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tion Collective. Every writer present was bowled over by the read-ings: the personal stories, excerpts from family memoirs, travel experiences, subjective reportage, and stories that employed anew journalism form. Myrna recalls that everyone was thrilled atthe breadth and depth of what nonfiction could be.

The weekend also included a lot of griping about how fiction had all the prizes, all the media attention, and all the readers. Apowerful and determined informal manifesto was written by thisearly group of writers on what an organization of nonfiction writ-ers could do to get Canadians to pay attention to nonfiction.

But first things first, the group needed a name. Two choices were voted on: The Nonfiction Collective of Canada and the Creative Nonfiction Collective. We know which one garnered the most votes.

Over the next ten years, creative nonfiction as a genre grew. Newliterary practices developed. CNF courses were added to writingprograms. Literary journals called for nonfiction essays. Prizesand contests for essays and nonfiction were added and cele-brated as part of the literary season. Suddenly, it seemed like creative nonfiction writers had arrived! The ecology of the genrehad changed, cnf was relevant, and our membership tripled.

Ten years ago, the sense of urgency that made a group of writerscome together to create this organization was not just about theunderdog nature of the genre – these writers collectively articu-lated the social and political importance of creative nonfiction.This weekend as we gather together in Calgary as memoirists,travel writers, essayists, and journalists, let’s thank our foundersand early members who had the vision and enthusiasm forCanada’s best literary organization: the Creative Nonfiction Collective Society.

I hope you enjoy this very special weekend in Calgary!

Sincerely,Cathy OstlerePresident

Dear Members,Welcome to the 10th Anniversary Conference ofthe Creative Nonfiction Collective Society. In prepa-ration for this weekend Iasked Founder and PastPresident, Myna Kostash, to tell me how it all began.

In 2002, Myrna was on thejury for the Governor General’s Literary Award forNonfiction with AndreasSchroeder and Jack Cook.They gave the prize to Andrew Nikiforuk for his

book Saboteurs: Wiebo Ludwig’s War Against Big Oil. The dis-cussion around the table was that Andrew’s book was extremelywell written, a readable narrative, and an important story thatshould ignite public discussion and interest. When Saboteur’s pub-lisher, Macfarlane, Walter & Ross, went out of business it becameapparent that there was a lack of structural support in the industryand the media for nonfiction. Seeing this crisis in nonfiction inCanada Myrna Kostash contacted Betsy Warland and the twosent out a call to professional nonfiction writers to gather togetherin Banff to discuss the state of nonfiction particularly in compari-son to the overwhelming support for fiction.

About fifteen writers came to the pay-your-own-way gathering.Most came from Alberta and B.C. as Banff was relatively close byand at that time the Banff Centre offered the writers artists’ rates.At that first meeting, Myrna had an idea that all the writers shouldread excerpts from their work. What happened that night gener-ated a spark that resulted in the creation of the Creative Nonfic-

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Lorri Neilsen Glenn’s prose, poetry and edited collections includeUntying the Apron: Daughters Remember Mothers of the 1950s(Guernica Editions, 2013, in its 3rd printing); Threading Light: Explorations in Loss and Poetry (Hagios Press, 2011), and LostGospels (Brick Books, 2010). Lorri has taught writing acrossCanada, as well as in Ireland, Chile, Australia, New Zealand,and Greece. Lorri was Halifax Poet Laureate from 2005 to 2009,and a recipient of a 2009 Halifax Women of Excellence award.

LORRI NEILSEN GLENN“Text, Time, and Memory: The Art and Craft of Bricolage”

will explore the innovative ways creative nonfiction (CNF) can fashion text to create insight and spark connection. (*Friday afternoon for pre-registered participants only)

Friday, 1:30 – 4:00 pmRONALD WRIGHT

“A SHORT HISTORY OF A WRITER’S LIFE”Historian, novelist, and essayist Ronald Wright is the award-win-ning author of nine books of nonfiction and fiction published in16 languages and more than 40 countries. Much of his work explores the relationships between past and present, peoples and power, other cultures and our own.

