news | Thursday October 28, 2010

A Memorable Occasion

In news, we are happy to congratulate Drew Hayden Taylor on his recent Governor General’s Literary Award nomination for his novel Motorcycles & Sweetgrass.

Speaking of “news”, we are also looking forward to the December release of his new book News: Postcards from the Four Directions, a collection of short humorous essays organized around the four cardinal directions central to the Ojibwa peoples, including, for example, the adventures of a First Nations “character” in Mexico:

Amongst some of the local Mexican delegates, there was a genuine surprise and interest in the popularity of Native theatre in Canada. Evidently such an interest in Mexican indigenous theatre was unthinkable down there. I was told by several different people how highly unlikely it was that any domestic Native theatre of substance would get produced in Mexico, other than some sanitized traditional legends or innocuous “value-neutral” historical pieces.

And speaking of “news”, Drew Hayden Taylor will be speaking on the subject of Canadian diversity, addressing Aboriginal images and presence in contemporary Canadian media.

Regarding his cultural background, Taylor answers with all the trappings of a humorist:

My standard line is that I’m half Ojibwa, half Caucasian. That makes me an occasion. A memorable occasion. A special occasion.