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Eden Robinson – Traplines
Eden Robinson’s debut novel, Monkey Beach, was nominated for the 2000 Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction and shortlisted for the Giller Prize. Monkey Beach is the first novel published by a member of the Haisla First Nation, and has been widely acclaimed by critics and readers alike. Robinson’s previous collection of stories, Traplines, was awarded the Winifred Holtby Prize for the best first work of fiction in the Commonwealth, and was a New York Times Editor’s Choice and Notable Book of the Year. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia. Robinson grew up near Kitamaat, BC and now lives…
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Verónica Volkow – The Hunger of Being
A collaborative interview: paulo da costa and Shane Rhodes interview Verónica Volkow. Verónica Volkow, born in Mexico City, is a poet, a translator, an essayist and a photographer. Until the age of eighteen she lived in the house of her great-grandfather, Leon Trotsky. She has written exhibit catalogues on Arnold Belkin, Francisco Toledo, Christine Couture and Nicholas Sperakis and translated the works of León Trotsky, Víctor Serge, Henry Michaux, Michael Hamburger and Elizabeth Bishop. Verónica has published three books of poetry: La sibila de Cumas (1974) Litoral de tinta (1979) El inicio (1983) and two books of essays: Graciela Iturbide, los disfraces (1984) and Diario de Sudáfrica (1988). She is…
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Dionne Brand – A Map to the Door of No Return
Dionne Brand was born in Guayguayare, Trinidad and moved to Toronto in 1970, where she went on to build a reputation as one of Canada’s finest writers. Winner of the Governor General’s Award for Poetry and the Trillium Award in 1997 for Land to Light On, Brand is also known as an essayist, short story writer and filmmaker. Her latest book A Map to the Door of No Return, is a thought-provoking map of her own art in which she sketches the shifting borders of home and nation, the connection to place in Canada and the world beyond. paulo da costa spoke with Dionne at WordFest. Dionne Brand: I wanted…
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Alberto Manguel – God’s Spies
ALBERTO MANGUEL is an editor, translator and essayist. He was born in Argentina and since the eigthies makes Canada his home. He is the author of several books, among them A History of Reading, which was awarded France’s prestigious Prix Médicis. He recently published the anthology God’s Spies – Stories in Defiance of Oppression and a new edition of The Dictionary of Imaginary Places. paulo da costa spoke to Alberto Manguel in Calgary. paulo da costa The stories in God’s Spies portray abuse of power in the context of several political, social and cultural backgrounds. In your introduction to the book you quote Robert Graves who says the writer’s…
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Robert Kroetsch – Imagining Alberta
One of Canada’s most accomplished authors, Robert Kroetsch was born in Heisler, Alberta in 1927. Kroetsch’s contribution to Canadian literature includes fiction, non-fiction and poetry. His first novel, But We Are Exiles was published in 1965, and in 1969 his novel The Studhorse Man won the Governor General’s Award for Fiction. His most recent book is the long poem The Hornbooks of Rita K. He lives in Winnipeg. filling Station spoke with Robert Kroetsch during his Markin-Flanagan’s 2002 Distinguished Visiting Writer Residency at the University of Calgary. Robert Kroetsch: I grew up in rural central Alberta on a big farm. It was before the Second World War. This farm…
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Coral Bracho – The Transparency of the Poem
Coral Bracho visited Calgary and Banff on the occasion of PanCanadian WordFest 98. Coral is a poet of sparse words. She prefers her poetry to speak on her behalf. We sat in the lobby of Margaret Graham Theatre, at the Banff Centre, the Bow river meandering in the valley below. filling Station interviewed Coral Bracho and we explored her latest book of poetry, “La voluntad del ámbar” as well as the themes of water and light which permeate her work. Coral Bracho has written Peces de piel fugaz (1977), El ser que va a morir (1982), Tierra de entrana ardiente (1992, in collaboration with the painter Irma Palacios) and La…
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John Burnside – 10: Meadow
John Burnside was born in 1955 and lives in Fife, Scotland. He is Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of St Andrews. His poetry cultivates an intimate relationship with the pastoral, a world of landscape and light. He has published six collections of poetry: Feast Days (1992), winner of The Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize and The Asylum Dance, winner of the prestigious Whitbread Poetry Award in 2000. His latest book is The Light Trap (2002). He has also written four books of fiction. paulo da costa spoke with him at the 2001 Edinburgh Literary Festival. paulo da costa: At this festival you stated being more interested in…
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Patrick Lane – Go Leaving Strange
Patrick Lane was born in 1939 in Nelson, British Columbia. He has published twenty-two volumes of poetry over the past thirty years and has received a number of awards including The Governor-General Award. He recently co-edited with his partner, Lorna Crozier, the anthology of essays on addiction, Addicted: Notes From the Belly of the Beast (2001). He has three books forthcoming, What We are Is A Garden, a series of meditations on life, art, poetry and gardens, Go Leaving Strange, a new collection of poetry, and New & Selected Short Stories. Patrick has traveled widely and has had his work translated into more than twelve languages. He presently teaches…
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A conversation with Paula Tavares
Paula Tavares was born in Lubango, Angola and lives in Lisbon where she teaches History at the Universidade Católica. She has published two books of poetry, Ritos de Passagem, 1985 and O lago da Lua, 1999 as well as a book of prose, O Sangue das Buganvílias, 1998, chronicles from her a weekly column in a daily newspaper. paulo da costa spoke to Paula Tavares on a warm November afternoon. We sat on a wooden bench by the Tagus River as ferries raced the gulls and shuttled people from downtown Lisbon to their dormitory communities along or across the estuary. paulo da costa: Your interest in the…
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David Albahari – Words are Something Else
DAVID ALBAHARI (1948), a writer and translator from Yugoslavia, moved to Canada in 1994. He has published seven collections of short stories and seven novels in Serbian. His book Opis smrti (Description of Death) won the Ivo Andric Award for the best collection of short stories in Yugoslavia in 1982, and his novel Mamac (The Bait), won the NIN Award for the best novel in Yugoslavia in 1996. His books have been translated into fourteen languages. A selection of his stories in English translation, entitled Words Are Something Else, was published in 1996 by Northwestern University Press. The English translation of Tsing was published in 1997 by Bayeux Arts, Calgary.…
