Book Review: Dropped Threads: What We Aren't Told (anthology) (Volume one) edited by Carol Shields and Marjorie Anderson

 On Twitter, I tweeted that this anthology was 'little-known'. It may have been 'little-known' to me but to the rest of Canada it was a  'publishing phenomenon'. I'm surprised that someone didn't write back, "Listen, kid." People are very kind. 

This book has sat on my bookshelf untouched for years. I could have donated it to my local library or bookstore. I could have, but I was determined to read it--someday. That day came while searching for a suitable book to review for short story month.

Dropped Threads:

What We Aren't Told

Edited by Carol Shields

and Marjorie Anderson

anthology

Volume one

Vintage Canada

a division of Random House Canada

2001

Dropped Threads is an anthology--as such I would liken it to a box of chocolate. I wasn't sure what waited for me among its pages--short stories or essays, fiction or non-fiction. (How to write a fictional essay) I enjoyed solving this mystery as I happily flipped from one author to the next.

The majority of the authors are Canadian (Rosalie Weaver lives in northern Minnesota), many are from Manitoba. Sandy Frances Duncan is from the Southern Gulf Islands. Imagine that. Some like Carol Shields, Margaret Atwood, Lorna Crozier, Miriam Toews are established authors. Others are academics, ranchers, politicians, homemakers, journalists, lawyers. They are all women. They all address the same question--what is missing from the body of female wisdom?

Among Dropped Threads mainly non-fiction essays ('Lettuce Turnip and Pea' by Anne Hart and 'Edited Version' by Isla James and 'Wild Roses' by Katherine Govier and 'Reflections from Cyberspace' by Carol Hussa Harvey and Katherine C. H. Gardiner are short stories)I found advice on how to grow old, deal with grief, praise for women's work, and observe what women gain during menopause.

'She who knows not

and knows not that she knows not

is uniformed; inform her'

Sandy France Duncan, 'I Have Blinds Now'

Dropped Threads 2: More of What We Aren’t Told

I'm fortunate to have a neighbour with a green thumb

and recently received this uplifting gift.

What I listened to last week...

The Forest of Reading 2021

The Forest of Reading is a Children's Literature writing contest in which the readers' nominate and vote for their favourite books. 

To learn about the Forest of Reading 2021

Edinburgh International Book Festival

Interview:  Benjamin Labatut & Adrian Nathan West with Jay G Ying

For me, this was an amazing introduction to this festival. I loved the exchange of ideas and the in-depth explanation of Benjamin Labatut's book When We Cease to Understand the World--translated by Adrian Nathan and shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

15 Books by Asian Canadian Authors to Read for Asian Heritage Month

Guest Post: Room Magazine: Canada's oldest literary journal by and about women

For over thirty-five years, Room Magazine has been a space for emerging and established female writers and artists. Based in Vancouver and run by a passionate and diverse collective of volunteers who share editorial and administrative responsibilities, 

Room explores a wide range of themes and ideas through fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, interviews, book reviews, and artwork by women and about women. We have been honoured to published work by amazing writers such as Carol Shields, Amber Dawn, Ivan Coyote, Lorna Crozier and so many more.

Room was founded as A Room of One's Own (from Virginia Woolf's 1929 essay of the same name) in the 1970s by a collective of female writers, editors and academics, as a way of providing a space for female voices at a time when women writers had a harder time getting published than their male counterparts. Today, Room celebrates events such as Day of the Girl and International Women's Day, and maintains a strong, feminist mandate both in the journal itself, and through our online presence on Facebook (www.facebook.com/roommagazine) and Twitter (@RoomMagazine).

Every year, Room publishes four unique issues – two themed, and two un-themed, open issues – and hosts a literary contest (deadline is July 15!). Upcoming theme In Translation (deadline July 31, 2014). We accept submissions on an ongoing basis from female-identified writers and artists across the globe. Please visit our website (www.roommagazine.com) for more information.

Editorial Collective

Room Magazine

www.roommagazine.com