligiblefor funding through the Author Readings Program within the same grant period •unspentgrantmoneyinexcessof$50mustbereturnedtotheSWGbyJune30, 2012

For more information contact Tracy Hamon at (306)791-7743; programs@skwriter.com www.skwriter.com

FREELANCE 27

dEAdLiNE fOr grANTSTO WriTiNg grOupS

May/June 2011

for Judith Silverthorne, publishing Ghosts of Gov-

ernment House was not so scary after all, especially with the assistance of the SAB Flexible Loan Program.

“Pretty snazzy place for a book launch!” Jan exclaimed, gazing at the splendid mansion.

“Do you really think there are ghosts here?” gulped Milena.

Snippets of conversation and polite laughter ema-

nated from over 120 dignified guests as they strolled into Regina’s Government House Historic Property that day in mid-May.

Once the home of the Lieu-t e n a n t G o v e r -nor of the North West Terri-tories, the building is the earliest represen-tation of inf luence

and affluence in what is now Regina, Saskatchewan. Now an interpretive centre hous-ing the offices of the Lieuten-ant Governor, the magnificent 1891 structure and grounds are the perfect setting for ghost stories!

Inspired by a real-life pair of youngsters and a ‘real live’ ghost, Judith Sil-verthorne has spent, off and on over a span of six years, researching and ‘haunting’ the staff of Government House. Judith loves history, this history. As the Lieutenant Gover-nor, the Honourable Dr. Gordon L. Barnhart said in his greeting, “Government House stood alone on the prairies.” ...As alone as a writer and an idea.

His Honour urged the school children in attendance to “let your imagination go.” While the audience was as-sembled to celebrate the fin-ished book, His Honour re-minded us all of the work of authors, researchers, proof-readers, and publishers – the real people behind print and digital books. This is a celebration of authors, but it’s also ‘recognition of all who contribute to a book’.

As an author himself, His Honour quipped “They are called ‘free’ lance writers... It seems like it’s free, with what they get paid.”

Judith graciously presented the Lieutenant Governor with a personally autographed copy, in thanks for penning the introduction. “I was de-lighted to provide the fore-word for Silverthorne’s latest children’s novel,” said the Lieutenant Governor. “Silver-thorne interwove historical facts with a wonderfully im-aginative story to create an educational and adventurous tale.” Silverthorne says the entire experience in writing and producing this book has been miraculous.

Judith Silverthorne is an award-winning author who has published nine chil-dren’s novels and two non-fiction books for adults. Ghosts of Gov-ernment House was published by Regina-based Your Nickel’s Worth Publishing. Sil-verthorne maintains it wouldn’t have been possible to consider self-publishing without the help of the Flex-ible Loan Program from the Saskatchewan Arts Board.

The Flexible Loan Program, is a $1.15 million initiative of the Saskatchewan Arts Board and the Ministry of Tourism, Parks, Culture and Sport.

“I am grateful to the Sas-katchewan Arts Board for pro-viding this loan” Judith says. “I wouldn’t have been able to publish this book with just my own resources and I felt strongly that this book need-ed to be done, and in a timely manner, given that Govern-ment House is celebrating its 120th anniversary this year. The experience with the SAB has been gratifying.”

Silverthorne was also thrilled to have Lieutenant Governor Gordon Barnhart host the launch of her new book at Government House.

By Jan Morier

FREELANCE 28

"The SAb flexible Loan

program is a wonderful

initiative to benefit

the cultural community."Judith Silverthorne

Photo: Linda Aksomitis

Flexible Loans - you are not Alone

May/June 2011

background

The Flexible Loan Program was formally launched and the program Guidelines and Procedures went on-line March 2, 2010.

The Flexible Loan Program is a Saskatchewan Arts Board (Arts Board) and Ministry of Tourism, Parks, Culture and Sport initiative to provide new financial support to increase the en-trepreneurial capacity and economic well-being of art-ists, businesses and non-profit organizations within the sectors of craft, music and sound recording, pub-lishing and visual arts.

