Canadian Women Writing

I’m feeling very grown-up today. I just discovered I’ve been included in the Canadian Women Writing and Reading in Canada from 1950 Project. Though it could certainly use a good acronym, it’s a very cool and interesting project. From the Web page:

This site documents and reports on the development of a research project, Women Writing and Reading in Canada from 1950. It personalizes literary history as it explores the bond between reader and writer, world and text. MA and PhD students are partners in this research; they assist in designing surveys, uploading material, and maintaining the forums, and also create their own professional development projects.

Well, I’m a woman. And I’m a writer. And I’m Canadian. So, clearly, I belong with this group. But maybe it’s a sign of my core Candianness that makes me blush and deny and say, “What? Me?” In any case, it sounds like a deeply interesting project.

Under the stewardship of Dr. Patricia Demers of the University of Alberta, they’re focusing on the “immense productivity of women writers within the rapidly changing culture of the mid-twentieth century to the present day.”

The project embraces “writing” as a large and diverse field, including established (poetry, fiction, drama, non-fiction) and emerging (graphic novels, film and song writing, cartooning) forms. Popular and elite markers of circulation, appeal and critical judgment contribute to the criteria for inclusion.

The full project seems to be on the Web and it’s here.