THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2016 A7
LOCAL NEWS
New anthology celebrates northern perspectives From the streets to the serene, Peace Talks features the works of 18 local writers A new anthology of works by Fort St. John writers has hit the local bookshelves just in time for Christmas, offering readers a window into life in the north. Peace Talks features more than 30 short stories and poems by 18 writers, a months-long process that started earlier this summer ended with a book signing outside Cole’s in the Totem Mall this past weekend. Compiled and published on a shoestring budget, editor Ronnie Roberts says the anthology features a diverse range of stories and writers, many who have just been published for the first time. “What we tried to do when we were assembling them (the stories), we tried to have… a mixture of short, long, serious, uplifting, a bit of a downer, a window into a life, religious, not religious, nitty gritty street… a real variety, and it truly is a verity. The voices are very, very different,” Roberts said. “It’s a marvellous window into living in the north. If you sat there and you read that whole book, you would have a true picture of a wide variety of experiences of living up here.” The concept for the anthology incubated in the Fort St. John Public Library, where a group of writers meet regularly to share and discuss their work. “The north is underrepresented, or perhaps Hollywood-ized, or vilified as rough and tumble place,” Roberts said. “Yeah, it’s rough and tumble, it is, but the people are so kind as well. “We had decided if we are going to write here, let’s write what we know. Or if you can’t do that, write about something peace related, tranquility,” she said. Glenn Palmer is one of the contributors, with two pieces in the anthology. His short story, North Peace Blues, is one of the pieces that anchors the book and
offers readers a glimpse into living on the streets of Fort St. John. In it, Palmer marries his personal experience of finding himself in the Salvation Army shelter for six weeks, with the experience of a man he recently met who moved to the area for work at the Site C dam, only to lose the job after his first day. “I was looking around for a new story to write,” Palmer said. “He was in a situation where you had to go to court, he had a child and child support payments, and this was going to be his lifeline. I just tried to imagine what that would that be like for somebody in that condition to wind up stuck in Fort St. John with no money and no resources, and not having any information about how to survive on the streets.” His other contribution to the anthology, North Peace Coda, is a prequel to North Peace Blues that further delves into one of its characters. Palmer, who moved to Fort St. John in 2012, said his stories offer readers a different point of view compared to people who have lived in the city for some time. “It shows a side of life in Fort St. John that most people aren’t even aware exists: the homeless people, the people in the shelter, the people in the streets,” he said. “Once you wind up in there (the shelter)... people don’t see you anymore. That’s one of the themes of the two stories. Once you are a street person, you are pretty much invisible. People see you, but they look through you or around you. They don’t notice what you’re doing unless you’re doing something really awful like sh***ing in the middle of a sidewalk. “Apart from that, nobody sees you. It’s a strange experience,” he said. To learn more about the anthology, visit Writers of the Peace on Facebook, or email peacewrite@gmail.com.
MATT PREPROST PHOTO
Local writers celebrated the launch of Peace Talks: An Anthology of Peace Region Stories outside Coles in the Totem Mall on Nov. 26.
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Carol Fest sings in holiday season MATT PREPROST editor@ahnfsj.ca
December has arrived, the snow is here to stay, so what better way to ring in the holiday season than with an evening of carols. Three local choirs will do just that on Sunday, Dec. 4, with Carol Fest at the Peace Lutheran Church in Fort St. John. The evening begins at 5 p.m. with a performance by the Alleluia Children’s Choir, while the Northern Lights Youth Choir will perform at 7 p.m. The North Peace Community Choir will perform at both services, each expected to last about 75 minutes.
The choirs will be accompanied by a small string ensemble, and both services will include a variety of carols, both traditional and new, along with selected readings. “It presents the story of Christmas in song and word,” said Rhonda Scott with the North Peace Community Choir. “It challenges all of us to think of others as we come into a busy season.” The performances are free and open to all ages, and attendees are asked to bring a non-perishable food item to donate in support of the Salvation Army and the Women’s Resource Centre. The choirs will also be accepting offerings to support a local charity.
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