Word Vancouver has come and gone, wrapping up last (rainy) Sunday. Fortunately the organizers managed to move the exhibitors and most of the programming inside the downtown Vancouver Public Library. We at EVENT sponsored a little shindig featuring Anne Fleming and Billeh Nickerson reading from their Notes on Writing pieces in our last issue (EVENT 42/1). Notes on Writing, a yearly feature in EVENT since 1989, allows writers extraordinary freedom to write whatever they want, however they want, about their craft and writing life.
We laughed (a lot). We cried (not much). Anne shared why ‘Novels Are for Children,’ and mentioned the special place in her heart she has for EVENT, home to her first published work; and Billeh dealt with the occasional interruption while reading with grace and humour. Check out a selection from Billeh’s piece, ‘Shelagh Rogers Called Me a Slut on CBC and Other True Stories,’ below.

And deep in the depths of the bottom floor of the library (a.k.a., ‘the moat’), we set up a little table to inform and delight (and promote EVENT). It was a bit cramped, but dry. Thank you to everyone involved in Word, and everyone who came by to visit.

Anne and Billeh with EVENT poetry editor Gillian Jerome.