After four weeks of competition—and some pretty amazing/head-shakingly bad sports puns—our PanLit Games are coming to a close with one final category: we’re taking it to the streets! No, we’re not talking dance (although that would have been amazing), we’re talking about cycling. Road cycling, popular since the late 1800s, is a test of stamina and strategy as teams work together to cross that finish line. Our PanLit Games contestants are all “spokes” people who have had the stamina and strength to write about important topics and themes. Let’s see who gets a breakaway.
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After four weeks of competition—and some pretty amazing/head-shakingly bad sports puns—our PanLit Games are coming to a close with one final category: we’re taking it to the streets! No, we’re not talking dance (although that would have been amazing), we’re talking about cycling. Road cycling, popular since the late 1800s, is a test of stamina and strategy as teams work together to cross that finish line. Our PanLit Games contestants are all “spokes” people who have had the stamina and strength to write about important topics and themes. Let’s see who gets a breakaway.In Detachment (Freehand Books), Maurice Mierau has written a moving yet unsentimental memoir about adoption. From the beginning of the process to the aftermath, Mierau ponders when does fatherhood begin? Is a family created instantly? What sort of strain does this put on a marriage? With aerodynamic precision, Mierau navigates what it means to be a father and a son.
Connie Braun catches some air with her Mennonite memoir, The Steppes are the Colour of Sepia (Ronsdale Press). Travelling from Russia to western Canada, Braun traces the history of one family faithfully through documents, letters, old photographs, and personal testimony. Honouring the spirit of resilience embodied by refugees, Braun gives voice to the dispossessed.Charlene Diehl pulls through to the front of the pack with Out of Grief, Singing (Signature Editions), a Globe & Mail Book of the Year pick in 2010. Diehl shares with readers her journey through grief after the loss of her newborn daughter. With her poetic voice and incredible strength, she is able to articulate both the highs and lows along the path back to a semblance of a normal life. In Cease(Oolichan Books) Lynette Loeppky looks at why we love and why we stay, especially in times of crisis. After making the difficult decision to leave an eight-year relationship, Lyn is planning her exit when her partner falls ill. Forced to become the sole caregiver of the person she was readying to leave, with no sag wagon to support her, Lyn comes face to face with the unpredictable forces of love and death.
The Boys, or, Waiting for the Electrician’s Daughter (Gaspereau Press) honours the final year of the lives of three brothers who lived with muscular dystrophy. John Terpstra charts the lives of his three brothers-in-law—their humour, shared love of sports, and the regular flow of friends, family, and caregivers who participated in their lives. With a steady cadence, Terpstra celebrates life but also questions how we think about those living with illness and where stories begin and whether they ever end.It’s hard to declare a winner from this particular team of “spokes” people—they each put on such a strong and strategic performance. This is one peloton that would be hard to breakaway from as each title is an important story brilliantly told, so we’re calling it a draw.* * *Thanks for following along with our PanLit Games. You can catch all the highlights on our leaderboard or delve deeper into all the action with our extended list of titles over on Pinterest.
