Word nerds enjoy myth-breaking, merry-making

It was a week of pithy remarks and eloquently posed questions. The Banff-Calgary International Writers Festival, also called WordFest, took place at venues spanning both cities this month. Guests included three of the five shortlisted nominees for this year’s Giller Prize; Joseph Boyden, Rawi Hage, and Marina Endicott. Other best-selllers in attendance were Austin Clarke, Nino Ricci, Bill Gaston, Richard Wagamese, Sheree Fitch, Donna Morrissey, Deborah Ellis, and Ronald Wright, as well as the powerhouse behind Random House, Anne Collins.

Festival-goers uniformly shed their usual conservative business attire in favour of an upscale but casual (and even slightly nautical) look, as if taking their lead from Wordfest opener John Ralston Saul whose navy blazer, baby blue socks and double-buckle shoes sent spirited ripples of approval through his sold-out audience. However, looks can be deceiving, as authors in one panel discovered after several failed attempts at light-hearted political humour.

“Give Stephen Harper a book and he’ll use it to prop up the legs of his table,” writer Jaspreet Singh couldn’t resist joking during a panel discussion. The small audience was silent.

The Vertigo Theatre was Saul’s first stop on a national tour to promote his new book, A Fair Country: Telling Truths about Canada. The book aims to unmask the cultural assumptions underlying Canadian life, and expose a dangerously out-of-touch and elite strata of decision-makers.

Having spent a few years in Calgary, first as a young student, then later as policy advisor to Maurice Strong (founder of Petro-Canada), Saul had no hesitation weighing in on Alberta’s unique place within Canada. Of course, he had no invitation to do so, either.

“No-one has asked me about the economy yet!” he gasped, during the question and answer period following his lecture, “Well, I’ll talk about it anyway, just briefly. Canada, and Alberta, is about to be faced with the juggernaut of Europe and the United States who will see the oil sands as the enemy. This is a precarious economy, built primarily on raw goods which cannot sustain their value or quantity. And the myth that Ottawa is the enemy … is leaving this province dangerously exposed to a crises that has been brewing for some time. You have not had a sensible premiere since Peter Lougheed.”

Later in the festival, another literary heavyweight bestowed words of wisdom on politics of different kind. Anne Collins, publisher and vice president of Random House Canada, gave insight into the sometimes tumultuous relationship between editors and writers. The panel discussion included her latest protégé, Andrew Davidson. His first novel, The Gargoyle, garnered an advance of 1.2 million dollars and ignited a global bidding war for the international rights. That spectacular story had aspiring writers on the edge of their modern deco seats in the Art Gallery of Calgary, where the talk took place.

A final event under the WordFest banner takes place on October 27, when Bill Richardson will discuss his new book at the John Dutton Theatre.

Published in National Post, October 25 2008