Category: News stories

Trauma through generations

My late father, Marsh Forchuk, who died in November, would have turned 94 tomorrow. This is a photo of him when he was about 12. He’s the one with the glasses, holding onto that bike.

Dad had to quit school at age 12 because his father was no longer able to run their Alberta farm because of injuries he’d sustained while interned as an “enemy alien” in Canada in WWI had caught up to him.

So because of my grandfather’s internment, my father’s future was forever changed.

CBC Ideas interviewed me and other descendants of internees about this. Here’s the link.

Dad, I’m thinking of you

St. John’s Kilmarnock school

Today I had the pleasure of revisiting St. John’s Kilmarnock School in Breslau ON. I met librarian Carey Gallagher (middle) two decades ago when she was a teacher and I was the writer-in-residence for a year. Back then, I met with every class at least once but spent much time encouraging aspiring writers. I still keep in touch with some of them. Today’s session was very neat because it was the first time that I met in person with students since the spring of 2020. I’ve done a ton of virtual visits but it’s just not the same. Today’s group were 10th grade History and English classes — could it be more perfect? Discussed writing about victims of atrocities in a respectful way, how to do research on topics that have been ignored and suppressed, and why risking failure is the only way forward. My favourite question was: What do you consider your best book? My answer? Dance of the Banished, which I feel is very much under-rated, but also the story is so very relevant right now. In Turkey there is a monumentally important election going on and Erdogan, who is a Putin-wannabe is finally effectively being challenged by a combined opposition led by Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, whose heritage is Alevi.

And then icing on the cake: Jean Mills, a writer I very much admire, came to sit in on the session. She’s on the right, holding up her newest novel.

Fave Qs from Boyd W. Arthurs Middle School (MI)

I had the pleasure of visiting Arthurs MS in person in 2019 and so it was really neat to catch up with them again, albeit virtually. Those kids are now in high school but it was great to see the same wonderful educators and another crop of avid readers, including Alex, who described himself as my biggest fan. Also, they used the same Welcome Marsha sign! How cool is that?

Here are my fave questions from this session:

In Winterkill, Auntie Pawlina’s songbook is destroyed by the shockworkers. In real life, what was the fate of her collected songs?

Why were you banned by Russia?

When you write a novel, do you use an outline?

Why does Russia hate Ukraine?

Favorite questions from Eleanor Van Gelder (NJ) students

I like to leave lots of room for questions when presenting to students and this morning’s questions were superb! The topic was Winterkill, set during the Holodomor. Plus, I always talk about my own struggles as a kid, for example not reading til I was 9, and being bullied. Here are some of my favorite questions of the day:

If the Holodomor was such a huge event, how was it possible to hide it?

How did you deal with the bullying, and were you able to get it to stop?

Did you ever regret writing your first book about the Holodomor (Enough), seeing as you were subjected to so much hate because of it?

enough

Talking about Winterkill and Putin’s war with avid readers from Southside Junior High

It was wonderful to speak with avid readers from Southside JH this morning. It was great to answer some very good questions and some of them were ones I had never been asked by students before. What I particularly enjoyed were the connections that students made between the Holodomor and the current war in Ukraine, and between Stalin and Putin. One student asked how an American kid could help people in Ukraine. I told them that if they wanted to raise money, the best place to donate is the US-Ukraine Foundation but also said that doing things that keep the reality of war in Ukraine in the minds of regular people was very important too. There’s a simple way to keep it in people’s minds and that’s to follow #KidsFleeWar on social media and to share the images. What is #KidsFleeWar? The Shevchenko Foundation, myself and educators from across Canada who have Ukrainian refugee kids in their schools have been facilitating and sharing artwork about the war from a child’s perspective. Following, commenting and sharing these images keeps the injustices of the war on the radar of regular people but it also gives a voice to kids. I also host those pics on my website here.

Southside students were introduced to Winterkill and the Holodomor many weeks ago by their librarian, Jenna Remedies-France. Many thanks to HREC ED for funding this visit. Here is a quote from Jenna: I read Winterkill a few weeks ago; I absolutely LOVED it! I have to be honest and say that I had never heard of the Holodomor before, much less knew anything substantial about it. I love history! I cannot believe that in all my schooling it was never brought up. Thank you for writing such a beautiful book about this tragic time in history. The story deserves to be told, read, and known by everyone. I will definitely do my part in making that happen! Jenna Remedies-France, Middle School Librarian, Southside Junior High, Denham Springs, Louisiana