From Coast to Coast . . . to Coast? Suggestions Welcome

I’ve begun planning next fall’s literary research odyssey, during which I will be conducting place-based research and doing some archival work from Vancouver to western Newfoundland and, if I can manage it, Saint Pierre and Miquelon. There is, after all, a new police procedural dramedy set on those tiny French-speaking islands, and my MIL has always wanted to visit, so this could be a trip she’d relish.

The core of my book project is a claim about the relationship between history, geography, gender, and crime fiction. I would tell you my thesis, but it keeps evolving, as new (to me) books complicate my analysis. I’ll get there. (Also–but this may be literary critical heresy–my sense is that the analysis itself, and the detailed readings, is more important than the overarching argument, but here’s where I raise the ire of friends schooled in disciplines like philosophy and law, who insist I must have a thesis for there to be any point at all to my work.)

The point of my work–which is self-funded and done off the side of my desk–is to have fun.

I would have liked to embark on this voyage last fall, and I had tickets to see Louise Penny and Ann Cleves in Knowlton. But I contracted COVID, and that took some months to recover from, completely.

Those of us who are immunocompromised live in a brave new world where no one except us wears masks, or opens windows in classrooms and the bus, or worries about attending the opera with a thousand members of the audience . . . as I’m currently pondering, because tonight’s the dress rehearsal for Rachel Portman’s wonderfulThe Little Prince, and I should be there, since many of my students will be. Many thanks to Pacific Opera for the affordable dress rehearsal tickets and the ten (!) vouchers for free tickets. Class members are thrilled, and I’m grateful.

So travel’s a worry. Public appearances provoke attacks of nerves. All plans are contingent.

But here’s the tentative plan, because I’m taking suggestions: I absolutely must get to Calgary (Katherine Govier’s Between Men; then, if I can stomach it, a few days of Munro research at the archive) and Edmonton (Janice MacDonald‘s Randy Craig series). Then on to Regina (Gail Bowen, of course, and here I will definitely spend a few days in the archives).

But what about Manitoba? I haven’t found a good provincial rep here, because Allen Levine’s wonderful historical mysteries don’t fit my brief. And even with my determined revisionist approach, I can’t turn The Diviners into a mystery novel.

Ontario: lots of locales, and it would be more convenient if I could drive, but at least there’s the train. And buses. Will eschew hitchhiking. In Ottawa, I’m hoping to spend archival time but also, if feasible, probe the history of the Ladies’ Killing CIrcle of writers, who have been so prolific.

Quebec: Montreal, Quebec City, and Knowlton.

Then on to Atlantic Canada, and I’m looking forward to seeing Halifax (Anne Emery’s early novels in the series, before most of it got moved to Ireland) for the first time.

Alice Walsh is my rural Newfoundland representative; there are also some exciting mystery-adjacent writers in St. John’s including, of course, the extraordinary Lisa Moore. Her recent co-authored book is a must-read for anyone interested in youth justice in Canada. (My interests, they are niche.)

So here’s my question for readers: What am I missing? Where else do I need to go?

And should I go north? Tempting. Also very very expensive. One can fly to Europe and still not equal the cost of a trip to Iqaluit.

My other fall project is re-developing my recent Canadian Studies teaching materials as an open access resource (a course? a repository?) for folks who would like to learn more about Canada.

During the summer of 1992 I was a Parliamentary Tour Guide in Ottawa, in a gorgeous uniform of abstract maple leaf design with smart green jackets–designed specially for us by, if I’m recalling correctly, no less than Alfred Sung. In significant ways, I’ve spent my entire academic career working on Canada. And Canada is in crisis, because we have a bully for a neighbour, and while ’twas ever thus, the elephant is twitching and the mouse is anxious.