A Short History of Progress, in which he examines humankind’s increasingly precarious “experiment” with civilization, was thebest-selling book in the 50-year history of the prestigious CBCMassey Lecture Series, winning the Libris Award for nonfictionbook of the year (2005) and serving as the basis for MartinScorsese’s documentary film Surviving Progress (2011). Wright’sWhat Is America? was also a bestseller and finalist for the B.C.Book Prize in 2009.

Born in England to Canadian and British parents, Wright read archaeology and anthropology at Cambridge University andspent many years travelling for his books, taking part in anthropo-logical research, and recording indigenous music. He lives onCanada’s west coast.sponsored by Friends of CNFC

Friday, 7:30 pm Turner Valley Room

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Saturday, 9:00 am Marquis Room

DENISE CHONGCriss-crossing oceans, Denise Chong’s nonfiction narratives oftenplay out in Canada and abroad. She will discuss the ability andprivilege of the writer and of the reader to transcend boundaries—cultural, geographical, class, gender or religious, generational,even culinary.

Denise will discuss the interplay between imagination and first-hand research. She will speak to the practicalities of using transla-tors and interpreters, and of pursuing stories that may pose risksto writers or their sources.

In the decisions writers make about how to tell their stories, Denise will ask, “Do you choose to put yourself in the narrative orleave yourself out?” She will discuss the value of narratives thatare as much personal as social history, share her approach tobringing a sense of place into the reader’s imagination, and welcome questions regarding special considerations, such as theuse of foreign words, glossaries, maps, indexes, introductions,and authors’ notes.

Denise Chong is an internationally published, award-winningwriter and a two-time finalist for the Governor General’s LiteraryAwards. Her memoir, The Concubine’s Children, has become amodern classic. In addition to an anthology of short stories,Denise followed her memoir with three more books: The Girl inthe Picture, about the famous napalm victim of the Vietnam War;Egg on Mao, and most recently, Lives of the Family, a book oflinked stories exploring the emotional experience of the immigrantin small-town Canada.

Early in her career, Denise worked as an economist and as a senior advisor to then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. In 2013, shewas named as an Officer of the Order of Canada for her contri-butions “as a writer, and for her civic engagement in socialcauses, notably in support of human rights and the arts.” Born inVancouver and raised in Prince George, she now lives in Ottawa.sponsored by Little Mountain Holdings Co. Limited


Saturday, 10:30 am Turner Valley Room

JOANNA ELEFTHERIOU & LAUREN FATHThe hardest part of writing a poem is starting one—especiallywhen you’re a prose writer! The lyric essay—a hybrid of thepoem and the essay—is a perfect starting point for writers lookingto move from sentences to stanzas. Using lyric essays by well-known writers as examples, this workshop’s leaders will introducethe genre’s formal properties and examine how those propertiesalign with, and differ from, those of lyric poetry. Both Joanna andLauren are nonfiction writers with experience using the lyric essayto bridge the gap between prose and poetry, and will share prac-tical advice for working “forward” from poem to lyric essay and“backward” from lyric essay to poem. Finally, they will discuss thelogistics of publishing hybrid forms, helping participants to iden-tify journals that are receptive to such work. The close study ofform and handy tips for publication will benefit all, from the expe-rienced poet to the aspiring one.

Joanna Eleftheriou grew up in New York and Cyprus, and is com-pleting doctoral work on the essay at the University of Missouri.She has worked as a teacher of ESL, literature, and creative writ-ing, and her interests include bicultural identities, nationalism,places of conflict and trauma, and how traumatic histories influ-

ence genre. Her memoir excerpts, lyric essays, travel writing,poems, and translations have appeared in journals and her firstbook manuscript is a collection of essays drawing on her experi-ence as a Greek-Cypriot-American.

