Future of writing in a changing landscape

The year 2010 will be known as the year, not only when the e-book penetrated the mainstream, but when the conversation about the future of the book became ubiquitous.

If you're a Canadian author and you want to join the conversation, take note of these upcoming conferences and workshops (pencil in or Google Calendar):

• Feb. 18 to 21, 2010: The Banff Centre's In(ter)ventions: Literary Practice At The Edge. An innovative conference open to writers, new media artists, students, critics, educators and others. Recent GG-winner Kate Pullinger, Daphne Marlatt and J.R. Carpenter will be among the presenters.
  

• February & March 2010: The Writers Union of Canada's Secure Footing in a Changing Literary Landscape. A full-day event held at various locations across Canada to help writers navigate the print-based and digital literary landscapes from a creative and financial point of view. Open to the general public and reasonably priced at $45.
  
  
• June 4, 2010: Likewise, the Writer's Union 37th AGM and annual conference will also feature two forward-looking workshops. "The Future of the Word" will be a conversation with publishers, book sellers and authors on how the word will appear and how it will be sold, and I'll be moderating the other, "An Author's Guide to Navigating the E-World", a practical session on the power of social media and collaborative tools that authors can use to create, promote and communicate. These workshops will be open to the public for a fee and free to Union members. 
  

In addition, stay tuned for news on the 2010 editions of BookCampToronto and BookCampVancouver.

Nominate an artist for some big, fat awards

It's satisfying to see a great idea bear fruit.

Four years ago, I sat at a bistro table at the Novotel's Café Nicole with other motivated members of the outreach committee of the Council for the Arts in Ottawa (CAO), drafting an ideal arts awards scenario that would adequately celebrate and encourage the work and careers of local artists who made the seemingly insane decision to make Ottawa, in place of T.O. or Montreal, their artistic base. Four years of hard lobbying work later (and two years after I amicably stepped down from the board to pursue motherhood), we have that scenario.

New and expanded local arts awards amount to $14K



This week, the CAO announced the expansion of its Mid-Career Artist Award program as well as the creation of a new award for emerging artists and an arts award lunch.

Beginning in 2010, instead of a mid-career award and a $1,000 cash prize going to one recipient, three mid-career awards will go to one winner who receives a $5,000 cash prize with two finalists receiving $1,000 each. The same formula will apply to the new RBC Emerging Artist Award co-founded by the CAO and the Royal Bank of Canada.

Fear not, the CAO will still be adjudicating the jewel in its awards crown, the Victor Tolgesy Artist Award given to an individual whose contribution to the local arts community has been significant. Its recipient list reads like a who's who of Ottawa artists and arts champions -- Penny McCann, Julian Armour, Jennifer Dickson, Ian Tamblyn, Paulette Gagnon, Tom Henighan, the list goes on.

All three sets of awards plus the Council's Business Recognition Awards will be presented in a new format at the CAO Arts Award Lunch presented by RBC.

So, how can you celebrate this good fortune?

Nominate an artist. Heck, nominate three. It is one of the greatest compliments you can give them.

But before you nominate, please read the criteria for each award which are available on the CAO's website. Because I know you're asking, "What the heck is a mid-career artist, anyway?"

Nomination forms are available by calling (613) 569-1387, emailing council@arts-ottawa.on.ca, or by downloading the nomination form.

The deadline for all three awards is December 15, 2009.

Good luck. Merde.

Dave Cooper's fruit series: when a pomegranate isn't just a pomegranate

Painter and illustrator Dave Cooper might very well be Ottawa's best known visual artist whose international reputation seems to, sadly for Ottawa, overshadow his local rep. His paintings of pillowy women that are, at once, erotic, innocent and can veer into the mildly disturbing, sell in New York, Los Angeles and Paris while his current hiatus from the graphic novel world is also mourned internationally.

In "Nice Ottawa", his work is occasionally on display in "one-night stand" format at Ottawa's black sheep of the visual arts scene, Galerie La Petite Mort or recently at the Ottawa International Animation Festival.

But perhaps his latest series will be found to be more palatable to the more conservative in Ottawa.

When a pomegranate isn't just a pomegranate

Cooper's latest mini-series could loosely be termed as "the erotic innocence of fruit". Pomegranate A (below), B (left) and C (top) were originally conceived as a triptych with "A" being unabashedly lush, B" a balance of age and vitality and "C", a literal balance of opposites.

Luckily for me, "Pomegranate C" is snapped up. (Yes, I'm the culprit. It was an extravagant birthday gift paid in sweat, paint and affection.)

Still, it's worth following Dave Cooper's visual arts site and sniff around the galleries in town to see if Dave will explore this new concept further or return to his "pillowy girls".

Images all © Dave Cooper. Republishing available with permission.

How to Feed the Writing Muse

Last night, I moderated a session at the Ottawa International Writers Festival in the cabaret-style basement of Saint Brigid's Centre for the Arts, stayed for the Plan 99 reading series 10th anniversary bash and lingered at a table of writers trading tales of what motivates us as writers, namely attending events like these.

Here is just a brief overview of some of our "aha" moments:

• David Small's powerful tale of how presenting his memoir Stitches to his previously estranged brother mystifyingly transformed their relationship.
• Jane Christmas and Catherine Gildiner argeeing it's better to base your memoir on memories, not the research you do afterward (which you're probably doing to procrastinate, anyway).
  
• Elina Hirvonen explaining how her generation in Finland is better able to address the repercussions of civil and international conflict three generations post-Winter War. 
• Dave O'Meara and LM Rochefort handing out wax-paper cups of champagne to toast 10 years of Plan 99 and business owners who support the arts in meaningful ways (read: with their wallets).
  
• Struan Sinclair recounting the tragic consequences when you leave two bags of candy tied to a doorknob in Winnipeg and then get on a plane to Ottawa.
• Getting the backstage intel on David Byrne's and Nick Cave's recent appearances at the festival (all gracious, all good).
  
• rob mclennan and I trading stories of how so many international authors name Ottawa as their ideal city to read in because the audiences are informed and unpretentious. 

And finally, as an author, how it is so necessary to attend these types of readings and debates, how they feed you creatively far more than your average (often expensive) writing workshop.

During Plan 99's celebratory readings, when I wasn't tweeting+ clever lines from the readers, I found myself compelled to sketch an entire a chapter for my next-next novel (the one in ethereal thought-to-first draft stage). Today, I'll dive in and flesh out that sketch, that unexpected gift that you sometimes receive when you aren't expecting it but are unintentionally feeding the muse.

The Writing Life tonight @ Writersfest

The Writing Life #3: The Past is Present
Saturday, October 24, 2009 @ 8:30 p.m.
Saint Brigid's, Ottawa

Tonight, I'll be hosting this session of the Ottawa International Writers's Festival featuring Toronto author Don Gillmor, Finnish author and filmmaker Elina Hirvoven and all the way from Oxford Mills, recent Relit winner Michael Blouin.

Elina has also asked me to read an excerpt from her intelligent and understated anti-war novel When I Forgot; it's an honour and a wee challenge. My goal this afternoon: learn how to pronounce "Rautatientori". Suggestions? (Turns out "Rautatientoir" means "Railway Station". I was saved by substituting the English translation.)