Tangles featured on Global Lethbridge TV

To see a couple short TV interviews I did in Lethbridge, go to the Global Lethbridge videos page. I’m in the November 3 episode of Senior Savvy with Elisha Rasmussen, and the October 28 episode of Scene and Heard. Thanks Global Lethbridge for putting authors on TV!

I also spoke with Brenda Finley of the Bookmark show on CKUA — I’ll post a link to that interview when it’s online; it’s scheduled to air on November 21. That was one of my favourite interview experiences; Brenda really connected with the book and asked me some perfect questions.

Alberta Highlights

Last week I was in Alberta for two events at Litfest in Edmonton, a launch in Calgary, and readings with Clem and Olivier Martini (authors of Bitter Medicine) in Red Deer and Lethbridge. I’ve never spent much time in Alberta, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. All I knew was that my publisher, Freehand Books, is in Calgary and their two staff members, Sarah Ivany and Robyn Read, appear to be the hardest-working, nerdiest CanLit fans ever to memorize the key points of The Perilous Trade by Roy Macskimming.

Well, now that I’ve spent a week with Alberta literary types, I can say that Sarah and Robyn are not anomalies — they’re part of a warm, welcoming, vibrant arts community. In Edmonton I met Alice Major, author of the intense, perfect collection of poems about her dad’s dementia, Memory’s Daughter, and devoured the first issue of Eighteen Bridges, the new literary magazine. The Litfest events — Writer Jam and A Brunch of Authors — were fun and dynamic, and I had great conversations, laughs and some tears with people afterwards. I cannot begin to express how wonderful it is to connect with people through my book and hear their stories about dementia and mothers and families and grief and joy/humour within pain.

And thanks to Litfest Director David Chereos for mentioning me in his list of festival highlights: “Hearing Sarah Leavitt mix self-deprecating humour, powerful memories and a keen understanding of craft in her Writer Jam presentation on the nature of the graphic novel.”

In Calgary I wandered through the restaurants and shops of 17th Avenue, Kensington and Inglewood, and walked across Prince’s Island through frosty grass and black wiry trees. I didn’t expect to be so captivated by the crisp weather and old buildings and pretty parks and lovely cafes, but I was (not to mention the heart-stoppingly gorgeous landscape between Calgary and Lethbridge). And meanwhile every day I learned something new from Sarah Ivany about the poets and novelists and non-fiction writers and publishing history of Alberta, and we went to the opening of a beautiful new independent bookstore, Shelf Life. We held the Calgary launch of Tangles at groovy Cafe Koi, and the audience was a great mix of writers, comics fans, Alzheimer’s Society folks and nurses — and we sold 70 books!

Then I travelled and read with brothers Clem and Olivier Martini, authors of Bitter Medicine: A Graphic Memoir of Mental Illness, which meant I got a peek inside the amazing relationship that they’ve developed over years of dealing with the impact of schizophrenia on their family. Clem is a passionate advocate for mental health services, and Olivier is an incredible artist with a wicked sense of humour. A super bonus extra was sharing the two-hour car ride from Lethbridge to Calgary with Clem’s partner Cheryl Foggo, a writer, filmmaker and historian. We had this epic talk about grief and loss and family and the songs in Tangles and black pioneers in Alberta and living the writing life (which is a pretty new topic for me) … Meeting Cheryl was a real gift and I keep thinking about things she said to me.

I did a few interviews with Alberta media while I was there — check out the links in the Tangles News and Reviews section.

Thanks for coming with me on this lovely book publishing adventure…

Canadian Press story on Tangles

Vancouver writer puts mother’s Alzheimer’s battle in graphic memoir ‘Tangles’
By Victoria Ahearn, Canadian Press

… “Tangles” (Freehand Books) is Leavitt’s first book and the first graphic memoir to make the short list for the $25,000 Writers’ Trust Non-Fiction Prize.

It’s up against “The Ptarmigan’s Dilemma: An Exploration into How Life Organizes and Supports Itself” by John and Mary Theberge; “What Disturbs Our Blood: A Son’s Quest to Redeem the Past” by James Fitzgerald; “Defiant Spirits: The Modernist Revolution of the Group of Seven” from Ross King; and “The Love Queen of Malabar: Memoir of a Friendship with Kamala Das” by Merrily Weisbord.

Leavitt says she’s thrilled the jury considered a graphic memoir — a genre that is “still kind of on the margins and people aren’t totally sure” about.

“I know with my book sometimes a bookstore will be like, ‘We don’t have a graphic narrative section,’ and it’s like, ‘It’s OK, you can put it in “memoir,”‘” said Leavitt, whose non-fiction has appeared in a number of anthologies, including “Nobody’s Mother” and “Beyond Forgetting: Poetry and Prose about Alzheimer’s Disease.”

“I think people are just kind of getting used to how to deal with them.”

Jury member Michael Mitchell says he and his fellow two jurors were all moved to tears by “Tangles.”

