Food and Wine Writing Course at UBC Okanagan in Kelowna

Yes, I'm taking my show on the road this summer! First: I'm teaching a food and wine writing course at UBC Okanagan's campus in Kelowna. The course, called "Writing the Okanagan Food and Wine Story" runs Monday, July 27 to Friday, July 31 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The cost is $249 plus GST. To register, call Elaine Crebo at 250-807-9981 or email ccs.ubco@ubc.ca.


I've paired up with veteran Kelowna-based wine writer Julianna Hayes for this. Please pass the word on to anyone you know who might be interested. What a great excuse for an Okanagan vacation this summer.

Here's the pitch:

Thirsting for a career in wine writing? Hungering for a way to satisfy those food-writing cravings? The Okanagan is the perfect setting to be inspired and get writing during this hands-on, experience-driven week for the food-and-wine-loving writer. Kelowna-based wine expert, Julianna Hayes (www.vineliving.blogspot.com), will teach you how to turn those swirls, sips, and winery visits from mere tours into compelling wine stories. Alberta-based, award-winning food writer, Jennifer Cockrall-King (www.foodgirl.ca), will explore ways to get to the heart of food stories, either from your own travels or those discovered in the heart of BC’s wine and orchard country. This course will teach budding food and wine writers how to turn their oenological and culinary passions into inspirational articles for newspapers, magazines, and the Internet. Price includes wine tastings. Participants must be 19 years of age or older to register.

Instructors: Julianna Hayes & Jennifer Cockrall-King
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(Then I am launching The Okanagan Food & Wine Writers Workshop, which will be three days of small group professional development with some of Canada's best food and wine editors and writers. Stay tuned. I'm just finalizing details and I'll post them here as well as on the workshop's official site.)

Get Publishing 2009...A Roaring Success

My heartfelt thanks to the hardest working volunteers in the world (writerly hyperbole but it may actually be true). This year's Get Publishing conference in Edmonton was incredibly energizing, informative and fun. There was just the right amount of information, schmoozing and having a laugh with some friends. I mean, there was a great keynote by a South African publisher and a live performance by a Brazilian band and a Capoeria demonstration. What more could you want? It's actually difficult to believe it all happened (and so much more) in just one Saturday.

Aside from the information I gleaned from the sessions and from informal chats with presenters, it was a special priviledge to meet so many of the attendees and hear about their many exciting projects in their heads and in progress. As my co-presenter, Tracy Hyatt, put it: The attendees should have been presenting their knowledge to us, the "experts." I am completely energized by the range of writing projects that were talked about in the formal sessions and over coffee breaks.

I'll post specific gleanings from the conference in future posts. (I'm taking some of my advice that I so confidently doled out in my session on blogging...keep it short, and post more often. I'll try to follow my own advice.)

The above flickr photostream is courtesy of photographer Marilyn Jones of mediamag.ca (full website coming soon) and the Get Publishing group.

Blogging about Talking about Blogging

The Get Publishing Conference kicks off today.

I'm looking forward to the event and I'll be talking about blogging and on-line publishing tomorrow at one of the sessions along with my colleagues Tracy Hyatt of Westworld magazine and Mading Ngor, editor of the New Sudan Vision a non-profit Website. Should be fun. I'll report back!

Absinthe and Hot Squid Salad

Last evening was lots of fun. I'm so glad that a few of your could make it out to our first post-food writing course meet up. I PROMISE that we'll have another one soon.

It was a great thing to catch up with those who popped in. A number of interesting things came up:

1) Is Science Fiction a predominately teenage boy obsession? A casual comment I made about a great novel I just read, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, was picked up on by Cathy and now I'm interested in my subconscious belief that science fiction (of which I am a fan) is a more masculine thing than a feminine thing. (Warning: the Junot Diaz book has loads of swearing and vulgarity, but it is brilliant...so unless that puts you off, I highly recommend reading it.)

2) I am currently reading Taras Grescoe's excellent non-fiction award-winning book Bottomfeeder: How to eat ethically in a world of vanishing seafood. My mid-point review is that it is a worthy winner of the Writers' Trust for Non-Fiction Prize in 2008. It's everybit as densely researched BUT completely readable as Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma. It's nice to see food journalism getting such good recognition by the non-fiction world at large.

