BC Book Prizes

Jelly Doughnut
Posted by Fred Wah

120 Grade 8’s in Creston and we’re talking about hybridity and betweeness (the “theme” for both Sylvia Olsen and I on this southern tour) and I ponder about the opposite of “apple” (red on the outside and white on the inside) and a few minutes later a young girl jumps up an yells out “Jelly Doughnut.”
Beautiful warm day driving to Cranbrook. In fact, the whole week has been summer weather. A good high school group of Comm. and English 10, but it was last class in the day and they were tired. The reading at the library in the evening was poorly attended which is disappointing considering the 3-hour drive back to Nelson after the reading. But the half-dozen who came were good listeners.
Another early morning today with a 1 1/2 hr drive to Grand Forks. I had quite a good class of 8’s and 11’s and they were fairly responsive to issues around race and identity.
On to Osoyoos and a bit of a break and a warm afternoon. Tim, Sylvia, and I had a wonderful meal and some BC wine at Nk’mip and then drove a few minutes north to Oliver for a well-attended event at the library. An engaged crowd of several book groups and a solid library support group.
We checked into the Canucks-Kings 3rd period in a local bar (yahoo!) before driving back down the lake to the Coast Osoyoos Beach Hotel.
Tomorrow some schools in Osoyoos and Oliver and then on to Sidney,

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Tuesday
Posted by Sylvia Olsen

Fifteen hours is a long time to spend on the road even if you are with wonderful men like Tim and Fred. Great conversation. The girls at A.R.E.S. (above) were disappointed that Tim was too old and too taken but they thought he looked “very Vancouver” and that was exciting for Creston. The schools have filled the house with two or three classes of grades 5-7. I am having a good time telling stories and talking about books. The kids and teachers at Adam Robertson Elementary in Creston and Steeples Elementary in Cranbrook want to say “thanks” to the Book Prizes for sending an author to the Kootenays. On Monday I was able to visit Sono Nis’, my publisher, awesome location in Winlaw (just out of Nelson) for the first time—no wonder Diane loves the Slocan Valley.

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Monday
Posted by Sylvia Olsen

Started early, ended late and had a great day—the Kootenays are beautiful. Thanks to Tim, the driver, and Fred, the navigator, I got from Nelson to Trail to Rossland and back to Nelson with no effort on my part—it was wonderful. Today was a special day for me because I got to visit my publisher, Sono Nis. Thanks to Diane Morris who picked me up and brought me to her beautiful location in Winlaw. Thanks BC Book Prizes, this tour is a privilege.
Sylvia Olsen

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The odyssey begins
Posted by Ehor Boyanowsky

After a weekend staining logs of the cabin Cristina Martini and I are building at Nighthawk, our little ranch property at Basque on the Thompson River, C drove me to Kelowna and then, poor thing, had to drive the home leg to Horseshoe Bay herself (well, actually accompanied by our English Setter, Thompson S Hunter). I hooked up with Bryan and Fiona the next morning and had one of the busiest days of my recent life: four presentations beginning with criminal psychology, followed by two presentations on the book during which I tried to explain how a psychologist ended up writing a book about a poet, fishing, the philosophy of creativity, conservation and the wilderness. For me, the highlight was the poem at Pentiction SS I got 15 year old Amayla Black to read on spousal abuse. It was amazingly poignant. She demurely informed me she had already published three.

Fiona and Bryan are such great company that it made the whole first day’s itinerary flow seamlessly. The epicurean highlight was a delicious early meal of perogies with wild boar proscuitto and Nichols pinot gris at the Heritage House in Naramata where a very forthcoming host by name of Quentin Cane regaled us with stories of the halcyon days of the grand old manor in the Edwardian era of garden parties and regattas. Highly recommended if you are in the area.

Today was a challenge as I was presenting to grade eights and nines in Princeton but kept them listening by drawing parallels between Ted Hughes’s cold blooded raptors who “in sleep, rehearse perfect kills and eat” (I pointed out how that poem fragment in seven words can be a complete bio or characterization) and human predators who through sensitive disposition and early trauma and most of all isolation from positive paternal influences become obsessed with killing humans. The little ghouls loved it, many, to my surprise having seen Psycho and the Texas Chain Saw Massacre, etc, inspired by the most horrendous cases. I emphasized how important it was to reach out if someone seemed especially isolated or if they themselves, were. Then we cruised downhill and ferried to Nanaimo with no duties but to track down a pub, The Old Station, and watch Steve Nash and the Suns pummel the Blazers, and to bed to sleep, perchance to dream - not of axe murderers or even hawks who begin to eat their prey without bothering to kill them, but of idyllic rivers teeming with steelhead.   

Filed under: Okanagan / Vancouver Island Leg 2010 | 0 Comments | Permalink

And we’re off!
Posted by Fiona Bayrock

Two days into our tour and Ehor, Bryan, and I appear to be bloggers MIA.  But we’re not, really we aren’t. Factor in a travel day and a day of internet access issues and here we are at last!

While Ehor headed off to the high school on Monday, my first official BC Book Prizes tour day began with me visiting 100 K-3 students at Dorothea Walker Elementary School in Kelowna. What a welcome!  The classes arrived at the library with otters and frogs and whales and fish—-artwork from Bubble Homes and Fish Farts! 

Each class had made something different with illustrator Carolyn Conahan’s line drawings. The kids grinned from ear-to-ear as they showed off their masks, medallions, and two styles of animal hats. Too cool.  I grinned right back.

A quick trip along the highway—-and a few heart palpitations on Bryan’s part as we were delayed for 15 minutes at a dead stop due to construction—-found us at Penticton schools for the afternoon. A big shoutout to Wiltse Elementary! 

