Literary legend Andris Taskans made it his mission to support Prairie writers

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This article was published 28/09/2019 (2260 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Andris Taskans bound together 40 years worth of Prairie Fire magazines. 

More than that, he bound together a community of writers in Winnipeg and that is how his family and former colleagues will remember him.

A literary legend, Taskans was the founding editor of an award-winning Canadian literary journal — one of the oldest of its kind in the country — and a founding member of the Manitoba Writers’ Guild. He died of an infection, a complication of cancer, on Friday afternoon. He was 67 years old.

“He is one of the most important figures that we’ve ever had on the Manitoba cultural scene and he was an excellent writer and editor who will leave this real legacy of literary excellence,” said Sue Sorensen, president of the Prairie Fire board of directors. “Fastidious is an excellent word for him.”

Taskans was a proud Winnipegger all his life. He completed a Bachelor of Arts, specializing in religious studies, at the University of Winnipeg. Later on, he took classes on religion and literature at the University of Manitoba, where he joined a writing workshop that would foreshadow his career in literary editing.

His magazine dates back to 1978, when it came into being as the Writers News Manitoba magazine. In 1983, Taskans oversaw its transition to a literary journal under the new name Prairie Fire. 

That same year, he married author Katherine Bitney — who would be named the magazine’s first writer-in-residence. The two shared a love of literature, often working together on creative projects such as the magazine’s Boreality Project (a two-year multidisciplinary project that celebrated the province’s boreal forest). 

Taskans had one step-daughter, Frances Bitney, and three step-granddaughters. 

“He always looked after his family,” his brother-in-law Tony Szumigalski said. 

Szumigalski said the two went to Brookside Cemetery to plant flowers along their late relatives’ graves every year. Gardening filled Taskans’ time — when he wasn’t writing or editing. 

His mission was always to publish, present and review high-quality literary works of all sorts, by artists new and renowned. Essays, memoirs, humour writing, poetry and fiction were among the content in a single Prairie Fire edition’s pages.

Local novelist Joan Thomas, who at one point worked on the magazine’s fiction editing committee under Taskans’ lead, recalls Taskans’ impressive literary instincts. “I was always struck by his efforts to find new ways to do things and take the magazine forward,” she said.

Thomas said Taskans never overlooked young writers, including herself, who were starting out in their careers. 

“Small magazines like that have such a huge role in the career development of emerging writers. This is how you get your toehold in the literary scene,” Thomas said. “Just by keeping that magazine going and getting people that publishing venue, it was huge.”

Prairie Fire published the early works of award-winning authors David Bergen, Miriam Toews and Guy Vanderhaeghe.

The quarterly’s summer 2019 edition is stacked on stands across the country, from coast to coast. In Taskans’ home province, it can be found at large chains, university bookstores and independent stores including McNally Robinson Booksellers.

The bookstore’s event coordinator, John Toews, said Taskans was “one of the points the entire Manitoba writing community grew out of.”

Taskans was a regular attendee in book launch crowds and readings at the store.

Toews remembers him as a humble man with a playful sense of humour who he worked with for Prairie Fire issue launch parties and poetry day celebrations. He was an organizer, Toews said, yet he always tried to boost others’ voices.

A long-time friend, author Armin Wiebe said he recalls Taskans standing up for local writers for decades, and in one very vocal instance, at the first provincial writers’ guild conference in 1982.

“I remember the young Andris, when he could be pretty fiesty,” Wiebe said.

There was a panel on book reviewing at the conference, featuring namesakes in the local literary scene including Paul McNally and Morley Walker. “I remember Andris getting up at one point and taking the editors to task for not covering Manitoba books and so on, when his little publication was doing its best to review all the books that were being published,” Wiebe said.

Taskans’ contributions did not go unnoticed by his friends or his community. In 2009, he was awarded the Winnipeg Arts Council’s Making Difference Award for his passionate editing’s impact on writers in his hometown of Winnipeg and across the country.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @macintoshmaggie