Copious collaborations at U of M Press

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This article was published 05/03/2022 (1649 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A collection of essays on the Keeyask hydroelectric project, featuring writings by a number of participants in the Clean Environment Commission hearings on the matter, is one of the University of Manitoba Press’s new titles being published this month.

In Our Backyard: Keeyask and the Legacy of Hydroelectric Development is edited by Aimée Craft, a University of Ottawa law professor who took part in the CEC hearings, and Jill Blakley, a University of Saskatchewan geography professor who examined the cumulative effects assessment of the Keeyask project. Among the contributors is Terry Sargeant, the former head of the commission, as well as Ovide Mercredi, former grand chief of the Assembly of First Nations.

Another March release from the press is a memoir of a lifelong battle against the uranium mining industry in the Inuit community of Baker Lake, Nunavut.

I Will Live for Both of Us: A History of Colonialism, Uranium Mining and Inuit Resistance is written by elder Joan Scottie, who twice stopped a proposed uranium mine, with Warren Bernauer, a post-doctoral fellow at the U of M’s Natural Resources Institute, and Jack Hicks, who has worked with the Nunavut government and Inuit organizations for 30 years.

Another collaboration between an Indigenous activist and an academic is featured in Exactly What I Said: Translating Words and Worlds, by Memorial University education professor Elizabeth Yeoman. The book is about her experience translating the writings of Innu elder and activist Tshaukuesh Elizabeth Penashue, who was a leader in the Innus’ campaign against low-level training flights from the Canadian air base at Goose Bay, N.L.

Rounding out the spring offerings from the press is Medicare’s Histories: Origins, Omissions and Opportunities in Canada, a collection of essays on how Medicare has been shaped by politics, professional organizations and social forces. The book is edited by a trio of Winnipeg history professors: Esyllt Jones from the U of M and James Hanley and Delia Gavrus from the University of Winnipeg.

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Two years after its founding was announced, and after its organizers raised nearly $1 million (including US$250,000 from Melinda Gates), the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction is open for business.

Organizers are now accepting submissions of books published in 2022, with plans to award the $150,000 prize for the first time in May 2023. Four finalists will each receive $12,500. In addition to the prize, the organization will also offer mentorships and residencies for emerging writers to work with the winner or one of the finalists for the main prize.

The prize is open to female authors from Canada or the United States.

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David A. Robertson is getting exposure in one of the biggest venues in comics, graphic novels and related genres when he appears as one of the guest authors at WonderCon Anaheim in April.

The annual California comics festival attracts tens of thousands of attendees and is part of the Comic Con San Diego cultural juggernaut.

Robertson, author of The Reckoner Rises graphic novel series and The Barren Grounds middle-grade fantasy series, was one of the first guests announced for the event, along with bestselling authors Shannon Hale (Princess Academy), James Rollins (Sandstorm) and others.

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Novelist and poet Lauren Carter worked with local writers via Zoom last year as the Winnipeg Public Library’s writer-in-residence. Now she’s using that same medium to offer one-on-one coaching and evaluation sessions with writers who want advice on revising and polishing a full manuscript.

Carter, who won the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction in the 2020 Manitoba Book Awards for her last novel, This Has Nothing to Do With You, offers a three-month package that includes six Zoom calls, weekly updates, mini-lessons, a plot evaluation and editing notes. Her next offering of the program starts in April and she takes on three writers at a time.

For details and pricing, see laurencarter.ca/coaching/.

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