If getting a book published is all about timing, you couldn’t hit a sweeter spot than local journalist Marty Klinkenberg’s first book The McDavid Effect: Connor McDavid and the New Hope for Hockey – a behind-the-scenes revelation of the Oilers star player and his first season in the NHL.
Not only will the book launch LitFest, Edmonton’s nonfiction festival running Oct. 13-23 at various downtown sites, it also comes out just as McDavid and the Oilers take to the ice for the new season at Rogers Place – the inaugural one in the new arena – and McDavid’s first as newly-named captain of the team.
Klinkenberg said it was indeed fortuitous that he landed a new job as sports writer for The Globe and Mail just as the Oilers won the NHL draft pick lottery and chose McDavid. “The editor thought that if McDavid was to come anywhere near to meeting the expectations thrust upon him, he’d be a big star and worth following for the season,” he said.
Writing a season-long series of newspaper articles (and moving the concept into book form near season’s end), Klinkenberg’s The McDavid Effect chronicles the 19-year-old’s ups and downs, which included a collarbone injury that sidelined the superstar for 90 days near the start of the season; his parents journey as ‘hockey parents’, and how the teen still managed to average one point per game (very few do) in the 45 games he did play last year.
What was Klinkenberg’s conclusion after shuttling from arena to arena across the continent? The McDavid Effect is real and palpable in this hockey-crazed city, he said. “Oilers fans are so passionate – it’s the only team that didn’t make the playoffs for the last 10 seasons, to still have sold out every game for the last 10 seasons too. Hope springs eternal for fans at the start of every season, but there’s even more optimism now, with the new arena and his being named captain. McDavid is the best player to enter the league since Sid Crosby and possibly since Gretzky, so fans are buoyed and energized – they’ve got THE face of the franchise.”
Klinkenberg said McDavid has a quiet maturity, enough so that being named captain at such a young age isn’t a burden. “It’s what his mom says he said he was going to do since he was six years old.”
“There’s a new sense of optimism in the city. Even with the state of the economy and Fort Mac fires, hockey fans think that no matter what, even if their lives are in upheaval, the Oilers are still there for them – a constant. There’s Connor McDavid, a new arena, a new season – so there’s new hope.
While Klinkenberg said he feels honoured and blessed to launch LitFest – The McDavid Effect talk goes at 6 p.m. Oct. 13 at the Stanley Milner Library – there’s a long slate of offerings at the 10-day event, which also marks the festival’s 10th anniversary in Edmonton. LitFest executive director Fawnda Mithrush said this festival, which draws up to 5,000 nonfiction lovers at free, pay-what-you-will and ticketed events, is unique in featuring content over the draw of big-name authors.
“We’re Canada’s only festival devoted to non-fiction, which actually outsells fiction, and there’s a huge playground of genres and ideas to get people talking –food, pop psychology, history, art. The festival is a conversation-driver: it gets people in front of authors and then discussing the book and concepts at coffee shops around town afterwards,” said Mithrush.
Still several authors are creating a buzz with their latest offerings. Headliner Neil Pasricha (popular TED talk speaker and author of The Book of Awesome) comes to the Winspear (Oct. 18 at 7 p.m.) with his new book The Happiness Equation, which Mithrush said should make for plenty of lively conversation. “He offers some unusual ideas about happiness that go against what people may think – things like ‘don’t ever retire’. It’ll be a popular evening,” she said.
Also of note is the Oct. 17 evening at Metro Cinema/Garneau Theatre starting with Lindy West and her memoir Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman (6 p.m.) followed at 8 p.m. by the podcast CANADALAND Live. Author Ross King’s offerings include a talk on his new book On Madness and Monet (Oct. 21 at 7 p.m., Art Gallery of Alberta) and a masterclass on the Techniques of Creative Non-Fiction (Oct 22 at 11 a.m., Milner Library).
Political watchers may enjoy Notley Nation (Oct. 20 at 7 p.m., Milner Library), two Calgary journalists’ examination of how Rachel Notley’s NDP sweep across Alberta contributed to the Liberal surge that followed. And fan favourite author Charlotte Gray is back with ‘Sesquicentennial is a real word’ (Oct. 23 at 2 p.m., Milner Library). She is also part of the Ten-Ten-Soiree, LitFest’s closing Oct. 22 event at Latitude 53 at 7 p.m.
“We’ll have five writers and five multi-disciplinary artists – a closing celebration for the festival,” Mithrush said.
Tickets and details for all events are at litfestalberta.org
