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KEN MCGOOGAN
Canada, Scotland, Arctic 2016

Showing posts with label St. Andrew's Society. Show all posts
Showing posts with label St. Andrew's Society. Show all posts
Ready or not, Our Hero is coming your way . . .

Ready or not, Our Hero is coming your way . . .

October 26, 2015
 
Just back from an exciting weekend in the Niagara area, thanks to the splendid Ridgeway Reading Series. What's next? Thought you'd never ask.
 -- Nov. 5, Cambridge, Ontario. Third Age Learning, 10 a.m. to noon.
 -- Nov. 12, Toronto: Eh List, Toronto Reference Library. Note time change to 7 p.m.
 --  Nov. 15, Montreal: Paragraphe Books & Breakfast, 10 a.m.
 -- Nov. 18, Halifax: Central Library. Paul O'Regan Hall, 7 p.m.
-- Nov. 20: Winnipeg: St. Andrew's Society Dinner. 
-- Dec. 1, Hamilton: Different Drummer Books. 
Hope to see you at one of these events!

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Ken McGoogan
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Robert Burns kicks off spring showboating

Robert Burns kicks off spring showboating

January 08, 2015
Linden MacIntyre and the McGoogans. Yes, it sound like the name of an emerging Celtic music band. But really it is the speakers line-up for this year's Robert Burns Dinner sponsored by the Toronto St. Andrews Society. That event, slated for Jan. 23, 2015, finds Linden delivering The Immortal Memory, and Sheena and I presenting the toasts to the Lassies and the Laddies. I don't know why she gets the last word. Lots of folks keen to hear Linden, whose latest novel is called Punishment, so apparently the event is sold out.
Next up: the Explorers' Club. On Feb. 13, Our Hero will entertain the Canadian chapter with a presentation called “Chasing John Franklin into the Northwest Passage.” Yes, I will draw on my own adventuring. I've just done a count, and see that our September voyage with Adventure Canada, Out of the Northwest Passage, will be our seventh. Be great to sail again with Margaret Atwood and Graeme Gibson, not to mention certain other fun-loving rascals (you know who you are). Check out the voyage and tell 'em I sent you.
But spring showboating. In March, Our Hero will spend a week as writer-in-residence at Mount Royal University in Calgary. Sheena and I still have friends and relations in that town, and we're hoping a few of them will turn out on the evening of March 25, when I'll give a public presentation called "Our Story Begins in Calgary." That's in the Lincoln Park Room at MRU. Circle the date, will you?
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Ken McGoogan
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Sporran works magic at event honoring Robert Burns

Sporran works magic at event honoring Robert Burns

January 25, 2014
Over on Facebook, a recent image sparked complaint. Where was my sporran? The clamor induced me to solicit yet one more kilted photo from Sheena Fraser McGoogan. Here we have Our Hero setting out with Sheena for the Robert Burns extravaganza sponsored by the St. Andrew's Society of Toronto. And quite a shindig it was, complete with haggis, pipers, and a Burns' songfest led by Strings in Motion. I got to chat with Norm Kelly, the Deputy Mayor. As  reported elsewhere, I offered unsolicited advice on transit, recommended Straphanger by Taras Grescoe, and relayed statistics on the Scots and the Irish in Canada. Mr. Kelly did not smoke crack. He did not curse out the police chief in Jamaican patois. And he did not threaten to strip down to his underwear and kill somebody. Either he's a notable improvement on you know who, or the sporran really does work magic.
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Ken McGoogan
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Before turning mainly to books about arctic exploration and Canadian history, Ken McGoogan worked for two decades as a journalist at major dailies in Toronto, Calgary, and Montreal. He teaches creative nonfiction writing through the University of Toronto and in the MFA program at King’s College in Halifax. Ken served as chair of the Public Lending Right Commission, has written recently for Canada’s History, Canadian Geographic, and Maclean’s, and sails with Adventure Canada as a resource historian. Based in Toronto, he has given talks and presentations across Canada, from Dawson City to Dartmouth, and in places as different as Edinburgh, Melbourne, and Hobart.