The Paget/Hoy Speaker Series was established in 1992 by Carolynn Hoy and the late J. Robert Paget to enhance the intellectual experience of the local community and the University of Calgary by bringing distinguished speakers to Calgary.
Over the years, the Paget/Hoy Speaker Series has brought an impressive lineup to the city, including Rosemary Sullivan, Carol Shields, Jane Urquhart, J. Hillis Miller, Brad Fraser and John Steffler, the third poet to hold the office of Parliamentary Poet Laureate.
Columnist, writer and poet Sid Marty is the 2009 Paget/Hoy speaker.
2009 PAGET /HOY EVENTS:
Thursday, November 5, 2009
7:30 pm
Craigie Hall C 105, Boris Roubakine Recital Hall, U of C
Free. All are welcome.
Sid Marty Columnist, Writer and Poet
"THE NONFICTION WRITER IN ALBERTA: Unofficial Opposition to the Kings of Spin in the Age of Apathy and Doublespeak "
The nonfiction writer in Alberta is often faced with a monolithic political power base armed with a multimillion dollar public relations department guarding a "no brakes" approach to development. With few media outlets willing to accept opposing messages in recent years, writers often turned to national publication as a way of shining a light on provincial politics. Marty believes it is time for more academic experts and other Alberta citizens to defend the ideas and institutions that sustain our social fabric.
Sid Marty is a columnist, writer and poet who has published five books of nonfiction and three books of poetry. His latest book, The Black Grizzly of Whiskey Creek was shortlisted for the 2008 Governor General's Literary Award in Nonfiction and won both the Grand Prize and the Canadian Rockies Award at the Banff Mountain Book Festival. In 2008, Marty was selected as the inaugural winner of the Grant MacEwan Literary Arts Award.
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Wednesday, November 4, 2009
3 pm
Social Sciences 1339, U of C
Free. All are welcome.
"REPRESENTING 'THE OTHER' IN CREATIVE NONFICTION"
A conversation with 2009 Paget/Hoy Lecturer Sid Marty and 2009- 2010 Markin-Flanagan Canadian Writer-in-Residence Marcello Di Cintio. Moderated by Pamela Banting, Associate Professor, Department of English.
Creative nonfiction, that elusive category that encompasses a range of writing from pure journalism to the personal essay, always involves a personality looking out at the world. One contemporary term for everything out there that isn't ourselves is "the Other." The concept can include people who aren't like us (as described by travel writers), animals and the natural environment (as depicted by ecological authors), societies that pre-date our own (as portrayed by history writers), and much more.
Yet how accurate can any written description of the Other be, given that such a description must be filtered through the personality and writing skills of a particular author? How can an author check the accuracy of his or her depiction of the Other, especially if that Other is a grizzly (as in Sid Marty's 2008 book on a predatory bear in Banff, The Black Grizzly of Whiskey Creek) or someone who speaks a different language (as in Marcello Di Cintio's 2006 book about Iranian wrestlers, Poets and Pahlevans)? How much does the intended audience - including that audience's level of knowledge about the Other - affect the writing of a work of creative nonfiction?
These are just some of the questions the panel will consider. Moderating the event will be University of Calgary English Dept. Prof. Pamela Banting, herself an accomplished nonfiction writer whose books include the anthology Fresh Tracks: Writing the Western Landscape (1998).
