The Symposium on the Book

From Memories to Memoir

The unreliable certainties of memory in writing your life.

They say we all have a story within us. Each life is a story, but usually not one offered up to public scrutiny. In this one-day symposium we will consider many examples of the memoir: from the collection of short pieces from Marion Farrant’s early years; the edge of crime from Sharon Butala; the socially aware memoir of Leilah Nadir; the assisted memoir from Jim Taylor; and the intensely private revelations of Philip Lee and Keith Maillard.

A memoir can be extremely personal and fraught with all sorts of ethical and moral quagmires for the author. Families, friendships and working relationships can be significantly affected. Yet, some of the most compelling, riveting and important writing has come in the form of memoir. What drives a writer to create this unique vision of history?

Where is the line in dealing with remembered fact? What is literary truth?

Since the publication of James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces, the matter of truth in memoir has become hotly debated. We will consider what truth is and look at how a writer shapes a personal story and is in turn shaped by the intended audience. How does memoir differ from autobiography or creative non-fiction?
 
Hal Wake will moderate the session as we explore some of the more controversial aspects of the memoir. We will also consider its history, and how it has become an established and invaluable part of Canada’s literary landscape. Panelists, memoir editor and publisher Phyllis Bruce, book reviewer Martin Levin and publisher Howard White, will consider their experiences in editing, reviewing and publishing the memoir.

“I attended the Symposium on the Book in (2008) and was thoroughly delighted. I attend the Vancouver International Writers Festival, Festival of the Written Arts in Sechelt, and readings throughout the year, and the Symposium ranks as my ‘best ever’ literary event.”

Gail Brown, Vancouver

Authors

Sharon Butala has specialized in memoir-writing and has taught workshops of various lengths on the subject in places as diverse as feminist spirituality conferences in Quebec and Ontario, at Hollyhock on Cortes Island, on Denman Island, at UBC’s Robson Campus in Vancouver, at the Jung Forum in Edmonton, at the Banff Centre for the Arts, and at the women’s festival in Saskatoon, and even in Ajijic, Mexico, to name a few. See also Writing the Literary Memoir: Searching for the Self.

M.A.C. Farrant is the author of nine books of humorous short fiction and a memoir, My Turquoise Years. Her literary non-fiction The Secret Lives of Litterbugs...and other (true) stories was published by Key Porter Books in April 2009. Down the Road to Eternity—New & Selected Fiction will appear from Talon Books in 2009. She is currently working with the Arts Club on a stage adaptation of My Turquoise Years. Her stories have been adapted for radio and television and are anthologized in North America.  She reviews fiction and non-fiction for The Vancouver Sun and the Toronto Globe and Mail and is the host of the long-running Sidney Reading Series.

Philip Lee was born in Maryland and grew up in New Brunswick. He worked at the Sunday Express in St. John’s, Newfoundland, the Telegraph-Journal in New Brunswick, the Atlantic Salmon Journal and the Ottawa Citizen. Home Pool: The Fight to Save the Atlantic Salmon was adapted from an award-winning newspaper series. Frank: The Life and Politics of Frank McKenna was a national bestseller. Bittersweet: Confessions of a Twice-Married Man, was longlisted for BC’s National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction. He is an associate professor and director of journalism at St. Thomas University. See also Writing Creative Non-Fiction

Keith Maillard is a fiction author and poet. Reviewers didn’t know what to make of his first novel, Two Strand River, with its cross-gendered protagonists and weird events, but it acquired a cult following, called “a classic of Canadian magic realism,” and was republished twice. Having taught as a sessional lecturer at both the UBC and SFU, Keith was appointed in 1989 to a regular teaching position in UBC’s Creative Writing Program, in which he has taught every genre except stage writing. He is a full professor, chair of the program, and specializes in fiction and poetry.

Leilah Nadir has written and broadcast political commentaries for the CBC, the Globe and Mail and the Georgia Straight, and a feature article in Brick magazine. She has a master’s degree in English Literature from the University of Edinburgh and a joint honours bachelor’s degree in English and History from McGill University. The Orange Trees of Baghdad was the winner of the 2008 George Ryga Award for Social Awareness In Literature. Leilah also writes fiction and has written a play, Heavenly Bodies.