Low-interest, short-term, repayable loans are award-ed on the basis of a busi-ness plan/proposal which demonstrates the revenue that will result from activi-ties undertaken with the loan that will allow for re-payment of the loan.

What kinds of success stories by creative people can you share?

Ideation Entertainment was able to publish and success-fully promote Reaching the Impossible: Dr. Krishna Ku-mar’s Story. Through a Small Business Loan to Theta Lab Post-Production Audio Inc. the program helped launch the Recording Arts Institute of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan's first audio engineering school.

The Loan Program also sup-ports creative people through the consultation process. By providing artists with a tool kit of cash flow templates, business planning resources, networking options and the like, we are building entrepre-neurial capacity. We antici-pate that intake to the loan program will increase in the next year.

The Arts Board is currently undertaking an evaluation of the responsiveness and rel-evance of the loan program in its first year.

How did Judith Silverthorne's application stand out?

Judith submitted a very strong application. Not only did she have a proven track record as a children’s author but she had done her research and identified a clear market and a realistic plan to reach that market.

I have asked Judith if she will allow the Arts Board to use her application as a template

for a successful Micro-loan application.

Who are you getting enquiries from for the loan program?

Interest is split fairly evenly between Craft, Music and Sound Recording and Visual Arts. There were fewer inquir-ies in the first year of the pro-gram from participants of the Publishing sector.

The guidelines and check-lists you provide (very handy tools!) - were they developed with financial managers and artists?

The Flexible Loan Program Guidelines and Procedures were developed through lead-ing practice and sector re-search and with advice from the Creative Industries Advi-sory Committee and loan pro-gram managers.

The checklists are intended to provide, at a glance, the loan application requirements for the Micro-loan and the Small Business Loan.

In conversation with Karen Henders, Saskatchewan Arts Board

If you are interested in the loan program, call or e-mail Karen Henders to start the conversation. She can walk you through the loan process and application requirements and discuss the specifics of your circumstances. Even if a loan is not the right fit at this time, there may be other resources that you can be di-rected to.

Karen HendersCreative Industries Consultantkphenders@artsboard.sk.ca306-787-96341-800-667-7526

for loan guidelines & procedures go to: www.artsboard.sk.ca

click on: grants & funding / creative industries / flexible Loan program

FREELANCE 29

May/June 2011

This is the second in a series of articles based on a new work-in-progress, The Liter-ary History of Saskatchewan, by David Carpenter

putting together a liter-ary history of Saskatch-

ewan is a task from which I have fled for three or four decades. Years ago I did research on Saskatchewan fiction, and I realized that such a study could be very rich indeed. Instead of writ-ing a book about it, I became a writer.

In the early 1970s, however, before my conversion to creative writing, I had been reading prairie history, and I noted that during the Great Depression and beyond, some Albertans forged the Social Credit Party out of the remnants of the United Farmers Movement. This process was fuelled by the arcane economic theories and antiestablishment pro-nouncements of William Aberhart and his right-hand man, Ernest Manning, a rural preacher as well as a crack politician. At exactly the same time, besieged by the same depression, Saskatche-wan voters coalesced around the newly-formed CCF Party (later, of course, the NDP). This movement was fuelled by the speeches of another man of the cloth, Tommy Douglas, who discarded his Protestant gospel in favour of the social gospel.

I got a great kick out of comparing the speeches of Aberhart and Manning with the speeches of Tommy Douglas and his cohorts in Saskatchewan. It was rural evangelical zeal and Biblical prophesies versus dull, hard-edged practicalities; pros-perity myths and parables versus plainspeaking realism. In Alberta, the prophesies of sudden wealth came true. In Saskatchewan, we managed to balance our budgets.

