As part of our mapping of literary Ontario, we're highlighting five things about literary life in communities throughout the province. What do our cities, towns and villages have to offer writers, readers and the curious? Follow Five Things Literary to find out.
Today's feature on literary life in Orono was contributed by Jeramy Dodds, whose poetry collection, Crabwise to the Hounds (Coach House, 2008), was a finalist for the 2009 Griffin Poetry Prize.
Jeramy Dodds will be reading at Redeemer College in Ancaster this Thursday, Oct. 21. Visit our Events page for details.
1. Sid Rutherford and Helen Schmid co-wrote the regional historical tome, Out of the Mists. One of Sid Rutherford’s shorter non-fiction pieces describes his encounter with a band of Roma who moved through the area. That same year a number of horses disappeared.
2. Clifford Francis’s weekly Orono Times column “Places I’ve Done Time” are tales of autobiographical hijinx. They often taste like hors d'œuvres of country surrealism á la James Dickey, with a dash of Anne Landers talking to her reflection in a compact mirror, coupled with a sautéed, nearly sober, Charles Bukowski.
3. Lieutenant-Colonel John Conrad’s book, What the Thunder Said: Reflections of a Canadian Officer in Kandahar, bevies the author’s 25 years of military service as a logistics officer with his impressions of modern Canadian warfighting. One of his thoughts: “The dreams of our nation for Afghanistan are not small. In fact, one could assess our current national campaign as sophisticated and replete with risk — almost un-Canadian in its boldness.”
4. A woman, known only as Rebecca H., a good friend of the late Robert Homme (of “The Friendly Giant” fame) lived on the outskirts of Orono, near Kendal. Substantial fragments of two separate manuscripts survive in the Clarington Museum and Archives. Both are speculative non-fiction that deal with Rebecca’s lifelong research into psycho-acoustics, paranormal linguistics and cultural theory, prior to her suffering a long decline into song.
5. Stephen King, an American writer of some note, is believed to live in the doppelgänger village of Orono, Maine.
Would you like to contribute five things about literary life in your community? Send an email with your ideas to erin@openbookontario.com.
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