It was a week of writing, talking, and talking about writing.
The Pelican Bay Arts Collective held its annual Poetry and Literary Festival from March 23 to 27. The week of events kicked off on March 23 with workshops on novel writing and grant writing at St. Peter's College, a reading by Tracy Hamon and Anne McDonald at Between the Pages on March 24, and a launch of The Society - the St. Peter's College literary journal - along with readings by Jann Conn, Hiromi Goto and Candace Savage at the College on March 25.
The festival continued with readings by novelists J. Jill Robinson and Naomi Lewis at the Reid-Thompson Public Library (RTPL) on March 26, and wrapped up with a reading and poetry slam with Kimmy Beach at the Humboldt and District Museum and Gallery (HDMG) on March 27.
The workshops on Saturday were very interesting, noted Dr. Barb Langhorst of St. Peter's College, who organized the festival with the help of librarian Rose Ward of the RTPL.
The novel workshop was attended by nine, and the grant-writing by three people.
The novel writing workshop, led by Ann McDonald, focused on different ways of creating harmony in a novel, Langhorst noted, and involved role playing and a lot of improv.
The event on Sunday at the local book store, which attracted a very attentive crowd of about 15, was sponsored by the Saskatchewan Writers Guild, as was the launch of The Society and the readings by three exciting authors from across the country which attracted about 65 people to St. Peter's College the following evening.
Jann Conn was the first reader of the night, making her way to Muenster from Massachusetts. A mosquito biologist who works in South America, Conn read some of her experimental poetry to the crowd.
Hiromi Goto followed Conn. Described by Langhorst as "a wonderfully vibrant" writer, who does different voices while reading, Goto headed an interesting discussion on vampire fiction in the question and answer portion of the evening. She really engaged with all the questions, Langhorst noted, after reading from her books of young adult fiction.
Candace Savage, a professor at St. Peter's College, read from her book, "Geography of Blood," which is up for three Saskatchewan Book Awards this spring. The book has been described as "a shocking new version of plains history and an unforgettable portrait of the windswept, shining country of the Cypress Hills."
She read a piece from near the end of her book, about what lay behind a photo of a lake.
The Q and A that followed the readings was lively, Langhorst noted, with a lot of excellent questions.
Following that session was the official launch of The Society.
This was the 10th volume of The Society, and the literary journal contains work by writers from across Canada, Langhorst noted.
"We had to be really selective this year," Langhorst smiled.
"We had 68 pages of material chosen, and then we had to chop 20 pages out. The process was more competitive this year due to the really large volume of submissions," she noted.
The material is gathered through advertisements, emails to writers and past submitters and calls to writers guilds across the country, Langhorst explained.
Canadian poet Dennis Cooley submits every year, and his work appears again this year, alongside that of many Saskatchewan writers like Dave Margoshes and Glen Sorestad.
"There's a lot of student work in here as well," Langhorst said, flipping through the pages of one of the copies.
Alexander Baker is one of those students whose work appears in the book, as does that of Carol Gossner.
Vernie Reifferscheid is another local name that pops up in the pages, along with that of Kelley Jo Burke, a creative non-fiction professor at the College this year.
Poetry, short stories and even a full-colour eight-page section of artwork and photos are part of The Society this year.
Seven of the contributors to The Society this year read after the three writers brought in for the evening.
The seven included Joe Jakubowski, Janice Stennick, Brother Kurt Van Kuren, OSB, Jordan Henry, Vernie Reifferscheid, Megan Shortland and Charles Richardson.
Brother Kurt read his short story "Building the Perfect Zombie," Langhorst said, and Charles Richardson recited his piece from memory.
There's no theme to The Society this year, Langhorst noted, but there is a fair amount of apocalyptic imagery, she admitted, like that of Van Kuren's story.
On Tuesday night, a crowd of 20 gathered at the RTPL to listen to Naomi Lewis read from her short story collection, "I Know Who You Remind Me Of," and J. Jill Robinson read from her novel, "More in Anger."
Lewis came out from Calgary to read in Saskatoon, Regina and Humboldt, she told the Journal. The 36-year-old, who has attended writing retreats at SPC, published her second book last year.
Robinson now lives in Banff, but lived in Saskatoon until four years ago. The former instructor at SPC now has five fiction books published.
About 20 people attended the last event of the festival - the Poetry Slam at the HDMG with writer Kimmy Beach.
Beach also had a local connection, as she started out at SPC, and the Slam focused on her work.
"It was cool to have the poetry slam based on her 007 (James Bond) book," said Anneka Drinkwater of the HDMG.
Overall, attendance at this year's festival - their ninth annual - was down a bit from last year, Langhorst noted.
They are developing some new ideas for publicity and promoting the event, and are considering getting more local people in for readers.
"We welcome everyone who wants to help," Langhorst invited.
They also invite local readers or writers who want to take part next year to step forward.