As my research moved from po-litical to literary history, I began to notice differ-ences between the fiction set in Alberta and the fiction set in Saskatch-ewan. The most notable classics of Saskatchewan fiction are almost invariably realistic in tone: Who Has Seen the Wind, As for Me and My House, The Lamp at Noon & Other Stories, the fictional sections of Wolf Willow, the early stories of Dianne Warren, Guy Vander-haeghe and Bonnie Burnard. But if we take a close look at the monuments of Alberta-based fiction of the same era, we get something rather different in tone and concep-tion. I’m thinking of Howard O’Hagan’s Tay John, Robert Kroetsch’s Badlands and The Studhorse Man, Rudy Wiebe’s aboriginal fiction, W.O. Mitchell’s Jake stories, some of Van Herk’s narra-tives. We get myth, epic, tall tales, broad comedy in the hyperbolic tradition, various takes on romance, postmod-

ern satire - anything but realism.

The last time I checked it, the line dividing Alberta from Saskatchewan was pretty straight. But when you read your way from west to east, and you cross that line, you have entered a different way, historically speaking, of seeing things. These obvi-ous distinctions have broken

down some-what since the 1970s, as more and more Saskatchewan writers have come under the spell of postmodern and postcolo-nial theory and

writing. Our poets have led the way into decidedly new forms of expression. But at the core of Saskatchewan writing, there is still evidence of that plainspeaking adher-ance to realism. A fine brace of recent novels from Connie Gault and Dianne Warren are good examples.

This makes me wonder if Saskatchewan writers (poets not so much) aren’t some-what insulated from the liter-ary fashions and trends of the contemporary world. This question has been raised before by other people, and I don’t have an answer.

In the midst of this thought the other day, while going through the latest New Yor-ker, I came across a story by Alice Munro entitled “Axis.” It’s a delightful story about two friends, farm girls, who head into the big city to at-

The Perils of Forgetfulness, the rewards of remembrance

FREELANCE 30

Our poets have led the

way into decidedly

new forms of expression.

May/June 2011

tend university. One of the finest moments in the story is a scene in which one of the main characters, assisted by her family and her big city boyfriend, prepares a huge batch of strawberries for preserves. I was reminded while reading “Axis” that many stories like this one, read avidly by New Yorkers over the past four decades, are very much in demand by sophisticated book-loving readers throughout the English-speaking world. So if some of our most gifted authors are still writing re-alistically about the impact of their landscape, their rural origins, their unique history, well, as long as they do it brilliantly, I’ll be among the first to line up and buy their books.

Imagine telling Alice Munro that she seems somewhat insulated from the literary fashions and trends of the contemporary world. Shape up, Alice. Get with the pro-gram.

As I confessed, above, I’ve been fleeing from the task of dealing with this rich and complex history for three or four decades, but it’s man-aged to seduce me once again. I suppose I could have attempted to write the entire literary history of Saskatch-ewan myself, like George Melnyk did in his two-volume Literary History of Alberta, a monumentally tall order. But instead I hired twenty-three luminaries with solid track records as literary essayists to do the job for me. When you stack their essays all to-gether and put your ear close to the pile, you can here a multiplicity of points of view, whispers of allegiance, dis-cord, solidarity and outright disagreement. They begin to sound like a meeting of the Writers’ Guild, and occasion-ally like the Knessit. Anyway, let them mull over these questions for a while.

I have other challenges to meet. Like these damn blue-birds fluttering around my

study. They just appeared the day my last Freelance arrived in the mail. (See the March/April issue, page 30.) And all around my feet, these damn adoring forest animals, squirrels and rabbits and such. I think they’ve all imprinted on me or some-thing and I can’t get them the hell out of the room. Some prankster, I guess, I don’t know. Anyway, where are the exterminators when you need one?

David Carpenter, Saskatoon

David Carpenter is taking a break from writing books this year in order to edit The Literary History of Sas-katchewan. His recent work includes the novel Niceman Cometh (2008), the collec-tion of novellas Welcome to Canada (2009), and the memoir A Hunter`s Confes-sion (2010).

