Word Vancouver, Western Canada’s largest celebration of literacy and reading until Sept. 24 at various venues throughout the city. For list of events visit wordvancouver.ca.
Trans. Non-Binary. Cisgender.
In 2017, when it coms to identity, a dynamic vocabulary is in flux – constantly changing, ever-evolving.
But that’s how human experience – and the language that attempts to explore it – works.
So it is with Room Magazine, Canada’s oldest feminist literary journal, which for more than 40 years, has sought to honour and give space to emerging voices, even as the surrounding landscape shifts.
North Shore native Meghan Bell, the current publisher of Room, says in her six years at the helm of the magazine, “the changes have been dramatic.”
In the span of a few years, for example, the word “trans” – not to mention the people and issues behind it – have jumped into mainstream.
“And thank God, huh?” Bell says.
Somewhat apologetic for her middle-class upbringing (she was born in North Vancouver and graduated from West Vancouver Secondary), Bell emphasizes that a long line of brave women, “particularly women of colour,” has helped shape the magazine over the years.
“It was a team effort,” she says.
Bell is just one of numerous participants in this year’s Word Vancouver, a festival for readers and writers that opened Sept. 19 and runs through Sept. 24 at various venues.
For 2017, the festival features approximately 100 readings and presentations, 150 authors and panelists, 25 workshops, and 75 exhibitors.
The big festival day happens on on Sunday, Sept. 24 in and around the Central Branch of the Vancouver Public Library. From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., the public can take in free readings, panel discussions, writing workshops, site performers, family activities, an exhibitor marketplace, and much more.
Canadian authors, as well as book, magazine, comics, education, and literacy exhibitors, will gather to celebrate the region’s thriving literacy communities. There will be activities and fun for all ages.
Word Vancouver will also host Read Local events presented by the Association of Book Publishers of B.C. These include Poetry in Transit, readings by poets whose work will be featured on transit buses in the coming year, as well as readings by several B.C.-published children’s authors.
On Sunday, Bell will be part of a panel called: Embracing Change: The Evolution of Room Magazine. Staff and contributors will be on hand for a discussion and question-and-answer session around how the literary journal has stayed relevant, as well as talk about the publication of Room’s 40th anniversary anthology, Making Room: 40 years of Room Magazine.
Presenters will give a behind-the-scenes glance at some of the conversations that have driven the magazine’s recent evolutions, from diversity and accessibility, to financial sustainability, to embracing the digital world.
In addition to Bell, panelists will include Chelene Knight, Evelyn Lau, Jen Sookfong Lee and Yilin Wang. The discussion takes place at 2:45 p.m. at at Library Square, located at the Central Branch of the Vancouver Public Library (Perspective Point, Peter Kaye Room).
Room was launched in Vancouver in 1975. Over four decades, the quarterly journal has published an estimated 3,000 women in genres ranging from fiction, to poetry, to art, to journalistic interviews.
For its anniversary 400-page anthology, Bell says Room reached out to former editors and contributors to gain a snapshot of important shifts in culture.
“We selected work that showed the history of Canadian feminism over 40 years,” she says.
Each section covers a different decade, with editors of the times sharing insights about feminism and its diversity, expectations and pitfalls.
Other North Shore participants in this year’s Word Vancouver include:
- Carol Reid, who will read from her late husband’s book, A Temporary Stranger (by Jamie Reid).
- Judson Beaumont reads from Timbertown Tales: Chester Gets a Pet! (for kids).
- Elaine Woo is participating in the panel: Writers Reading Writers: A PRISM Panel on Influence, Space, and Resources.
- Eve Lazarus will read from Blood, Sweat, and Fear: The Story of Inspector Vance, Vancouver’s First Forensic Investigator.
- Danielle LaFrance will read on the CUPE stage.
- Dietrich Kalteis will read from Zero Avenue.
- Louise Green will present from Big Fit Girl: Embrace the Body You Have.
Admission to the Word Vancouver festival, which runs until Sept. 24 at various locations, is free. For more information and full program details, visit wordvancouver.ca.
This story has been edited since first posting.
