Category: Interviews

Stolen Girl: the Brantford connection

Many thanks to the Brant Family Literacy Committee for funding this presentation. Since I did this for a Brantford group, I decided to talk about Stolen Girl, which is set in Brantford just after WWII about a young refugee who has troubling memories of what she may have been doing during the war. As a Brantfordian, it was awesome to include some of my favorite local places, like the original Brantford Public Library, now Laurier Brantford, Central School, the Ukrainian Catholic Church of St John, Yates Castle, and the train station, as well as our old downtown and some of the stores that used to be there. Also the neighborhoods where the refugees of that era lived.

Podcast review of Trapped in Hitler’s Web, plus some really great music!

At the 22.32 mark of this episode of Nash Holos, Myra Junyk gives a wonderful review of Trapped in Hitler’s Web, but the entire podcast is great. Paulette MacQuarrie selects excellent Ukrainian and Jewish music.

https://shows.acast.com/nashholos/episodes/nash-holos-vancouver-2020-1017

Tuyet Yurczyszyn

I wrote about Tuyet’s childhood in Last Airlift and One Step at a Time, which has recently been re-released in an omnibus edition titled Sky of Bombs, Sky of Stars. Readers have contacted both me and Tuyet, inspired by her grit, optimism and indomitable spirit. But what many readers may not realize is that Tuyet is now a celebrated Canadian athlete in Women’s Sledge Hockey and played in the World Championship in 2014. Here’s an article about that.

In the summer of 2015, Tuyet was the final Torch Bearer in the Pan Am Para Am games.