FREELANCE 31

What do publishers look for? • How much research is too much? • What do you consider when switching from writing short fiction to novels?

Submit your articles for consideration. Next freelance deadline is 1st week of July.

Contact communications@skwriter.com

oetryPshort fiction

MYSTERYRomanceScience Fiction

HumourHistoricalChildren's

Young Adultui

freelance invites you to share your expertise in the craft of writing.

May/June 2011

By Edward Willett

in his novel Time Enough for Love, science fiction

writer Robert A. Heinlein included a number of apho-risms supposedly taken from the notebooks of his cen-turies-old central character, Lazarus Long. One of these I have ever since taken a kind of mischievous pleasure in sharing with poets of my acquaintance: “A poet who reads his verse in public may have other nasty habits.”

You might think, Heinlein occupying such an exalted place in the science fiction pantheon, that his procla-mation would be enough to keep poetry far, far away from science fiction, and science fiction writers far, far away from poetry, sepa-rated by a vast gulf like that between the stars...but in fact, science fiction poetry is a thriving literary field in its own right.

Just what is and is not sci-ence fiction poetry, however, is a matter for some debate (but then, so is just what is and is not science fiction).

Some people spread the um-brella of science fiction poetry so wide that it stretches all the way back to ancient Greece to encompass The Odyssey. Others consider science fiction poetry to be, simply, poetry with “rec-ognizable science fiction themes” (space travel, time travel, etc.).

At the other extreme, there is a theoretical argument that science fiction poetry cannot even exist, because (if I’ve got the argument right), our sense of the fantastic when we read prose arises from the narrative’s description of a reality different than our own. Poetry, this argument goes, does not describe any kind of reality, but is entirely self-reflexive: it’s about itself and its own images. This means, says theorist Tzvetan Todorov, that “poetry cannot be fantastic.”

But the trou-ble with that theoretical argument is that it is quite easy in the real world to point to poems and say, “that’s a science fiction poem.” How do you know it’s a science fiction poem? Because it was conceived, written and published as one. (It’s like Damon Knight’s definition of science fiction: “Science fiction is what we point to when we say it.”)

Certainly there is a thriving community of poets who practice what they consider to be science fiction poetry. So...what kind of poems do they point at when they say, “that’s science fiction poetry?”

Poet Michael Collings, in his essay “Dialogues by Starlight,” online at www.starshineandshadows.com/essays/2004-03-29.html, identifies three main streams of science fiction poetry.

The first is poetry concerned with science and its influence on our world. Collings’s ex-ample is “Relative Distances: Nantucket, 12.29.85” by Robert Frazier, which he says uses “the imagery and language of astronomy to explore not only the distances of outer space but also the equally frustrating distances of inner space, of relation-ships between father and child in a world altering faster than each can under-

stand and in which father and child may, in some critical sense, be far-ther apart than the stars they watch.”

A second stream con-sists of poems

that attempt to bridge the gap between science fiction stories and science fiction poetry, presenting science fictional narratives in poetic form, so that the poetry en-hances the effect of the nar-rative and vice versa.

A third stream, Collings sug-gests, is concerned with the relationship between SF po-etry and poetry at large, and works “away from traditional forms, language, and/or con-tent, to assert the genre’s ‘alien-ness,’ its other-ness within the community of poets.”

His primary example is “Ship-wrecked on Destiny Five,” a 1986 poem by Andrew Joron that, he says, “lacking consistent rhyme, patterns,

FREELANCE 32

Science fiction poetry is a thriving literary field

in its own right.

The Space-Time Continuum

May/June 2011

traditional meter, even con-ventional typography, and characterized by a constant use of traditionally non-poet (i.e., ‘scientific’) diction...recreates through texture and imagery the alienation, frustration and despair of its speaker...His work creates contexts that incorporate science, fiction, and poetry, all contributing to the final effect.”

