If I’ve been sadly absent here—and I have been—it’s partly because this summer I’ve been extremely busy putting together the content for Kingston WritersFest’s web site. More than sixty-three authors are coming to share their work with us this season, including novelists Steven Heighton, Lisa Moore, Joan Thomas, Kathleen Winter, and Michael Winter; memoirists Karen Connelly and Iain Reid, and poets Joanne Page and John Steffler. Find the complete list on our Authors Page.

One of the perks of my job was that in composing profiles for each of our authors I got to know quite a lot about them and their upcoming books, as well as their reading habits. Fascinating stuff.

I’ll be appearing at Kingston WritersFest as moderator of an event called In Search of Memory,  a conversation with Judy Fong Bates about her beautiful memoir, The Year of Finding Memory. I loved Judy’s novel, Midnight at the Dragon Café, and I’m just about to dive into the memoir now. Tickets to this event, and all others, are available at the Grand Theatre Box Office. Prices are very reasonable, but tickets are selling fast, so get yours soon!

Those of you who love to write should check out the Writers Studio—ten master classes with some of Canada’s best writers. I plan to attend as many of these as I can get into!

If you’re in Kingston or anywhere near it in late September, join us!

“Often when I read examples of what purport to be lyric essays, I …find them resembling a certain kind of experimental poetry that has proliferated for at least forty years…There tends to be a reliance on structural, conceptual devices, such as lists or repeating word-phrases, a welcoming of stream-of-conscious, surrealist disjunctive leaps from line to line, and a suppression of mounting argument, replaced by circularity or trance… “

—Phillip Lopate

Lyric Essay

Words that go with the lyric essay include fragments, collage, mosaic, white space, juxtaposition, braided narratives, heightened attention to language.

Deborah Tall and John D’Agata:

The lyric essay doesn’t expound, is suggestive rather than exhaustive, depends on gaps, may merely mention. It might move by association, leaping from one path of thought to another by way of imagery or connotation, advancing by juxtaposition or sidewinding poetic logic. It often accretes by fragments, taking shape mosaically, its import visible only when one stands back and sees it whole.

“One of my favourite books of the past year is Susan Olding’s Pathologies: A Life in Essays.  She takes the personal essay to new places, puts it to interesting uses, gives it a fresh shape.  It is Olding’s form that is so often the reward of reading her essays.  They are fresh and startling and often biting.  I like that.”

Thank you, Nathalie. And thank you also for the inspired decision to focus on books about books in your blog.

Samuel Johnson by Joshua Reynolds

“A loose sally of the mind. An irregular, undigested piece.”  (Samuel Johnson, himself an essayist.)

Known for its perambulating, meandering, (seemingly) artless construction.

I’ve just come back from the annual Prince Edward County Authors’ Festival, where I hosted a panel discussion with Dani Couture, Colin Frizzell, Sarah Selecky, and Paul Vermeersch. We’d been asked to talk about the writing life, so our conversation ranged widely, from questions about genre, to thoughts about revision (including Sarah Selecky’s interesting idea about revision as translation), to Paul Vermeersch’s eerily exact Al Purdy imitation.

As editor of the Al Purdy A-Frame Anthology, Paul also spoke to the audience about the Purdy A-Frame Trust. Spearheaded by the indefatigable Jean Baird, the Trust aims to purchase, restore and preserve the poet’s house on Roblin Lake as a permanent writers’ retreat. For more information, see Marnie Woodrow’s piece about this in The County Grapevine.

The PEC festival must be one of the best small-town festivals in Canada. Audiences are enthusiastic and well-informed, the venue is spacious, yet intimate, organizers are exceptionally welcoming, and the setting is spectacular. Yesterday, I heard brilliant readings by Steven Heighton, Sarah Selecky, Mariann Ackerman, and Cordelia Strube as well as Catherine Gildiner and Helen Humphreys. What a pleasure to be exposed to new work by these authors and to talk with several fine poets and fiction writers about their process.

Books and Company, 289 Main Street, Picton, Ontario.

As a participant in last year’s festival, I can attest that it’s an intimate and inspiring occasion in one of the most beautiful parts of the province! Come for one event or better yet, come for them all!

For tickets or information, call: 613 476 3037

How beautiful a London street is then, with its islands of light, and its long groves of darkness, and on one side of it perhaps some tree-sprinkled, grass-grown space where night is folding herself to sleep naturally, and, as one passes the iron railing, one hears those little cracklings and stirrings of leaf and twig which seem to suppose the silence of fields all round them, an owl hooting, and far away the rattle of a train in the valley. But this is London, we are reminded; high among the bare trees are hung oblong frames of reddish yellow light—windows; there are points of brilliance burning steadily like low stars—lamps; this empty ground, which holds the country in it and its peace, is only a London square, set about by offices and houses where at this hour fierce lights burn over maps, over documents, over desks where clerks sit turning with wetted forefinger the files of endless correspondences; or more suffusedly the firelight wavers and the lamplight falls upon the privacy of some drawing-room, its easy chairs, its papers, its china, its inlaid table, and the figure of a woman, accurately measuring out the precise number of spoons of tea which—She looks at the door as if she heard a ring downstairs and somebody asking, is she in?

