Forget-Me-Not: The Seven Oaks Reader

To celebrate Canada150, we’re turning the page on the most celebrated historical moments and highlighting the footnotes for a change. Take a trip down literary lane with us as we share books on aspects of Canadian history and notable people that don’t always get due attention. NeWest Press’ General Manager, Matt Bowes, had this to say about why they published The Seven Oaks Reader and what it brings to the Canadian historical table.ALU: What brought you to publish The Seven Oaks Reader?MB: The Seven Oaks Reader follows from The Frog Lake Reader, and we were happy with how well that book turned out and performed both creatively and commercially. Author Myrna Kostash is a long-time NeWester and has delivered many classic titles in our backlist. The Seven Oaks Reader also addresses some essential issues that have become necessarily prevalent in Canada over the last few years, not the least including Métis self-determination and history that must be addressed in service of reconciliation. Both of Kostash’s Readers play with form and ideas in a compelling way that few history texts attempt. The numerous sources and the mixture of forms (period accounts and journals, histories, memoirs, songs and fictional retellings) allow readers multiple entries into a specific point in Canadian history, seemingly long in the past.ALU: What impact do you think this work has on Canadian culture/history?  MB: Hopefully The Seven Oaks Reader will be a passport text granting readers a multitude of perspectives on an historical event and its consequences that is still vital to the Canadian conversation. The ease of reading Kostash’s book makes it suitable for students and amateur historians, while providing deep insight that may also lure academics and genealogists. Reconciliation takes many voices and The Seven Oaks Reader is a compilation that can act as a guide to the beginning of such a vital project. * * *Many thanks to Matt at NeWest for answering our questions! Remember, buy The Seven Oaks Reader and get a free wall calendar (so that you can remember the sesquicentennial forever).And, be sure to follow along with the rest of our #ALUneverforget picks on the blog, Twitter,  Facebook, and  Instagram as we book-hop through the centuries, and our history timeline showcasing still more books that tell Canadian history like it is.