So supposing you’re a poet, intrigued by the possibilities inherent in SF poetry. Where do you go for more informa-tion?

The Science Fiction Poetry Association, of course. You’ll find it at www.sfpoetry.com

An unpublished writer of rhymeTravelled three hundred years back in time.He stole from a poetWho, unborn, didn’t know it.Plagiarizing the future’s no crime!

Hmm. Maybe Heinlein really did have a point.

where you’ll also find a paying market listing, a list-ing of upcoming SF poetry events and readings, news and more. The SFPA also presents the annual Rhysling Award for best SF poetry of the previous year. Works nominated by SFPA members for the award also appear in the annual Rhysling Anthol-ogy, a good place to start if you want to see the best SF poetry on offer.

For a fascinating discus-sion of SF poetry, also be sure to check out “Specula-tive Poetry: A Symposium,” an in-depth discussion by three poets and editors active in the field, online at www.strangehorizons.

com/2005/20050502/ poetry-symposium1-a.shtmlInspired by my own column, let me take a stab at my own science fiction poetry:

held at Regina's Austrian Club April 9 as a chance to mix and mingle with fellow Guild members and the general public

edwardwillett.com

My new young adult novel: Song of the Sword (Book 1 of The Shards of Excalibur) (Lobster Press)

The Canadian Drifters played their 'old time' roots tunes with a mix of country, tangos and swing - not to mention good old Rock 'n Roll.

FREELANCE 33

Funds raised were in support of SWG youth programs

SPrinG FLinG FunDrAiSinG DAnCe!

May/June 2011

A Girl Called Tennysonby Joan Givnerthistledown press

This classic fantasy quest from established YA author Joan Givner takes readers on an adventure where her hero's love of poetry, story and rhyme will give her the edge to succeed.

Anne Tennyson Miller's ad-venture begins during an or-dinary west coast ferry trip, but reality soon melts away as she is transported to the fantasy land of Greensward. Once in Greensward, Tenn is elected by the distraught citizens to rescue her new friend, Una, who has been spirited away to a nearby country occupied by evil forces determined to destroy the harmony of Greensward. Before she sets out on her dangerous mission she is trained by the wise woman,

Bethan, who understands the enemy's weaknesses and offers Tenn resources and information that can help her on her mission. Tenn is even-tually successful in finding Una but soon discovers that there are many more children who must be saved and that her quest has just begun.

Joan Givner is a former English professor at the Uni-versity of Regina. She is the author of the Ellen Fremedon series (Groundwood), and has published biographies of Katherine Anne Porter and Mazo de la Roche, as well as an autobiography. She is the winner of the 1992 CBC fic-tion competition.

An Englishman's Daughterby William WardillBenchmark Press

The book begins with a paleo-Indian hunter, proceeds through two world wars, the prelude to the settlement pe-riod, the creation of a hybrid society by people who came from other places, and finally, to a community in danger of losing the railway tracks which have been the reason for its presence on the map of Saskatchewan.

Wardill, an 82-year-old historian, columnist, and Athabasca University alumni, is no stranger to writing. He has written over 20 self-pub-lished books which include creative non-fiction, fiction, and poetry

bOOkSby MEMbErS

FREELANCE 34

The Books by Members feature is a promotional service for individual Guild members.

To let others know about your latest book, send a copy and a description along with a brief autobiographical note. The book will also be displayed in the SWG library.

May/June 2011

Ghosts of Government Houseby Judith SilverthorneYour Nickel's Worth Publishing

Are there really ghosts in Government House?

The lights suddenly go out one night while best friends Sam and J.J. are touring Government House in Re-gina. What's worse, mysteri-ous footsteps head straight toward them! Is it the leg-endary ghost "Howie"? And is he responsible for all the strange things happening in the historic mansion?

