Dropped Threads 3: Beyond the Small Circle |
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Dropped Threads 2: More of What We Aren't Told |
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Dropped Threads: What We Aren't Told |
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A letter from Marjorie Anderson Greetings everyone, I want to first thank all the writers who sent in proposals and essays to be considered for the Dropped Threads 3 anthology. We received hundreds of responses, and along with the pleasure and excitement of compiling the new book came the angst over choosing just thirty-five stories from all those submitted. Therefore, it is a distinct pleasure for me to feature a number of the other personal essays on this website. As well, we are including a “found” piece from one of our prominent federal politicians: Judy Wasylycia-Leis, MP. She presented her story to a conference of women here in Winnipeg and agreed to provide us with a copy of those personal reflections, which explain so clearly what a woman politician comes to know about balancing personal and professional responsibilities. The focus of all the essays on this website, as well as those in the new book, is on what we as women have learned and want to pass on. Writers offer intimate peeks into profound moments in their lives; they tell of unique personal discoveries in their roles as professionals, mothers, daughters, wives, lovers and mentors; and they provide blueprints for being and surviving — with joy. There will be moments of recognition and moments of fresh insight for all readers, and I trust that after reading these stories, your anticipation will be heightened for the new anthology, Dropped Threads 3: Beyond the Small Circle. This third anthology has that distinct Dropped Threads mix of established and new voices on the Canadian literary scene. It includes personal stories from Margaret Atwood, June Callwood, Lorna Crozier, Frances Itani and Silken Laumann, to mention a few of the well-known contributors. In addition, there are beautifully written, thoughtful essays from emerging writers. Ann-Marie MacDonald experiences the whole range of stories as “a grab bag of toothsome pearls of wisdom.” In her introduction to this anthology, she writes, “Reading is among the few truly private and intimate acts left to us. As such, it has the paradoxical power to bring us closer to one another than any of our high-tech amenities. This book assumes complicity and understanding. It assumes imagination in its highest form: compassion. This book makes of the reader, a friend.” Welcome friends to the “pearls of wisdom” on this website and, in April, to the fresh wealth of them in Dropped Threads 3. Marjorie Anderson
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Continuation of the Weaving: Dropped Threads 2 We are delighted to be able to put together another collection of dropped threads for our readers. This second volume should be out in the spring of 2003 and will have a whole new set of writers and more variations on the theme. We are now in the process of taking in submissions and choosing 35 contributors for the anthology. The interest in the new venture has been gratifying, with pieces and proposals for topics flowing in daily. We want to maintain the mix of well-known and new writers and are pleased with the opportunity Random House of Canada has provided us through this web site to connect with some of those "new voices." Both Carol and I are keenly interested in our readers' reactions to the original anthology and in their suggestions regarding the second volume. Letter from Marjorie Anderson and Carol Shields We welcome all of you to our website and wish you pleasure and satisfaction from reading and thinking about the areas of surprise and silence in women's lives. We've had tremendous delight doing just that over the past three years-first with the original anthology and then with Dropped Threads 2, which will be out in the bookstores by early April, 2003. On this website in the fall of 2001, we invited women to send in proposals for personal essays to be considered for Dropped Threads 2. We anticipated receiving some, and indicated that we would try to include one or two in the anthology. Well, the proposals poured in — over 100 in less than three weeks. We were amazed at the response and delighted with the content and quality of the proposals; consequently, we contacted approximately forty of these writers and asked for full submissions. Of the ones received, we chose seven for the book, seven powerful, intimate accounts that are bound to leave readers altered in some way. We could have included more, but a book has page limits, so we will be featuring several of the other writers and their personal essays on this website in November 2002. (Click here to read one of the essays submitted). As editors of the anthology, we feel honoured to have been entrusted with all of the intimate revelations from the lives of women. We want to acknowledge and thank all who carved out creative time to write both the pieces and the proposals. Having access to women through this website was vital to the original intent of the book. We wanted to feature a wide range of voices and experiences. To provide a fresh opportunity for established writers, yes, but also to create a venue for the public airing of stories from the private lives of "everyday" women, some of whom would be published for the first time. And, of course, what the stories in the anthology attest to is the profound and the moving in the everyday, how there is no such thing as "ordinary" in the diverse, rich lives of women. So what does Dropped Threads 2 have to offer to readers? In many ways, more of the same fascination as the first collection. Women will again feel that they are reading excerpts from their own private musings and lives. In this collection, writers deal with what lies beneath the surface in relationships, choice, and life-altering events such as loss, grief, and illness. They tell us what we don't hear in casual conversations, what it is like being inside an experience and how strong the need is to have their personal, unique responses to the commonplace heard and understood. This anthology also provides the license and safety women need to reveal happenings that are unfamiliar to many — bouts of inadequacy and fear or encounters with brutality and exclusion that are hard to admit to because of fear of judgment from others. These accounts are fresh, honest, and remarkably free from self-pity. The writers leave us inspired and wiser — and much less likely to make facile assessments of others' lives. In general this book is another celebration of female creativity as well as of the trust and care that women need and are capable of giving. In her preface to the book, Governor General Adrienne Clarkson writes that these essays are about how we learn to "become women." We feel privileged to be part of this intact community of female story telling and understanding. For those who have the reading experience in front of you, we hope you'll anticipate it with delight and then savour it as much as we have. Warm wishes, Marjorie Anderson and Carol Shields P.S. Click here fore more information about Dropped Threads 2