Lauren Fath is a Ph.D. candidate in English at the University ofMissouri, where she holds the Creative Writing Program Fellow-ship, following a bachelor's degree in journalism and an M.F.A.in creative nonfiction. Her essay “By Being Written, They WouldDisappear” was nominated for the 2011 Pushcart Prize. Her firstcollection of essays focuses on fine art and discusses fine art andhow handmade objects allow us access to the past. As a scholarof nonfiction, she is most interested in the intersection of genres,particularly hybrid forms such as the lyric essay and autobio-graphical fiction. Lauren’s next book project combines several ofher favorite pastimes: writing nonfiction, knitting lace shawls, andstudying Russian


Saturday, 10:30 am Marquis Room

BEV SELLARSIn the first full-length memoir published out of St. Joseph’s Missionat Williams Lake, Bev Sellars tells of three generations of womenwho attended the school, interweaving the personal histories ofher grandmother and her mother with her own. She writes ofhunger, forced labour, and physical abuse, and also of the demand for conformity in a culturally alien institution where children were confined and denigrated for failure to be Whiteand Roman Catholic.

In this workshop, Sellars will read from her poignant memoir, They Called Me Number One: Secrets and Survival at an IndianResidential School, and speak about breaking her silence andforging her own path to healing.

Xat’sull Chief Bev Sellars spent her childhood in a church-run residential school whose aim it was to “civilize” Native childrenthrough Christian teachings, forced separation from family andculture, and discipline. They Called Me Number One publishedby Talonbooks is shortlisted for a B.C. Book Prize — the HubertEvans Non-Fiction Prize — and has won the 2014 George RygaAward for Social Awareness in Literature.

Saturday, 1:30 pm Turner Valley Room

MARJORIE DOYLEThis workshop will be general and specific, philosophical andtechnical. (Yes, all in 75 minutes!) I will invite discussion on humour in CNF. Is Canadian humour an oxymoron? We will look at writing where humour works well to discover technique referencing tone, voice, and comic devices. Can writing humourbe learned? Before technique there is sensibility – on the part ofthe writer, and the reader. Are readers of CNF receptive to humour or is writing funny a weak cousin shrinking before meatierrelatives tackling serious matter. We will look at the subgenres that lend themselves to humour including travel writing, personalessay, reviewing and memoir. I will share some personal experi-ence as a writer who’s been told, “You write best when you’refunny, Marj” and, on the same day, “Like any comic, you’re atyour best when you’re writing serious.”

Marjorie Doyle’s newest of four books of nonfiction is A DoyleReader: Writings from Home and Away. A four-time winner ofNewfoundland and Labrador (NL) Arts and Letters Awards, shewon a Silver in the National Magazine Awards, and in 2009was the Haig-Brown House’s Writer-In-Residence on Vancouver Island. Doyle has been a columnist with The Globe and Mail anda broadcaster with the CBC, winning two CBC Radio Awards forProgramming Excellence. The film she co-wrote/produced withJohn W. Doyle, Regarding Our Father, was nominated for a


Golden Sheaf Award. Doyle holds an MA from Memorial Univer-sity in St. John’s, where she has taught creative nonfiction. She’slived in Wisconsin, Illinois, Toronto, Calgary, Switzerland andSpain. She makes her home now in her native St. John’s.

Saturday, 1:30 pm Marquis Room

MADELINE SONIKOften, it seems, works of creative nonfiction, particularly memoirs,have been denounced on the basis of their authors having in-dulged in too much fictionalizing. (Augusten Burroughs was suedby the family he depicted in his memoir, Running with Scissors.Though the settlement was never made public, Burroughs main-tains it was “a victory for all memoirists.”)

In this workshop we will begin with a brief theoretical discussionof the conventional demarcations between fiction and nonfiction,considering nonfiction works that have incited controversy for fic-tionalizing, as well as fictional works that are primarily autobio-graphical. Then, using a number of recent nonfiction examples,we’ll isolate techniques found predominantly in fiction. These prac-tical examples will act as a basis for a number of useful exercisesthat will allow participants to explore the liminal spaces in be-tween genres, and the ways that fictional writing techniques areused to great advantage in creative nonfiction writing of all kinds.