The two girls, along with Grandma Louise, find out more than they'd bargained for when they set out on their ghost-detecting adven-tures - and try to convince Sam's older brother Gabe that there really are ghosts in the former vice-regal resi-dence.

Who are the ghosts ... and why are they there?

Judith Silverthorne, a mul-tiple-award winning author, has published eight child-rens' novels as well as two non-fiction books for adults.

Extensionsby Myrna DeyNeWest Press

A chance discovery of a sepia photograph of her grandmother and her twin sister leads RCMP constable Arabella Dryvynsydes on an investigation: how did a picture taken in 1914 in the mining town of Extension, B.C. end up at a garage sale in rural Saskatchewan almost one hundred years later?

As Arabella sifts through long-forgotten letters and buried memories, she un-earths heartbreaking truths of her family history - and in the process also resolves a century-old murder.

Myrna Dey has made her home in Kamsack since 1976 after living in Guyana, Berlin, Berkeley, California, and several Canadian cities. This is her debut novel.

That Summer in Franklinby Linda Hutsell-ManningSecond Story Press

What began as short story called "Miss Purity Flour" - a finalist in Glimmer Train Magazine's Very Short Fic-tion Contest - has become seventy-year-old Linda Hut-sell-Manning's first novel. The accomplished author of a dozen books for children, Hutsell-Manning has written a very personal first novel for an adult audience.

That Summer in Franklin finds both Hannah Norcroft and Colleen Pinser struggling to deal with elderly parents affected by dementia and alcoholism. Hutsell-Manning captures the grief in caring for an elderly parent, and the regrets of middle-age and past mistakes. But her char-acters also find hope as they rediscover joy in relation-ships they'd come to take for granted, and that new be-ginnings can happen at any time of life.

FREELANCE 35

May/June 2011

Letters to the Editor are welcome. Please send to Editor, Freelance, P.O. Box 3986, Regina, SK SRP 3R9

LETTErto the EdiTOr

TO THe eDiTOr

I had to write my first letter to the editor in a very long time, when I read Ted Dyck’s missive to this page, “Me-thinks the Professor Doth Protest Too Much”. I was so moved by this little essay in the guise of letter that I had to respond, if for no other reason than to keep this debate on language going. It was so much more inter-esting than the reports of conferences, workshops, and publications that Freelance usually describes that I was absolutely elevated.

I have to say that I was equally enchanted by Robert Calder’s preceding article, “And Another Thing”, a brilliant commentary on the religion of writing. Although these two writers clearly disagree on some aspects of literary craft, their rhetoric is both brilliant and instruc-tive. To have two fine writ-ers (and professors) sharing their views on the power of language – in the same issue – has inspired me to work harder and to appreciate more the craft we share.

Thanks, Freelance, for your continuing dedication to the advance of literacy and ideas.

SincerelyKen Mitchell

FREELANCE 36

eric nicol: An Appreciation

By Gerald Hill

i see Eric Nicol died Feb. 2 in Vancouver, age 91. For

a while, decades ago, he was the funniest writer I knew.

I think it was the essaying in his books and columns that thrilled me. I took them as points of entry into how I might observe my own world and, eventually, find language for it. That’s what Nicol had done in his collec-tions of humour-ous es-says The Roving I (1951), Shall We Join the Ladies? (1956) and Girdle me a Globe (1958), his three Leacock Medal for Humour win-ners. All the uncool stuff my parents and their sub-urban neighbours were into seemed to show up fully revealed in one Nicol piece or other. I haven’t read these books for decades and, as the Globe obituary gently noted, “a sense of humour that earned a wide audience in the 1950s could become to seem dated as the dec-ades passed”. But back then, when I’d seen Mrs. Spector, from next door, reach for the peanuts during a bridge game, with her heavy-lac-quered nails and silver brace-lets, I thought Nicol had such a scene just right. Better than just right, funny as hell.

