To Arrive Where You Are: Literary Journalism from the Banff Centre for the Arts

M. Wayne Cunningham is a past executive director of the Saskatchewan
Arts Board and the former director of Academic and Career Programs at
East Kootenay Community College.

The dozen pieces in To Arrive Where You Are are samples from the Banff
Centre’s Program in Creative Non-Fiction and Cultural Journalism
(1996–99). Each of the 12 contributors is an established writer with
impressive credentials.

Some of the pieces are intensely personal. In “Still Life:
Reflections on Running, Walking and Standing,” Catherine Frazee
chronicles the difficulties she and other people with disabilities face
everyday in performing routine tasks. In “The Boy in the Submarine,”
Larry Pratt examines childhood schizophrenia and of its terrifying
consequences for an Edmonton boy, his mother, and his sister. In “My
Violent Art,” Patricia Pearson lays bare the many personal emotional
and psychological demons she has confronted during her career as a
nonfiction crime writer. R. Cheran’s “Salad Days” is a graphic
account of the author’s torture in Jaffina, Sri Lanka, for the
“crimes” he committed as an outspoken journalist.

From his days as a war correspondent, Dragan Todorovic provides a
unique perspective on war and war crimes in “Ticket to Fiction: Art
and War in Belgrade.” The abuse and terror suffered by the Burmese
people is the subject of Karen Connelly’s “What She Carried,”
while Charles Foran comes to grips with his experiences in China in
“Join the Revolution Comrade” and Erna Paris describes her time with
the Japanese in “If the Nail Sticks Out, Hammer It Down.” In “How
Do You Carry Fire,” Sandra Shields awakens readers to the impact of
western economic incursions into the environs of Opuwo, Namibia. On a
much lighter note, Don Gillmor’s nostalgic “Home Movie” presents
reminiscences of his grandfather and his home movies. Memories of a
grandfather also figure in Mark Anthony Jarman’s comedic account of
his travels through Ireland. Rounding out the collection is
“Paradice,” an interesting, fact-filled piece about Iceland by Eliot
Weinberger. Writers of every ilk should own a copy of this book.