On Friday October 22nd, 2010, fellow education colleagues Julia Cross, and Shamez Virani and I attended the Vancouver International Writer's Festival at Granville Island in Vancouver. We had talked a lot about which event to go to and looked at all of the events that were being offered. We discussed our schedules and decided to see "37 Darwin's Bastards" at 10:00am Friday morning.
Darwin's Bastards: Astounding Tales from Tomorrow, is a collection of short stories written entirely by Canadian authors. Zsuzsi Gartner hand selected each of the 23 stories and in the talk that we attended she joined in conversation with William Gibson, Yann Martel, Anosh Irani, and Adam Lewis Schroeder - all of which have a story in the anthology. These authors "are not normally known for writing about an exploration of future times" but contr
ibuted to the book nonetheless (Darwin's Bastards).
Each author read a selection from the short story they contributed and then talked about their motivations behind the piece, the genesis of their experimental writing and their struggles and successes when it came to "breaking the bounds of realism" (Darwin's Bastards).
Once each author had had a chance to talk about their story, audience members were allowed to pose questions and have the respective authors provide answers.
It was an interesting experience, especially as a teacher-in-training. As I listened to the short story excerpts I couldn't help but think about how I could use the stories in a classroom. Anosh Irani's shorty story, "Notes from the Womb" stood out for me among the other three stories simply because it combined a morbid topic with humour and satire. Using the story in a grade 12 classroom could be super beneficial and would evoke an interesting class discussion.
Overall the experience was enlightening and enriching. I did buy Darwin's Bastards as well as another book by Yann Martel entitled, What is Stephen Harper Reading? I really enjoyed the fact that I was thinking like a teacher and focusing on the elements of a short story and how to integrate this anthology into a classroom.
Until Next Time,
LC
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