418 pages,
McGill-Queen’s University Press,
Reviewed by Christine Hearn
What do I have to tell you? I could wish
today was fifty years ago for then,
chock-full of schooling and high spirits, I
knew what was what. And where. And even when.
– P.K. Page, “Address at Simon Fraser,” in The Glass Air: Poems Selected and New
When poet P.K. Page received her honorary degree from SFU in 1991, she addressed the audience through poetry instead of a speech. The poem contained a wide-ranging call to graduates to pay attention to the environment, to care about global warming, and most of all, to do something about it. She said that the “whole great beautiful caboodle” of a planet is in jeopardy.
Sandra Djwa, professor emerita of English, and Page’s friend, recounts the moment in Journey with No Maps, a wide-ranging biography. It takes us from Page’s birth in England in 1916 through to her youth in Alberta and the Maritimes, her development as a poet and an artist, her lengthy relationship with poet F.R. Scott, her work at the National Film Board, her long, happy marriage to journalist turned diplomat Arthur Irwin, her eventual transformation into the grande dame of Canadian poetry, and her death in Victoria in 2010.
Djwa’s long friendship with Page, and the resulting trust, gives us a biography that is rich and full and compelling. The two met in April 1970 when Djwa invited Page to give her first public poetry reading to Djwa’s class at SFU. They became friends, and in 1996, when Page began to think of mortality and her legacy, she turned to Djwa, giving her access to letters and diaries.
Page had a fabulously interesting life – reflected in her paintings, articles, and books, and most of all in her poetry – and Djwa captures it beautifully. This book is for everyone, not just those interested in the evolution of Canadian poetry.
Journey with No Maps is shortlisted for the $25,000 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction for 2013.
Hammer and Nails
Kate Braid’s (MA’80) memoir Journey- woman: Swinging a Hammer in a Man’s World (Caitlin Press) recounts how she became one of the first women in B.C. to become a qualified carpenter. She was the first woman to join the Vancouver local of the Carpenters Union, the first to teach construction full-time at BCIT, and one of the first to run her own construction company.
Miki Milestones
A wide range of community voices come together in Tracing the Lines: Reflections on Contemporary Poetics and Cultural Politics in Honour of Roy Miki (Talonbooks) edited by Maia Joseph, Christine Kim, Larissa Lai, and Christopher Lee. Miki (MA’69) is an acclaimed poet, activist in the Japanese-Canadian community, and SFU English professor emeritus.
“Get Your Kicks on Route 66”
So said the theme song from the 1960s TV show Route 66. Rick Antonson, who attended SFU, and his son travel the remains of the highway that once linked the central U.S. to California. Route 66 Still Kicks: Driving America’s Main Street (Dundurn) is a blend of nostalgia, exploration, and contemporary analysis.
Book Talk
Rowland Lorimer, director of both the Master of Publishing Program and the Canadian Centre for Studies in Publishing at SFU, knows more about the state of Canadian book publishing than anyone else. In Ultra Libris (ECW) he gives us a behind-the-scenes look at how venerable Canadian publisher McClelland & Stewart was gobbled up by multinational Random House.
Poetry
Poet and filmmaker Colin Browne’s (MA’79) latest work is The Properties (Talonbooks), a meditation on time, space, and territory. Browne is a professor in the School for the Contemporary Arts.
History’s a Mystery
SFU historian Dimitris Krallis looks at Byzantine political and culture debates of the 1060s and 1070s in Michael Attaleiates and the Politics of Imperial Decline in Eleventh-Century Byzantium (ACMRS).
Out Soon
Anne Giardini (BA’80), deputy chair of the SFU Board of Governors and president of Weyerhaeuser Canada , has her third novel with her publisher HarperCollins. It’s tentatively titled My Graceless Heart.
Twofer
George Bowering, English professor emeritus, launches two books on the same night. The prolific Bowering is getting the most attention for Pinboy (Cormorant Books), a coming-of-age saga set in the Okanagan, which is shortlisted for the B.C. National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction. His other book is Words, Words, Words (New Star Books), a wide-ranging collection of literary essays.
Aboriginal History
English professor Sophie McCall looks at the relationship between Aboriginal authors and storytellers in First Person Plural Aboriginal Storytelling and the Ethics of Collaborative Authorship (UBC Press). The book was a finalist for the Gabrielle Roy Prize for best English-language work of Canadian literary criticism.