04 Oct A story you’ve never heard about three Canadian writers

When McClelland and Stewart sent Jane Urquhart a copy of her 1986 debut novel, The Whirlpool, the publisher also slipped in Alistair MacLeod’s second collection of short stories, As Birds Bring Forth the Sun. The two books had been released together under M&S’s “Signature Series” imprint.

Urquhart, who recounted the story Friday night during her tribute to Alistair at the Cabot Trail Writer’s Festival in St. Ann’s, was not familiar with MacLeod. After a few days savouring her newfound status as published author, she set about reading Birds. Then she read it again. Then she went out and bought MacLeod’s first story collection, The Lost Salt Gift of Blood, and devoured it.

Like MacLeod, Urquhart grew up in a mining community. She admired MacLeod’s ability to capture, with near perfect authenticity, a range of characters familiar from her own childhood. Over the next few weeks, she re-read both books several times.

Not long after, Urquhart received a letter from a well-established writer she’d met fleetingly at a festival. To her astonishment, the author was inviting herself to visit Urquhart, and even included precise instructions as to when she would need to be picked up at the bus.

When the day of the visit arrived, Urquhart was more than little intimidated to have the much more prominent writer sitting down for tea in her own kitchen. They exchanged pleasant small talk, then her fellow writer offered a piece of advice:

“Read Alistair MacLeod.”

Urquhart was thrilled because she had been doing just that. The two spent the rest of the visit excitedly going through both MacLeod collections, discussing each story in turn.

The name of the writer who rode a bus to visit Urquhart that day nearly three decades ago? Alice Munro.

The Cabot Trail Writer’s Festival continues this afternoon, this evening, and tomorrow at the Gaelic College, St. Ann’s.