This week we are rebroadcasting an episode we made last year with Marie Prins. Marie had just published her mid grade novel The Girl from the Attic with Common Deer Press and had begun a determined marketing campaign in the difficult conditions of the pandemic. She garnered many positive reviews for her book and recently the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators announced that The Girl From the Attic was one of five finalists for the Crystal Kite awards. In the past few months she has been writing several picture story drafts and a number of new poems.
Heidi Croot received her first literary award at her Grade 8 graduation and was heart-broken because her father couldn’t be there to see her. She took an Honours BA in English from Western University, which taught her all about writing essays. This led her to a 35 year award winning career as a business writer, in the fields of technology, long-term-care, municipal government, and health and safety before she decided to hang out her free-lance shingle. Her creative writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Brevity, Writescape, Linea magazine, and a WCDR anthology. Presently she is working on a memoir, which she has recently sent to a professional editor.
This week Port Hope celebrates Farley Mowat Week. Word on the Hills is delighted to hear about it from Claire Mowat. Claire was born and educated in Toronto and is a graduate of Ontario College of Art. Originally a graphic designer, she switched to writing during the 1960s when she lived in Newfoundland. This led to her first book, The Outport People. Her second memoir Pomp and Circumstances about her experiences working at Rideau Hall was followed by, Travels with Farley a memoir of the Mowats’ time living on the Magdalen Islands. She also wrote a novel for younger readers, The Girl From Away, that was so successful that she developed it into a trilogy, by writing The French Islands and A Summer in Louisburg. For many years, Claire and Farley, her husband, divided their time living partly on a farm in Nova Scotia and partly at their home in Port Hope where she still lives. Today she is visiting us to talk with us about Farley Mowat Week 2021 in Port Hope, to honour his many achievements and celebrate Farley’s 100th birthday on Wednesday May 12th. Farley Mowat published over 40 books and sold 17 million copies during his lifetime and his stories, memoirs, books about the arctic and other travels are still bestsellers today.
Meet Sue Reynolds an award-winning writer of novels, poetry and creative non-fiction, Sue has been writing all her life. Her first novel was published in 1992 and won the Canadian Library Association’s YA Novel of the Year award but she never gave up studying the craft of novel writing. She read everything she could get her hands on and took many courses. Through experiencing workshops with Natalie Goldberg, she realized she needed to find community – her tribe – to write with. And so, fifteen years ago, she began passing on what she had learned. In 2002 she took the AWA Certification to lead writing workshops with Pat Schneider (The Writer as an Artist and Writing Alone and With Others) and Patricia Lee Lewis, and she’s never looked back.
Word on the Hills Radio Program 