Eat Your Words Food Writing Course at UBC Okanagan

I'm really excited to announce that I'll be teaching my one-day food writing course, Eat Your Words, on Saturday, October 17 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the UBCO campus. This course is geared to food writers of all levels and covers basics of taking your passion for food, restaurants, and cooking and putting it down on paper, the internet and radio. We'll brainstorm ideas, talk trends, look at pitching to a food editor and figure out how to get your ideas and projects to the next level. It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it.

The cost is $175 plus GST. Email cs.ubco@ubc.ca or call 250-807-9289 to register.

UBC Okanagan (Kelowna) offers great creative writing and continuing education studies and seminars. Click here to go to the UBC Okanagan Continuing Education page with the new fall course lineup.

2009 Canadian Culinary Book Awards -- Shortlist

The Shortlist has been announced for the 2009 Canadian Culinary Book Awards. And they are:

Short-listed in the English Cookbook Category are:

• The Complete Canadian Living Baking Book: The Essentials of Home Baking by Elizabeth Baird (Transcontinental Books, Montreal);

• Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, with Recipes by Jennifer McLagan (McClelland & Stewart Ltd., Toronto);
  

• Small Plates for Sharing, Laurie Stempfle, Ed. (Company’s Coming Publishing Limited, Edmonton).

Short-listed in the English Special Interest Category, books about food, but not cookbooks, are:

• Beyond the Great Wall: Recipes and Travels in the Other China by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid (Random House Canada, Toronto);

• Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood by Taras Grescoe (HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, Toronto).

Three books are short-listed for the Canadian Food Culture Category, books that best illustrate Canada’s rich culinary heritage and food culture:

• Anita Stewart’s Canada by Anita Stewart (HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, Toronto);

• Apples to Oysters: A Food Lover’s Tour of Canadian Farms by Margaret Webb (Penguin Group Canada, Toronto);

• A Taste of Canada: A Culinary Journey by Rose Murray (Whitecap Books Ltd., North Vancouver).

The contest is also open to Canadian French-language books. Short-listed in the French Cookbook Category are:

• Gibier à poil et à plume: découper, apprêter et cuisiner par Jean-Paul Grappe (Les Éditions de l’Homme, Montréal) ;

• Ricardo : parce qu’on a tous de la visite: cuisiner en toutes circonstances par Ricardo (Les Éditions La Presse, Montréal);

• Les secrets des sauces révélés par Jérôme Ferrer (Les Éditions La Presse, Montréal).

Short-listed in the French Special Interest Category, books about food but not cookbooks are:

• Manger, Un jeu d’enfant par Guylaine Guèvremont and Marie-Claude Lortie (Les Éditions La Presse, Montréal) ;

• Répertoire des fromages du Québec, Édition augmentée by Richard Bizier and Roch Nadeau (Les Éditions du Trécarré-Groupe Librex inc., Montréal) ;

• Les vins du nouveau monde, Volume 2, by Jacques Orhon, (Les Éditions de l’Homme, Montréal).

In the French Canadian Food Culture Category is:

• Québec capitale gastronomique by Anne L Desjardins (Les Éditions La Presse, Montréal).

Cuisine Canada is a national alliance of Canadian culinary professionals who share a common desire to encourage the development, use and recognition of fine Canadian food and beverages. For more than 140 years, the University of Guelph has contributed to Canadian cuisine in its programs in agriculture, food science, hospitality and tourism management and is the home of one of Canada’s best cookbook collections.

The Canadian Culinary Book awards are sponsored by: Agricultural Adaptation Council, CanolaInfo, Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, Chicken Farmers of Canada, Parmalat Canada, Beef Information Centre, The Ancaster Old Mill, Niagara College Teaching Winery, The Fairmont Royal York, Niagara College, Borealis Grille & Bar, George Brown College, Georgian College, Liaison College, Rootham Gourmet Preserves, Harbinger Communications, Stratford Chefs School and Ontario Farm Fresh Marketing Association.

Blue Pencil Cafe

This is the first I've heard of the Canadian Literature Centre (home-base is the U of A Humanities Department) but it seems to be home to some very interesting literary events in Edmonton...including this one:

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??