Since we had plenty of time before our public gig at Hooked on Books, a lovely little book store on Main Street, Penticton right next door to Fibonacci’s, home of the biggest latte cups I’d ever seen, we thought we’d stop en route for a

official visit to the Red Rooster Winery, one of the adopt-a-library sponsors. 

After

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Kudos to Hooked on Books for hosting our evening event even though they’ve been open for only a few months.  A terrific first touring day.  Can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings.

(Thanks to Bryan for the photos!)

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Nelson to Cranbrook
Posted by Fred Wah

Yesterday we did Nelson high school, Trail schools, and Rossland reading in the evening. I had a great time in the high schools as both Trail and Nelson are “home” cities for me. Lots of memories, meeting former students, touching down on familiar geography. Tim and I did a Collander spaghetti dinner in Trail and then we read to a small crowd in Rossland before driving back to Nelson. Today will be another long day since we have to drive back to Nelson after an evening reading in Cranbrook. But, once again, the Koots is a great place to be and the weather has been warm summer temperatures. Interesting how high school students have discovered the word “cool!”.

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Nelson, BC
Posted by Sylvia Olsen

Started early, ended late and had a great day—the Kootenays are beautiful. Thanks to Tim, the driver, and Fred, the navigator, I got from Nelson to Trail to Rossland and back to Nelson with no effort on my part—it was wonderful. Today was a special day for me because I got to visit my publisher, Sono Nis. Thanks to Diane Morris who picked me up and brought me to her beautiful location in Winlaw. Thanks BC Book Prizes, this tour is a privilege.
Sylvia Olsen

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Goodbye Northern BC… until next year!
Posted by Bryan Pike

Saturday marked our final event for the Northern Leg of the 2010 Tour. Here are some photos from the past few days on the Northern tour:

Adopt-A-Library cheque presentation with Margaret Olmstead of Bulkley Valley Credit Union. This year, Bulkley Valley Credit Union has adopted Lake Kathlyn Elementary School in Smithers.

Kari-Lynn and Kristin at Riverview Elementary (Quesnel) with students Sheldon Cameron, Kyle Cheng, Alexis MacDonald, Keyanna Hawkridge, Corey Roberts and Shaylin Carifelle.

Kristin and Tracy from the Quesnel Public Library. Showing off a lovely in-flight magazine from Hawkair (a tour sponsor).

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A Tour that Widens Worlds: Saying Goodbye.
Posted by Kari-Lynn Winters

The hardest part of any tour is when it’s time to say goodbye.
But then, change is inevitable, isn’t it?
The universe widens when you meet new people and travel to new places. 
Experiences such as these offer opportunities to observe and be a part of something bigger than yourself.
Here are some of the tour highlights that widened my world:

• Chats with Cathleen With on the flight to Terrace: As some of you know, Cathleen and I went to school together in the creative writing department at UBC (in Alison Acheson’s class). It was wonderful to re-connect. And Hawk Air is the best airline—they still feed you lunch!
• Being taken care of in Terrace and then later in Prince George: Special thanks to the Coast Hotels.
• Returning to the Terrace Art Gallery: Cheers to the knowledgeable librarians (including Jess), to local zinester, Erika and to Anne from Misty River Books.  I wrote about this gallery space in my dissertation, Authorship as Assemblage (available online at http://kariwinters.com/academic) so it was intriguing to return.
• An afternoon with Sammy Robinson: Hearing about his creative process and seeing his incredible and secret work space are memories that I hope I never forget.
• Eating at Sea Masters while watching the sea lions play.
• Van rides: Cathleen, Michael, Kristin, Bryan, you guys ARE a rowdy group.  I laughed until my stomach ached.  I loved our joyrides.  Thanks to National Car rental for making this possible. While traveling, we saw wildlife too (though we never stopped)—eagles, a coyote, and even a spirit bear!
• The Skeena Bakery and Rob’s Restaurant in Hazelton. Yummy!
• Discovering that many schools are being closed in BC—incredible, well run schools:  I had heard about these closures, but thought that they were old schools that needed a lot of work (e.g., new roofs, more modern interiors, etc.), boy was I wrong!  Modern and well-run chools like South Hazelton are being closed all over the province.
• Chats with Melanie and the others at the Learning Shop: I love how you are working to better the community, working with the youth of Hazelton and helping them to make a difference.
• Reading our books in special (and sometimes even magical spaces) like the Kitimat Library,  The Museum of Northern BC, Books and Company, and in many of the northern schools and libraries.
• Meeting Susan Juby’s mom in Smithers: Susan Juby was one of my writing teachers.  It was great to meet her mom.
• Walking around Quesnel:  What a quaint and incredible community you have!
• Discovering that people all over the province just want to have fun: Thanks to all of you who wore a hat and joined the performance.
• Meeting life-long pals: It is wonderful to know that,  all the mountains and rivers in the world cannot separate my new friends—whose hearts, for a moment in time, beat together as one.

Thanks to everyone involved, who helped make this tour happen.  My world is newly widened.

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Sunday Vancouver to Nelson
Posted by Fred Wah

Tim, Sylvia, and I had a pleasant and conversational 8-hour drive to Nelson. Great weather and nice to in the Okanagan/Kootenays. Got in just before the reading on the 2nd floor of the Canadian Legion, the site of an alternative high school. The library across the street is being renovated so the switch to the Legion (where I remember playing a dance with the Kampus Kings in the 50’s). A fair crowd for a Sunday evening; a lot of friends and familiar faces for me. We returned to the Prestige hotel for a late meal and to get ready for some long days ahead in Trail, Rossland, Creston, Cranbrook, Grand Forks, and on.

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