Archival Research

Went to the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library to go through Mavis Gallant's manuscript collection there (the answer to your question, Phyl) .... and yes, once it's done, you'll be able to read it on the Historical Perspectives on Canadian Publishing website.

I could have stayed there for hours longer but hubby had driven me and had other things to do... as it was, we got tied up in traffic and got to his supplier 1 stinking minute too late, which SUCKED.

I ordered copies of bunches of pages though ... as soon as they come (in the mail) will get my essay written.

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Historical Perspectives on Canadian Publishing

SO much to write about when I find the time & energy .... am finished my summer school adventures and now embarking on an editing project in addition to the many other things I need to get done.

One of the things that came out of the EMiC course though, was that we had an opportunity to learn about the Historical Perspectives on Canadian Publishing project, which is a collaboration by The William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections at McMaster University Library (Hamilton, ON), the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto, and Queen’s University Archives (Kingston, ON).

One part of the project involves the preparation of case studies by graduate students - and yes, even though I have bunches of stuff to get done this month, and even though the due date is sooner rather than later, I volunteered to write one. It is a good opportunity to do archival work, to learn about a particular Canadian author, and to have something published. And it is doable - 800 words is not THAT many afterall - although the truth is that going through boxes and boxes of material and sticking to less than 800 words is probably way more of a challenge than writing longer would be - whatever... I'm up for the challenge and looking forward to it.

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Summer School

Finished Day 2 of TEMiC - that would stand for Textual Editing & Modernism in Canada. This week is all about theory. A LOT of theory - fortunately, I'm finding it all far more interesting than the theory we read in my Public Texts course - even the articles we actually READ for the Public Texts course (there are several) are more interesting now that we're actually going to have an opportunity to use them in practical, hands on sorts of ways.

While this week is all theory, next week is focused on PRACTICE - and we are actually going to do some editing and put together (short but) critical scholarly edition(s). I will also be doing a paper for the course - I took the credit option (I am such a sucker for punishment sometimes!) .... my plan is to focus on the intersect between editing theory and web usability; to look at issues of site design. There are several very effective online archives - the Rossetti Archive being the one most often mentioned - so I'm not starting from scratch...but hopefully I will come up with something useful. My goal is to come up with a paper that is not only potentially useful, but also, I hope, something publishable.

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Bad Blogger!!!

So .... here is is June 6 and I'm leaving for Victoria BC in a few hours to start learning all about digital editing ....and I haven't posted anything about Canadian fiction in eons; I'm sorry!

It's been a very busy couple of weeks - so busy that I really haven't read much of anything other than blogs and websites and ~stuff~ about pest control.

I now know WAY more about spiders, roaches, bats and bedbugs than I ever wanted to know - but hubby has his license and his product and his database and is good to go - so now tis time to focus on me and MY stuff.

I have a presentation to get done that has to take first priority - and a whack of reading about editing practice and theory, and about Canadian modernist poets. But I shall return - and when I do, will be about time to gear up for the Leacock Festival, which is one of the highlights of my summer.

It is a writers' festival that is held in Orillia every summer... normally I go to just about every event. Not sure that I'll be able to get to them all this year (there are a lot) as I still can't drive - but will get to as many as I can, and then will likely fill this blog with way more than you could ever want to know about Canadian authors and Canadian fiction.

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