POWELL RIVER WRITERS’ CONFERENCE NEWSLETTER OCTOBER, 2009
CONGRATULATIONS to Christa de Beaupre on the publication of her article “Wild About Foxi” in the magazine More of Our Canada, September, 2009. It is a charming article about Christa’s friendship with a feral fox. What happens when a city girl encounters a feral fox? You might be surprised at the answer.
FROM THE POWELL RIVER LIVE POETS’ GUILD
Can You Hear Peace? a little book containing our children’s thoughts on peace, is surely one of the most inspiring and moving “products” Powell River has ever generated. Inexpensive at $15 and easily mailed, it also makes a great gift or memento of our terrific community.
This second annual Powell River International Peace-Poem Anthology (PRIPPA) is the first perfect-bound book ever to have been completely written, edited, published, and manufactured right here (except for contributions from Zoey Schutz, the Grand Second-Prize winner, who hails from Sechelt–close enough!). Corey Matsumoto of CMG Printing and Eva van Loon of the Powell River Live Poets’ Guild decided about six months ago that there was no reason Powell River, having been a paper-making town for a century, shouldn’t also become a book-making town for the next century. Technology co-operated, in the form of a new invention, a more or less portable perfect-binder which can stand in for the ten-grand behemoth machines that used to be necessary to the production of a “real book”. The machine arrived in Powell River this summer.
There is a steep learning curve to mastering the technology, but with the publication of Can You Hear Peace? van Loon’s latest “crazy idea”– accessible community publishing–has birthed its firstborn.
“The idea is to turn the wacky publishing industry on its head. Instead of bashing your head endlessly against the wall to find a publisher, or spending thousands of dollars with a print-on-demand self-publisher producing hundreds of books no one may ever want, you as writer or publisher can choose to have just a few dozen copies of a book manufactured, right here in town, and see if it flies.
”You can get your own editor, or you can hire one. You can be your own publisher, or you can submit your book to The Pack Press, Motley Crew House, or any other house prepared to have the work digitally published by CMG Printing. This way clubs, families, and organizations can put out that history in real book form for the lowest possible cost, with the least possible waste of materials. If the Great Canadian Novel is languishing in your desk drawer, finish it, publish reading copies, hand them around and see what happens. Once a work develops enough steam to make some serious profit, it can be re-published by letterpress through our relationship with bigger Canadian book-manufacturers. For tryouts or projects with probably limited distribution, there’s no reason not to use digital publishing on an affordable, local scale.”
The local publishing initiative has already produced several siblings:
Kaimana Wolff’s novella Bitters and Glasstown by young poet Katje van
Loon. There’s more coming in time for Christmas. Motley Crew House, a new
local publisher focused on publishing plays, will first produce How to Keep
a Human, purportedly written by a canine author, before turning to Powell
River’s award-winning play, Just Shoot Me by Eva van Loon.
A second new local publisher, The Pack Press, will shortly put out the
eagerly awaited Parallel: forty-nine Canadian poets speak to Obama edited by Eva van Loon of the Powell River Live Poets’ Guild, followed by Martin Rossander’s brainchild, Beyond Survival: A Journal of Cultural
Creatives.
“Bitters, Glasstown, and Can You Hear Peace? are available from Kingfisher Books, Breakwater Books, CMG Printing, or the Live Poets’ Guild. Contributions to Beyond Survival are welcome.”
POWELL RIVER WRITERS’ CONFERENCE, OCTOBER 17, 2009
Taking it to the Next Level: Professional Writing Advice
“It’s a game.” “It’s like preparing for a first date.” were among the exiting responses from the twenty-strong audience at Powell River’s Writer’s Conference. The question that they were addressing was “What is a Query Letter?” Over the morning it was answered in various and hilarious ways. Presenter Sylvia Taylor offered a formula and robust advice on approaching agents and publishers, emphasizing the importance of the 250 words in “your door to being published.” She encouraged dialogue between participants, and introduced some surprising ideas. After lunch, Sylvia shared her own writing, and her enthusiasm for sculpting the 300-word articlette. She recommended using the Global Librarian for accuracy when we’re doing research. www.globallibrarian.info
The conference culminated in So you think you can Write a contest where nine brave writers presented pieces based on Powell River, with a nod to tourism, and were roundly criticized and praised by a panel of eccentric judges. Winners were: Donna Kolezar (3), Amber Lynch (2), and Angie Davey (1). Congratulations to all the winners. First place winner Angie Davey’s piece will appear in Powell River Living magazine.
7th Annual Spring Conference Update
A new date has been set to accommodate the busy schedule of Powell Riverites in April 2010. Mark your calendars for April 30, May 1 at Dwight Hall for the biggest and best writers conference as we “Take it to the next level.” Our co-mentors/patrons Sylvia Taylor and Tony Dalton will find us the best presenters to teach: Self-editing and Writing from Life, Creative Non-Fiction. Sylvia and Tony are offering a new feature in the form of Master class’s. These will be two hour intense workshops taught April 30 as separate fee based entities. Watch for details and registration. We will continue to work with the schools sending the presenters to them on the Friday. Each school holds its own writing contest. Opening night ceremonies with lively entertainment and So You Think You Can Write contestants will set the tone for our 7th spring event and 14th conference.
For the third year the Live Poets Guild will be holding a peace poem contest for the youth.
Will you be joining us as we celebrate our 7th birthday?
Details TBA.
Membership: We now have the highest amount of members ever! Our goal is to have a membership of 50 by Jan.1/10. A bigger membership base gives more clout when we’re approaching sponsors or looking for grants. Tell all your friends to join us for $10. They don’t have to be writers to support PRWC. For those of you who are writers; one of the benefits is the opportunity to have your profile and photo on this site.
Welcome new members and thank you for supporting Powell River’s literary community.
THANK YOU FOR CONTRIBUTING
A special thank you to those people who contributed to this newsletter. Anyone may send any item of interest to writers. Anything from events to newsy items to helpful websites are welcome. Send to egwen@shaw.ca.
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