While they’re busy with that, I’m busy preparing for a few events.  My neighbourhood celebrates the 21st annual Cathedral Village Arts Festival beginning May 21 with a parade and a picnic in the park, followed by a stream of events throughout the week, and ending with the largest street fair in the province on May 26.  Again this year, I’m the co-ordinator of literary events and hope to see many of you at them.  I’ll again be hosting the Poetry Slam, which is always a lot of fun!

The following week, I head out of town for a road trip to Regina Beach and Bethune where I’ll work with some students at South Shore Elementary School and Clive Draycott Elementary School. I always look forward to school visits because they give me the opportunity to offer students something I wish I would have received when I was young and venturing into writing.  The Saskatchewan Writers Guild must be commended for continuing this program year after year.  It builds future writers, employs current ones and promotes the SWG all at the same time.  It’s a win-win-win!

Details of the events are here.

I just wanted to let those of you who still look to this site that I have a couple of gigs this week.  On Wednesday, I’m slamming new and old poems at Word Up Wednesday in Regina. 

And on Thursday I’m hosting the Saskatchewan Writers Guild’s Four New Voices reading. I’m particularly honoured to be invited to do so because I believe so strongly in this programme.  I was an apprentice a decade ago and that experience, working with gillian harding russell, launched my career like nothing else ever has.  I look forward to seeing the new apprentices share their work.

Details of both events are on this page.

Details are on the poster at the right and on the Tours page.

Life goes on, post-book.  Projects keep calling.  I keep writing.  If you’re interested in my political work, have a look at thereginamom.com where I’m dogging and blogging the tarsands issue, thanks to Joe Oilver’s screed in the Globe & Mail a few weeks ago.

It’ll be great to finally see eastern Canada as well as to meet and  reconnect with singers and writers!

But before I do that, I’ll be celebrating the success of my new work!  An unpublished excerpt from the young adult fiction I’ve written has netted me First Place in the Children’s Literature category of the Short Manuscript Awards sponsored by the Saskatchewan Writers Guild.

(Do you know how many entries I’ve sent to that competition over the years?)

To say I’m very excited to receive this recognition is an understatement.  When I sat down to write this manuscript, I thought I was going to write a poem about divorce.  But the voice of the main character, Chrissy, took over.  I knew enough about writing to know that I needed to listen to the work, to let it guide me.  And I did.  The working title quickly became Crybaby.  This work quite literally cried its way out of me.  Needless to say, a theme running through Crybaby is the reclamation of crying as a healthy human capacity.

So, yes, of course I cried when I learned the work had placed first.  I laughed and squealed and hollered, too.  And I jumped up and down!

I feel quite privileged to be both a product and a beneficiary of the programs, services and other assorted offerings of the SWG.   I’m thankful the judge, Janet McNaughton, saw fit to single out my work at this time.  It’s a great vote of confidence!  I’m also very grateful to have the support of the Canada Council for the Arts to work on this manuscript.  And, I am truly honoured to be named a winner of a SWG Short Manuscript Award!

It’s been a long time coming!

I know, I know, Bernadette’s a Poet, not a fiction writer! But one day four or five years ago as I sat in my back yard determined to write the definitive poem about my parents’ divorce, it happened. I wrote for about 20 minutes, maybe half an hour, nonstop — one of those Natalie Goldberg-style free writing exercises, really. When I stopped writing and read what I had written, I quickly realized it was not a poem. What had come through me was a strong voice, one of a teenaged girl who was trying to tell her story, not through poetry but through fiction!

I was baffled! I’d always said I couldn’t write fiction because I couldn’t think in sentences, but here it was, proof that I’d been lying to myself! I tried to let the work sit for a time, but I found myself coming back to it over and over again until, finally, I decided I had to get the first draft finished. One winter, at the Saskatchewan Writers / Artists Colony (Retreat) at St. Peter’s Abbey, I did just that. My poor neighbour, fellow colonist and writer extraordinaire, Dave Carpenter, expressed concern about me. I did a lot of crying as I wrote.

I guess some would say that writing that first draft was a healing journey for me. The crying bit is how the novel got its working title, Crybaby. I’ve crafted the work a fair bit since then and I’m looking forward to hearing what Art has to say about it!

skating on an outdoor rink
an old man on a ship gets lost at sea
cars
Scotland
Burrowing Owls
a funny story
a magic box that can move people through time
three people
a magical object

In other news, my second central Canadian jaunt is getting close and my excitement is rising! Sadly, the Hamilton reading will not go ahead. However, the Winnipeg event is now a League of Canadian Poets Fundraiser on March 23 at Aqua Books. And, the next night, I’ll be presenting a workshop, “Speaking Truth to Power: Writing for Change,” also at Aqua Books.