Jim Taylor has produced some 7500 five-a-week columns, three times as many radio shows and 12 books. His writing has earned him membership in the CFL and BC Sports Halls of Fame and a lifetime achievement award from Sports Media Canada. Some of his books include Man in Motion (with Rick Hansen), Wayne Gretzky: The Authorized Pictoral Biography, Greg Moore: A Legacy of Spirit (with Dan Proudfoot and Gordon Kirby), The Best of Jim Coleman: Fifty Years of Canadian Sport from the Man Who Saw it All and Goin’ Deep: The Life and Times of a CFL Quarterback (with Matt Dunigan). Jim lives in West Vancouver, BC.

Panelists

Phyllis Bruce is VP and publisher of Phyllis Bruce Books at HarperCollins, working with Bonnie Burnard, Richard B. Wright, Lewis DeSoto, Charlotte Gray, Frances Itani, Helen Humphreys, Dennis Bock, and Sharon Butala. Her authors have won the Giller Prize, the Governor General’s Award, the Drainie-Taylor Biography Prize, the Pierre Berton Award, and the Marian Engel Award.

Joy Gugeler is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Orato.com, an international online magazine with the tag line “Speak from experience.” She has been in book, magazine and online publishing for 17 years as an in-house and freelance literary editor where she edited the memoirs My Father Came From Italy, Mamma Mia (anthology), Glenn Cochrane’s Toronto, and Cool to be Kind (Call to Arms US edition). She has also written profiles and conducted interviews for CBC, Bravo!, the Vancouver Sun, Globe and Mail, Ottawa Citizen and Room, Quarry and ARC literary magazines. Gugeler has taught editing since 1998 at Ryerson and SFU, where she is completing a PhD in publishing.

Martin Levin is the books editor of the Globe and Mail, and its former Climate of Ideas columnist. He has contributed essays to two recent anthologies: ‘Confessions of a Commitmentphobe’ in to What I Meant to Say; and ‘Gobsmacked’ in to Great Expectations: Twenty-Four True Stories about Childbirth. He is co-author of a play about film director Ed Wood, and is currently working on a play. See also Book Publishing

Howard White founded Harbour Publishing in 1974, publishing Keepers of the Light, Fishing with John, and Beyond Remembering: the Collected Poems of Al Purdy. His current project is The Encyclopedia of British Columbia. He has won a Canadian Media Club Prize, the BC Book Award, the Canadian Historical Society Career Award, the Roderick Haig-Brown Award, the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour, the Order of British Columbia, an honorary doctorate from the University of Victoria and the Order of Canada.

H.J. (Jack) Kirchhoff has worked over the last 30 years as an arts journalist of one sort or another in Canada, mostly at The Globe and Mail, including stints as general arts reporter and editor, publishing reporter (The Globe’s first) and theatre critic (for two-plus years), with a two-year gig at The Toronto Star as editorial page editor and letters editor. For the past 13 or so years he has been the assistant Books editor and paperbacks columnist for The Globe. He started out in journalism as a teenaged agate clerk and occasional writer in the sports department of The Jamestown (N.Y.) Sun, back when there was one, and -- in a slightly different field -- taught freshman composition as a graduate assistant at SUNY College at Fredonia.

Moderator

Hal Wake has been engaged with the literary community in Canada for more than 30 years. In the mid-1980s he was the book producer for CBC Radio’s Morningside with Peter Gzowski. He has hosted or moderated hundreds of literary events at festivals in Vancouver, Victoria, New York, Whitehorse, Sidney BC and Sydney Australia. His reviews have appeared in the Georgia Straight and The Vancouver Sun. He is currently the artistic director of the Vancouver International Writers and Readers Festival.

Sponsors

• Summ 467

• July 18 | Saturday 9 - 5 pm
• Book signing 4:15 - 4:45 pm
• Fee $75 CDN (includes six books, one from each author)

register for this workshop

More Book Workshops