A Hint of Magic

By Michael Kennedy

I was broken when I came to Banff Centre for the Mountain and Wilderness Writing program (now called Mountain Writers Intensive) in October 2019. Our son Hayden had died by suicide two years before. I wanted to write a memoir but had no idea of how to approach such a daunting task. All my previous writing had been prosaic, a workmanlike procession of news, editorials, book reviews, and features produced during my twenty-four years as editor of Climbing Magazine. How could I turn a few vague ideas into a book that made sense of the twenty-seven years my wife Julie and I had shared with Hayden, and the devastation his death had wrought?

Those three weeks in Banff were a godsend. Under the able and sympathetic guidance of faculty members Marni Jackson, Tony Whittome, and Harley Rustad, I was able to put together the first few chapters and develop a rough plan for the rest of the book. The other writers in the workshop were extraordinarily diligent and thoughtful in their close reading of the work we shared with each other.

At the end of our three weeks together it seemed a shame to say goodbye. Several of us have continued meeting online in the years since; this group’s feedback and support have been essential to my ability to tackle the most challenging writing I’ve ever attempted. More importantly, we’ve developed the kind of lifelong friendships that only come from sharing our most profound experiences, our fears, and frustrations, and our infrequent moments of transcendence.

It would be easy to attribute the synergy I experienced in 2019 to the personal chemistry among this group of people. But there seems to be something else at work, a particular mix of place, spirit, and intention unique to Banff Centre. That hint of magic while walking across campus at midnight as falling snow glimmers in lamplight, engaging in an unexpected breakfast conversation at Vistas, catching a raven in flight over the Bow River valley from the Tunnel Mountain trail. There is an “aha” moment sparked by a fellow writer’s question that clarifies the path you’ve been missing, while tapping into the vitality of the Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival.

And you somehow sense the spirit of the Indigenous peoples who have inhabited this land for millennia, and the collective energy of the artists, filmmakers, athletes, thinkers, and writers who have passed through Banff Centre.

My hope is that this year’s participants in the Mountain Writers Intensive find a similar sense of purpose and community. That they and future writers continue a long tradition of insightful and unique storytelling. I know I’ll return year after year to reconnect and to center my creative practice. To learn and to grow. To tap into the magic.
 

Find out more about the Mountain Writers Intensive 2026 program at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.