-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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.…
-
George Melnyk – Literary History
interview by: paulo da costa and Nelson Wight George Melnyk, considered an authority on regionalism, has published seven non-fiction books dealing with Western Canada. His most recent titles include The Urban Prairie, Beyond Alienation and Riel to Reform. He has just published the first volume of the Literary History of Alberta. In the 1970s he founded the NeWest Review and the NeWest Press in Edmonton and went on to become the executive director of the Alberta Foundation for the Literary Arts. Filling Station talked to George Melnyk the week preceding the April launch of his Literary History of Alberta. paulo da costa: What inspired you to tackle a…
-
Ulrikka S. Gernes – Poetry As a Language of Resistance
Ulrikka S. Gernes was born in Sweden to Danish parents and spent most of her childhood in Sweden. She has travelled extensively in Europe and Asia and now lives in Copenhagen. Her work has been highly acclaimed in Denmark since the publication of her first collection Natsvaermer (Moth) in 1984 when she was 18. She has published eight further collections. Her first book published in Canada: A Sudden Sky is a selection of her work translated by Patrick Friesen and Per Brask. paulo da costa: You were born to a family of artists. Your father was a renowned Danish painter. How did that childhood atmosphere influence your artistic sensibility?…
