News & Reviews
In 1989, the Ayatollah Khomeini declared a fatwa against “the author of the Satanic Verses book,” arguing that the book “is against Islam, the Prophet, and the Qur’an.” The Ayatollah continued, “all those involved in its publication who were aware of its content, are sentenced to death. I ask all the Muslims to execute them…
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“Postnorth brings together experienced poets and emerging writers,” said Graham Pearce, College of New Caledonia creative writing instructor, in his introductory remarks. He continued: Postnorth is an attempt to hustle passion and trouble onto the page. . . . Postnorth is a moment where anything can happen . . . . To the writers, I say this:…
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Fred Speckeen’s talk, part of CNC’s 50th birthday celebration, was a personalized, humorous, and necessarily abbreviated account of some rather complex history. That history started about a decade before Speckeen turned up at CNC, with UBC President John B. Macdonald’s 1962 report on post-secondary education in BC, a report that recommended the establishment of two…
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Fawcett’s “enquiry” is “impolite” in the sense that it attempts objectivity in a context that isn’t currently welcoming it. As he says, cultural appropriation and misappropriation is “a hot-button question.” However, it’s “a sub-issue of the cultural self-determination that every minority in a multicultural society has the right to pursue” and, as a sub-issue, “it…
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edited by Rob Budde. Prince George: Wink Books (at the UNBC Copy Centre), 2019. 28 pp. $10.00. This chapbook, containing the work of fourteen poets, begins with a quotation from Wong, “jail the stories & the storytellers, but they will keep speaking the night, until empire expires.” This is followed by an appeal from…
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A significant cross-section of northern B.C. literary and artistic talent is showcased in the Summer 2019 issue (Vol. 4) of the literary magazine, ThimbleBerry, edited by Kara-lee MacDonald of Fort St. John and Rob Budde of the University of Northern B.C. This cross-section is primarily, as the editorial introduction explains, the work of only…
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Race” for the purposes of Dr Alexis Mootoo’s speech means Mootoo’s own ethnicity, African, described as “black (visible)” and studied in its interaction with the dominant colonialist ethnicity, which is European (Anglo-Saxon in the U.S. and Portugese in Brazil), described as “white.” “Tensions” are non-violent in the sense of attitudinal and institutionalized (“structural”). In liberal…
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The Spoken Word event at Cafe Voltaire on Thursday, April 19th was Emceed by Erin Bauman and was held mainly to showcase Christina Kinnie’s self published book, Walking through the Layrinth; A Memoir. The selections Kinnie read dealt with women leaving difficult and often violent relationships, the guilt resulting from those relationships and…
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On May 6th, 2015, the Canadian government passed the Anti-Terrorism Act (Bill C-51.) According to the Angus Reed Poll taken days before, 82% of the people interviewed supported the bill. Of that group only 18% had read and/or discussed it with others, while 20% knew nothing about it. Of the rest, 25% had seen a…
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The unrestricted literary imagination was at play during the readings by Barry McKinnon and Cecil Giscombe held at the Black Donkey Café on June 10th. The atmosphere lent itself well to free-thinking and the strengthening of friendship. John Harris introduced the two poets, Barry McKinnon of Prince George and Cecil Giscombe of Berkeley, California. “I like what they’re talking about…
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The Plotline Bomber of Innisfree, written by Josh Massey, a journalist from Terrace, BC was published by Book Thug of Toronto. His launch was held at Books and Co in Prince George and is available for $21. He also spoke to CNC students in English 204 (Canadian Poetry) about his writing strategies and…
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