News from Grant Land

Just received the welcome news that I was given a Chalmers Arts Fellowship from the Ontario Arts Council. The grant will fund a year's worth of travel, research, thinking, and storytelling around the theme of whether a new myth is coming to life through the voices of the contemporary storytelling renaissance. There's a Gaelic saying that "every force evolves a form." I'm curious to explore the nature of the force that evolved the form of modern storytelling. The grant will help me travel to Hudson Bay to talk to Pennishish about his Omushkego myth-cycles; to Sao Paulo to talk to Regina Machado, one of the world's great thinkers about story; to British Columbia to spend time with Robert Bringhurst. I'm also hoping to interview Laura Simms, Sean Kane, Ursula LeGuin, Kay Stone, Bruno de la Salle, Ben Haggarty, and other storytellers, scholars, and imaginers. Not quite sure what the fruit of this journey will be - maybe an audio journal, or series of talks/tellings, or essay. 1,001 thanks to the Chalmers family for endowing the fellowship, and to Ontario Arts Council for helping artists undertake new adventures.