The Art of Fact means Creative Nonfiction course is only a click away
Word is that Our Hero is offering an online course in Creative Nonfiction through University of Toronto. It’s called The Art of Fact: An Introduction to Writing Non-Fiction, and it kicks off January 30, 2017. To see if it’s right for you, read on below. To register, click here. About the course: This online workshop…
Read MoreChasing the Irish Pirate Queen around the Aran Islands
Hats off to James McQuiston, editor and publisher of The Celtic Guide, a superbly professional magazine that reflects his passionate interest in Scotland and Ireland. The December issue (click here) features contributions from throughout the Celtic world. They include an excerpt from my latest book, Celtic Lightning: How the Scots and the Irish Created a…
Read MoreArt connoisseur snaps up Sheena’s painting as she hangs her show
An artist’s work is never done. Here we have Sheena Fraser McGoogan this afternoon at Art Square Gallery in the heart of the Six. She was just finishing the hanging of her solo show, Mountains and Icebergs, which runs from today through Nov. 28 opposite the Art Gallery of Ontario. We rented a van this morning, loaded…
Read MoreThe night Leonard Cohen taught me that Magic Is Alive
This photo finds Leonard Cohen out front of his Montreal house in 1977. At that time, I was living just a few blocks away, and I would walk past every once in a while, hoping to catch sight of him. I never did. A few years later, however, I got to spend an evening with…
Read MoreArt show brings Northwest Passage to the Centre of the Universe
This is GRISE FJORD, one of the paintings that will turn up in MOUNTAINS AND ICEBERGS, Sheena’s forthcoming solo exhibition at Art Square Gallery in Toronto. Sheena did a lot of new works this year, drawing on voyages in the Northwest Passage with Adventure Canada. Situated on Ellesmere Island, Grise Fjord (home to about 130 people)…
Read MoreAn Open Letter to Explorer John Rae On His Birthday
Dear Dr. Rae: I write from the future to wish you Happy Birthday on the 203rd anniversary of your birth. What to report from 2016? Well, searchers have recently found the two lost ships of Sir John Franklin, Erebus and Terror. This has sparked renewed interest in the fate of the 1845 Franklin expedition. On this subject, slowly we…
Read MoreMountains and icebergs (exhibition) coming to downtown Toronto
Mountains and Icebergs, a solo exhibition of colorful acrylic paintings by Sheena Fraser McGoogan, will run from Nov. 14 to 28 at Art Square Gallery and Cafe in downtown Toronto. Sheena has traveled extensively in the Arctic, madly shooting photos for yours truly (even though she is first and foremost a painter. Besides the Arctic, she…
Read MoreJohn Rae’s childhood home set to become memorial visitor centre
The John Rae Society has finally purchased the Hall of Clestrain, the childhood home of explorer John Rae. The Society, created three years ago to restore the 18th century building, acquires entry to the Hall and surrounding lands as of Sept. 30 — which would have been Rae’s 203rd birthday. The Society put down a…
Read MoreFlashback to when W.P. Kinsella worked magic with Shoeless Joe
The passing of author Bill Kinsella, who died peacefully at 12:05 pm today, swept me back twenty years. I was working as books editor at the Calgary Herald, and wrote a yarn focusing on Kinsella’s breakthrough moment. Others will write the obituaries and fill in the blanks. This is a personal hit that ran Oct.…
Read MoreJohn Rae sails on through confusion & nay-saying
So here we are at Beechey Island, wending our way towards Victory Point, Rae Strait, and Gjoa Haven. We’re on the Ocean Endeavour, we’re sailing with Adventure Canada, and when I turn to Wikipedia, I discover a bit of confusion in the entry on explorer John Rae. I read that “Ken McGoogan has claimed that…
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