3) Hanne discussed her current fave "cookbook" which isn't really a cookbook but a fabulous reference: The Flavour Bible: The Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity,
Based on the Wisdom of America's Most Imaginative Chefs by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg. It's a guide to getting the most out of ingredients, with tips, tricks and pairings from some of the best chefs.

4)Then we talked about Okanagan Spirits -- some excellent distilled products made in Vernon, BC. They make an award-winning Absinthe...yes, Absinthe. Yes, it's legal. You can buy it around town at various places, including the Chateau Louis liquor store, Athlone liquor, and a few other places. If you want to find an outlet near you...go to the ALCB database lookup and search for "Okanagan Spirits." Let your fingers do the walking!

Next meetup? That first weekend in May? Maybe the Friday evening, May 1st??

How to Craft Flawless Features

Last Friday was the Alberta Magazine Publishers Association's annual conference in south Calgary. I go each year both as a publisher, but also as a writer. It's a great opportunity to network with editors and make new connections with publications (last year, I met Candace Vallentine from UP! magazine and got an assignment just a few weeks later). The sessions are also very valuable. Some directly, such as this year's "How to Craft a Flawless Feature" by former editor-in-chief of Canadian Geographic Rick Boychuk. Yes, I was taking notes furiously so that I can pass all of his good advice on to you. (I'll save the recap and how we can refocus the information through a food writing lense in a later post. Also, because he generously offered to email me his speaking notes!)

In the meantime, check out the Alberta Magazine Publishers Association blog. Kathe Lemon has expediently posted a couple of session recaps. There might be more to come. I also added a comment with a couple of the more important points that I gathered from the talks (so do read the comments of her posting if you are interested.)

Lastly, I posted a bit of a recap on the sessions on The Edible Prairie Journal's blog.

It was nice to see you, Evelyn, at the event. Which brings me to my next point...

Shall we try to organize a coffee meeting so we can do some catch-up, bragging, complaining and blood-letting of excuses? I'll send around an email.

The New Yorker Food Issue / November 24, 2008

Some of the best food writing for years has been coming out of the New Yorker. NYC being such a foodie city, it tends to be scattered throughout the weekly issues throughout the year. But they devote one issue a year to food -- it seems to be the third week in November. It's a delicious read cover-to-cover. (I just attached the URL of the Table of Contents from the issue to the previous sentence.)

The content doesn't seem to be on-line, unfortunately, but you can probably find this issue and check it out from the Edmonton Public Library. I know the main Stanley Milner branch has a subscription. Or, if you are lucky like I was this year, you'll find it waiting for you at a magazine and book exchange pile!

Great Food Writing in The Walrus' Jan / Feb 2009 issue

Ok, I’m sorry that I am posting this NOW. But the January / February 2009 issue of The Walrus had no fewer than three great features on food issues, and even one shorter piece on the emerging wine region of the Gaspereau valley in Nova Scotia.

First, there’s a very interesting article on Canadian ginseng, Change of Pace: Former tobacco farmers have a bumper new crop to exploit by Robert Hough, and then a very well-researched and up-to-the-moment article on vertical farming, The Future Has Begun: Vertical farms will take eating local to the next level — but are they safe? by Nora Underwood. Finally there’s a very important article on the reality of GMO foods in Canada by Anita Lahey (see below).

If you can’t find this issue still on newstands, don’t panic. You can buy the issue on-line. It’s worth it!!

Here’s the one that really caught my attention.

Do You Know What You’re Eating? Canadians want labels on GM foods. But would we understand them? by Anita Lahey

…especially given it’s opening paragraph:

On May 5, 2008, Conservative MP Rob Merrifield, who represents the Alberta riding of Yellowhead, west of Edmonton, stood up in the House of Commons and told fellow politicians, “My fear is that if we put a label on genetically modified foods, you have an electorate that doesn’t quite understand what that means.”

Click here to read the full article on The Walrus’ website.