Publishing prospects good for Native writers

Page 17

There is still time, if you are a writer or aspire to be one, to tell your story in one of Canada's most respected literary magazines, Prairie Fire, based in Winnipeg.

A call for submissions is out for a project called First Voices, First Words, for material to be published in Prairie Fire Press' 200-page First Peoples issue that comes out in September.

Several kinds of submissions in a literary genre are eligible for consideration: fiction and non-fiction up to 5,000 words, as well as poetry between five and 10 pages and plays up to 15 pages. The deadline is 5 p.m. on March 30.

The invitation is out to all Native people in Canada to share their cultures, history and experiences through literature.

"I have no doubt that we'll be swamped with submissions," said managing editor Adris Taskans, who co-founded Prairie Fire Press in 1978. "I've had people phoning me from all over the country about it."

Taskins said he expects to publish 20 to 40 writers in the exclusively Native issue, which is being financially supported by the city of Winnipeg; the Manitoba Arts Council; and the Canada Council for the Arts.

"A couple of years ago . . . the Canada Council, which is one of the funders for our magazine, instituted a millennium arts fund and they were calling for submissions. Now our magazine, our board is a non-profit charitable publication . . . and one of the things we've done many times over the years is do issues that are coming out of one or the other cultural communities.

"But we'd always wanted to do a First Peoples issue . . . and so we felt this would be a great opportunity if we could get some money from this fund to do maybe a larger issue and bring some of the writers to Manitoba [to do readings], and to our delight, the Canada Council people did, in fact, think this was a good idea."

Taskans said they consulted Aboriginal people about the plan.

"Doug Nepinak, a local playwright who works for the Manitoba chiefs, and a woman named Cheryl Mackenzie, who used to work for the Aboriginal Human Resource Development here in Winnipeg, gave us some input. So we have had bits of input from lots of individuals, and people who teach and so on gave us some ideas about who we should be talking to and so forth."

Guelph University professor Thomas King is the guest editor of the First Voices, First Words issue. King is the author of several books, including Medicine River and Green Grass, Running Water. He has also edited books of Native Canadian literature and he writes for a CBC radio serial that he created, The Dead Dog Cafe Comedy Hour. King teaches Native literature and creative writing.

"It wasn't very difficult to choose Mr. King or have him as our first choice for guest editor, because of his past background as editor elsewhere, and of course his stature as a writer. . . . He then helped work with this office to formulate a call for submissions, and the CBC radio picked it up."

Prairie Fire buys first rights to stories. As with most literary magazines the payout to writers isn't large: up to $200 for fiction, $175 for articles and $125 for poems. Payment depends upon the length and type of writing, Taskans said. A complete breakdown of categories and fees is available from their office, along with writers' submission guidelines. The specific criteria for submitting are also available online at www.prairiefire.mb.ca. Faxed or e-mailed submissions will not be accepted.

Taskans said writers can send their work directly to King:

Thomas King, guest editor

c/o Prairie Fire Press, Inc.

423-100 Arthur St.

Winnipeg, MB R3B 1H3

The deadline for another call for submissions for a 100-page poetry supplement in Prairie Fire's first issue of the year is just past. January 15 was the last date to submit to "Race poetry, eh?" This call was open to all writers.

Taskans said, "The theme there specifically is racism told through poetry. . . . March 21 is world Anti-Racism Day, but it's also . . . World Poetry Day, and so using some oney through the Department of Canadian Heritage, UNESCO is sponsoring some activities on this area and we were able to get a bit of money to do a supplement to our issue. And so we hired Ashok Mathur, a respected writer and poet and editor in Alberta to be our guest editor."

Mathur teaches at the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary and is known as an anti-racism activist. His first novel, Once Upon an Elephant, was published by Arsenal Pulp Press in 1998.

"Because of the tighter deadline (a month), there wasn't as much time to get the word out," but Taskans estimated they got 50 responses.