A Visionary Tradition: Canadian Literature and Culture at the Turn of the Millennium
Wednesday 10 November to Monday 15 November 1999

Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, University of Guelph
Nicholas Goldschmidt Room, MacKinnon Building, University of Guelph and Chalmers United Church, Guelph, Ontario

Beginning Wednesday 10 November 1999 at 9:30 a.m. in the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, the College of Arts at the University of Guelph will host a history-making community celebration of, and scholarly conference on, Canadian Literature and Culture. This will feature three ground-breaking research-panels: one on Representations of Canada in the Teaching of Canadian Literature, moderated by the University of Guelph's Donna Palmateer Pennee; one on Canadian Visual Art, moderated by the Ontario College of Art and Design's Ron Shuebrook; and one on Canadian Opera, moderated by the University of Toronto's Linda Hutcheon and Michael Hutcheon. Taken together, presentations are expected to open up for reflection fascinating points of intersection between criticism and creativity, literature and visual art, literature and music, and criticism and autobiography.

The idea of holding a nation-wide interdisciplinary conference dedicated to a broad-based review of Canadian cultural achievements was inspired in part by the success of Frank R. Scott's 1955 national literary conference held at Queen's University, which actively promoted mutual understanding among authors, publishers, critics, and readers. Keynote speakers at the Guelph conference will include: University of Guelph historian Gil A. Stelter, discussing "The Universal in the Local"; Dalhousie University critic Andy Wainwright discussing "Bob Dylan, Canada, and the Sixties"; three-time Governor General's Award-winning poet and playwright James Reaney, a participant in the 1955 Queen's University conference, discussing his favourite Canadian visionaries; University of Toronto critic W.J. Keith, speaking on Hugh Hood and The New Age; and Simon Fraser University biographer Sandra Djwa, author of the standard work on F.R. Scott, speaking on F.R. Scott and Pierre Elliott Trudeau.

Further participants in A Visionary Tradition will include several other Governor General's Award winners: Guelph area children's author and autobiographer Jean Little; poet and visual artist P.K. Page/P.K. Irwin; University of Guelph critic François Paré; story writer and novelist Leon Rooke; story writer, novelist, and visual artist Diane Schoemperlen; and University of Guelph playwright Judith Thompson. Other notable authors speaking are: biographer and critic John Ayre; historian Michael Bliss; memoirist and poet Barry Callaghan; publishers Jack David and Robert Lecker; novelist and poet Joy Kogawa; biographer and critic Philip Marchand; story writer, critic, and editor John Metcalf; critic Janet M. Paterson; critic Catherine Sheldrick Ross; and biographer and autobiographer Clara Thomas.

Evening performances are scheduled from 7:15 to 11:00 p.m. at Chalmers United Church (across from The Bookshelf) for five nights beginning Wednesday 10 November. Performers for the first evening will include duo pianists Anagnoson and Kinton, along with writers Penn Kemp, Joy Kogawa, Marianne Micros, Daniel David Moses, P.K. Page, and James Reaney. Performers for the second evening, Thursday 11 November, will include writers John B. Lee, Terry Griggs, Daphne Marlatt, P.K. Page, James Reaney, and Colleen Thibaudeau.

Performers for the third evening, Friday 12 November, will include Celtic harpist Mary Anderson-Buchanan, along with writers K.D. Miller, Gloria Alvernaz Mulcahy, Ray Smith, and the immortal Oscar Wilde. Performers for the fourth evening, Saturday 13 November, will include writers bill bissett, Barry Callaghan, George Elliott Clarke, Marianne Micros, Leon Rooke, and Diane Schoemperlen. The final night, Sunday 14 November, will feature writers bill bissett and the Four Women (Penn Kemp, Colleen Thibaudeau, Gloria Alvernaz Mulcahy, Marianne Micros), Thomas King, Imogen Knister Givens, John B. Lee, Marilyn Gear Pilling, John Terpstra, along with Conference and Publications Director J.R. (Tim) Struthers.

Each evening at Chalmers United Church, during intermission, audience members will have an opportunity to purchase books and/or CDs by the performers and to have these items signed. Five-evening transferable passes for the evening events are available for $50 from The Bookshelf, Guelph Arts Council, and Sunrise Books. General admission each evening will be $15, or $10 for students, teachers, seniors, and the underwaged. Members of the general public are welcome at the daytime events, which are free of charge and begin daily at 9:30 a.m. at the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, University of Guelph.

Please contact A Visionary Tradition office at 519 824 4120 extension 3270 if additional information is needed.

J.R. (Tim) Struthers, Conference and Publications Director
A Visionary Tradition: Canadian Literature and Culture at the Turn of the Millennium

"The Conference / The Festival / The Community Event of the Century"