A Literary Landmark and Writers-in-Residence Centre for Vancouver
The following is a message from Anton Wagner, of the Save the Kogawa Homestead Committee:
Dear Todd,
Thank you for the great article “How important is saving Kogawa House? What other literary landmarks are in Vancouver?” on the http://www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com website.
I totally agree with Alan Twigg’s suggestion to Ann-Marie that we also focus our campaign to save Joy’s former home on Margaret Atwood’s recognition of Vancouver’s cultural desert of literary landmarks.
As Alan writes in his entry on Pauline Johnson in the BC Bookworld Author Bank, “The Pauline Johnson memorial in Stanley Park, above Third Beach, is the only literary monument erected in Vancouver for a Canadian writer during the 20th century.”
Johnson died in 1913.
Other provinces and much smaller towns have established and supported such literary landmarks and a few writers-in-residence programs:
The Manitoba Department of Culture, Heritage and Tourism maintains the Margaret Laurence House in Neepawa as the Manitoba Provincial Heritage Site No. 25 (http://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/hrb/prov/p025.html)
In St. Boniface the non-profit corporation La Maison Gabrielle Roy Inc. operates the Gabrielle Roy House as a museum for the Franco-Manitoban writer with project grants from the federal, provincial and municipal governments and corporate, foundation, and individual donor support. To date, 105 women and 37 men have donated $1,000 each to the House. (http://www.maisongabrielleroy.mb.ca)
In Eastend, Saskatchewan, the Eastend Arts Council owns and operates the Wallace Stegner House as a writer/artist’s residence. Rent is $250 a month, including all utilities. The furnished house, built in 1916, contains a kitchen, dining, living room, study, two bedrooms and a bath and can accommodate two adults and one child. The house is funded in part by the Saskatchewan Heritage Foundation, the Writers’ Development Trust, provincial, federal and civic government grants, and individual donations. (http://www.dinocountry.com/stegner_house.html)
In Dawson City, the Yukon Arts Council and the Klondike Visitor’s Association and the Dawson City Libraries Association operate the Berton House Writer’s Residence Retreat. Initiated by Pierre Burton in his former boyhood home, the Writer’s Residence Retreat enables professional Canadian writers to write in the remote Northern community free of charge.
One item of great interest in your Berton story link is the last April 2001 item on that page, “Canada Council to support Berton House writers.” It reports a grant of $100,000 from the Canada Council over a three-year period to the Berton House Writer’s Retreat Society to enable four Canadian or international writers to be in residence in the house for three months each, with a monthly fellowship of $2,000 and travel cost assistance. This would be a great precedent for us in seeking financial operating assistance from the Canada Council.
But again, no such writing centre and literary landmark exist in Vancouver. The Federation of BC Writers operates a small writing cabin, gifted by George Fetherling, the Horsefly Manor Writers Retreat on Quesnel Lake in the Cariboo. (http://www.bcwriters.com/horsefly/)
Lorna Crozier has informed us that the Haig-Brown House in Campbell River, operated by the non-profit conservation organization, the Haig-Brown Institute, has just opened its doors to writers, with Don McKay being the first writer-in-residence. (http://www.haigbrowninstitute.org)
Vancouver, one of Canada’s most dynamic cities and our gateway to the East, needs a writers-in-residence centre as has been proposed for the Joy Kogawa House so that Canadian and international writers can observe and write about the unique evolving multi and intercultural society that is developing in Canada.
Anton Wagner