My story about the cooking students at Calgary’s Forest Lawn High School appeared in last Friday’s Swerve magazine. The article chronicled “International Cuisine Night,” the climax of the school’s three-year culinary arts program. Seven grade-twelve students divided into three groups and researched an ethnic cuisine of their choice. After weeks of menu research, each group […]
Yearly Archives: 2010
The Cowboy Poetry Gathering at Pincher Creek
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
Last weekend, at the Pincher Creek Cowboy Poetry Gathering, I heard the word ‘genuine’ pronounced gen-u-wine and ‘seed’ used as the past tense of the verb to see. I heard the word ‘cowboy’ used as a verb, as in “you can tell by my lily-white hands that I’ve never cowboyed.” I learned that the grass […]
June
22
Days in Banff
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
I spent my last official week as the Markin-Flanagan Writer-in-Residence in at forest studio at the Banff Centre. This is my third such stint in one of the Centre’s marvelous Leighton Studios and my first in the Evamy Studio which looks like this: I spent the bulk of my studio time working on a story […]
Poetic interlude: Philip Larkin’s “Church Going”
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
As I mentioned in my last post, I am writing a short essay on the unique joys that come from engaging in religious ritual – especially in the rituals of faiths I don’t believe in. During the course of my travels over the last decade or so I’ve had the great pleasure to commune with […]
Two in progress; one under consideration
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
My residency is winding down, the Walls book is simmering in the proverbial bottom-drawer, and I am devoting most of my writing time to magazine projects. I have two pieces in progress now. I will be writing s feature about becoming a first-time father last Fall. The month before my son was was born, I […]
May
03
Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s “Running Fence”
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
In 1976, artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude fulfilled a decades long dream and erected their most fantastic work to date, “Running Fence.” They built a nearly 40-kilometre fabric fence that ran through California ranchland, across rural roads, over hillsides and, eventually, into the Pacific Ocean. The fence itself was about 5.5 metres high and composed of […]
Speaking Volumes
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
Today’s Swerve Magazine, the weekly magazine found in The Calgary Herald, includes a profile I penned about Wayne Skinner. Skinner is caretaker of the most marvelous collection of books I’ve ever seen. Over the past twenty-five years or so, Skinner has collected about 14,000 books. Almost all of them Canadian and almost all of them […]
Wall: A Monologue
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
Writer David Hare has penned a marvelous and beautifully written essay about the West Bank Wall. The monologue was originally performed on stage at The Royal Court Theatre in London and now appears – slightly shortened – in the New York Review of Books. Find it here. (And thank you to Andrew for pointing this […]
Writing off the streets
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
This week, I held a writing workshop for the Servant’s Anonymous Society, a Calgary non-profit that advocates for former sex-trade workers. I first heard of SAS after reading a copy of their regular newsletter, Cry of the Streets, which contained some poetry from SAS participants. I contacted the society and offered to hold a workshop […]
The Final Stretch
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
I just past the eight month mark of my residency here at the University of Calgary. I can’t believe that I only have two months left before I have to abandon this office, this view and the monthly paycheque. I warned the higher ups here that come June they might have to call security, because […]
Elsewhere 