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Mary of Canada (2004)
For immediate release
January 21, 2004
Joan Skogan to launch Mary of Canada: The Virgin Mary in Canadian Culture, Spirituality, History, and Geography in Vancouver and Nanaimo
West Coast author Joan Skogan will attend upcoming book launches in
Vancouver and Nanaimo to celebrate her new work, Mary of Canada, a compelling exploration of the Virgin Mary in Canada. The 328-page book
with 70 duotone illustrations was recently released by The Banff Centre Press.
A launch will be held Thursday, February 5 at 7:30 p.m. at Hill's Native
Art in Nanaimo, B.C. with another scheduled for the Vancouver Public Library,
co-sponsored with Banyen Books, on Monday, March 15 at 7:30 p.m.
Canada's culture is distinguished by the Virgin Mary's astonishingly frequent presence -- her roots in Canadian soil are deep. In the book, rich references delve into literature, history, art, and geography. In locating Mary in this country, Skogan observes the ways she transforms to answer Canadian needs. From Virgin Mary sightings on frosted windows to thrift shop icons, from the Our Lady Peace rock band to traditional prayer, Mary lives in Canada.
Dense, poetic, and lovingly hewn, Skogan's work, based on years of extensive research, brings the Virgin Mary to Canadian shores. Illustrations, varying from modern art to pop-culture presentations, offer visual context.
Skogan, who currently lives in Nanaimo, was born on the West Coast and holds an MFA from the University of British Columbia. She has written features for CBC Radio, Saturday Night, Border Crossings, and Georgia Straight. She has also published short stories and prose poems in Grain, Prairie Fire, West Coast Review, and other magazines.
Her first novel, Moving Water, was published in 1998. Other works include Voyages: At Sea with Strangers (1992) and Skeena: A River Remembered (1983). Her books for children are The Princess & the Sea Bear and other Tsimshian Stories (1991), Grey Cat at Sea (1991), and The Good Companion (1998).She won Grain magazine's Long Grain of Truth Prize for "Chimney Coulee Psalm."
In praise of Mary of Canada: The Virgin Mary in Canadian Culture, Spirituality, History, and Geography:
Mary of Canada is full of tender acts of mercy, gleanings from a millennium of history and brilliant flashes of insight, which taken together add up to sacred meaning.
−Wayne Grady, The Globe and Mail.
January 21, 2004
Joan Skogan to launch Mary of Canada: The Virgin Mary in Canadian Culture, Spirituality, History, and Geography in Vancouver and Nanaimo
West Coast author Joan Skogan will attend upcoming book launches in
Vancouver and Nanaimo to celebrate her new work, Mary of Canada, a compelling exploration of the Virgin Mary in Canada. The 328-page book
with 70 duotone illustrations was recently released by The Banff Centre Press.
A launch will be held Thursday, February 5 at 7:30 p.m. at Hill's Native
Art in Nanaimo, B.C. with another scheduled for the Vancouver Public Library,
co-sponsored with Banyen Books, on Monday, March 15 at 7:30 p.m.
Canada's culture is distinguished by the Virgin Mary's astonishingly frequent presence -- her roots in Canadian soil are deep. In the book, rich references delve into literature, history, art, and geography. In locating Mary in this country, Skogan observes the ways she transforms to answer Canadian needs. From Virgin Mary sightings on frosted windows to thrift shop icons, from the Our Lady Peace rock band to traditional prayer, Mary lives in Canada.
Dense, poetic, and lovingly hewn, Skogan's work, based on years of extensive research, brings the Virgin Mary to Canadian shores. Illustrations, varying from modern art to pop-culture presentations, offer visual context.
Skogan, who currently lives in Nanaimo, was born on the West Coast and holds an MFA from the University of British Columbia. She has written features for CBC Radio, Saturday Night, Border Crossings, and Georgia Straight. She has also published short stories and prose poems in Grain, Prairie Fire, West Coast Review, and other magazines.
Her first novel, Moving Water, was published in 1998. Other works include Voyages: At Sea with Strangers (1992) and Skeena: A River Remembered (1983). Her books for children are The Princess & the Sea Bear and other Tsimshian Stories (1991), Grey Cat at Sea (1991), and The Good Companion (1998).She won Grain magazine's Long Grain of Truth Prize for "Chimney Coulee Psalm."
In praise of Mary of Canada: The Virgin Mary in Canadian Culture, Spirituality, History, and Geography:
Mary of Canada is full of tender acts of mercy, gleanings from a millennium of history and brilliant flashes of insight, which taken together add up to sacred meaning.
−Wayne Grady, The Globe and Mail.
Submitted on January 29, 2004 in By David.
