Writing consumes writers. No end of ones better than I am have said as much. The passion hurts relationships. I think off and on about people I love, but I think about writing all the time. Writing is hard, or everyone would do it.* By Peter Schjeldahl. I am feeling Quiltly (ha ha ha)
... read more.Family Matters
BELIEVE YOU ME
MY ANGER AND PAIN MANIFESTO There will always be someone who suffers more deeply, more righteously, more rigorously, more appropriately with higher levels of pain, with higher levels of accomplishment achievement than me like the amputee running a super marathon across the Sahara desert. Good for you. Good for God! Me how do I
... read more.CREDULITY
HOW MUCH DOES IT HURT Journal entry, undated There will always be someone who suffers more deeply, more righteously, more rigorously, more appropriately with higher levels of pain, with higher levels of accomplishment achievement than me like the amputee running a super marathon across the Sahara desert. Good for you. Good for God! Me how
... read more.SUSANN KLASSEN GRADUATES FROM THE MCI
EXCERPT FROM THE MEMOIRS OF SUSANN ENNS In spring preparations for Mennonite Collegiate Institute (MCI) Sängerfest and Graduation took place. I was given parts to perform in both. The big Sängerfest was held in a big tent rigged up and supported by poles. We had no sound system and had to learn how to project
... read more.IT WAS 25 YEARS AGO TODAY
TUMOUR IN THE FOURTH VENTRICLE For Theo Suspended, slung in mid-air for surgery, son, you are alive, a metal halo, screwed into your skull to still your head. The swaggering neurosurgeon cuts out a circle of your skull, pulls it out like plug to reach your brain. The careful knives know where they have to
... read more.Life Experience in Literature by Barbara Nickel for Abbotsford Workshop
Hi Victor, These are interesting questions, thanks for thinking of me re: some of the poems from Domain. One of the first things that comes to mind are words from Margaret Avison (a big influence for me) in the Foreword to Always Now (first volume of her Collected Poems). Avison tells of her grade nine teacher
... read more.AGE OF HOPE (by D.Bergen) for Abbotsford Workshop
Hi David, I’m off in a week, second stop in Abbotsford where I am doing a workshop called “Writing poetry and fiction about family matters,” on the 29th, Sunday morning. I have started gathering comments about two aspects of what is of most interest, to me at least … Even in writing fiction most writers
... read more.To whom does the story belong?
by Bruce Hiebert Ph.D. Does the story belong to the story-teller or to those who seem identified in the story? The academic view is that the work belongs to the story-teller, not to those identified. There is no need to consult with or respect the desires or well-being of those who might see themselves as
... read more.MURMUR for Abbotsford by Erin Moure
To DM, SH, and others it may concern: This is a complex poem whose socio-political implications deserve deciphering ____________________________________________ * What the murmur is singing is that the capitalist system, based as it is on individualism and individual greed, separating human beings stinks.** **Note to people who have difficulty laughing at themselves: the above note
... read more.DETACHMENT (Part one) for Abbotsford Workshop
Comments by Maurice Meirau RE: Truth in memoir, fiction, poetry – writing about family matters ‘There is no such thing as the unvarnished truth. In any narrative form, including non-fiction, as soon as you begin to select facts and story-lines,
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