Click here to read a Q & A with Marjorie Anderson Choosing
the Contributors The speculations on the areas of surprise and silence in women's lives started out as a conversation over lunch and grew into Dropped Threads. Once Carol and I realized that we had discovered an unexplored terrain of female narrative, we decided to put together an anthology on the topic. To choose the contributors, we sat down one day at the University Club and drew up a list of women we thought might be interested in writing on the topic—much like one would decide on whom to invite to a theme dinner party. Looking back at that original list now, I see that we had some names of American and British women, which we then crossed out, after deciding that the anthology would be exclusively Canadian. We also made conscious choices to have a mix of well-known and new voices and not to have a selection process; therefore, we sent out invitations rather than a call for submissions. We sent out about 45 invitations and received approximately 40 responses. Some writers replied that they could not manage commissioned pieces at that time because of other writing projects. A few others indicated that they were interested but withdrew their names later on because of either unexpected circumstances or the difficulty of writing about intimate, often painful experiences. Most women were delighted to be asked and were quick to suggest topics—one sent two pages full of possibilities! We connected to a few of the contributors through chance and, in one case, through amazing, serendipitous circumstances. As word of the project got out, we were contacted by some women who had stories to tell and silences they wanted to break. Our choice to include one of these chance pieces,"Mrs. Jones" by Lily Redmond, has been validated repeatedly by the powerful reader response that this essay has elicited. The serendipitous contributor came about while on a trip to my lake cottage! In the car on the way to the lake, I read Isabel Huggan's short story "Into the Green Stillness" and declared it a perfect short story. Later that weekend when Carol and Don Shields came for a visit, I told them about my delightful literary find. As it turned out, Carol had Isabel's email address in France. We agreed on the spot to contact her and invite her to write a piece for our book. Fortunately, Isabel agreed enthusiastically and went on to write "Notes on a Piece for Carol," which identifies dimensions of women's friendships in a way that causes that "ah, yes" response from readers.
The Editing
Process During much of the time we were doing our editing work, Carol and I were separated by an ocean: she was in England and I was in Winnipeg. We developed a slick over-the-seas-and-cyber-waves editing process for that year. When a submission came to one of us, we'd make editorial notes and send a copy of the piece with the notes over the waves. The other would make notes, we would amalgamate our comments, and then send one editorial response back to the writer. We'd sometimes suggest a new entry point into the narrative or ask the writer to come closer to the heart of the experience. We recognized that asking for changes in a personal narrative after a productive and sometimes painful birth of ideas could be akin to asking a woman to alter the features of the child she has just given birth to. We were extremely careful to honour the feelings and attitudes that were at the core of these pieces and not to ask for either a dilution or enlargement of the authentic experiences with an eye to the marketing of them. Some of the critics who have reviewed our book wanted more strict editorial scrutiny; many of the readers, however, speak of a close identification with some of the stories where the voices are more hesitant than assured and the style more halting than smooth. Those readers say that they can imagine themselves in those tellings and, therefore, find validation for the personal stories they are living.
Surprise, Amazement
and Reader Response We hoped the book would be interesting for its readers, rewarding for its contributors, and beneficial for the publishers. I anticipated all our families and friends buying copies and a few neat bookstore readings and contributor gatherings. None of us involved with this anthology anticipated the amazing response that it has had. It is now in its sixth printing and has been on The Globe and Mail bestsellers list for over 30 weeks. Carol and I feel we've tapped into a wave or movement that was in motion and are now privileged to be part of the community of voices that is enthusiastically musing on the unexpected and unexplored in women's lives. There is obviously a need for these stories at this time—both in the writing and reading of them. Over the seven months that Dropped Threads has been out, we've heard many readers comment on the resonance of these stories in their own lives. One reader remarked that she could now look at her own life as a series of stories that have relevance and interest for others. Another claimed that the intimate peeks into other lives and minds offered validation for her own thoughts and experiences: "I don't feel so alone or so crazy." Some see 1970's nostalgia in this collection, a return to the voicing and the relevance of the personal defining moments in women's lives. These types of stories, which were part of the early years of the feminist movement, became lost as the movement became more political and polemic. Perhaps the message "the personal is the political" that launched the women's movement has been flipped to "the political is the personal." One of the most gratifying experiences I've had as an editor of this book has been taking part in book clubs and bookstore gatherings of readers who want to talk about the theme of the book, in particular, and the benefits of storytelling and life writing in general. The energy in these rooms sizzles, the emotions and personal revelations flow freely, and we all leave with profound nourishment for our souls. It's little wonder that readers have asked and we have recognized the need for another anthology of personal narratives on the same theme! |