Frye Festival, Day #5

Friday, April 29 -- What a day! There is something very surreal about this year’s Festival. Everything is going so well and all the events have been extremely well attended (especially since Thursday!).

I picked up the hilarious and charming Susan Juby this morning for an interview at CBC and we chatted about book covers, the difference between Canadian and US markets and about all things poultry related! She did admit that her chicken purse is not for everyone and that it may lead to people calling you “chicken lady”!

I then did an interview with Marshall Button and Dave McDonald also at CBC. Marshall was pro and remembered all the things that should be mentioned, but that had fallen out of my head! He also mentioned in passing (but on the air!) that he is the only working writer in Moncton (his words!) that hasn’t been invited to the Festival. We will have to change that next year!

At 10:00 am I went to get Margaret Atwood for a media scrum…she certainly brings out the cameras! Three TV and I don’t know how many microphones in front of her! The questions were extremely wide-ranging, but when asked about her relationship with Northrop Frye, she deferred to her talk on Saturday night. She spoke about the history of literary festivals (they didn’t exist at the beginning of her career) and the need for good school libraries (school libraries raise academic standards by 20%). She is currently working on a new book on science fiction and human imagination.

When things got political, she referred to herself a “swing” voter and proceeded to put her very basic political message out there: governments need to be accountable to taxpayers. Governments must tell people how much things cost. She used the analogy of buying a refrigerator: you need to know the price and that it has a motor and that it will keep things cold! She spoke about dictatorships since she reminded the media she was old enough to remember the abuse of power. In society we never want: government and religion together (Handmaid’s Tale), neither do we want government and corporations together (Oryx and Crake/Year of the Flood). Taxpayers need to ensure that their government does not abuse power, accept bribes or become corrupt in any way.

On technology, she admitted that she has not “embraced it”, but that she is living in the midst of it. She is very interested in the application of technology to new energy sources. She believes that social media has completely surpassed anything that McLuhan would have dreamed. She recently attended a tech security conference and she related, “if you can see it, it can see you”.  She chatted a bit about tools (check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6iMBf6Ddjk it’s 30 minutes, but well worth your time!) and how they all have a good side, bad side and stupid side! While we all love Facebook, she thinks it is the best free research tool the CIA could possibly have imagined and she recounted how certain organizations were “creeping” FB to find out certain people’s leanings. It is also prone to the “Astroturf” factor (I didn’t know either: it means it is made to look like a grassroots swell, but when you did down, it is fake). However, as someone who had tweeted the “royal flush” to her 170,000 followers on Twitter the night before, she does like many aspects of social media and in fact, got the cover image for her new book from a Twitter friend!

When questioned about the fact that arts and culture don’t seem to be on the political agenda this time around, she quickly said that she thinks that the overall issue of democracy is of much larger importance: unless there is democracy, we can forget the whole thing.

On the kind of writing that she most enjoys, she talked about the spectrum of her work (poetry, prose fiction, with electoral pamphleteering thrown in the middle!) and how it all takes very different parts of her to accomplish.

When questioned specifically on the election and the public’s seemingly apathetic attitude, she didn’t think there was a lack of interest even though a mere 17% of eligible voters who voted were the ones who elected our current government. She thinks that over history, people don’t get hyper-agitated unless things are on the brink, but she believes that we’re incrementally going in the wrong direction.

And finally, what would the scrum have been without a royal wedding question on the big day? She said to think about the constitutional monarchy like this: what is worse, having the queen on our money or opening an enormous can, filled with worms?

It was all quite fascinating!

I then grabbed the chatterer (yes, she loves to chat!) and we proceeded over to Moncton City Hall to meet the Mayor and to sign the official guest book. (Sorry, I didn’t get to see what she wrote since I had to leave, but I know she put a smiley face on it!)

