Today at the nooner Jeanette Lynes told us that it took her 7 years to write her debut novel. (It’s called The Factory Voice and I’m gonna get me a copy.)
But Ariel quickly got her to point out that during that time she had also published numerous books of poetry, and also she teaches.

But anyway, 7 years has got me thinking.

I have been sorting through a lot of thoughts lately, about what makes a writer. What validates a writer as a writer and what makes a writer ‘good’.
I’ve concluded that, despite the popular pressure of
publishing = writer = good writer= writer that feels validated in their craft

its all bs and everyone that wants to write is entitled to be called a writer, and who even knows what’s good or not when its all based on opinion anyway and there are SO many different and wonderful styles of writing in the world.

Really it’s about people having a voice and being able to share that voice with other people, and about connecting with other people through voice.

So that means that sometimes you might not write a damn thing for months, or years, or sometimes you find your grandma’s old journal but its not actually a journal, it’s a bunch of short stories scribbled down and partly finished and you realize that she is a writer and you are a writer and even that girl in your first year English class who really liked to write about the time she found her cat dead and rotting and how it was really just a poorly veiled metaphor for how she felt in high school, she is a writer too.

I know I’m being idealistic. And I know that there are probably some of you out there that are editors or teachers and you are like “Courtney, I have seen all kinds of writing, and trust me darling, not everyone that wants to be a writer is a writer”
And I respect that I have never been in your position.
I also respect that it can be important to support people in developing their writing.
(but always we have to ask-who's support? who's ideas of developing?)

I just feel like it is so dangerous to put limitations on who can write, and what is good, and what is good enough to be shared. What I am interested in is knowing that everyone feels like their voice is good and valid and valued.

Because writing is an act of resistance.

All of this has nothing really to do with Jeanette Lynes or her reading today. I really enjoyed what she shared of her novel, it was fun and intriguing and it made me laugh. And she also wrote a poem about her mother’s feet and I liked that too. Oh, and I really like her hair.

Have a good day.
See you tonight at mainstage.






Courtney Slobogian was born in Winnipeg and likes it that way.

She is a writer/understated activist/ irreverent feminist.

Some of her work can be tracked down in quiet corners of the internet.

She co-hosts a radio show on CKUW called Tiger Lilies are Poisonous, and dislikes cotton socks. She wrote a thesis once.

Last night Elizabeth Bachinsky made me cry.

Not because she beat me up or called me names or anything.

It was because she opened up her reading by singing in Ukrainian.

Then she went on to reference Getrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas in one of her poems.

And then she mentioned Winnipeg.

Pretty much there are 3 direct routes to my heart and she managed to take them all within her half hour reading.


Needless to say I was left feeling that very particular way that only some writing can make you feel.

It left me with the body memory of why writing is so necessary. Because it evokes a visceral response that goes beyond the intellectual processing that my mind loves to do.

It tells the internal chatter to shut up and sit down and all that is left is your body, and your being, responding to the tugging and weaving of words put together in such a way that everything else manages to fall away.


Mainstage last night was entitled In Between Places and it dealt with the ideas of home, belonging and connection.
I have been in love with another author for a while now, Marusya Bociurkiw, who also deals a lot with her Ukrainian identity.
(If you haven't figured it out yet, I am Ukrainian.)

When I think about home and belonging, when I think about the histories of my families, I find myself searching out the kind of work that brings me to a place of connecting with other writers who have stories of their baba and gigi, stories of having an empty place setting at Christmas Eve dinner for all of the relatives who have died.

Home is in the sharing of our stories and the ability to recognize some part of ourselves in other people's words.


It brings us back to a place we might not know we had left.


I'm sure there are some of you who connected with some of the experiences of the other writers last night, be it Cyril Dabydeen, Priscilla Uppal, Endre Farkas or Carolyn Marie Souaid. Each writer brought an element of their own experience of home.

The more space there is for this kind of writing, the more I am reminded of exactly why everyone that wants to, needs the space to write their way home.


It brings us back, and it has the power to bring the reader back too.


everyone deserves this.



Courtney Slobogian was born in Winnipeg and likes it that way.

She is a writer/understated activist/ irreverent feminist.

Some of her work can be tracked down in quiet corners of the internet.

She co-hosts a radio show on CKUW called Tiger Lilies are Poisonous, and dislikes cotton socks. She wrote a thesis once.

No human is illegal.

Cyril Dabydeen brought this sentence to the surface within the first five minutes of his time in front of the quiet audience sitting in the cave that is the Carol Shields auditorium during The Nooner today.

The combination of his light and jovial nature didn't hide the intensity of his poems or his politics.
No human is illegal.

Followed by his poem Lady Icarus-about a woman, considered 'illegal',
her story of deportation
x 5.

I have been told that it is difficult to write well and to write politically and/or socially consciously.
I have been told it is best to avoid it.


The idea that there is a divide between good writing and political writing creates a divide in me. Even when writing doesn't deal directly or obviously with political issues-be it race or gender or class,
the politics are always there.


Cyril Dabydeen quoted someone (whose name I forgot to write down, and who I now cannot recall), but the quote was

The aim of the writer is to mythologize the ground that you walk


And the ground that we walk is our history, never separate from our oppressions and our privilege. So it only makes sense to me that, as writers,we stay aware of our location. And the idea that someone can even consider eliminating the political and social context from their art,
is an act of privilege.

No human is illegal.

No art is without politics.


*please note the word politics in this post is being used in the lower case 'p' for politics kind of way. You know, the kind of stuff one might study if they did a degree in say, Gender studies, just for example....





Courtney Slobogian was born in Winnipeg and likes it that way.

She is a writer/understated activist/ irreverent feminist.

Some of her work can be tracked down in quiet corners of the internet.

She co-hosts a radio show on CKUW called Tiger Lilies are Poisonous, and dislikes cotton socks. She wrote a thesis once.

Hi, my name is Courtney and I am late for most things I do - including my introduction for this lovely blog called Hot Air.

Due to some seriously annoying electricity problems in my apartment, I have been without access to a computer for extended periods of time, all weekend. Luckily I have a box full of fuses, and a call out to my caretaker, so the possibility of being without electricity for another night is somewhat reduced.

All that aside, I am back as a blogger for a second year in a row, and I’m really excited about that. Last year I was all bright eyed and bushy tailed about the festival. It was my first time hearing of it, and on top of that I had the major responsibility of writing about my daily treks through the land of books and authors and readings and questions.

It was overwhelming to say the least.

This year I’m looking forward to coming back to feeling more grounded - less easily swept up with the magical of it all.

You know?

I’d like to keep my feet on the ground and look at things critically. Seriously.

Because writing is strictly serious business, right?

…………………

Ok so here’s what I think will actually happen - the magic will still be there, and I will be plagued with questions of what drives authors to write? Where does their motivation come from? What does it mean to be a writer?

(you know, because I'm a big fan of the impossible questions)

I will be caught up in all of the different styles and ways that people find to say what they feel is most important to have heard.

I will be lost in the variations of what people consider important to have heard.

So, hopefully with the help of a trained electrician, and the magic of the festival pulling me along through the week, I will be able to share with you some of the things I find most compelling, funny, and obscure.

And hopefully I won’t be late for everything....

* * *
Courtney Slobogian was born in Winnipeg and likes it that way.

She is a writer/understated activist/ irreverent feminist.

Some of her work can be tracked down in quiet corners of the internet.

She co-hosts a radio show on CKUW called Tiger Lilies are Poisonous, and dislikes cotton socks. She wrote a thesis once.