LeGuin Live

As an anarchist, I had a duty to read Ursula K LeGuin's 'The
Dispossessed.' When I read it, I was impressed by how every word was
good. I remember being especially impressed by how her novel focused on
the emotional life of her main character in relation to the political
systems he lived within. Whether he was living with hedonistic capitalist
pigs or ascetic anarchist idealists, he still had to face the
difficulties of life and make peace with them in his given circumstances.

To me, LeGuin is among the progressive elite in America. Not only does
she live in Portland, Oregon (a vibrant do-it-yourself artist and writing
community) but she fearlessly publishes and speaks about topics like
pacifism and feminism. The moment I found out she was coming to Ottawa I
knew I had nowhere else to be on the night she was giving her talk.

The cathedral was full of fans on Saturday night when she gave her talk.
She opened her reading by performing two poems and then she read from her
latest release, 'Lavinia.' Following her reading, she sat down with the
festival's artistic director, Sean Wilson, for a short interview. After
the interview, members from the audience asked her questions.

The best part of the evening was the question and answer period from the
audience. Their questions were interesting and they got LeGuin talking
about violence in the fantasy genre, her views on turning her books into
films, writing for young adults and more.

Like most of the people at the LeGuin reading, I felt blessed for the
opportunity to see this great writer give a reading and speak about her
work.

- Sean Zio

Writing For Comics - Master Class with Mike Carey

Lovers and friends alike have called me a geek. I'd prefer being called
cute or even clever. I showed my true geek colours this past week when I
made a point of seeing Mike Carey twice at the festival. For those who do
not know Mike Carey, go to the library and look for a comic series called
'Lucifer.' If you are not impressed by its writing, narrative detail,
character development and wit then you do not have very good taste in
literature.

Out of the three noon hour Master Classes I attended at the festival,
Carey's was, by far, the most interesting and engaging. As a speaker, he
was funny and well-spoken. The best part of hearing him speak was how he
carelessly referred to writing for X-Men or Hellblazer: John Constantine.
He talked about it like it was an every day job. He was super cool.

I wrote down three pages of notes from his discussion of writing for
comics. I was very interested in his writing and publishing processes.
For example, when he was given the opportunity to write for X-Men, he was
given two to three hundred characters to choose from. He talked about the
difficulty of writing for X-Men since there have been so many plot-lines
and series and that any two characters he chose to work with would have
either killed each other at one point or would have been lovers.

He spoke often about having to 'pitch' ideas to publishers. In my
geek-fan world, I imagined him easily writing his comics because they're
so good. Instead, for him to get anything done, he had to pitch dozens
upon dozens of stories to different publishers in order to get to write
comics. Hearing him relate his struggles in getting published gave me
hope that even the best get rejected and have to fight their way to
publication.

On Saturday night before the LeGuin reading, Carey read from his Felix
Castor novels as part of a reading about 'fantastic fiction.' Although he
was still funny and well-spoken and he gave a great reading, his
performance did not compare to his talk the day before. I'm grateful I
got to see him talk about his profession as well as to see him give a
reading. Out of all the writers I've seen this past week, he was the most
inspiring.

Tomorrow I'm going to see Wolverine! I thought it necessary to mention
that. And, keep in mind, calling a boy a geek is not a good way to get
into his pants.

- Sean Zio

The Creative Process in Bringing a Script from Text to Performance

I decided to attend the Master Class about script writing at noon today.
As a man who loves theatre, I was happy the festival offered a talk about
writing for the stage. The reading was an interview between Paula
Danckert who works at a creative position at the NAC and Anton
Piatigorsky, a playwright.

The main lesson I took from the discussion between Danckert and
Piatigorsky was the importance of 'process' in writing for the stage.
According to Piatigorsky, a theatre company can run a play as a 'public
workshop,' a kind of trial run of the show. The playwright and the
director can use the workshop performances as ways to see where the play
can improve or where the audience gets bored. Piatigorsky made the
comment that it is easy to lose perspective on a play as a performance
since everyone involved can get lost in rehearsals and forget that the
piece can still improve for an audience.

He went on to talk about how a play can go through several stages before
it grows into its final version. At the beginning are the writing and
researching stages and they move into the process of rehearsals and public
workshops. He also talked about how a script is unlike a performance and
there is a separate step of capturing 'moments' on stage that are elusive
in the text but critical to the stage. This part of the process is done,
of course, with or by a director.

We were fortunate to have a reading of a script by Piatigorsky. I think
the strongest feeling I got from hearing a playwright discuss his craft
was that his job is done better with other people. A distinct feature of
theatre is the amount of people who get a script on to the stage.
Piatigorsky mentioned how he works with one director and how some
playwrights have been known for similarly working only with one director
for their whole careers. A playwright also works with actors and stage
designers and more. To be a playwright takes the willingness to work with
other creative people.

Kudos to the Writers Festival for working with Magnetic North and for
adding drama writing to their festival schedule.

- Sean Zio

Adrienne Clarkson in Conversation

I finally made it to my first Writers Festival event at noon today. I
went to see Adrienne Clarkson talk about writing biographies and
autobiographies.

When I arrived at St Brigid's, I was surprised by the recent renovations.
The basement now looks much better and it was comfortable to sit in for
Clarkson's reading. Like the keener I am, I rushed for a front row seat.

As I watched Clarkson walk on to the stage with the host Denise Chong, I
could hear people commenting on her shoes. She was wearing sparkling
silver leisure shoes. I think her shoes created an immediate tone of
friendliness with the audience and they definitely gave her an air of
being more than cool.

During the interview between Chong and Clarkson, I was disappointed that
Clarkson did not talk much about the techniques or obstacles she faced
with writing biographies and autobiographies. The event was not about the
nuts and bolts of writing, which is what I was hoping to hear about.
Instead, the interview focused more on Clarkson's biography of Norman
Bethune. She told anecdotes about his life and about her experiences
writing about him.

Although the event did not satisfy my expectations, it was still a great
experience. Clarkson is a lovely speaker and I could have listened to her
talk for much longer than she did. She did not let Chong ask her many
questions and her answers were long and had many side notes that each led
back to her original topic. The question and answer period was, like most
question and answer periods at literary events, awkward and gleaned only
one or two interesting questions.

Overall, I enjoyed my first event at the Writers Festival. The event was
well organized and the staff and volunteers were friendly and helpful.