I then raced to Dieppe to the restaurant L’Idylle where we had our first ever fundraiser for the Festival. What a beautiful place! Helen Legras the owner (along with her husband chef Emmanuel Charretier) had prepared a gorgeous meal that was primarily composed of local delicacies including a tiny carrot and lobster bisque, scallops and a choice of salmon or Sussex reared wild boar. I chatted with the 25 people who had paid $200 each for their tickets and wrote their tax receipts ($150). Moments later, the guest of honour arrived, Margaret was charming and engaging with everyone in attendance and we all sat down to enjoy the intimate lunch. MC Bill Watson did a terrific job of setting the scene, but when we realized that everyone was having such a great time chatting with one another, plans changed. We had intended to get everyone to tell a “Margaret” story, but it didn’t quite work out that way! Bob Rae did recount one story about being on the Giller Jury with “Peggy” and how she had tolerated his presence! (Bob also met Northrop Frye at Oxford and they remained good friends until Norrie’s passing). A few other brave souls recounted brief stories, but everyone who wanted the opportunity got to sit down and chat with her. She was extremely generous and giving of herself and she thoroughly enjoyed the meal saying “you can’t get better than that…anywhere!” The truly fabulous news about the fundraising component is that we will clear $3,500 on the lunch which will be matched by $7,000 (50% provincial / 50% federal government) when we put it into our foundation. Not bad: a $10,000 lunch!

I drove Margaret back to the hotel and tried to arrange some birding activities, but she was feeling a bit tired and realized that she would be birding soon in Ontario and would see basically the same birds there.

Next up was the tail end of Sylvia Tyson’s sold out book club – what an audience and what smiles! Everyone was raving about the event. It sounded wonderful (when is that clone coming?). It was time for a quick shower and then Beer and Books. For a full accounting of this event see Bob Mersereau’s blog (http://www.cbc.ca/nb/features/fryefestival/) because he perfectly captures the scene.

Then, I hit the wall. I dropped by to see the anticipation of Jean-Christophe Rufin (the place was packed!) in Conversation and said hello, but I just knew that if I didn’t get some sleep I would be no good tomorrow at KidsFest (you don’t want to have a headache with 1,500 kids around!). Night, night!

Frye Festival, Day #4

Suddenly, there simply aren’t enough hours in a day, no matter what you do! The big day had arrived: Margaret Atwood’s plane was landing at 2:46 pm and I was picking her up!

I spent the day in a very nervous state. I did a nice interview with Dan Ahlstrand at Rogers 91.9 that was fun and informative and then on to a French for the Future meeting (I’m on the board and they were having a local gathering of French immersion students). A great story from John Ralston Saul was recounted about the benefits of bilingualism and the speaker used the example that if you speak two languages, you can read both Antonine Maillet and Margaret Atwood. It was amazing to watch the kids, because when he said Atwood’s name, they all reacted, knowing she was coming to their town!

Due to a front page article about Jean-Christophe Rufin, there is even greater interest in his talk with Jean Fugere tomorrow night and we discussed changing the set-up in order to accommodate more people.

I just keep receiving feedback about how amazing Kenneth Oppel is in the schools. What talent!

At noon I attended a round table discussion on the topic of Writer as Witness. Johanna Skibsrud spoke about the fact that no matter what happens, our present moments are always made up of our past experience, thus affecting the way we see things. Moncton-based Melvin Gallant spoke about writing history and how the witness is the vehicle and how sometimes you have to discern if it is what you think, or what the witness or character thinks. And finally, Gilles Leroy spoke about the reliability of the witness and how when reading any account of almost any happening there is always more than one version, so one must be aware of the interest of the person writing the account.

I then raced back to headquarters and checked in with the team. Danielle LeBlanc, Roxanne Richard and James Fogerty are all looking extremely good considering their complete lack of sleep over the last few weeks! I am amazed at their stamina. I got to meet the extraordinary Sylvia Tyson and she was lovely and funny.

I popped in to Shandi Mitchell’s book club which was going along swimmingly with Suzanne Pelham-Beliveau’s great questions. And then finally, it was time. Time to go to the airport.

