Erin Bow's Blog

Here's a round up of photos from one of the most stunning nights of my life -- the ceremony awarding the Governor General's Literary Awards. The ceremony was held at Rideau Hall -- the residence of the Canadian Head of State, the Governor General -- currently Julie Payette, an astronaut. It's an enormous stone mansion with beef eater guards and protocol officers in naval dress uniforms who walk you through the five important steps of getting such an award. In most years it's a ballgown and tux events; this year they changed the dress code to cocktail but I had already ordered a ballgown so I wore the heck out of that thing. (Official picture that came later -- me and the head of state.) The actual ceremony was held in the “tent room” -- an old tennis court that has been lined with pink and white fabric and hung with oil paintings of white guys in robes. It’s quite a thing to turn around and face this room: the fabric walls, the huge chandeliers, the crowd and lights and cameras and the head of state ..... But I did it and I didn't faint. None of us did. Sydney Smith teared up. And the amazing poet Gwen Beneway, who is Metis, actually called out Canada's ongoing genocide against the indigenous people to the GG's face -- it was stunning; she was so brave. Two young women did dramatic readings of poetry; they were amazing. And then we had food -- I tried caviar! It tastes like fish! -- and mingled and took a tour of the hall and mingled and stayed until the band was putting instruments into their cases. Here are some photographs.

So happy to see the STAND ON THE SKY on this list of best books of the year from the New York Public Library. If you're looking for presents, by the way, this is an excellent searchable list -- certainly I've found some favorites here.

News broke at the crack of dawn this morning: my book, STAND ON THE SKY, has won a Governor General's award -- the oldest and highest profile award in Canada. This is a huge deal. I'm so excited -- I hardly know what to say. I think I'm going to need a ball gown.

When I realized my story STAND ON THE SKY needed to be set in Mongolia, I scratched out a couple of sample chapters so I could beg for a grant. I got the grant – and I stopped writing. I really wanted to find the shape of the story after I’d been. (Turned out that I found it while I was there.)⁣ .⁣ Naturally many of the things in the sample chapters turned out to be a little off, because I’d only done book research. But I’d written the bit where Aisulu rides up to an outcrop of shale to seek the eagle nest and rescue the orphaned baby eagle. And when I finally got to Western Mongolia, there it was, just as I’d pictured it, the shale outcrop. It was almost eerie. I wanted to put a blue scarf and a good stone at its base, to thank the universe. ⁣I am grateful to these stones, this land. ⁣ ⁣

So the Canada Council sent me a set of GG Finalist Stickers, and I hooked up with my friend Ishta Mercurio took them down my local Indie, Worrds Worth books, and put them on stock copies. See the delitght.

So this morning the list of books nominated for the GG -- the Governor General's Award -- came out. I saw it in my e-mail, and really just scanned it briefly. I didn't see my name or my book cover, so I sighed and went to the basement to help clean up the sewage leak. (UGGGH don't ask.) Then my Twitter notifications started rolling in. And I'm up for it. STAND ON THE SKY has been nominated for a GG. And I'm on the actual air. I am standing on the sky. As writers we are not allowed to admit that we want these things, but I wanted this thing. A lot. For this book, which is truly the book of my heart. The Governor General's awards are Canada's big national awards -- like the National Book Awards in the States. They're given in seven categories, including the one I'm up for, literature for young people. They are worth $25K, a big shiney seal, and of course ALL THE GLORY. Even being nominated is a huge, life-changing, career-making thing. I can't believe it. I am so happy.

This fall I went to Telling Tales, to Lethbridge's Word on the Street -- the best little fest in the West -- and into the schools as part of the Authors in Schools program of Kingston WritersFest. And now I'm home! Telling Tales broke its 10-year streak of being blazing hot and sunny by being cold and rainy. I wore my black rain coat and one of my Mongolian scarves and my step-dads' black wool hat and didn't realize that the general effect was Gay Lesser Pratchett. Telling Tales was packed with soggy happy reading families. I hung out with readers and other authors.In Lethbridge I got to talk with Waubgeshig rice Rice, who wrote the best thing I've read this year: Moon of Crusted Snow. Plus he confirmed my private theory about the book! And in Kingston I read to a tiny country school which had never had an author visit, and a gymful of 250 4 -6 graders, who acted as if they'd never had an author visit -- they were all so excited. I've never been to Kingston before and I'd like to go back. It's lovely.Pictures!

One of the things I want readers to take from my STAND ON THE SKY is the realization that the culture of Kazakh nomads is not a museum piece: it's a living culture that exists in today's world. Many of the traditions are old -- the art of eagle hunting, for instance, is at least 4000 years old -- but that does not mean they're unchanged. Traditional elements and modern innovations exist side by side, and the culture is in the middle of many changes. Here, Kazakh kids watch cartoons inside their ger. Alimbai, the eagle hunter, on his cellphone. Photo yanked from Pintrest, but we did encounter a young man transporting his eagle on a motorcycle.(Motorcycles are widely used in Olgii. I can't drive one but did learn the art of riding pinion while hanging onto the driver for dear life.) One of the changes sweeping Kazakh eagle hunting culture is that the newest generation of children training with eagles includes a few girls, which is a shift from the way it's been practiced in the last few hundred years. (Going further back there's a tradition of ancient female eagle hunters.) My character, Aisulu, is not based on any of them, but stories like hers are unfolding right now. Here's my friend Tansaya, who was my guide in Mongolia: a remarkable young woman who grew up in the gers, grew up with eagles, and went off to get a degree in gender studies. She's in costume here -- you're more likely to see her in a sweatshirt or a pretty blouse -- but don't mistake her for a thing of the past.

So far, I'm lined up for Telling Tales in Rockton, Ontario (a big outdoor family reading festival near Hamilton -- also in easy reach of Toronto, KW, etc), Word on the Street in Lethbridge, Alberta, and the Kingston Writersfest in Kingston, Ontario. I am booking school visits for October - December.