If STARFest was a book, it would need many chapters to cover all of the authors who are scheduled to appear and all of their books. But the St. Albert Readers’ Festival isn’t a book. It’s a month-long celebration of writers and the written word, and it all starts six days from now.
This is the first of two preview features on STARFest. The second will run on Wednesday, Oct. 10. Visit www.starfest.ca for full details on all events.
Elinor Florence – Tuesday, Oct. 9
It’s one thing to write for a newspaper but another thing entirely to own that newspaper, too. When it comes to the publishing world, there seems to be very little that Elinor Florence hasn’t done, including being a fiction writer.Along with being a reporter, she was a regular writer for Reader’s Digest who has since gone on to be a novelist of historical fiction with a book called Bird’s Eye View, now considered a bestseller. It’s about an idealistic young woman who joins the air force as an aerial photographic interpreter, essentially a spy in the sky.
Part of her appearance will include a presentation of some of the research that she did for the book.
“I’ll be showing them some old photographs because people have a hard time visualizing what the photo interpreters were looking at. I’ve got a crash course in aerial photo interpretation there. Also, I like to tell my audiences about Canadian women in uniform. There were 50,000 of them in World War II but you very rarely hear anything about what the women did,” she said.
Just released in February, her new novel called Wildwood is about a single mother celebrating the pioneer spirit when she inherits an abandoned, off-the-grid farmhouse north of Peace River. Part of her survival depends on a notebook prepared by the original homesteader.
As it was with her other novel, this one still required a lot of research. The story should have a special appeal to many Alberta readers as it has a lot of Peace River history incorporated into it.
“This is quite different from my first novel, but I’m getting very good feedback. I have book clubs reading it all over Canada, really.”
Florence said that she’s excited for her debut at STARFest.
Esi Edugyan – Wednesday, Oct. 10
This is an exciting time for Esi Edugyan as she counts down the weeks till the winner of this year’s Giller Prize is announced. She’s on the list after having won the prize in 2011 for Half-Blood Blues, her second novel. (Look for fellow STARFest presenter Patrick deWitt on the same shortlist, too.)The B.C. novelist has returned to bookshelves this year with Washington Black, which is already on the shortlist for the Man Booker Prize and the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. It’s about an 11-year-old boy named George Washington Black who is a slave on a Barbados sugar plantation. When he is chosen to be a manservant, he expects the worst but it turns out to be a strange and wonderful adventure that changes his life.
Edugyan will be in conversation with host Jesse Lipscombe.
Patrick Weekes – Saturday, Oct. 13
It’s no game. Writing is serious business, even in fun genres such as fantasy and science fiction. Patrick Weekes has a handful of novels and a few comics on his CV, all of the titles of which sound like a lot of fun: The Palace Job, The Prophecy Con, The Paladin Caper. There’s also Dragon Age: The Masked Empire, a tie-in novelization that stemmed from his work on that game series as lead writer at Bioware.His newest work of fiction is simply called Feeder and his publishers say that it’s suitable for readers aged 14 to 99.
“I’ve been really excited about the people who read it and said that it was something that they or their children or their students really needed right then,” he said. “It’s ideally a book to be read and appreciated in the teen and young adult marketplace but my hope is that … the themes are themes that ring true definitely for teenagers but for adults as well.”
Those themes, he continued, are about confronting the dark problems in your life, feeling like you’re the only one who can understand the things you’re going through, opening up to others and exposing your vulnerabilities. The story itself is about a 14-year-old who hunts monster aliens that feed on humankind by using an inter-dimensional creature.
The adventure tale features a diverse cast of characters, another credit that should add to the book’s wide-ranging appeal.
“Everyone feels like an outcast. Everyone feels like the weird one who doesn’t fit in. When you can find people who accept you and band together, that’s when you can find real strength.”
Weekes’ appearance runs as a co-presentation with Eekfest, which takes place that same day.
Katherine Ashenburg – Monday, Oct. 15
Want to get the dirt on what it takes to switch from writing non-fiction to fiction? Katherine Ashenburg probably has a few tips to share.The prize-winning author of three non-fiction titles – including the popular The Dirt on Clean: An Unsanitized History – has a new novel to share with her fans and readers. Sofie and Cecilia is a story about more than just female friendship. It’s also about the revolution of art and design that swept Sweden from 1900 to 1940. The story is based on two real Swedish painters and their wives from the turn of the century.
The interesting backstory is there’s so much about female friendship that helped the book to coalesce over a period of a decade.
“It took me 10 years from the time that my friend the novelist Jane Urquhart put it into my mind,” Ashenburg said.
“I was telling her about a couple of painters that inspired the book and about their marriage. She said, ‘Oh? This is your first fiction.’ I said, ‘You’re crazy. I’m a non-fiction writer.’ I’ve never thought for one second about writing a novel, even though I probably read 20 novels for every non-fiction book I read. I think I loved reading novels so much it never occurred to me that I could write my own. I used to call up Jane over the 10 years and say, ‘Why did you ever get me into this?’ Blame it on Jane.”
The big switch resulted in some surprises. She found it strangely comfortable to create dialogue between fictional characters.
“I had a kind of non-fiction writer’s safety net there in that there were four real lives, which I diverted from enormously. I changed people’s sexuality and took all kinds of liberties, which is why I’ve changed their names. I found the plot the hardest.”
Ashenburg will be in conversation with host Marina Endicott.
Sharon Bala – Tuesday, Oct. 16
Talk about your up-and-comers, but here’s one young writer that has ‘greatness’ written all over her.Sharon Bala is a three-time recipient of Newfoundland and Labrador's Arts and Letters Award and won the Journey Prize for the best short story first published in a Canadian literary journal. She will be bringing her award-winning first novel to local audiences here.
The Boat People is about a Sri Lankan family of refugees who flee to British Columbia where, instead of finding safety, are imprisoned for suspicion of being terrorist allies. It’s inspired by real events as it moves from one country to the next.
In addition to talking about her book, she’ll probably have lots to say about the community of writers that supports and encourages her in her home in Newfoundland.
“When I was first starting out, I used to say, ‘I write. I’m not a writer.’ The author Lisa Moore said, ‘If you write, you’re a writer.’ I think we’re all natural storytellers. Every night, we go to sleep and our brains churn up stories. The engine of stories exists in all of us, in our subconscious. Those of us that put that on paper… all we’re doing is channelling that natural gift that all of us have,” she said.
“I honestly believe that we put way too much emphasis on talent and on ‘natural gift’. I think 99 per cent of it is just work. You just sit down and you write and you learn craft.”
Bala will be in conversation with Diana Davidson.
David Johnston – Wednesday, Oct. 17
What does it take to restore personal, community and national trust? Ask someone who’s been at the top.David Johnston was Canada’s governor general but now that he’s retired from that position, he has lots of free time to write and travel the country he loves so much. He’s written (or co-written) 25 books in total over his life, the latest of which is called Trust: 20 Ways to Build a Better Country. It’s a followup to The Idea of Canada and continues his tradition of straight talk with practical advice about people’s attitudes and habits.
Johnston will be in conversation with host Dr. David Turpin.
