The days fly away like wild horses over the hills. The poet Charles Bukowski said it first. But I've been feeling it as I get set to spend a week as writer-in-residence in Calgary.
I'll be at Mount Royal University from March 23 through March 27, courtesy of the English Department. For my public presentation (March 25), Our Story Begins in Calgary, I've been sorting through photos from my days as books editor at the Calgary Herald.  Above, we find me and Mordecai Richler . . . drinking coffee! To our left: Mavis Gallant in Banff with my old beater, aka the Silver Bullet. She was spending time at the Banff Centre and asked me to take her into town for groceries. She hated the elk! Could not understand why such dangerous animals were allowed to roam around freely. Below we have Tim Findley and his partner, William Whitehead, at Mescalero, one of my old favorite haunts. Richler, Gallant, Findley: giants of Canadian literature . . . all of them gone. That's what struck me. That's what called up those horses. But not to worry: my subtitle is An Adventure in Creative Nonfiction. We'll venture beyond nostalgia. Even so, eh?