OK, this one has me clasping my head. We're looking at a multi-media project two years in the making. It's going to showcase photo-portraits of  150 Canadian authors. Yup: 150 from across the country! The photographer, Mark Raynes Roberts, traveled 20,000 km to take 22,500 photos . . . and the story hasn't hit the mainstream media? Picture me clasping AND reeling around the room. Roberts is renowned for his intricate, hand-engraved crystal art . . . and a dozen
pieces will turn up at one of the three Toronto venues slated to showcase Illumination, as the show is called. Those crystal masterpieces will form part of the exhibit at the Gardiner Museum (Oct. 26 to Nov 11).  More author portraits turn up at the Toronto Reference Library (Oct. 11-Nov 1) and the International Festival of Authors at Harbourfront (Oct. 22 to Nov. 1). But look around: here we have Sarah Sheard (on horse), Miranda Hill (thinking), Dave Bidini (hat and piano), Jonathan Kay (on stairs), Ray Robertson (hat and stare) and Michelle Berry looking Scandinavian for good luck . . . AND there are 144 more where these come from (143 if we count that one in the lower left). Find out more from the man himself: info@markraynesroberts.com. Honestly, I think we should spread the word.

Meanwhile, here in the Big Smoke, the International Festival of Authors has a Writing Scotland theme happening. The National Post is running a Q&A with some of the participating authors, our hero among them. . . .



This year, the International Festival of Authors has joined forces with the Edinburgh International Book Festival and the Scottish Government to present Writing Scotland, a celebration that coincides with Scottish Homecoming and the 250th anniversary of Robert Burns' birth. IFOA has even registered their own tartan! Scotland and Canada have a long and rich history: more than four million Canadians have some kind of Scottish heritage, including many of the Canadian authors at this year's festival: Alice Munro, Alistair MacLeod, Linden MacIntyre.

Throughout IFOA XXX, The Afterword will introduce readers to some of the Scottish writers attending this year's festival.

Today: Scottish-Canadian author Ken McGoogan, who is currently working on a new book about Scottish influences in Canada called Bravehearts & Brassy Lasses: How the Scots Invented Canada.

Q: The population of Scotland is a little over 5 million people, yet it supports such a robust literary culture. What gives?

A: This goes back to the sixteenth century and, ironically, to the fanatical John Knox, the father of Presbyterianism. Knox decreed that every Scot should be able to read the Bible and dispute its teachings. This led to widespread literacy (and disputatiousness), which spawned the Scottish Enlightenment of the eighteenth century. The Scots have been reading, writing and arguing ever since. That`s just who they are.

Q: This is the 250th anniversary of Robert Burns' birth - what's your favourite of The Bard's poems?

A: Ae Fond Kiss. Read about the love affair Burns had with his Clarinda. Then check out this love song as performed by Eddi Reader. Make sure you have a hanky handy.

Q: Canada has a rich history of Scottish immigration -- over 4 million Canadians have some degree of Scottish heritage. Do you feel a connection to the country when you read Canadian literature?

A: According to the 2006 census, 4.7 million Canadians claim Scottish heritage – 15 per cent of our population.. That percentage has remained virtually unchanged since Canada`s first census in 1871. Yet the Scottish influence on Canadian literature has been profound. Our passion for historical novels, for example, derives generally from Scotland (we never severed ties) and specifically from Sir Walter Scott. As for Canadian writers of Scottish heritage, in non-fiction we have such seminal figures as Harold Innis, Donald Creighton, George Grant, John Kenneth Galbraith, Marshall McLuhan, and Farley Mowat. In fiction, the list starts with L.M. Montgomery, Hugh MacLennan, Margaret Laurence, W.O. Mitchell, Alice Munro, and Alistair Macleod, and keeps on growing. Ann-Marie MacDonald? Linden MacIntyre?

Q: Who's the most under-rated Scottish writer, dead or alive?

A: That`s easy: James Boswell. He turned Samuel Johnson, that English eccentric, into a towering literary figure. Without Boswell, Johnson would today be a footnote. Not only that, but Boswell created a genre – contemporary biography – while he was going about this work. And then he got slagged for his . . . questionable lifestyle choices. It`s not right.

Back from sailing in the Northwest Passage, our hero shifts into high gear. . . .
Monday, Oct. 19, 1 p.m., lectures at LIFE in Association with Ryerson University on the history and geography of the Arctic.
Wednesday, Oct. 21, 6:30 p.m., reads and entertains in The EH List Author Series at the Toronto Public Library, Northern District, 40 Orchard View Blvd.
Saturday, Oct. 24, 1 p.m., moderates a panel discussion on Writing Scotland's Past at the International Festival of Authors. Lakeside Terrace, 235 Queen's Quay West.

This autumn, according to Savvy Reader, Our Hero will spend sixteen days sailing in the Northwest Passage with Adventure Canada. Afterwards, he'll wax eloquent about that voyage in two different cities while showcasing his book Race to the Polar Sea.
On October 21, as part of The Eh List Author Series, Ken will speak at the Toronto Public Library, Northern District, starting at 6:30 p.m.
Then on November 17, he will be a featured author at Explore The North, an evening of conversation, food, art, music and artifacts slated for the Museum of Civilization in Ottawa. That event kicks off with a cocktail reception at 6 p.m., and Ken will talk about Polar Sea and Fatal Passage, which was turned into a BBC docudrama. Joining him on stage will be Elizabeth Hay, who won the 2007 Giller Prize with Late Nights on Air, and Charlotte Gray, whose books include Sisters of the Wilderness and Reluctant Genius.
Between those events, on Saturday October 24 at 1 p.m., Ken will moderate a round table discussion at the International Festival of Authors. He is writing a book about the Scottish influence on Canada, and the subject of the panel is Writing Scotland’s Past.