Elizabeth Brewster Memorial to be Held Wednesday, April 24

Please join the UNB community as we remember Elizabeth Brewster. A special memorial will be held at 4pm on Wednesday, April 24 in the Alumni Memorial Building, 13 Bailey Drive on the UNB campus in Fredericton. The memorial will be followed by a reception and, for those who wish, a visit to Elizabeth Brewster's gravesite at the Fredericton Forest Hill Cemetery.

Brewster earned a BA in 1946 and was a founding member of The Fiddlehead; she received an honourary doctorate from UNB in 1982. She is the author of over 30 books of poetry, prose, essays, and memoirs. She is a member of the Order of Canada and holder of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal. She is a professor emeritus of the University of Saskatchewan

Click on the Memorial Flier above for more details.

UNB Reading Series presents Clark Blaise

The University of New Brunswick would like to invite you to a special reading by Clark Blaise. Presented by the UNB English Department, the University Bookstore, The Fiddlehead, and the Canada Council for the Arts, the reading will take place on Tuesday, March 12 at 8pm in the Alumni Memorial Lounge, University of New Brunswick.

Clark Blaise will read from his new book, The Meagre Tarmac. Blaise is the author of twenty books of fiction and non-fiction. Internationally renowned as a writer, he has received an Arts and Letters Award for Literature from the American Academy and is an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Admission is free and all are welcome to attend.

Of Blaise's work, Margaret Atwood has said: "Top work from a master storyteller and border-crosser . . . a gem of a book."

CWILA Critic-in-Residence Sue Sinclair Interviewed

Over at CWILA's website, they've posted an interview with their first critic-in-residence Sue Sinclair. Sinclair was Writer-in-Residence at UNB for 2011-12, and she's a frequent contributor of book reviews to The Fiddlehead.

The wide-ranging interview by Brecken Hancock covers beauty, editing, the political role of poetry, and much more. Here is part of her response to a question about the similarities between her previous roles as writer-in-residence and editor, and her current role with CWILA:

Both editing and criticism depend on being the most attentive reader you can be and on communicating that readerly experience as clearly as possible. In that way they’re twins. But in editing there’s a problem-solving approach that makes it different in spirit from criticism. I confess to feeling more comfortable as editor than critic; this year is partly an exercise in learning to practice criticism in a way that suits me. If a poem seems to be going awry, as editor I can offer that feedback while the author is still in a position to rework it. Pointing out a weakness after its publication seems a little like closing the barn door after the horse has bolted—there’s a way in which it doesn’t do the poem a lot of good (assuming that the poem isn’t reworked post-publication). On the other hand, what’s the point of a “published” work but to participate in “public” life, to invite readers, to ask them to respond somehow?

Click here to read the rest of the interview.

Also, be sure to check out her "On Beauty" series over at Lemon Hound.

DOCTalks Festival Presents Michael Crummey in Fredericton

The University of New Brunswick would like to invite you to a special documentary and panel discussion based on Newfoundland writer Michael Crummey's book of poetry, Hard Light, and his observations of rural outport culture and life in relationship to the past, and juxtaposed with present day modernity. This event is part of the DOCTalks Festival.

Panelists: Michael Crummey and Joan Clark
Moderator: Ross Leckie

Wednesday, February 27, 7pm, Memorial Hall, UNB
Admission: $5.00

For more information about the documentary Hard Light or about the DOCTalks Festival, click here.

Freedom to Read Week is This Week!

Freedom to Read Week is an annual event focused on the right of intellectual freedom through a variety of festivities, such as readings, discussions, and exhibitions across Canada. You can show your support by participating in a public event, getting involved through education, and/or ordering kits and posters.

 

"Freedom to read can never be taken for granted. Even in Canada, a free country by world standards, books and magazines are banned at the border. Schools and libraries are regularly asked to remove books and magazines from their shelves. Free expression on the Internet is under attack. Few of these stories make headlines, but they affect the right of Canadians to decide for themselves what they choose to read." 

 

Check out all the information at the website.

 

 

Writers' Federation of New Brunswick Contest Deadline Approaching

"If one of your New Year’s resolutions is to promote your writing, resolve to enter the Writers' Federation of New Brunswick’s 2013 Literary Competition. With over $2,000 in cash prizes to be awarded to top submissions of poetry and prose, the competition has been the launch pad for many published works since WFNB first welcomed entries in 1985.

Awards include: the new Douglas Kyle Memorial Prize for Short Fiction, valued at $500; the Alfred G. Bailey Prize, which awards $400 for the first place poetry manuscript; the Richards Prize, also valued at $400, for the winning fiction manuscript (either a collection of short stories, a short novel, or substantial portion of a longer novel); and the Sheree Fitch Prize for Fiction, which is open to young writers, up to age 18, and worth $100.

 

The competition is open to WFNB members and residents of New Brunswick. The deadline for entries is February 28, 2013.

 

For a complete list of prizes, contest rules and entry fees, visit www.wfnb.ca. 

 

Now in its 27th year, WFNB is the only organization that brings together writers in all disciplines and at all levels of development to recognize, encourage and promote New Brunswick writing."

A Review and a Reminder

Lori A. May at The Review Review reads The Fiddlehead's West Coast issue (no. 253), and she likes what she reads! She says, "The country may have beautifully distinguishable regions, yet the voices within them branch inward, outward, and transcend borders in original ways. Thus, this issue of The Fiddlehead is perfectly representative of the diversity of styles, voices, and approaches to writing in and about Canada."

You can read the full review on The Review Review's website.

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And for those of you in the Fredericton area, don't forget that Madeleine Thien reads Tuesday night at Alumni Memorial Hall at 8pm.

Madeleine Thien will read from her new novel, Dogs at the Perimeter. Thien is the author of two previous works of fiction, Simple Recipes (2001), a collection of short stories, and Certainty (2006), a novel. She has received the City of Vancouver Book Award, the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, and the Ovid Festival Prize, and her fiction and essays have been featured in Granta, The Walrus, and Brick. Thien lives in Montreal.

Admission is free and all are welcome to attend.