“I’ve read that book three times and it’s just flawless,” he said. “And it’s a wonderful advertisement for that form.”

This article was reprinted in a number of papers. Read it here in the St Albert Gazette.

Interview on the Fabler.com

Thanks so much to Kevin de Vlaming for the review and interview on The Fabler. It’s an interesting site where comics fans can network and post their own work. Kevin writes a column focusing on Canadian comics. He’s just one of the many warm and enthusiastic people I’ve met in Alberta this week. The more I meet and talk to people, the more I get the feeling that it’s exciting times for Canadian comics! There are so many great cartoonists in this country, and some dedicated people making sure that our work gets out there.

Reading and chatting with the Amazing! Lynda! Barry! Can you dig it?

The night before I was scheduled to read with Lynda Barry, I felt like my head would explode. I realized that I was going to meet someone in person who I had admired for many years, probably 20 at least. I had no idea what it would be like. The next morning I walked into the hospitality suite for the Vancouver International Writers Festival, and there she was, sitting at a table, with a red bandanna in her hair, looking just like she does in her drawings. She looked up and saw me, jumped out of her chair and came towards me with her arms outstretched, telling me how much she loved Tangles and how wonderful it was to meet me in three dimensions. It had never even occurred to me that she would have actually read my book. I had to sit down because I was shaking and laughing and crying. We just sat and looked at each other and sniffed. And then we just had the most wonderful morning of my entire life, talking and talking and laughing so hard. Nancy Lee arrived and the three of us laughed and talked more, then we did our event — reading from our work and then talking with Nancy and then taking questions from the audience. It was an inspiring and joyful discussion about creativity, hard work, what makes a “good” drawing, the silliness of aspiring to unreachable excellence instead of just doing your own work… I am in awe of Lynda’s brain, and her ability to draw and paint these intense, moving images of teenagers and demons and monkeys and chickens and magical monsters, and the way she fills up the stage with her tiny little self, and projects this love and acceptance, even as she talks about the overlooked power of hate, and how she likes to ask her students how they would kill someone, what method they would use.

Here are some photos from this Magical! Lynda! Barry! Day!

I think that was the best day of my life. Lynda’s so smart and funny and generous and just emanates love and passion but not in a syrupy way at all, in a kick-ass, hilarious, edgy, challenging way. Wow. I feel so incredibly blessed.

Tangles reviewed in Xtra!

It’s not the easiest story to tell, but in Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer’s, My Mother and Me, Leavitt shares her experience of her mother’s illness with tenderness and candid pain.

“This was something so big and so sad that was happening to me,” she says. It was beyond forgetting; Leavitt’s mother lost her “ability to navigate the world, to move through space.”

“She didn’t just stop recognizing me,” Leavitt explains. “She lost her sense of what a daughter is.”

Initially, Leavitt began documenting her mother’s deterioration so she wouldn’t forget it. “But then it was important to share it, kind of like a witness: this is the horrible thing that happened to me and I was there and I’m reporting back.” Read the full review on the Xtra! Vancouver website.

Tangles reviewed in Globe and Mail by Bernice Eisenstein

What an honour to be reviewed by Bernice Eisenstein, the author of I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors. Reading this review was a very emotional experience — I read it out loud to my partner as best I could between sobs, and she was crying too. It’s great enough to get a positive review, but I also felt like the reviewer really understood what I was trying to do with the book, which is a gift. And to be reviewed by a graphic memoirist was amazing. What a strange and exciting time this is, watching strangers read my book!

Read the review on the Globe and Mail website.

All Tangles, all the time

No new posts on this page of my website lately. Check out the Tangles page, and the links to News and Reviews and Readings and Festivals, to see what’s keeping me busy this fall… At some point I will get back to posting my random drawing and writing, like the series I am working on right now of spam subject lines made into art. And they say artists don’t contribute anything constructive to society!

Tangles reviewed in Vancouver Sun

Sarah Leavitt uses graphic means to tell her mother’s story
By Candace Fertile, Vancouver Sun October 9, 2010

Graphic novels have been around for some time, but Vancouver writer/artist Sarah Leavitt has taken the form and written a memoir — a deeply moving account of her mother’s struggles with Alzheimer’s disease and how the disease affected the family…

…Tangles is both a celebration of a life and an elegy. Leavitt doesn’t shy away from her fury and grief at her mother’s illness, nor does she ignore the messy part of Midge’s decline — her inability to care for herself physically. The daughter becomes the parent at times, cleaning up and caring for the mother.

Through the trauma, Sarah investigates her Jewish roots, finds an amazing partner and does what she can to help her family.

By creating this book, she has re-created her mother, a woman anyone would be privileged to have known. At least we get to know her through her daughter’s wrenchingly honest memoir.

Read the full review on the Vancouver Sun website The link to the Sun article is broken, but you can read it as reprinted in the Edmonton Journal.