Essential Writers

This collection was born of a conviction that Vassanji's contributions to the global literary scene merit more in-depth scholarly notice. The articles herein, most of which are comparative in focus, provide various interpretations of Vassanji's writings through a diversity of theoretical frameworks. The fulcrum of much of this research comes back to issues of globalization, transnationalism, identity, post-colonialism, cosmopolitanism and diaspora. It should also be noted that, while many critics have tried to fit Vassanji and his writing into national perimeters identifying him as Canadian, others as African or Indian, or all of these, none of the writers in this book argue that Vassanji, or his works, belong to any particular national paradigm. Rather, the articles recognize Vassanji's engagement with transnational issues and his preoccupation with history and politics, and concerns of home, migration, exile, loss, belonging, dislocation, violence, trauma, and identity as central to his writing. Included are a new and detailed interview with Vassanji and a previously unpublished article, authored by Vassanji himself. Among the contributors: Annie Cottier, Jonathan Hart, Jonathan Rollins, Warris Vianni, Amin Malak, and Nancy E. Batty.

This essay collection gathers together writings on the works of Maria Campbell, feminist, activist, visionary, artist, mother, grandmother, and Métis elder. The book talks truthfully of Maria's journey as a writer, how her writing was infected with her experiences with marginalization and discrimination. And how she emerged on the other side having affirmed her identity.

This collection features essays on Nova Scotia-born poet, playwright and literary critic George Elliott Clarke. Instrtumental in promoting the writing of writers of African descent, Clarke's work has won awards including the Governor General's Award for poetry. He is also the recipient of seven honorary doctorates.

A critical look at PEI writer J. J. Steinfeld's extensive and prolific writings in poetry, fiction and theatre, ranging from his early work on Holocaust themes to his later examinations of absurdity and existentialism. Among the contributors: Raina L. Shults, Michael Greenstein, Richard Lemm, Mark Sampson, Ellen S. Jaffe, George Elliott Clarke, Sandra Singer and Shane Neilson.

The anthology, Rudy Wiebe: Essays on His Works, compiled and edited by Bianca Lakoseljac, examines Wiebe's works and his achievements as an author, editor, professor and mentor who helped shape successful authors and encouraged a passion for Canadian literature. Intriguingly, while Wiebe's writing has been labeled as "brilliant" and "magnificent," it has also been seen as "challenging" due in part to his propensity for a rather Faulknerian turn of phrase and his use of multifaceted storymaking approaches, such as intertextual and intratextual dynamics, and the sociopolitical views and religious beliefs they embody. Rudy Wiebe's literary work raises him to the status of a Canadian literary icon whose fiction and nonfiction are seen as major contributions to Canadian literature, and will continue to be enjoyed for generations to come.

This volume represents the first full-scale appreciation of Clark Blaise's writing in more than 25 years ? and the first comprehensive study of his now more than 20 books. Included are previously published essays by, among others, Robert Lecker, Alexander MacLeod, Catherine Sheldrick Ross, and the volume's editor, J.R. (Tim) Struthers, along with new essays by William Butt, Stephen Henighan, W.H. New, and Sandra Sabatini, as well as a brand-new autobiographical essay by Blaise himself. As important as these essays are for their insights into Blaise's works, they offer something more: a rich range of examples showing us how we, as readers and as writers, can come to understand much more intricately and to practise much more powerfully the art of the essay ourselves.

This book of essays examines the fictional work of Nino Ricci from a variety of critical perspectives. These perspectives include ideas about literature, culture, identity, politics, and society in terms of Canada and the modern world. Each contributor in the book of essays examines a specific novel, focusing on the prevailing themes and literary elements used by Ricci to construct his work of fiction. This critical study allows the reader to enhance one's understanding of Ricci's particular style and vision as a writer. It also provides an understanding of Nino Ricci's contribution to contemporary Canadian fiction and world literature.

The ten essays included in this volume address the themes of immigration, migration, and history in Pasquale Verdicchio's poetry and scholarship. Giuliana Gardellini, Joseph Pivato, Anna Zampieri Pan, Diego Bastianutti, Carmelo Militano, Leonardo Buonomo, Kenneth Scambray, Laura E. Ruberto, and Antonio D'Alfonso discuss Verdicchio's unconventional forms and contents that reveal the difficulties of being considered a marginalized ethnic voice in North American culture. Not conforming to conventional poetic models, Verdicchio writes poetry that presents itself as a puzzle in which for decades he demonstrates the role that politics, history, and culture play in self-analytical writing. The immigrant (or defined as such by conventional terminology) offers as his central theme, a "moving" cultural landscape that he must personally inhabit from the moment he leaves his native home. The ever-changing persona in Verdicchio's texts defies linguistic and literary constraints. Verdicchio challenges the conventional role that nostalgia plays in ethnic poetry and contributes in a daring manner to how view immigrant and post-immigrant studies. Pasquale Verdicchio is one of the few poets today to reposition the post-immigrant identity in our growing pluricultural societies.

This work is a compelling examination and discussion of the work of Daniel David Moses. Including pieces by Indigenous and non-Indigenous authors, storytellers, playwrights, academics and artists, participating in narratives, writing and dialogues about Moses and his work, the book is at once engaging, grounded in comparative analysis and forceful.

