Literary Primetime · Fridays, 7:30 p.m.
July 10: Susan Swan
July 17: Marni Jackson
July 23: Michael Ondaatje Documentary Screening
July 24: Michael Ondaatje Interview
Various venues · The Banff Centre · Tickets $10
Box Office: 403.762.6301 or 1.800.413.8368
Presented as part of the 2009 Banff Summer Arts Festival
According to Susan Swan, Brangelina, LavaLife, and plastic glasses are pop. Mail order brides, kosher cooking, and medieval Iceland are not pop. Swan, an acclaimed author and one of pop culture’s biggest advocates and harshest critics, will explain her reasoning during one of four Literary Primetime events at The Banff Centre in July. The popular series will feature Swan along with Michael Ondaatje and Marni Jackson, speaking about the world of non-fiction and publishing new work, all part of the Centre’s popular Literary Journalism program.
The series kicks off July 10 in the Margaret Greenham Theatre with Swan’s talk about the writer’s role in pop culture. Swan’s novels include What Casanova Told Me and The Wives of Bath. In Banff, she’ll discuss writers’ methods of feeding off pop culture’s energy without becoming victims of it.
On July 17, author and editor Marni Jackson will host the official launch of Cabin Fever, an anthology of Canadian essays from some of the most exciting recent writers from the Literary Journalism program, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. Jackson, the Centre’s current Roger’s Communications Chair of Literary Journalism, is a former senior editor at The Walrus and author of The Mother Zone. Her writing has won awards for humour, comment, and features, and has appeared in every major Canadian magazine, as well as in Rolling Stone and The London Times.
On July 23 and 24, novelist and poet Michael Ondaatje will participate in two evening presentations of his multifaceted work. First, he will introduce a screening of one of his early documentaries, The Clinton Special: A Film About The Farm Show, which follows Theatre Passe Muraille and a group of actors travelling in the country. The following evening, Jackson will conduct a candid interview with Ondaatje onstage about his life and career.
Michael Ondaatje’s career spans more than 35 years, and reflects his interest in theatre and film as well as literature. He is perhaps best known for his Booker Prize-winning novel The English Patient, which was adapted into an Academy Award-winning film in 1996. He is the author of five novels, 13 books of poetry, three documentaries, and other works including a memoir. Ondaatje has won the Governor General’s award four times, as well as the Booker Prize, the Giller Prize, and the Prix Medicis. Ondaatje was named to the Order of Canada in 1988.
The Banff Centre’s Literary Journalism program offers eight established writers of non-fiction an opportunity to develop and complete a major essay, memoir, or feature piece over a month-long residency. Writers have the opportunity to work on their manuscripts in a challenging and stimulating environment and consult with other writers, faculty, editors and invited guest speakers. The program encourages the exploration of new ideas in journalism and the freedom to develop their craft.
—30—
- More information about Literary Arts at The Banff Centre.
- More information about the 2009 Banff Summer Arts Festival.
