Saturday, March 31, 2012

Chewed Covers

I find that Winter Studies and Summer Rambles (1838) by Anna Jameson is my least favourite of the three "ladies in the wilderness" books which found the Canadian canon. While one can't help but admire Jameson's bravery in her travels through southwestern Ontario in the 1830s, and her fairly sensitive discussion of the Natives she encounters (particularly the Ojibway/ Chippewa), the book as a whole lacks the irony and subtlety of Susanna Moodie's Roughing it in the Bush (1852) or the cheerful optimism and joyful recording of the flora of Ontario and its settlers found Catharine Parr Traill's Backwoods of Canada (1836). Rather, one quickly tires of Jameson's lecturing on Goethe, German Romanticism, and her constant return to the importance of temperance/ prohibition.

Our six-month-old puppy would, I believe, concur with this opinion as evidenced by her recent review of the book:

Photo by Sharon Harris

Saturday, March 24, 2012

GB Report

Last Friday's Grey Borders reading was one of the most enjoyable events I have participated in or witnessed in many years. All three of the readers I shared the stage with were exceptional, the audience was receptive and a pleasure to read to, and the venue and the organization of the evening were both top notch.





Photo by Amanda Roth.


A report on the night can be found on the Grey Borders blog.

And more photos by Amanda Roth are apparently available for those of you on Facebook here.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Saturday, March 03, 2012

Approaching Grey Borders

I'm looking forward to reading at the Grey Borders series in St. Catharines in two weeks with the awesome line-up of Phil Hall, Susan Holbrook and Helen Hajnoczky.

Phil Hall
Susan Holbrook
Stephen Cain
Helen Hajnoczky

Friday 16 March 2012 @ 7pm
Niagara Artists Centre (354 St. Paul Street, St. Catharines, Ontario)

Info on the Grey Borders Series here.