Someone at the Saskatch-ewan Arts Board must have felt the same way. Eric Nicol was the first guest writer at an SWG conference, the founding conference at Fort San in August of 1969, which the Arts Board organ-ized. Both Ken Mitchell and Jean Freeman, two of the SWG founders, were Nicol fans at the time. “I always enjoyed reading his col-umns,” Mitchell says.

In the very first issue of the SWG newsletter, dated

October ’69, Jean Freeman offered this observation:

Perhaps one of the main disap-pointments of the conference was the minimal formal participation of guest-writer, Eric Nicol. However,

it was never Mr. Nicol’s intention to give any sort of stand-up address, and his observations and comments in the discus-sion periods and in private conversation were of great interest and value to any writers who cared to join in . . . and many did. The fact that Mr. Nicol is a novelist, humourist, dramatist, columnist, and sometime lecturer, as well as a man who lives by the fruits of his craft, made him a multiple-plus as a guest.

Writing humour was “a low calling,” Nicol said. Never mind. With his books, I was an adult reader for the first time. Thank you, Eric Nicol.

Eric Nicol was the first

guest writer at ...the founding conference at

fort San in August of 1969.

May/June 2011

The “Prairie Horizons” confer-ence provides an opportunity for children's writers, illustra-tors and performers from the prairies to gather for an inspir-ing weekend of business, learn-ing and networking.

CANSCAIP PRAiRie HoRi-ZoNS CoNFeReNCe: “Beyond the Horizon: Imagine the Pos-sibilities”, Sept 16-18, 2011. Held at St. Michael’s Retreat in Lumsden, this inspirational weekend for children’s writers and illustrators is sure to re-charge your creative batteries. Keynote speaker SHANE PEA-COCK, plus 3 other presenters.

Registration forms will be avail-able June 15!

EvENTS

FREELANCE 37

Inclusion in the Markets & Competitions listing is not an endorsement of any contest, market, event or otherwise. This is only an informational resource. We encourage all readers to thoroughly investigate all contests or markets before submitting their work.

l Deadline: June 30

The Bridport Prize is accept-ing short stories and po-etry for its annual contest. More details are available at www.bridportprize.org.uk/rules.htm

l Deadline: June 30

SoundXchange is again call-ing for short prose and cre-ative non-fiction (800 words or less), and suites of poems that can be read in under 5 minutes, by Saskatchewan writers only, for broadcast on our regional arts program (Saturdays at 5 pm on CBC Radio 1).

The literature producer, Kelley Jo Burke will be reading sub-missions from May 30-June 30, 2011. The next call will be in December 2011.

Send to Kelley Jo Burke Spoken Word producer, SoundXchange CBC Radio Box 540 Regina SK S4P 4A1

or e-mail: kelley.jo.burke@cbc.ca

l Deadline: July 1

The 2012 Ken Klonsky No-vella Contest: Quattro Books will publish the two best no-vella manuscripts (15,000 to 42,000 words). Details at www.quattrobooks.ca

l Deadline: July 31

In addition to their usual con-tinuous submissions, Transition is calling for submissions to a special issue on humour for fall 2011. What's so funny about

crazy? The usual guidelines ap-ply (see www.cmhask.com). Include the word "humour" in the subject line of your elec-tronic submission. Electronic submissions are preferred (with full contact information and a brief bio).

Submit manuscripts in Word or WordPerfect format (12-point Times New Roman, double-spaced, 2.5 cm margins) as e-mail attachment to: contac-tus@cmhask.com or directly to the editor at tdyck@sasktel.net. Or send hardcopy manu-scripts (typed, one-sided, 12- point, double-spaced, 2.5 cm margins), together with full contact information, a brief bio, and self-addressed, stamped return envelope with sufficient postage, to: Transition, 2702 12th Ave. Regina, SK S4T 1J2

l Deadline: August 1

The Malahat Review Cre-ative Non-Fiction Prize 2011 Prize: $1000

Entry fee: $35 CAD for Canadians $40 USD for US entries $45 USD for entries from else-where (entry fee includes a one-year subscription)

Enter one piece of creative nonfiction between 2000 and 3000 words in length. It could be memoir, personal essay, cul-tural criticism, nature writing, literary journalism, etc.