DILMUROD SAIDOVJournalist • Uzbekistan


Madeline Sonik is an eclectic, award-winning writer, anthologist,and teacher. Her published book-length works include a novel,Arms, a collection of short fiction, Drying the Bones, a children’snovel, Belinda and the Dustbunnys, two poetry collections, StoneSightings and The Book of Changes, and a volume of personal essays, Afflictions & Departures, which was nominated for the BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction, a finalist for theCharles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction, and winner of the2012 City of Victoria Butler Book Prize. She holds an MA in Journalism, an M.F.A in Creative Writing, and a PhD in Education and teaches in the Writing Department at the University of Victoria in British Columbia. She is currently at work on a second essay collection, a novel in stories, and a bookon writing techniques.


FRIDAY, MAY 2, 20141:30-4 PM.........Master Class with Lorri Neilsen Glenn

Text, Time, Memory – The Art and Craft of Bricolage Marquis Room

4:30-6 PM.........Hotel & Conference Registration check-in

6-7:30..............Grab a bite at a local eatery or bar

7:30-9 PM.........Keynote Address by Ronald Wright: A Short History of A Writer’s Life

9 PM...............Keynote Reception. Cash bar.

SATURDAY, MAY 3, 20149-10:15 AM..........Writing the World

with Denise Chong Marquis RoomSponsor: Little Mountain Holdings Co. Ltd

10:30-11:45AM.....CNF and The Poetwith Joanna Eleftheriou and Lauren FathTurner Valley Room ORBreaking the Silence with Chief Bev SellarsMarquis Room

12-1:15 PM..........Lunch and Readers’ Choice AwardsSponsor: Writers’ Guild of Alberta

1:30-2:45 PM.......Comic Relief with Marjorie Doyle Turner Valley Room ORCrossing Genres with Madeline Sonik Marquis Room

3:00-4:30 PM.......Plenary Session: Communicating with the Dead, in conversation with Mark Abley, Sharon Butala and Peter Midgley Marquis RoomSponsor: Douglas & McIntyre

7:00-11:00 PM......Buffet Dinner

Award: carte blanche/CNFC ContestRemarks by Don SedgwickPresentation by Maria Schamis Turner and Darlene Chrapko

CNFC Literary Cabaret hosted by Alisa Gordaneer

SUNDAY, MAY 4, 20148:30-9:30 AM......Breakfast with the Founders

9:30-11:00 AM.....Annual General Meeting

12:00-1:30 PM......Literary Walk with George Melnyk and guest readers Shaun Hunter, Myrna Kostash, Fred Stenson and Aritha van HerkMEET IN THE HOTEL LOBBY Sponsor: Stones Carbert Waite LLP


books and three collections of poetry, with a book of new and selected poems forthcoming from Coteau Books in 2015. A language columnist for the Montreal Gazette, he won a NationalNewspaper Award for critical writing and has been shortlisted inthe category of international reporting. Born in England, raisedmostly in Alberta and Saskatchewan, he now makes his home ina suburb of Montreal.

After her cowboy/rancher husband's death, Sharon Butala movedto Calgary to be near her grandchildren, but she has spent mostof her 73 years in Saskatchewan where she was born. Over herthirty-plus year career she has published sixteen books (9 fictionand 7 nonfiction), had 5 plays produced, written a lot of essaysand articles for magazines and newspapers, and given a ton oflectures, talks, and panel presentations. Her last book was TheGirl in Saskatoon: A Meditation on Friendship, Memory and Murder, (2008) but she is still best-known for her 1994 memoir,The Perfection of the Morning: An Apprenticeship in Nature thatstayed on the Canadian bestseller list for a year. She has won anumber of prizes and awards, the most recent being the 2012Kloppenburg Award for Literary Excellence. She is an Officer ofthe Order of Canada, has been inducted into the SaskatchewanOrder of Merit, and has three honorary doctorates