I had agonized over whether I should bring snacks for Margaret, how I should dress, what I should say, questions I should ask, and when I got to the airport I saw that the flight was delayed. Yikes. More nerves. I sat down and started chatting with the gal sitting beside me. I mentioned that I was nervous because I was picking up Margaret Atwood. She had no idea who Margaret was (which, I must confess, did calm me down a bit, helping me to realize, as everyone had been telling me, she is a regular human being, just like the rest of us!).

At last her plane got in and I quickly realized what a warm, caring, engaged and funny person she is. We chatted in the vehicle (mostly about her dismay over the endorsements that national media were giving to certain prime ministerial candidates) and made it to the hotel in one piece (which was a relief, because I’m not really known for my good driving when I’m driving a famous author…just ask Dennis Lee!). I presented Atwood to Danielle and had to leave immediately for a run-through of Soirée Frye. I’ve been hosting this event for years even though I’m not particularly comfortable on stage and this year I had a new co-host: Gabriel Robichaud. While I knew I wouldn’t be subjected to the public humiliation I usually endure with my old co-host, I didn’t really know what to expect from Gabriel. What a guy! He has such a great sense of theatre and instantly came up with a brilliant idea to tie the event together. We went over the script and I raced home to get ready for the evening.

I had the great opportunity to meet all the winning students of the writing contest. What an impressive group! I was particularly impressed that some of the kids had travelled so far to attend from Saint John and Caraquet. The contest is truly provincial now with winners from all over the province. I had never seen the lobby of the Capitol so crowded so early in the evening with the students and their entourages; you could feel the excitement in the air!

So much more to tell about the hilarious green room banter, the fabulous musicians and authors backstage, the swarming and the flush, however, for the record, I want to state right here: it was a “royal flush” and I had absolutely NOTHING to do with it! Out of time now, but just ask and I will tell all...I've got some great stories!

Frye Festival, Day #3

Excellent coverage in yesterday’s media! WOW! Between the election and the royal wedding, I somehow thought that we might suffer, but hey, we have our own king, so I guess we are news worthy!

Today I had a wonderful Literacy Luncheon celebrating the YMCA’s Peer Youth Tutor Program. This is an initiative very near and dear to my heart and for the last 11 years the Festival has provided an author for the lunch that celebrates generous and caring teenagers who commit to tutoring younger students in reading and writing for an entire school year. This is grassroots literacy in action! What an amazing group of students. It was nice to hear the heartfelt words of our Lieutenant Governor, Graydon Nicholas as he recounted his struggle with reading when he started school and the fact that he had to repeat Grade 1. He certainly was an inspiration for everyone there (that is him in the photo with young reading fanatic, Abby Hackett)!

Charlie Foran did an excellent job using hockey heroes to demonstrate what it takes to make it. His message was that while skill is very important, pure desire and hard work can go a long way too. He used the current example of Roberto Luongo and his epic struggle (and the reason that so many people didn’t go to sleep until 2:00 am!).

I then raced over to the Moncton Public Library to hear Johanna Skibsrud’s book club. Mike Landry, Arts and Culture Editor at the Telegraph-Journal did a wonderful job of asking Johanna great questions and then the floor was opened up for everyone. I also got to chat with Johanna about her school visits and they sounded fabulous! In order to get the point across about the writing process (being a process) she had the kids write something and then tell them afterwards that they now needed to cut it in half. She recounted hilarious stories about how she had had to cut out fully developed characters because they no longer “fit” the story.

The Festival's seemingly tireless Executive Director Danielle LeBlanc grabbed me on my way out and let me know that we had just received a cancellation: Karen Connelly was extremely ill and could not fly. What were we going to do? We tried to find a local replacement, but unfortunately, it was just too late so Thursday’s roundtable will be one person short, a couple of school visits will be cancelled and a night howl author will be flying solo. Cancellations are sadly an inevitable part of the organizational process.

