A handful of Calgary books appear on two literary maps of Canada, in 1936 and 1979. (Photo: Reg Tiangha)
Does Calgary have a literature? That's the question we set out to answer in the affirmative on Jane's Walk weekend. On a summery Saturday, a crowd of 50 explored a few blocks of downtown Calgary through the eyes of writers. This was the second edition of my literary Jane's Walk: you can check out last year's walk here.
I've posted a reading list of the works referred to on the route.
Thanks to Reg Tiangha, Yanmei Fei and Blair Carbert for sharing these photos -- and to Calgary writer Rea Tarvydas who shepherded the crowd with a sense of calm and good humour.
Harley Hotchkiss Gardens next to the old court house on 7th Avenue SW: a quick primer on Calgary literature, Alberta's Odysseus Robert Kroetsch, and a selection of oil patch novels. (Photo: Reg Tiangha)
Scotia Centre: Way up, on the 36th floor, the site of a storied 1983 meeting between Calgary author John Ballem and Toronto writer Barry Callaghan. (Photo: Blair Carbert)
Across from the Devonian Gardens: connecting the dots between Barry Callaghan, John Ballem, and Calgary-born novelist Norman Ravvin. Ravvin's novel, Café des Westens evokes two long-ago demolished city landmarks nearby: the Wales Hotel and the Robin Hood Flour Mill. Calgary author Cecelia Frey (centre) reviewed Ravvin's novel for the Herald in 1991. (Photo: Yanmei Fei)
The Alberta Hotel: tall tales, Bob Edwards, and Katherine Govier's 1987 novel, Between Men. (Photo: Reg Tiangha)
Stephen Avenue: A Jane's Walk parade down what was the 1912 Stampede parade route. Novelist Nancy Huston (Plainsong) and poet Yvonne Trainer (Tom Three Persons) capture two different aspects of Guy Weadick's first Stampede. (Photo: Reg Tiangha)
The Grain Exchange: remembering two homegrown Calgary artists, Maxwell Bates and P. K. Page. Both spent their formative childhood years in the city -- and what we now call the Memorial Park Library -- in the early 20th century. (Photo: Blair Carbert)
The Palliser Hotel: the grand dame of Calgary hotels teems with literary connections, including Aritha van Herk's novel, Restlessness. Just east of the hotel once stood Calgary Station, which found its way into a 1922 poem by Isabel Ecclestone MacKay and a just-published novel about Ukrainian immigrants to Alberta, Kalyna by Calgary's Pam Clark. (Photo: Yanmei Fei)
Stephen Avenue: a look at Calgary's early bookstores, Thomson Bros Bookstore (namesake of the restaurant) and Linton's Bookstore circa 1890. The avenue was also home to several theatres, including the Starland, which Marina Endicott uses as one of the Calgary settings in her 2012 vaudeville novel, The Little Shadows. (Photo: Blair Carbert)
Near the site of the Calgarian Hotel on 7th Ave East: author Lori Hahnel reads a passage from her 2008 novel, Love Minus Zero. The scene takes us into the Calgarian Hotel, the epicentre of the city's punk rock era between 1979-82. (Photo: Reg Tiangha)
Olympic Plaza: the changing streetscape of Stephen Avenue has been evoked by writers across the decades. (Photo: Yanmei Fei)
That's a wrap! Thanks to all of you who joined me for this year's Writing the City Jane's Walk -- on foot or on the world wide web. See you on Calgary's storied streets for next year's #janeswalkyyc.
Life is good when you get to wear a headset, stand on a bench and tell Calgary stories in the sun. (Photo: Reg Tiangha)