Peter Midgley is a writer and storyteller from Edmonton. CountingTeeth: A Namibian Story, an account of a two-month journey heand his daughter made to the country of his birth, will be releasedin September 2014. Peter has performed his stories and poetry inAfrica, Europe and North America and has published three chil-dren’s books. One of these, Thuli’s Mattress, has been translatedinto 27 languages and won the International Board on Books forYoung People (IBBY)/Asahi Reading Promotion Award. Midgley isalso the author of two plays and a collection of poetry. Amongother things, he is a citizen of three countries (Canada, SouthAfrica, and Namibia), and he is the president of the Writers’Guild of Alberta. A second collection of poetry, Unquiet Bones,will be published by Wolsak & Wynn in 2015.sponsored by Douglas & McIntyre

MARK ABLEY, SHARON BUTALA& PETER MIDGLEY

“COMMUNICATING WITH THE DEAD” Sharon Butala, Mark Abley and Peter Midgley share their experiences of writing about the dead. What debt, they ask, dowe owe to those writers and individuals who came before us? As writers, how do we confront the difficulties of making a dead person come alive on the page while staying true to historicalfact? How do we acknowledge, in appropriate ways, the cultural heritage of the dead who surround us? As we insert ourselves into the lives of the dead, we increasingly begin to real-ize that they, too, are inserting themselves into our lives. Commu-nication with the dead is a road that leads in two directions: aswe begin to understand the lives of the dead, we also gain insight into our contemporary world. This session explores thefruitful ways in which wandering among the dead informs ourlives and our writing.

Mark Abley is the author of four books of creative nonfiction, notably Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages(2003) and Conversations with a Dead Man: The Legacy of Duncan Campbell Scott (2013). He has been shortlisted for theWriters' Trust Prize for Nonfiction and the Grand Prix du Livre deMontréal. Mark has led workshops in nonfiction at the Banff Centre for the Arts, the Maritime Writers’ Workshop, and the Quebec Writers’ Federation. He has also written two children'sphoto credits L to R: John Mahoney, Duane Prentice, Charles Earle

Saturday, 3:00 – 4:30 pm, Marquis Room


INAUGURAL CARTE BLANCHE/CNFC CREATIVE NONFICTION PRIZEF I N A L I S T S

A Routine Test by Jennifer Bowering DelisleJennifer Bowering Delisle is the author of The Newfoundland

Diaspora: Mapping the Literature of Out-Migration. She is also amember of Room Magazine’s editorial collective. She has recently

completed a family memoir called The Bosun Chair.

Angelfish by Kerri PowerKerri Power is a writer from St. John’s, currently living in Ottawa.Her writing has appeared in the Newfoundland Quarterly, the

Bywords Quarterly Journal and The New Quarterly.

On Good Days by B.A. MarkusB.A. Markus is a writer, teacher, performer who grew up in

Toronto, lives in Montreal and left part of her heart on a small is-land off the coast of British Columbia. Her stories have appearedin various literary journals and anthologies, and she has written

and performed her one-act plays across Canada.

What Happened That Day by Shelley WoodShelley Wood is a Vancouver-born writer and medical journalistwhose prolific nonfiction work mostly examines how not to die ofheart disease. Her writing has appeared in the Globe & Mail,

National Post, Georgia Straight, and Okanagan Life. She lives inKelowna, BC.

WINNER WILL BE ANNOUNCED AT THE SATURDAY NIGHT CABARET


Myrna Kostash of Edmonton is the originating force (of nature)behind the CNFC along with Betsy Warland. She was Presidentof the Collective for eight of its first ten years. Her recent books

include The Frog Lake Reader (2009), Prodigal Daughter: A Journey to Byzantium (2010), TheSeven Oaks Reader (2016). She has been awarded The Writers' Trust Matt Cohen Award fora Life of Writing and short-listed for the Runciman Award (UK). She is currently the Chair ofthe nominating committee of The Writers Union of Canada. While Dorothy Parker said, "Idon't write non-anything." Myrna says, “Let's take pride and pleasure in not even using the hyphen: we write a genre in its own right, and it's called nonfiction.”

