Quotable: Into the Blizzard by Michael Winter

"I spent the day at the archives and photocopied enough material to cover the entire floor white. But the original diaries I never got to handle. Someone had taken them out before me. Somewhere, across these several well-lit acres of industrial study of the past, a set of eyes was reading about the Newfoundland regiment. It was the only fact I could not research. Who. Reading was the only activity in the room not ordered or catalogued." — Michael Winter, Into the Blizzard

2016: A Year in Review

In 2016, I marked five years since beginning Not My Typewriter. It started as a book blog and transformed into something else, and each year, it evolves a tiny bit more. Thank you to everyone who has been reading over the past five years, and to those who have just stumbled upon it recently. I look forward to another year ahead of exploring #HamOnt and #CanLit.

My blog birthday wasn't the only thing I had to celebrate in 2016. It was a huge year for Hamilton's literary community: Lawrence Hill won CBC's Canada Reads for a second time. Wolsak and Wynn, Hamilton's local publisher, had their first book on the Giller Prize longlist. Gary Barwin's Yiddish for Pirates landed a spot on the Giller Prize shortlist. Michael Helm of Dundas was nominated for The Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize for his book After James. Local first-time author Jamie Tennant started Get Lit, a radio program which airs on CFMU (Check out the first few episodes here: https://soundcloud.com/jamestennant-1). On a personal level, I was proud to be part of the team that launched the Hamilton Review of Books in November. These examples are really just the beginning. It was an exceptional year for local lit.

I've pulled together a few of my favourite posts from 2016. I look forward to many more adventures in 2017! Happy New Year!

Winter 2016

• Lawrence Hill at gritLIT
• Mountain City Girls
• Interview with Jenna Butler
• Beaver Hall Exhibit at the Art Gallery of Hamilton

Spring 2016

• gritLIT Live
• gritLIT Festival Weekend
• Playa Del Carmen
• The FOLD Festival

Summer 2016

• Doors Open and Jane's Walks
• Interview with Amber McMillan
• Fringe Festival
• Eating and Drinking in St. John's
• St. John's: Downtown

Fall 2016

• Telling Tales
• Supercrawl: Day One
• Supercrawl: Day Two and Three
• Locke Street Festival (AKA My better half is opening a restaurant!)
• Hamilton Review of Books Launch