Tonight was tough because unless you could clone yourself in quadruplicate, it was simply impossible to take everything in. Gilles Leroy had a book club at 6:00 at the beautiful L’Idylle restaurant in Dieppe; Deborah Carr was chatting about her new book Sanctuary: The Story of Naturalist Mary Majka; Susan Juby was speaking at the District 2 Superintendent Speaker Series; B.W. Powe presented a lecture on Marshall McLuhan and Northrop Frye (and received a LONG standing ovation and great accolades for a fabulous lecture, I am told) and PWAC presented Réveille (adults reading from their adolescent diaries!). However, I chose my favourite event of the entire Festival, Café Underground. What talent (that is poet, singer/songwriter Jenny Hubbard in the photo)! This year you could really see the benefit of the workshops that the students participated in during the afternoon. Every single student was self-possessed, confident and extremely professional on stage…and they had lots to be proud of! Love (lost and found), science fiction, a monologue, a dating treatise, racism and education were just a few of the topics and styles. We also live-streamed the event this year (we should have it up on our web site soon) so it allowed people all over to be able to watch the event in real time (I know that Dr. Martin Braces was watching on-line – a very important sponsor for our Youth program) and I ran into Tom Alexander from SWN Resources Canada another sponsor and told him how his goal of giving creative kids better presentation skills had paid off!

Today I met Fereshteh Molavi who seems so lovely and I had a brief opportunity to get caught up with Shandi Mitchell (she’s nervous too about being on stage with Margaret Atwood!).

I dropped a t-shirt by a young volunteer’s house on my way home and she told me about Kenneth Oppel’s visit to her school and she was simply amazed by how funny he was. She is thrilled to introduce him at KidsFest on Saturday!

What a day! I better get to bed…that interview on Rogers 91.9 at 6:45 am tomorrow will come early. I will definitely need my A-game tomorrow…and that is just to pick-up Margaret Atwood at the airport!

Frye Festival, Day 2

Tuesday started out as a quiet day at the Festival with the regular tasks: proofing press releases, updating the Facebook page, finalizing speeches, nothing too exciting. That is, until I got the call. We had an extremely ill author who needed to be taken to the hospital and everyone at headquarters was busy getting authors to their school visits and preparing for the Official Opening press conference. Did I know anyone who could drop everything and take an author to the hospital? I made one call to a very special volunteer who did just that. She was in her car driving to the hotel within four minutes of my call, picked up the author, waited with her in Emergency and made sure she made it safely back to the hotel…a morning’s contribution to the Festival and to living up to our reputation of looking after our authors. (Thanks to Linda Hawkes, volunteer extraordinaire, Helaine Becker is recovering well from her wicked food poisoning!)

The Official Opening press conference is truly an opportunity for the Festival to give our many partners and sponsors the opportunity to shine. I was very impressed by the level of the discourse of all the people who spoke, but when I heard Marie-Claude Blais (Minister of Justice and Consumer Affairs) talk about how much her kids love reading and how she gets such a kick out of their joy and feeding their imaginations through books, it was great. And, of course, it isn’t every day you get to hear a banker quote Frye (in English and French), but that is exactly what Ali Massoudi from TD Bank did (and it was my favourite quote: The fundamental job of the imagination in ordinary life, then, is to produce, out of the society we have to live in, a vision of the society we want to live in.).

But, it is always the Poet flyé who steals the show at this press conference and Gabriel Robichaud (or I should say the “king”) was amazing! His opening poem set the stage for what could be a crazy week in this kingdom…I think he may be going a bit overboard with this whole “king-thing”, but we’ll see (he is pretty attached to his crown!). I will have the honour of co-hosting Soirée Frye on Thursday night with Gabriel…should be interesting!

The afternoon was filled with e-mails (8 boxes of new books coming from the Canadian Children’s Book Information Centre courtesy of the Festival and will be donated to Northrop Frye School which is currently without any books for its library!) and a cheque presentation ($10,000 from Scotiabank…yippee!).

