Editor's note: In cooperation with the Festival of the Written Arts, Coast Reporter will be highlighting authors coming in August for this year's festival.
There is a long list of Canadian writers whose first novels spring perfectly formed on a surprised literary world. They make life difficult for themselves in that they must then produce worthy follow-ups.
Joseph Boyden has his work cut out for him. Boyden has some Métis (as well as Scottish and Irish) in his background. He has written Three Day Road (Penguin, 2005), a powerful first novel about two Ojibwa snipers transported from the Canadian bush to the blood-soaked trenches of WW1 Europe. The story is told from the perspective of the maimed and morphine-addicted one who returns. The Ojibwa myth of the windigo, an evil spirit that possesses anyone who succumbs to cannibalism, both real and metaphorical, permeates the story. The book, featured on CBC's Canada Reads, won the McNally Robinson Aboriginal Book of the Year Award and was nominated for the Governor General's Award. Boyden teaches creative writing at the University of New Orleans. He appears on Aug. 5 at 2:30 p.m. at the Writers' Festival in Sechelt.
For tickets, call 604-885-9631 or see www.writersfestival.ca.
