FEAST OF FOOD AND WORD

FEAST OF FOOD AND WORD

Traditional Nova Scotia Saturday Night Supper followed by
a Talk about Life and Art by author Donna Smyth

A “WORD IN THE VILLAGE” MAIN EVENT

Great Village Legion, Great Village, N.S.
Saturday 27 September 2008
4:30 to 6:30 p.m.


Join us for a traditional Nova Scotia Saturday Night Supper of home-made baked beans, brown bread, potato scallop, ham and mouth watering seasonal desserts, provided by the Friends of St. James United Church. This event is a fund-raiser for the St. James United Church. Cost: $10.00. Tickets must be purchased in advance as seating is limited. No tickets at the door. Tickets are available from Nancy Corrigan and Sandra Barry (see information below).

Nourishment for the body will be followed by nourishment for the mind, provided by novelist and playwright Donna Smyth, who will reflect on Elizabeth Bishop, the importance of art to life, and her own years as a writer, teacher and activist.

This event is part of WORD IN THE VILLAGE, a day-long literature and literacy festival to honour and celebrate Elizabeth Bishop’s art and her connection to Nova Scotia. See separate press release for details of the day’s events.

For tickets and additional information: Nancy Corrigan at nancy.corrigan@gmail.com, Great Village Pastoral Charge, 47 Lornevale Road, RR #1, Great Village, N.S., B0M 1L0, 902-668-2001; or Sandra Barry at slbarry@ns.sympatico.ca, 1323 Dresden Row, #3, Halifax, N.S., B3J 2J9, 902-429-6385.

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Donna E. Smyth lives on an old farm in Hants County. She’s published two novels, Quilt and Subversive Elements, as well as numerous short stories, poems, and non-fiction pieces. Her novel for young adults, Loyalist Runaway, was co-winner of the 1992 Dartmouth Library Fiction Award. Her collection of short stories, Among the Saints, was published by Roseway in 2003.
Smyth has also worked as a playwright with Mermaid Theatre who produced two of her plays in the early 1980s. Her one-woman play celebrating the life and work of poet Elizabeth Bishop, Running to Paradise, was produced by the Studio Group in Wolfville and Halifax in 1998 and published by Gaspereau Press in 1999.
Her two-act play on Bishop, Sole Survivors, was produced by the Ship’s Company Theatre in 2000 and published by Broken Jaw Press in 2003.
George Elliott Clarke has called Smyth’s writing “startling, nerve-racking, provocative…Smyth shatters clichés and dismisses mere sociology. She knows that pleasure is besieged by terror. She tells us what we don’t want to know, but need to know. Smyth’s writing disturbs us, enrichingly, because truth can never be at peace with language.”
Budge Wilson writes of Smyth’s novel: “Quilt is a remarkable work. With a unique and compelling voice. Donna Smyth tells a story that is full of complex relationships, raw domestic violence, and a saving compassion. As I read, I kept thinking, Why have I heard nothing about this novel?”
Smyth taught English and Creative Writing at Acadia University and was the founding editor of Atlantis, A Women’s Studies Journal. For many years she’s been a feminist and peace and environmental activist.

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Built in 1883, St. James United Church, stands at the intersection of Highway 2 and the Lornevale Road in the pretty village of Great Village on the shores of Cobequid Bay. Originally a Presbyterian Church, it is one of four provincially registered historic buildings in the community. The church was designed by noted Nova Scotia architect James C. DuMaresq and features a high ceiling shaped like the inverted keel of a ship, a testament to the community’s shipbuilding heritage. A plaque commemorating the life of the Pulitzer-Prize winning poet Elizabeth Bishop adorns the front of the building.

The Friends of St. James United Church is a group made up of both church and non-church members who meet one Saturday morning a month during the winter for a potluck breakfast. During the summer months, the Friends organize the Great Village Farmers’ Market Breakfast.