Betsy Warland of Vancouver is the originating vice-president of the CNFC who began the tradition of meeting in Banff every spring. She is arguably best known to our members forstarting the tradition of ‘barking’ to alert readers who reach their reading time limit during theCabaret. Her most recent book is Breathing the Page - Reading the Act of Writing (2010). In2012, she began publishing on her website, Oscar’s Salon – a dynamic mix of excerpts fromher manuscript Oscar of Between; samples of a Guest Writer or Artist’s work; profile of a Feature Reader; and provocative comments posted by salon followers. She is the Director ofthe Vancouver Manuscript Intensive.

James Romanow, a CNFC Board Member, is primarily known for his witty and colorfulweekly wine columns in the daily newspapers and weeklies. Although primarily Saskatchewanbased, you can find his work occasionally in daily papers from Montreal to Vancouver. Healso appears regularly on TV and radio. His work has been published around the world in periodicals as disparate as Airport Finance, Euromoney, The National Post, Oman Economic,Story, and Freefall.

George Melnyk, a member of the 2014 CNFC Conference Committee, is the author or editorof over 25 titles in a writing career of almost 40 years. In 2013 he was awarded the Writers'Guild of Alberta Golden Pen Award for Lifetime Achievement. His most recent title is Film andthe City: The Urban Imaginary in Canadian Cinema. He was encouraged to attend the firstCNCF conference by Myrna Kostash and has never looked back. Congratulations CNCF onten wonderful years!

Ellen Bielawski of Edmonton is the author of In Search of Ancient Alaska and Rogue Dia-monds: The Rush for Northern Riches on Dene Land. She grew up in Alaska and holds a Ph.Din archaeology from the University of Calgary. She is a former Dean of the School of NativeStudies at the University of Alberta and is currently teaches in the Resource Economics and Environmental Sociology department at U of A.

Ted Bishop of Edmonton is the author of Riding with Rilke: Reflections on Motorcycles andBooks, which garnered a GG nomination and eleven words of praise in Playboy magazine.He teaches in the U of A Department of English and Film Studies and writes with a fountainpen. He is looking forward to the publication of his commodity biography / travel book, TheSocial Life of Ink, in the fall of 2014.

Lynne Bowen of Nanaimo, a former CNFC Treasurer, retired as Rogers Co-Chair of CNF Writing at UBC in 2006. She is the author of Whoever Gives Us Bread, The Story of Italiansin British Columbia which won the F.G. Bressani Literary Prize in Creative Nonfiction and wasshortlisted for the City of Vancouver Book Prize. Her latest book, Those Island People, cameout last month. Lynne assures new nonfiction writers that there is story and metaphor lurking inany body of research.

Brian Brennan of Calgary is an award winning and best-selling author of ten critically acclaimed narrative non-fiction books about the colourful personalities of Western Canada’spast. Brian has also written for the New York Times, Globe and Mail and Toronto Star. Brian’slatest book, Leaving Dublin: Writing My Way from Ireland to Canada, traces his story fromsuburban Ireland to a life in Canada as a writer, broadcaster and musician.


Anne Campbell’s book, Regina’s Secret Spaces: love and lore of local geography, 2007, received the City of Regina Heritage Award, the City of Regina, Mayor’s Arts Award, andwas shortlisted for the Sask. Book Awards. Anne’s 2009 poetry collection, Soul to Touch, wasshortlisted for the Sask. Book Awards. Regina Public Library:100 years as the heart of community, will be released by U of R Press in 2015. Anne thinks poetry is nonfiction; and fornew writers, remember Paul Tillich’s: “Keep open, always keep open.”

Caterina Edward’s book, Finding Rosa: A Mother With Alzheimer's/A Daughter's Search forthe Past, won the Wilfred Eggleston Award in 2009 and the biannual Bressani Award in2010. Her next book is a novel, The Sicilian Wife, to be published in spring of 2015. Belonging to the CNFC early on helped Caterina to see how much she loved the genre. It encouraged her to take risks with the content and style of Finding Rosa.

