A blog about writing, life, and the writing life. This is a little space where writer and storyteller Ivan Coyote will share occasional insights and updates as they wrestle with word counts, fear of blank pages, and how to find the time to feed your artistic heart.
Ivan's blog: Concrete Clouds
Ivan Coyote is a writer, storyteller and performer.
Born and raised in Whitehorse, Yukon, they are the author of thirteen books, the creator of four films, seven stage shows, and three albums that combine storytelling with music. Coyote’s books have won the ReLit Award, the B.C. Book Prize for Writing That Provokes, been named a Stonewall Honour Book, been longlisted for Canada Reads, been shortlisted for the Hilary Weston Prize for non-fiction, and the Governor General's Award for non-fiction twice. Ivan was given an honorary Doctor of Laws from Simon Fraser University in 2017, and an Honorary Doctor of Arts from Yukon University in 2023.
Coyote’s stories grapple with the complex and intensely personal topics of gender identity, family, class, and queer liberation, but always with a generous heart, and a quick wit. Ivan's stories manage to handle both the hilarious and the historical with reverence and compassion, and remind us all of our own fallible and imperfect humanity, while at the same time inspiring us to change the world.
Blog archive
Sometimes the most important lessons about creative work must be learned all over again to be remembered.
Last month, I went to Yellowknife for their North Words writer’s festival. Festivals are intense for the visiting writers: we do several gigs or readings in just a couple of days, plus panel discussions and mentoring sessions, plus also trying to catch some readings and sessions that our fellow writers are doing as well. I usually return home feeling a bit like a well-used beach towel – soggy, and wrung out, but full of good memories.
About 15 years ago, right around this same dark, slippery, and snowy time of year, I was driving in my truck down an icy highway, lonely on tour in Ontario, listening to CBC Radio. I was trying not to let the snowflakes that were space warping towards my windshield mesmerize me too much. Anna Maria Tremonti was interviewing Kay Ryan, the sixteenth Poet Laureate of the United States on The Current.