Since there were two events on at 6:00 pm I ran in early to Frye’s former high school (now the Aberdeen Cultural Centre) and checked out Editions Perce Neige’s great book launch event. The ambiance was terrific on the second floor with newly renovated exposed brick and beautiful wood floors (and I loved the patio lanterns!). More than 100 people attended. I then ran over to Navigator’s Pub to hear and video tape Michael Happy’s “Frye 101” presentation. It was an excellent introduction to Frye, focusing on “education” and “imagination” but the questions (and there were MANY!) led the discussion in fascinating ways. I guess the most important thing that I took away from the event (besides being absolutely dumb-founded by Michael’s encyclopaedic knowledge of Frye!) was that we must feed our heads with everything, even sometimes the most inane pop culture because there was literally nothing that Frye was not interested in.

Hockey and Hops started at 8:00 pm at City Grill and there was a great crowd, considering the Canadiens were playing and we were discussing Maurice “Rocket” Richard with author Charlie Foran! The local Habs fans were terrific, asking great questions to Charlie about the process of the book and some of the behind the scenes information he found (or didn’t find!) in the writing of the book. I guess for this reluctant hockey mom, I wasn’t fully aware of the politics of it all. (Politics in hockey? Why should I be surprised?) Thanks to John Dallaire, Tim Belliveau, Peter Gorman and host Christine Manore for making it such a great event.

Frye Festival – Day 1!

Easter’s dates conspired against the Festival for the first time in 12 years, but it made for a gentle entry into what will be a jam-packed week! We will unfortunately loose one day of school visits, but thanks to the generosity of the authors and the Festival’s hard-working staff, we are hoping to be able to impact just as many students as any other year.

The first event took place last night and it was magical! New Brunswick’s emerging authors took to the stage at City Grill, under a sparkling chandelier with elaborately framed photos of now deceased literary luminaries looking on. What talent, and I’m not just talking about those behind the microphone either!

For the last few years I’ve been telling anyone who will listen about the great emerging literary talent that we have in New Brunswick and last night truly put my words into focus.  Fredericton-based poet Ian Letourneau read a great poem entitled: A Cubist View of the Saint John River and went on to wax poet about apples and squid, because, as he says, a poem sometimes happens! While Ian read in English, he did also read a lovely translation of a poem by Quebec’s Émile Nelligan. Marie-Ève Landry, originally from Tracadie, but now living in Moncton charmed the audience with her lovely voice and her Moncton 24 poem. Novelist Sherry Coffee read a fascinating chapter from her upcoming novel, recounting the fictionalized past of an intriguing character, originally from Siberia who decided to walk back home from New York! Moncton-based poet Jonathan Roy wrote of fear and loathing at Crystal Palace (I know I’ll never think of the loud, teenager-filled, rollercoaster amusement park in quite the same way again!). Jennifer Houle (originally from Shediac) so perfectly represented in words and body language what every social misfit feels when it comes time for “mingling” and finally, Joël Boilard had the crowd in stitches as he read his short story.

The eclectic talent behind the microphone created the intellectual magic, but I have to say something about the setting. Under the direction of creative genius Angèle Cormier, audiences this year are in for another visual treat. While Angèle and her team surprise and delight every year, this year I think that they may have outdone themselves!

In March at a board meeting the production team presented to the board their idea of having an opulent “literary salon” setting on stages this year. Their black and white and shimmering idea also included having framed pictures of deceased literary luminaries, so of course we came up with all the classics: Shakespeare, Zola, Joyce, Balzac, etc. But then, the voice of contemporary Canadian literature, and Frye Board member, Thomas Hodd, had a question: What about CANADIAN literary luminaries? What is with this colonial attitude (can you tell he used to work for John Ralston Saul?)? Good point. We all agreed and that set the ideas flowing. So, last night the Emerging New Brunswick Authors were accompanied on stage by Moncton’s own Gerald LeBlanc but also Stephen Leacock and Lucy Maud Montgomery. It was magical!

  

Volunteers...we love you!

We had yet another storm here in Moncton on Wednesday night, but it didn’t seem to impact the kind, generous and fun-loving Frye Festival volunteers! More than 60 people attended our volunteer orientation session to pick-up their passes, t-shirts and to meet some of their fellow community builders, despite the freezing rain (on April 20!).

