Four writers will travel to Yukon’s Dawson City to live in the childhood home of iconic Canadian author Pierre Berton as the 2009-10 Berton House writers-in-residence. The foursome – Pasha Malla, Linda Goyette, Mylène Gilbert-Dumas, and Jeramy Dodds – will each spend three months as writer-in-residence, during which time they will perform public readings in the area and make themselves available to the community.
The four writers were chosen from 80 applicants by a three-member committee consisting of previous writers-in-residence Russell Smith and C.E. Gatchalian, along with young adult novelist Joanne Bell. To be eligible for the program, applicants must have published at least one book in any area, including fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama, and journalism. Since the program’s inception in 1996, 45 writers have braved the northern climate to spend time in Berton’s home.
Uh, the climate’s not that different from Winnipeg’s. In summer, it’s downright balmy.
[...] misc. goings-on on January 28, 2009 at 10:51 pm Pasha was one of four writers selected for the 2009-2010 Berton House writers-in-residence program. Yay! He will travel to the Yukon and spend 3 months living in the childhood home of Canadian [...]
The choices are excellent, and the panel that chose them first rate, but I do lament the loss of grass-roots Dawson City input into the selection process now that the Writers Trust has taken over. I’m not at all sure that this is the process Pierre intended. — Robert J. Sawyer, Berton House writer-in-residence, Summer 2007.