Then, I’m off to Toronto for a reading at the Art Bar Poetry Series, Canada’s longest running poetry reading series, on the 29th. I’m really looking forward to seeing some old friends and meeting Facebook friends in person!

After that, I’m off to Windsor for a reading at the Bookroom where I plan on meeting some of the Gaia women I sang with in the recording of My Heart Is Moved. And then it’s to Saskatoon to take in the Bruce Cockburn concert. When I get home, around the 4th, I think I’ll collapse for a week!

That’s setting many things in motion, including potential readings at Aqua Books in Winnipeg, at ArtWord ArtBar in Hamilton ON, and at Bookroom in Windsor ON. Here’s hoping they all work out for me!

I’m also working up a new writing workshop I plan to offer in February.  More about that and upcoming readings as details become available.

My sister-in-law called yesterday to read what had been written about my appearance in Moose Jaw last week.  It was a glowing report, from what I gathered, and I was happy to hear that.  She promised me a copy and, I believe, it will be online eventually.  She also told me that there had been a piece in the Times Herald, so I googled and found it.  Not as glowing, not really much at all, but a photo, a blurb and a good headline.  I’ll take it!

I have now confirmed two bookings have been confirmed for January.  One at the Vertigo Reading Series in Regina on January 23.  The other at McVeety School, as mentioned earlier, on January 27.  The details are here. And the Louis Riel Trail podcast will likely take place in January, too.  We’re trying to find a date that works.

To all who have made this year so very special for me — to Al and Jackie at Thistledown Press, to my fantastic editor, Liz Philips, to Kim Menzies for the beautiful art on my cover, to the incredible organizers of my readings throughout Saskatchewan, western Canada and Ottawa, to the dear friends and family who hosted me, to those who attended the readings and those who bought my book, to the folks at the Saskatchewan Book Awards, the Saskatchewan Arts Board, the Saskatchewan Writers Guild, the Saskatchewan Writers/Artists Colonies, the Sage Hill Writing Experience — to all of you who played some role in making my dream come true — I wish you a happy holiday and bright blessings for the new year.  Peace and love to you and yours.

Honestly, I could have asked for nothing better than that! Oh, sure, winning the First Book Award would have been nice, but really, it would have been only the gravy. The honour and privilege that night was in being a nominee, in wearing a corsage identical to the ones worn by Dianne Warren, Sandra Birdsell, Arthur Slade, Brenda Niskala, Byrna Barclay, David Carpenter, by all those writers whose work I’ve admired for years! For that evening — at least until the awards were handed out — I was one of them. I was a writer of note. And believe me, after so many years of questioning, of doubting, of persevering, that validation felt so very good!

And so, my thanks to the Saskatchewan Book Awards board and staff for all their work to keep this event going and also to the funders and sponsors who make it possible for the organization to continue. Please continue! I know I am motivated to make my next book every bit as good as This hot place, if not better, so I can again wear the corsage!

For those in the Weyburn area, I’ll be reading at the rescheduled Shortlist reading on December 14, 7 pm at the public library. See you there!

For those in the area of Marion McVeety School in Regina, I’ll be giving a mini-workshop on What Inspires Us: Literacy Through Reading & Writing and I’m thinking we may have to get our hands dirty… We shall see!

Also in the works is a podcast appearance on The Louis Riel Trail. More to come on that.

And now I should think about sleep.

And then I stopped myself, because I realized that yes, I have been harmed.  I have been sexually abused and sexually assaulted and I have stories — poems — which relate to those experiences.  Yes, they’re embellished, but still, they speak truth, truths which hold true for many women, I’m sure.  We are victims of violence, yes.  And if we can live past the abuse and assault, we become survivors, too.  And we can live rich and full lives.

And so, the focus of my talk will be on our survival and it will be a talk that is both personal and political, prosaic and poetic, as well as earthy and spiritual.  And who knows, I might even break into song!

I hope you can be there.

Here are the details:

A poetry reading and talk to commemorate
The National Day of Remembrance & Action on Violence Against Women
with Bernadette Wagner

5:30 PM, Monday, December 6
Public Library Theatre
Moose Jaw SK

Sponsored by Moose Jaw Transition House