Luncheon hosts young scribes

FOUR OF Atlantic Canada’s finest young writers will take centre stage this week at one of the region’s oldest and most historic venues.

Authors Ryan Turner, Jon Tattrie, Lee Thompson and Chad Pelley will read from their works, participate in a panel discussion and answer audience questions Thursday from noon to 2 p.m. at the Halifax Club on Hollis Street in downtown Halifax.

The event is a part of the Literary Luncheon series, which has featured the likes of Donna Morrissey, Harry Bruce, Ami McKay, Silver Donald Cameron, Lesley Crewe, Stephen Kimber, Joan Dawson and Marq de Villiers in recent months.

The monthly meetings are the brainchild of the club’s general manager, Jodi Bartlett.

"Atlantic Canada has some of the finest storytellers in the country and in the world," she said. "We are very excited to offer book lovers the opportunity to hear these wonderful, emerging voices in such an intimate setting."

Most Haligonians are likely familiar with Ryan Turner’s work in the city’s alternative weekly, the Coast.

More recently, the 32-year-old has seen his stories showcased in the literary journals Prairie Fire, Filling Station and The New Quarterly. His first work, What We’re Made Of (Oberon Press, $19.95), is a collection of linked short stories that was shortlisted for the 2008 Metcalf-Rooke Award (for unpublished manuscripts) before finally arriving on bookstore shelves in the fall of 2009.

Jon Tattrie, also 32, is no stranger to area readers either. Along with his many freelance assignments for a wide variety of local and regional print publications, his mentoring work at the University of King’s College School of Journalism in Halifax and his position on the board of directors with the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia, the prolific writer released his first book, Black Snow (Pottersfield Press, $19.95), this past spring to critical and popular acclaim.

Chad Pelley’s debut novel, Away from Everywhere (Breakwater Books, $19.95), has also been receiving rave reviews for its emotional poignancy and powerful realism since being published last October.

Several of his short works have appeared in East Coast anthologies and most recently his story Holes to China won the 2009 Cuffer Prize. The 29-year-old resident of St. John’s, N.L., sits on the board of directors for the Writers’ Alliance of Newfoundland & Labrador and is the founder of saltyink.com, a website devoted to Atlantic Canadian writing.

At 41, Lee Thompson is the elder statesman of the group. A native of Moncton, his short fiction has appeared in a variety of regional collections, including the recently released Hard Ol’ Spot: An Anthology of Atlantic Canadian Fiction.

His debut work, S. A Novel in [xxx] Dreams (Broken Jaw Press, $19), was published in 2007 and his new full-length narrative, The Lazy Fisherman’s Guide to Hell, is due for release this year. He is the executive director of the Writers’ Federation of New Brunswick and the editor of the fiction journal Galleon.

And while all of the scribes are enjoying the fruits of their youthful labours, each acknowledges a debt to those that came before them.

"We have a tremendous literary heritage here in Atlantic Canada," said Pelley, whose supporters include world-renowned writers Kenneth J. Harvey and Kathleen Winter. "You could say that storytelling is in our blood."

Thompson, who cites Kent Thompson (no relation), Ernest Buckler and David Adams Richards as influences, is quick to agree.

"Writers my age are standing on the shoulders of giants," he says. "Those are some mighty big boots — and pages — to fill."

Nonetheless, the pressure to repeat or surpass the successes of their predecessors is outweighed by the opportunities to earn a living at their craft.

"Those writers didn’t have the same kinds of resources that we do today," said Tattrie. "Now, technology allows us to write anything, any time, anywhere for anyone and puts a global audience right at our fingertips."

The changing of the creative guard also reflects a changing of the times.

"We live in a very different world than the one that our parents and grandparents experienced," said Turner, whose tales highlight the lives of young people in present-day Halifax.

"People of my generation need our own stories — our own mythologies — to better understand ourselves and our place in the world today."

Tickets for Thursday’s Literary Luncheon are $24.95 and can be purchased by calling 902-423-8460 or by email at reservations@halifaxclub.ns.ca. More information is available at www.halifaxclub.ns.ca.

Stephen Patrick Clare is a freelance writer who lives in Halifax.

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