Howard O'Hagan was one of the first native-born westerners to make a mark on Canadian literature. The purpose of this collection of essays on the works of O'Hagan, edited by Sergiy Yakovenko, is not only to refresh scholarship on his best known work, Tay John, but also to break the vicious circle of ignoring O'Hagan's other works-his later novel The School-Marm Tree (1977) and his short stories and sketches, collected in Wilderness Men (1958) and The Woman Who Got on at Jasper Station and Other Stories (1963). This volume offers two original articles on The School-Marm Tree, by Renée Hulan and Carl Watts, and Albert Braz's profound study of O'Hagan's Wilderness Men. Among the other contributors: Joseph Pivato, D.M.R. Bentley, Kylee-Anne Hingston, Jack Robinson, Sergiy Yakovenko, and something from Howard O'Hagan himself.

Writers and critics have long acknowledged Bronwen Wallace's unique contribution to Canadian literature and yet her work has received little academic recognition. This collection attempts to remedy this with voices old and new. A critical introduction, biography, and interview are followed by previously published essays by Susan Rudy, Brenda Vellino, and Aritha Van Herk and new contributions from Mary di Michele, Lorraine York, Susan Glickman, Wanda Campbell, and Andrea Beverley. Rounding out the collection are poems by Patrick Lane, Phil Hall, Phyllis Webb, and Wallace's son Jeremy Baxter, along with a bibliography of primary and secondary sources.

Thank You for Visiting: Essays on Alice Munro's Works III, the third volume of essays issued by Guernica Editions in honour of Munro reveals, like the earlier collections Alice Munro Country and Alice Munro Everlasting, how critical writing can be not only as perceptive but also as personal as the stories it studies. Featured here are new works by Munro's most distinguished critics – including Catherine Sheldrick Ross, J.R. (Tim) Struthers, Robert Thacker – along with other uniquely exciting contributions such as Munro's Canadian publisher Douglas Gibson's investigation of the ever-so-close backgrounds three centuries ago in Scotland of the ancestors of both Alice Munro and Robertson Davies.

These essays span the period of Kroetsch's writing. Included are essays that cover (some of) his novels, (some of) his poetry, and even (some of) his critical writing. The contributors include writers who knew Kroetsch well and those who only met him on the page; critics at the beginning of their careers and those well established in the Canadian literary field, men and women, writers and poets and critics and damn fine thinkers. Among the contributors: Ann Mandel, George Bowering, Catherine Bates, Gary Geddes, and Aritha van Herk.

Here is a lifetime's worth of reflection, of illumination, by one of North America's finest contemporary writers of fiction, autobiography, and nonfiction, founder of the graduate program in Creative Writing at Concordia University in Montreal and for many years Director of the prestigious International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, teacher and mentor to many -- Clark Blaise. Here is a lifetime's worth of urgent and delighted conversation with fellow writers such as Brian Bartlett, Catherine Bush, Alexander MacLeod, and John Metcalf as well as enthusiastic readers such as Barry Cameron, Geoff Hancock, Catherine Sheldrick Ross, and J.R. (Tim) Struthers. This book of eighteen interviews is a gift for all who enjoy reading and writing.

This collection of essays is devoted to the work of Antonio D'Alfonso, a pivotal figure in the bilingual history of Canadian literature. This much anticipated volume gives Antonio D'Alfonso recognition for the enormous contribution he has made to Canadian writing, over nearly fifty years. He has worked as a writer, editor, translator and filmmaker in Quebec and in Ontario. D'Alfonso identifies as a bilingual writer, but he also speaks and writes in Italian. And he has translated works from French and Italian into English, and from English into French. Each contributor to this volume is a witness to D'Alfonso's literary accomplishments. His experiments with genre alone demand critical analysis.The volume Antonio D'Alfonso: Essays on His Works includes a two part introduction by Joseph Pivato and Licia Canton, essays by Lianne Moyes, Domenic Beneventi, Mariam Pirbhai, Lucie Lequin, Nancy Giacomini, Connie Guzzo-McParland, Joseph Pivato, Licia Canton and Simon Harel. The volume closes with two interviews,

Sheila Watson published the iconic novel, The Double Hook, in 1959 and influenced the writing styles of many Canadian authors who followed her, including: Robert Kroetsch, Michael Ondaatje, George Bowering, Daphne Marlatt and others. This is the first collection of essays devoted to all of Watson's writing as well as her work as editor and mentor. The collection examines not only The Double Hook but also the first novel she wrote, Deep Hollow Creek (published in 1992), her short stories and the McLuhan connection. The contributors include: Caterina Edwards, E.D. Blodgett, Mary G. Hamilton, George Melnyk, Margaret Morriss, Margot Northey, Glenn Willmott, and Sergiy Yakovenko. The collection also features material from Sheila Watson herself, including her notes on "How to read Ulysses." Joseph Pivato is editor and contributor. The cover photo is by Rowland McMaster from 1976.

Compulsive Acts explores the films, plays, and personality of prolific playwright, novelist, film maker, and poet Sky Gilbert through the eyes of a handful of the people who have observed his work closely over the past two decades - as audience members and arts workers. Actors, academics, performance artists, journalists, film makers, playwrights, poets and his partner of many years tackle his immense output with a queer eye for the intricacies of a unique and astute aesthetic vision - a vision that has placed him securely within Canadian Theatre history as an iconic and consistently provocative dramatic force to be reckoned with.