—from “Street Haunting”

“It’s easy to sneer at the glut of memoirs of the past decade, and to discredit the genre as somehow dishonest or narcissistic, but autobiographical texts and personal essays that really work are always about something bigger than the person writing them.

The best first-person texts flirt with navel-gazing, but are redeemed by insight, artistry, self-criticism, and honesty. By telling a story about their own singular lives, skilled autobiographers and personal essayists inspire revelations. In other words, these texts not only reveal something about the person writing them, but also about the one reading them.”

(from left) Fiona Tinwei Lam, Cathy Stonehouse, Shannon Cowan

Q: What sparked the idea for this anthology?

A: Cathy had just had her first child, and was struggling with trying to find time to write. As a writer/parent she wanted to read something other than how-to books that spoke to her experience. Something nonprescriptive, more descriptive and nuanced. She felt she and others would learn better that way—through the poetic and rich, rather than flat and often patronising self-help.  As there was a dearth of material on the subject, she envisioned a project that would seek out the experiences of other women writers who had had children that could inspire other women in similar  circumstances.   We three already knew each other mostly through writing, and were exchanging parenting tips, so working on the project together arose naturally.

Q: Why did you choose an anthology of essays rather than poetry or fiction?

A: Nonfiction seems to speak more directly to our experiences as mothers, with real life events and experiences that readers can relate to. We considered various parameters (other art forms, other countries) but settled on these (creative non-fiction and Canadian) because they defined what we most hungered for. There were other fiction/poetry anthologies on this theme already. We wanted the writers to speak to the readers about their lived lives. Also, given how isolating both mothering and writing can be, we wanted readers to feel part of an ongoing, vibrant community, part of a continuum, irrespective of location, age, or circumstance.

Q: Does the essay genre offer something different to readers?  If so, what?

A: It provides real life, honest, unembellished stories that readers can identify with. It provides well-written (and therefore nuanced, complex) versions of people’s realities that readers can return to over and over again. With essays, you can use novelistic techniques or weave in poetry (as some of our contributors did), but the overall effect is one of truth.

Q: Tell us something about the editing process.

A: A number of essays were extensively revised, and some were rewritten.  There was a lengthy to and fro process between editor and writer prior to the review by the copy editor. We worked collaboratively on all aspects of the editing, which made the process time-consuming and complex but also rewarding. Having three editors review and edit each piece makes more work overall, but we had high standards and wanted the best deal for our writers. We did most of this work through email and after the kids were in bed. There were many late-night conference calls, because that was often the only time we were all available.

Q: What was the greatest challenge in getting this project off the ground?

A: Although the book didn’t take that long to place, we found ourselves convincing publishers/agents/editors that the project was worthwhile and had a market. There was a real misconception that the book’s readership would be a narrow one—yet when the manuscript came together, editors and reviewers alike chimed in that men, women, parents, and non-parents would all find something inspiring and captivating in the book. The writing spoke for itself, as we always knew it would.

Q: What has been the greatest reward, either in working on this book, or post-publication?

A: Knowing that many women across the country, of varying ages and at varying stages of their writing career, and even non-writers juggling children with work outside the home, have connected to the book, finding solace, wisdom, affirmation, support. We continue to receive many enthusiastic responses, whether in person or through others, and know that the book will have a long shelf-life.

Q: What advice might you offer to someone else who wanted to put together a collection like this?

A: A project like this is deceptively straightforward.  It is truly a labour of love—quite time-consuming. (For us, it took us sometimes many hours every week, over about three years.) Personal writing projects might have to go on the back-burner.  Tight deadlines can be almost impossible to deal with when one has young kids. Be prepared to work for virtually nothing and make sure you balance maintaining editorial control with finding a publisher earlier rather than later, so the work is not all for naught. Have faith in your writers.

Join Double Lives contributors and editors at:

Mother, Writer: Panel and Reading, Vancouver Public Library, May 5,
2010 at  7:30 pm

This Mother’s Day, celebrate the intersection of creation and
creativity with award-winning authors Catherine Owen, Rachel Rose, Luanne Armstrong, and Dorothy Woodend. Hosted by Cathy Stonehouse (Double Lives: Writers and Motherhood) and Cori Howard (Between Interruptions and The Momoir Project), this event will illuminate the rewards of nurturing children while pursuing the passion to write.

Wednesday, May 5, 7:30 p.m. Peter Kaye Room, Lower Level, Central
Library, 350 West Georgia Street. Admission is free.