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BC Book Prizes, 1993
[Here is the portion of Howard White's speech in Penticton which dealt with politics and culture.]
BC WRITERS AND PUBLISHERS combined last year to produce more than 400 new titles. In this past year BC retained its title as the national and North American champion in library use and in per capita book consumption. "Anybody who has seen a copy of Twigg's Directory of 1001 BC Writers will realize what a prolific breeder of literary talent this province is. Between our writers, our publishers and our booksellers, we're pumping $150 million a year into the provincial economy. That's dependable income, not here-today-gone tomorrow-Hollywood-play-money. Provincial government please take note."
"1992 has to be considered a banner year in that we were finally discovered by the Toronto media, with Val Ross of The Globe and Mail leading a veritable chorus hailing the little miracle of B.C. publishing. They chose to characterize it as a "boom" but this was just a case of Toronto journalists venturing beyond the Lakehead and being amazed to find signs of intelligent life. Most of us tried to encourage it in the hope the Toronto enthusiasm might rub off on some Vancouver newspaper and magazine books' editors, but no such luck.
"Books in B.C. have come a long way, and what we've done so far is nothing compared to what our potential is. But we have a big problem and it's time we faced it. Most of the writers you will see up here tonight have been forced to subsidize the creation of their own books by an average amount of $50,000, generally by working in other fields to buy time to write, time that is never repaid. B.C. has the worst record of cultural support of any but the poorest maritime provinces. In the cultural industries alone, B.C. would have to increase its federal/ provincial expenditure by $140 million just to come up to the average level of support in other provinces. In our sector, the written arts, provincial spending would have to increase 400 per cent to come up to the average spent by other provinces.
"The Czech playwright Vaclav Havel has said modem governments will pay a higher price for their neglect of culture than for any other shortcoming, and he proved it by taking down the world's largest empire with nothing but a sharp pencil. Political and economic strength can only be built on cultural strength.
[BCBW, Summer, 1993]
BC WRITERS AND PUBLISHERS combined last year to produce more than 400 new titles. In this past year BC retained its title as the national and North American champion in library use and in per capita book consumption. "Anybody who has seen a copy of Twigg's Directory of 1001 BC Writers will realize what a prolific breeder of literary talent this province is. Between our writers, our publishers and our booksellers, we're pumping $150 million a year into the provincial economy. That's dependable income, not here-today-gone tomorrow-Hollywood-play-money. Provincial government please take note."
"1992 has to be considered a banner year in that we were finally discovered by the Toronto media, with Val Ross of The Globe and Mail leading a veritable chorus hailing the little miracle of B.C. publishing. They chose to characterize it as a "boom" but this was just a case of Toronto journalists venturing beyond the Lakehead and being amazed to find signs of intelligent life. Most of us tried to encourage it in the hope the Toronto enthusiasm might rub off on some Vancouver newspaper and magazine books' editors, but no such luck.
"Books in B.C. have come a long way, and what we've done so far is nothing compared to what our potential is. But we have a big problem and it's time we faced it. Most of the writers you will see up here tonight have been forced to subsidize the creation of their own books by an average amount of $50,000, generally by working in other fields to buy time to write, time that is never repaid. B.C. has the worst record of cultural support of any but the poorest maritime provinces. In the cultural industries alone, B.C. would have to increase its federal/ provincial expenditure by $140 million just to come up to the average level of support in other provinces. In our sector, the written arts, provincial spending would have to increase 400 per cent to come up to the average spent by other provinces.
"The Czech playwright Vaclav Havel has said modem governments will pay a higher price for their neglect of culture than for any other shortcoming, and he proved it by taking down the world's largest empire with nothing but a sharp pencil. Political and economic strength can only be built on cultural strength.
[BCBW, Summer, 1993]
Submitted on November 16, 2004 in By David.
