Intro: Jason Stefanik

Landing on the Tarmac - Touched down seconds ago from far northwestward of here.

In Prince George thousands reveled, raged, and paraded since the most Honourable Gordon Campbell, apparent Premier-superstar for B.C, gave a gazillion dollars to the UNBC for building the Northern Sports Centre.

An eco-spec university set amid autumnal pines on the side of a mountain, with green banners waved by gorgeous Aboriginal athletes to usher in the 2010 Winter Olympics, and enough lumpfish and ice-wine to sink a yacht of Monte Carlo's most affluent; Holy frick, I thought, how unlike gritty ole Winnipeg...

Yet how different we are here is why I love here - what trite vodka-maxims from a red-eye flight. For if we are anything in Winnipeg we are a community of artists and our venues.

I was reminded of this fact when seeing none other than the esteemed David Bergen sharing passage homeward in economy class (likely even a Giller can't take the bargainer out of a Winnipegger!)

And it's not just the writers at this year's festival that have me so horny, but the venues: the metal ribs of the Millennium Library for freaky sci-fi guy William Gibson: the narrow alleys with boarded-up warehouses in the Exchange for writing workshops: plus enough midnight slam poetry for the peeps and gangsta-girlz in the hood to keep amped....

How relevant internationally our festival has grown in a sense overwhelms; while waiting for my luggage to clunk down the airport shoot I've a good mind to walk over to David Bergen and ask him if he's attending this year's Thin Hair Festival.

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J.S. is a propagandist and pamphleteer for over sixty-six Crown and Association publications. He has been both staff and contributing writer for weekly newspapers such as the Selkirk Journal, the Gimli Spectator, and the Midnight Sun, in Dawson City, Yukon. His poems and prose have appeared in the Golden Buzz (now the Force Gazette), Tart Magazine, and as low, low, low-run chapbooks. He is also founding member of the now defunct rap-futurist collective, Xenophane Six.

Line of Inquiry: Dave Margoshes

The author of twelve books, including three novels, Dave Margoshes has had his work published in numerous magazines and anthologies throughout North America, including six times in the Best Canadian Stories volumes. Margoshes worked as a newspaper reporter in the US and Canada, and has taught journalism and creative writing. His writing has won a number of awards, including the City of Regina Writing Award, the John V. Hicks Award for Fiction and the Stephen Leacock Prize for Poetry. He lives in Regina.

1) As a writer (i.e. someone whose artistic practice is predicated on time spent alone) how do you approach performance? What do you get out of it?

You're right, writing is an extremely solitary art form. Doing readings is a way of connecting with the audience that can be gratifying (also terrifying). It's also a way of test driving a piece of writing. I really like reading from something I've just written and gauging the response. With a book, which I'll be reading from at the festival, it's too late for that, of course.

2) What do you want people to know about Bix's Trumpet & Other Stories?

That's tough question. I want people to read it. OK, so I guess what I want people to know about it is that it's a good read.

3) What are you looking forward to in Winnipeg?

The festival, of course. I haven't been to it before, but I've heard good things about it. And I'll be glad to be back in Winnipeg, which I spent 9 months in in the mid-'90s as writer in residence. I enjoyed that time, and alway enjoy getting back.

4) What are you reading right now?

I just read Rebecca Lee's The City Is a Rising Tide - a stunning novel (she's a Canadian, living in the States) - and Pat Krause's wonderful memoir, Acts of Love. I'm now in the midst of former Winnipegger Terry Heath's Joe Fafard, a companion book to the sculptor's retrospective show that's opening in Regina soon and will be in Winnipeg in another year or so. It's excellent, and filled with great art.

Dave Margoshes will be appearing at THIN AIR, Winnipeg International Writers Festival:

September 24 - Mainstage, with Gil Adamson, Shauna Singh Baldwin, Brian Henderson, Sidura Ludwig, and Jim Nason.
September 25 - Campus Program, with Pamela Banting.