Jerry Haigh from Saskatoon via Kenya has written Wrestling With Rhino; The Trouble WithLions; and Of Moose and Men. He considers the craft of writing CNF to be challenging yetfun and recommends that newbie writers give it a go. Jerry received the JW George Ivany Internationalization Award in 2005 and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Veterinary Sur-geons. He is the current president of The Word On The Street, Saskatoon.

Penney Kome of Calgary is an award-winning journalist, columnist, and author who has pub-lished six books – including The Taking of Twenty-Eight, a blow-by-blow account of Canadianwomen’s successful constitutional lobby. A founding member of PWAC and a former TWUCChair, she is also a Toronto YWCA Woman of Distinction. Writing journalism taught Penney toseek facts while fiction taught her to seek higher truths. Creative nonfiction has allowed her tocombine both essential quests.

Christopher Moore’s nonfiction for young readers, From Here to Now: A Short History of theWorld, 2011 was the first nonfiction book awarded the GG for Children’s Literature. Chriswrites widely about Canadian history, including many books and a long-running column inCanada’s History (formerly The Beaver). A thought: “A piece of fiction works if it feels true. Butnonfiction can explore what’s true and what isn’t, and that’s mostly where I want to work.” Helives in Toronto.

Andreas Schroeder of Roberts Creek, B.C. holds the Rogers Communications Chair in CreativeNonfiction at UBC. His 23 books include: Renovating Heaven (autobiographical novel); Robbers! (YA nonfiction); and Dust Ship Glory (docu-novel). He was a GG finalist for his memoir Shaking It Rough, and won the CAJ’s Best Investigative Journalism award in 1990. In2012 TWUC presented Andreas with the Graeme Gibson Award in recognition of the 33years he spent leading the crusade for PLR.

Lynne van Luven has been teaching cnf and journalism at the UVIC for the past 18 years. Sheis the editor of Nobody’s Mother, Nobody’s Father and Somebody’s Child and the co-editor,with Kathy Page, of In the Flesh: Twenty Writers Explore the Body. She’s just completed fiveyears as Associate Dean of Fine Arts at UVIC. She was at the very first CNF Collective meeting, which featured passionate discussions about how to define our genre.

IN MEMORIAMHeather Robertson (1942 - 2014) was the CNFC’s 2008 keynote speaker. She started as aWinnipeg newspaper reporter in the 1960s then published several well-known non-fictionbooks such as Reservations Are for Indians and A Terrible Beauty: The Art of Canada at War.Robertson also championed writers, as a founding member of TWUC and PWAC, and mostfamously, as the lead plaintiff in two decade-long class action lawsuits where publishers paidwriters more than $11 million for misappropriating their work.


CNFC READERS’ CHOICE 2014 SHORTLIST

This year, CNFC members nominated twelveworks of creative nonfiction published in2012 and 2013 meriting consideration forthe Readers’ Choice award. From this list ofhigh-quality nonfiction, the award jury selected six finalists. At the Saturday lunch,

CNFC members will vote for this year’s recipient of the CNFC goldseal of recognition.

Here are this year’s Readers’ Choice Award finalists along with ex-cerpts of the nominators’ statements.

Genni Gunn for Tracks: Journeys in Time and Place(Signature Editions, 2013)

[Gunn’s] journeys outward into the unknown, the experience of“everything new, all that I know falling away second by second…abandoned to the mystery unfolding,” lead her into inward jour-neys, into searches for herself… Tracks is travel writing in the bestsense of the word. – Caterina Edwards

Dee Hobsbawn-Smith for “Learning to Cook” (Gastronomica: TheJournal of Food and Culture, Fall 2013)

This story about roots and legacies is as masterfully rendered as a Chef’s Table. The reader travels alongside the author to hergrandmother’s Hutterite kitchen, to a cooking school in Paris, tothe author’s own (and inherited) kitchens, while she reviews andcontemplates the phases of her chosen life and education. – Joan Dixon

