The Grapevine - UBC Creative Writing News

Fraser Bear tells the story of the first two years in the life of a bear cub living at the foot of Mount Robson,
the tallest of the Rockies, and the story of the chinook salmon who spawn there, in the headwaters of the Fraser
River. It is illustrated by Renne Benoit, who also illustrated Tale of a Great White Fish: a Sturgeon Story.

Come to the book launch on Thursday, May 6 at 7pm at Kidsbooks, 3083 West Broadway,
It will be mostly a mingling kind of event, with food and drink and just a few words
from the author. A celebration!

Discovering Buried Fairy Tales: Adventures of a Scholarly Scavenger

Join the Vancouver Children’s Literature Roundtable for breakfast and an
engaging talk by Professor Zipes as he shares some of his travels in the
realms of fairy. He writes, “In the course of over 50 years of teaching at
different universities, I have made unusual discoveries of unique and
unusual fairy tales for children and adults. Though most scholars prefer to
work in libraries, I have done my most important work at flea markets, book
shows, second-hand bookstores, and lately on the Internet. Serendipity and
curiosity are always at work. How and why we must keep the child in us alive
to become mature scholars of children’s literature and fairy tales — this
is the subject of my ruminations as a scholarly scavenger.”
 
Event Details:
The University Golf Club, 5185 University Blvd, UBC
9 am, Saturday, March 27, 2010 (Registration, coffee, book sales from 8 am)
*Ticketed Event: For prices and details, see the VCLR website:
http://www.library.ubc.ca/edlib/table/

Our contemporary concept and image of a fairy tale has been shaped and
standardized by Disney so efficiently through the mechanisms of the culture
industry that our notions of happiness and utopia are and continue to be
filtered through a Disney lens, even if it is myopic. It seems that myopia
has come to dominate both reality and utopia, thanks to Disneyfication, or
that we are conditioned to view reality and fairy tales through a myopic
pseudo-utopian lens. Despite the domination of the fairy-tale film by the
Disney Corporation, however, it would be misleading to consider the Disney
productions as constituting a monopoly of fairy-tale films, or that they
have totally twisted our views of reality and utopia, for there have always
been competing films that offer a different vision of fairy tales and social
conditions. In this talk Professor Zipes will explore the different
endeavors of filmmakers to develop fairy-tale films which essentially
propose alternatives to the standard Disney fairy-tale film.
Event Details:
Robson Square Theatre, UBC Robson Square, 800 Robson Street, Vancouver, BC
6 - 7:15 pm, Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Presented by Green College and the UBC MA in Children’s Literature Program
Though most people consider fairy tales fascinating relics of the past, they
have actually
undergone numerous transformations and remain oddly modern even in the
twenty-first century. Using some key psychological and philosophical
categories from Sigmund Freud and Ernst Bloch, in this talk Professor Zipes
will discuss why fairy tales remain so important in our lives, and why
writers and artists continue to elaborate and re-create utopian and
carnivalesque motifs from the tales to re-shape perspectives on
possibilities for changing the world
 
Event Details:
Dodson Room, # 302, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre,1971 East Mall, UBC
12 - 12:50 with discussion to follow, Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Interdisciplinarity in Action:
Green College and ISGP Weekly Series Lecture
Radical Visions: Feminist Interpretations of Fairy Tales in Paintings,
Sculptures, and Photography
The major argument of Professor Zipes’s talk is based on a blunt assertion:
the fairy-tale notion about happiness must be turned on its head if we are
to glimpse the myths of happiness perpetuated by the canonical fairy tales
and culture industry and if we are to grasp what happiness might mean. In
the course of his argument he will situate the work of some talented
feminist painters, sculptors, and photographers, Kiki Smith, Joellyn Rock,
Claire Prussian, Sharon Singer and others, within the great historical and
cultural movement of feminism that has influenced their extraordinary art
and the works of many other innovative female artists and writers in the
wondrous realm of fairy tales.
 
Event Details:
Green College Coach House, 6201 Cecil Green Park Road, UBC
5 - 6:30 pm, Tuesday, March 23, 2010, with reception to follow.

The Writers’ Union of Canada has launched its 13th annual “Writing For Children Competition”:

…we invite writers to submit a piece for children up to 1,500 words in the English language that has not previously been published in any format. A $1,500 prize will be awarded to an unpublished Canadian writer, and the entries of the winner and finalists will be submitted to three publishers of children’s books. The deadline for entries is April 24, 2009.

Full details at the Writers’ Union website.

Please note: Calls for submissions, contests, events and miscellanea are not endorsed by the UBC Creative Writing Program or by the editor of this weblog. Please use your best judgement.

UBC Creative Writing MFA grad Rachelle Delaney’s new novel — The Ship of Lost Souls — will be launched in Vancouver on February 28th:

Event Details

Saturday, February 28 (1 - 3pm)
Once Upon A Huckleberry Bush
4387 Main Street, Vancouver

Free admission.

MFA grad Rachelle Delaney’s first novel — Ship of Lost Souls — was published last week by HarperCollins Canada.

A pirate ship, a treasure map, and a crew of orphans: how could even the most reluctant young reader resist such a premise? In her first novel, author Rachelle Delaney, a graduate of the MFA program at the University of British Columbia, tells the tale of the young crew of the ghost ship Margaret Hop as it races against the nasty pirates of the Dark Ranger to find a mysterious treasure that lies, legend has it, on a nearby island.

Congratulations Rachelle!

The Canadian Children’s Book Centre is seeking applicants for the position of British Columbia Regional Officer. This is a part-time position and is located in the Vancouver area.

The Regional Officer is a part-time position, 1.5 to 2 days a week except during peak periods such as Book Week and Best Books for Kids & Teens when more time will be required.

Full details after the jump…

Read the rest of this entry »

Robert Bateman, Victoria Miles, and BFA graduate Tiffany Stone will be read at UBC’s annual Authorfest, organized by the Education Library and the Vancouver Children’s Literature Roundtable.

Full event details at the UBC Library website.

Event Details:

Tuesday, February 3rd (4:30-6:30pm)
Hebb Theatre, UBC
2045 East Mall, Vancouver