The Arts Council will host noted author Cornelia Hoogland for a talk and workshop on Saturday Feb. 2 at the Sybil Andrews Cottage, 2131 South Island Highway.
The workshop, entitled Writing the Unthinkable: Doodling our way into writing will take place from noon until 2:30 p.m. Based on Lynda Barry’s “non writing craft” techniques, Hoogland will lead participants in innovative and exploratory writing (and drawing) exercises. Bring doodling paper. The cost is $30. Call the Arts Council at 923-0213 to register.
Then from 3-4 p.m., Hoogland will hold a free reading from Woods Wolf Girl, her recent novel.
Hoogland writes: “A girl, a wolf, a meeting in the woods. The quintessential story frame. Like Goldilocks, Red Riding Hood is alone, but rather than a domestic setting she’s in the woods. Red Riding Hood is of the first stories many people hear, and one they tell their children. This has been going on for 100s of years. Herein lies the power of the fairy tale: it’s a story that we all more or less know, and we’re still telling it – in our own ways, according to our own interpretations.”
In Woods Wolf Girl, Hoogland sets her version of the story in B.C.’s rainforest, where she grew up. The book tries to capture the sense of Red’s multiple identities throughout the ages, and the plethora of attitudes toward her.
Woods Wolf Girl and other of Hoogland’s books will be for sale, and for signing. The talk is free.