Lorri Neilsen Glenn for “Thresholds” from How to Expect WhatYou’re Not Expecting (Touchwood Editions, 2013)

This piece beautifully weaves expectations and hopes with the

realities of raising a son with special needs. Neilsen Glenn portrays emotion through language and unique construction, offering a layered experience in a visually and poetically com-manding essay. – Lori A. May

Kari Strutt for “As Regards the Ashes of Peter, Dead These ManyYears” (Prism International, Summer 2013)

I’m a sucker for a personal essay that can be, all at once, tender,and funny, and provocative. This one is all of those, in spades.Just seven pages, it tells at least that many stories.– Elizabeth Templeman

Rosemary Sullivan for “The Man Who Was Buried Standing Up”(Brick, A Literary Journal, Summer 2012)

Sullivan fuses the scholarly, the reflective and the lyrical in a styleof intense intimacy, quite unexpectedly. The piece begins as aconventional traveller’s tale of a visit to a cemetery in Havana,where she sought the grave of Christopher Columbus, but soonfell under the enchantment of the local tour guide. – Myrna Kostash

Lynne Van Luven for “Life with My Girls” from In the Flesh (Brindle& Glass, 2012)

This essay effortlessly weaves anecdote and commentary, conversation and characterization, analysis and information into a seamless narrative. The narrator's voice is consistently compelling; this is someone who knows what she is talking about, has given it thought, and delivers it with a wry, sly sense of humour. – Margaret Thompson


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Divino Wine & Cheese Bistro113 - 8th Ave, (403) 410-5555

Wine-Ohs 811 - 1st St, (403) 263-1650

Mango Shiva218 - 8 Ave, (403) 532-8980

Milestone's Grill 107 - 8th Ave, (403) 410-9521

Rose Garden Thai112 - 8th Ave, (403) 264-1988

Libertine Public House 223 - 8th Ave, (403) 265-3665

Local on 8th310 - 8th Ave, (403) 264-7808

Author ProgrammingCNFC Conference Committee: Cathy Ostlere,

Darlene Chrapko, Myrl Coulter, Brian Kiers, Shaun Hunter,George Melnyk, Joan Dixon

Palliser Hotel LiaisonDarlene Chrapko, Cathy Ostlere

Registration & MembershipMyrl Coulter, Jane Silcott

Grants, Fundraising and AdvertisingJane Silcott, Alisa Gordaneer, Shaun Hunter, Cathy Ostlere

Literary WalkShaun Hunter, George Melnyk, Soo Kim

Media RelationsShaun Hunter, Joan Dixon, Brian Kiers, Alisa Gordaneer

carte blanche/CNFC Literary ContestMaria Schamis Turner, Darlene Chrapko, Brian Kiers,

Cathy Ostlere, Don Sedgwick

Reader’s Choice AwardMyrl Coulter, Shaun Hunter, George Melnyk

CabaretAlisa Gordaneer

Founder’s BreakfastCathy Ostlere, Darlene Chrapko

WebsiteMyrl Coulter, Shaun Hunter, Lynda Baxter

Author CommunicationsJoan Dixon

Editing and proof readingJoan Dixon, Darlene Chrapko, James Romanow


Pen Canada Empty ChairBrian Kiers

Program DesignPeter Moller, Egg Press Co.

PrintingRand Roeric, Maranda Reprographics & Printing

Book SalesShelf Life Books

PhotographyLeo Aragon

Conference ProgramCathy Ostlere, Joan Dixon, Shaun Hunter, Darlene Chrapko

Friends of the Creative Nonfiction Collective Society

Bernadette Wagner • Brian Kiers • Cathy OstlereDarlene Chrapko • Denise Chong • Don SedgwickJames Romanow • Jane Silcott • Lynne Bowen

Lynne van Luven • Myrl CoulterMyrna Kostash • Shaun Hunter • Susie Safford


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