Book Launch for Volume 3 of A Literary History of Saskatchewan

For any readers of the blog who are in Saskatoon on the evening of October 23 I am pleased to advise that Volume 3 of A Literary History of Saskatchewan is having its second book launch. at the McNally Robinson bookstore on 8^th Street starting at 7:00. The first launch date is in Regina on October 17.)

My excitement over the event comes from my participation in Volume 3. It is the first book launch I will have attended where my writing is a part of the book.

Dave Carpenter, the editor of all three volumes of a Literary History of Saskatchewan, invited me to contribute an essay on the crime fiction of Saskatchewan.

I took up the challenge and wrote an essay which is titled Saskatchewan Mysteries - A Report from the Field.

Within my essay I focus on five current or former Saskatchewan based mystery writers – Gail Bowen, Anthony Bidulka, Nelson Brunanski, Suzanne North and Alan Bradley. As well I discuss themes I have found in Saskatchewan mysteries.

It was an interesting project and I appreciate being a part of Volume 3.

Sharon and I will be going to the release party and look forward to seeing any reader who can join us.

The publisher, Coteau Books, has provided the following concerning the book:

The three volumes of this literary history constitute a bringing together of the best, the most influential, the most significant writing in our province …\

Volume 3 shifts its focus to Regina’s literary culture and to the coming generation of younger writers but it continues to examine the best work from Saskatchewan. The impact, the relevance, the illuminations of our best writers’ work tend to move well beyond the borders of our province. This work transcends the regional sources of its inspiration. Just as Marilynne Robinson has much to say to Canadians about the disruptions and the graces of family life, Dianne Warren has much to say to Americans about the omnipresence of the past, the shadows it casts on people’s lives in the present. Many of our best books are nurtured by the history and the life of this province but they spring into literature roughly in proportion to their applications and their immemorial responses to the human condition.

I have enjoyed meeting Dave and appreciate his editing advice on my essay.

Dave is an interesting forthright guy. From his website bio:

Carpenter’s writing credo is as follows (and it many apply to poets): Most writers must learn to make a pact with dullness. Not boredom, or lack of imagination or passion, but dullness of routine. Keep your daily appointment with the computer screen and keep your ass on the chair until you’ve reached your daily quota. However rich your inner life may be, seek also the dullard within.

The assistant editor of Volume 3 is Kelly-Anne Riess. Her website includes some biographical information:

The author of the Saskatchewan Book of Everything, she received the Outstanding Young Alumni Award from the University of Saskatchewan and was shortlisted for a Saskatchewan Lieutenant Governor’s Arts Award and a YWCA Woman of Distinction Award. In 2011, she was a CTV National Fellow at the Banff World Media Festival. And in 2003, she was awarded the C. Irwin McIntosh Journalism Prize from the School of Journalism at the University of Regina.

I shall report fully after the launch.