So Misguided

Just received a notice from Turnstone that my stocking stuffer is now in stores: The Imagined City: A Literary History of Winnipeg, edited by David Arnason & Mhari Mackintosh.

Here’s the publisher’s description: In The Imagined City, David Arnason and Mhari Mackintosh trace the literary history of Winnipeg from the Red River Settlement through two world wars, the 1919 General Strike, and the Great Depression, to today. Through a wide variety of excerpts, they present the significant works, people, and places that have contributed to Winnipeg’s literary life. This mosaic history of the intellectual life that has developed in Canada’s geographic centre helps to explain how a small hub city, at the meeting of two rivers, has grown into one of the country’s most diverse and densely artistic communities. Featuring the writing of Carol Shields, Margaret Laurence, Dorothy Livesay, Adele Wiseman, and The Weakerthans’ John K. Samson, and illustrated with more than 160 photos and illustrations and 5 maps, The Imagined City introduces readers to the men and women of Winnipeg’s literary past and present.

Buy the book from McNally Robinson, my favourite Canadian bookstore. 

As a prairie person, I always feel weird that I have never been to Winnipeg. I always thought of it as a rather cool place, because there were so many neat bands, and lit mags that came out of there. I guess it’s like a bigger Saskatoon. The arts and culture probably thrives in both places because they’re somewhat isolated from other centres, and so people really work actively to create art.

I’ve got to go check it out sometime.

Mentioning this book is also an inspiration to me, as Carol Shields and Margaret Laurence are two of my favourite writers.

Never been to Winnipeg?! A bigger Saskatoon?! Blasphemy.

First, go during the summer. Second, go during the festival season--folk fest, blues fest, food fest ... it is really the only way to ignore the mosquito, the provincial bird.