For complete guidelines go to www.malahatreview.ca

The John Kenneth Galbraith Literary Award's Short Story Competition. Details can be found at www.johnkennethgalbraith literaryaward.ca

l Deadline: August 1

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I would like to help by donating to:

q SWG Programsq Writers' Assistance Fundq Grain Magazineq Writers/Artist Retreatsq Gary Hyland Endowment Fundq Pat Armstrong Fundq SWG Foundation

q Endowment Fund

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You can also donate via Paypal at:www.skwriter.com - Payments & Donations

Thank you for your donation. A tax receipt will be issued.

YES, i'd LikE TO MAkE A dONATiON

Glen Baxter, Saskatoon

Vanessa Bonk, Regina

Julie Anne Brown Morris, Belle Plaine

Julie Burtinshaw, Vancouver

Mireille Chester, Prince Albert

Peggy Collins-Gibson Regina

Beth Cote, Saskatoon

Alyssa Coté, Vanscoy

Lorna Crozier, North Saanich

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Karen Edwards, Saskatoon

Bonnie Grove, Saskatoon

Tobie Hainstock, Regina

Joan Hammersmith, Saskatoon

Rhonda Jamieson-Pilgrim, Kincaid

Randall Jeddry, Saskatoon

Iv C. Kane, Nokomis

Christin Krienke, Regina

Glen Larson, Outlook

Aileen Mani, Saskatoon

Gloria Morin, Moose Jaw

Jordan Nicurity, Regina

Karen Northover, Regina

Laurie Rasmussen, Moose Jaw

Darla Read, Saskatoon

Carol Rempel, Moose Jaw

Madelin Sheridan, Regina

Lee Ward, Nipawin

Colette Wheler, Saskatoon

Shannon Wright, Vanscoy

W ELcOME NEW MEMbErS

May/June 2011

The Backbone

PATRoN (over $500)

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WAF

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FACiLiTATeD ReTReAT Hogarth, Susan JuDY McCRoSKY BuRSARY

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CoNTRiBuToRS (to $50.)

Aksomitis, Linda Archibald-Barber, Jesse Armstrong, William Biasotto, Linda Bircham, Doris Dean, Jeanette Edlund, Merill Episkenew, Jo-Ann Fahlman, Jean Givner, Joan Goertzen, Glenda Gossner, Carol Grandel, Loaine Hamilton, Sharon Husband, Carol & John Leech, Robert MacFarlane, Sharon Muirhead, Laurie Olesen, Joyce Rice, Bruce SR Roussin, Thomas St George, Marie Elsie Tesar, Erica Traquair, Morgan Trussler, Michael Unrau, John Wagner, Bernadette Zacharias, Marlace

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SuPPoRTeRS ($100 - $199)

Birnie, Howard Brassard, Francois Clarke, Helen Epp, George Duke, Scott Durant, Margaret Hertes, David Jordan, Terry Lohans, Alison Lorer, Danica Malcolm, David McArthur, Wenda Merle, Charles Monahan, Lynda Moore, Jacqueline Mulholland, Valerie Nilson, John & Linda Noël-Maw, Martine Robertson, William Schmon, Karen Sorestad, Glen Stoicheff, Peter Terschuur, Betty Toews, Terry Ulrich, Maureen Warwaruk, Larry Wilson, Garrett Young, Dianne

BeNeFACToRS ($200 - $499)

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FREELANCE 39

Publication Mail Agreement #40063014Return Undeliverable Canadian Addresses to:Administration Centre Printing Services111–2001 Cornwall StreetRegina, SK S4P 3X9Email: adminprint@sasktel.net

May/June 2011Volume 40 Number 3

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