Literary Journalism Conversations · Mondays, 8 p.m.
July 9: Elena Poniatowska Amor · July 16: Marni Jackson
July 23: Wayne Johnston · July 30: Bill Richardson
Rolston Recital Hall · The Banff Centre · Donation at the door
Information: 403.762.6301 | 800.413.8368
Presented as part of the 2007 Banff Summer Arts Festival
Beginning on July 9, Monday evenings in Banff belong to writers and their readers. The Banff Centre’s popular Literary Journalism Conversations kicks off July 9 and runs to July 30. This year’s series features Mexican journalist Elena Poniatowska Amor and Canadian writers Marni Jackson, Wayne Johnston, and Bill Richardson. Lectures begin at 8:00 p.m. in the Rolston Recital Hall at The Banff Centre.
While this year’s Conversations represent a wide diversity of styles and approaches to literary non-fiction, all touch upon the connection between life and literature, truth and fiction.
Elena Poniatowska Amor’s July 9 lecture is titled “Literature that Comes from the Street.” The author of over two dozen books, Poniatowska was the first female recipient of Mexico’s National Award for Journalism. She is best known for La Noche de Tlatelolco, which chronicles the lives and deaths of Mexican students who protested police repression during the weeks leading up to the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City.
On July 16, Marni Jackson will examine the metaphorical connections between landscape and writing in “First, There Is a Mountain: Writing As Climbing.” “Just as climbing is a matter of putting one foot in front of the other,” says Jackson, “a writer proceeds one sentence at a time — and the summit often remains hidden in the clouds until the last few steps!” Jackson is one of Canada’s most respected non-fiction writers and the winner of numerous National Magazine Awards. Her most recent book, Pain: The Fifth Vital Sign, was nominated for the Writers’ Trust Pearson Non-fiction Award. Jackson holds the Rogers Communications Chair in Literary Journalism at The Banff Centre.
On July 23 Wayne Johnston asks “How Much of This is True?” as he speaks on the idea of truth in fiction. “Where fidelity to ‘facts’ is concerned, what is a fiction writer’s responsibility?” asks Johnston. “What constitutes the facts for any kind of storyteller when, for one reason or another, the Record is silent?” Johnston’s works often tread the murky line between memoir and historical fiction. They include Time of Their Lives, The Divine Ryans, and The Colony of Unrequited Dreams. His first work of non-fiction, Baltimore’s Mansion, won the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-fiction. His latest novel, The Navigator of New York, was shortlisted for the Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Award for Non-fiction.
Bill Richardson wraps up this year’s conversations on July 30 with “One Chaste Kiss, or One Thing Leads to Another” — musings on finding connections in a world where seemingly no connections lie. Richardson is best-known for his work on CBC Radio, most recently as the host of “Canada Reads.” He has written a dozen books, including The Bachelor Brothers Bed and Breakfast, which won the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour in 1994. His latest book, for children, is titled The Aunts Come Marching.