I am just constantly impressed by the goodwill and generous spirit of people in our community. The hundreds of people over the years who have driven authors to schools, who have taken tickets at the door, hosted book clubs, moderated discussions, picked up authors at the airport, accompanied authors to events, stuffed envelopes and run errands…it is all just so impressive.

Yesterday I met with the guys who will be participating in the “Hockey and Hops” event and they all were so well prepared, reading the book, pondering their questions, and taking their volunteer roles so seriously.

Just this morning at “Imagination at Work” the first official event of the 2011 Festival, volunteers of all ages gave out t-shirts and certificates to creative kids, got photo releases from parents, completed surveys, lugged stuff and inspired so many kids.

This afternoon I spoke with Suzanne Cyr our French Program Chair (Frye Festival volunteer for 11 years!) and she told me about the wonderful synchronicities that are already underway…local booklovers who have made arrangements to take authors out for special dinners (or host them in their homes!), scenic tours that have been planned for authors, and just generally, local people going out of their way to welcome authors and provide them with opportunities to really experience our unique community. This is why authors come to Moncton and love the Frye Festival. Thank you volunteers!

Great Teachers

Some might argue that Northrop Frye’s greatest legacy was the educated imaginations of the many students that he touched through his teaching. In a recent book by Frye scholar Robert D. Denham entitled: Remembering Northrop Frye: Recollections by His Students and Others in the 1940s and 1950s Bob recounts how he wrote to 78 people who appeared in Frye’s 1949 diary and 59 responded, all with stories about their great interactions with Frye.

This week I had the opportunity to meet another great teacher. I was at a wonderful art and poetry opening at the Moncton Public Library (which will be on during the entire Frye Festival, so check it out!) when a woman introduced herself and we began a conversation. The woman in question is Karen Bauer and she is a recently retired English teacher. Karen spoke about her love for teaching and how much she and her students had enjoyed the Festival over the years (and of course how excited they all were to be able to meet Margaret Atwood!).

When I started to ask her more specific questions about authors she had had in the classroom, well the stories really started to come out! She recounted how last year Christian Bök had come to her classroom. Initially, she was a bit sceptical about his book when she received her copies from the Festival, but she had a look at it and passed it on to some of the students. No one really knew what to make of it. However, when Christian came into the classroom, the students were completely engaged – but not necessarily the serious English students. Christian’s approach seemed to appeal even more to the musicians in the class, who didn’t necessarily feel the need for an English class!

Karen also recounted the visit her class had from Miriam Toews. As anyone who has read Miriam knows, she captures that time in adolescence when you still live under your parents’ roof, but you have a lot of flexibility to go off and do things under the radar that your parents would probably not approve of! Needless to say, the students were mesmerized by her stories and her completely captivating manner.

When I asked Karen why she thought that having authors in the classroom was important, she had a few reasons. Yes, students are savvy these days and they like to meet the “real” author. The authenticity of the “real live author” is definitely a big factor. However, she also cited the authors’ varied experiences of being writers as very important. There are so many different ways of becoming a writer, a point that always seems to impress the kids. And finally, Karen thought that by meeting the authors, who while it seems that they have these extraordinarily exciting lives, the kids appreciate that in reality authors are ordinary people who have followed their dreams.

I didn’t realize that Karen was such a huge Festival fan. In fact, she had attended the very first Frye Festival back in 2000 at the Aberdeen Cultural Centre. But, like many great teachers, she had followed the youth performance events over the years. She is a huge fan of Café Underground and she recounted the story of one of her students, Ed McNamara who in Grade 12 read “one chapter from his upcoming novel” at Café Undergound three years ago. Ed was very empowered by the experience of reading (but also by being interviewed by the media and all the positive follow-up to his reading) and Ed has furthered his studies in literature in Montreal and has already had one of his plays produced. Karen was so pleased that an extremely bright student like Ed had had this opportunity, but she also noted that it is often the struggling students who are most impacted by the Festival, the ones who realize through their various interactions, that their voice matters.

So, thanks to all the great teachers all over New Brunswick who invite Frye Festival authors into their classrooms, prepare their students for the visit and then allow the world of imaginative literature to inspire their students.