“Part spiritual quest, part scholarly inquiry, part travel memoir, Prodigal Daughter is as richly layered as the civilization [Kostash] explores.” —The Edmonton Journal A deep-seated questioning of her inherited religion resurfaces when Myrna Kostash chances upon the icon of St. Demetrius of Thessalonica. A historical, cultural and spiritual odyssey that begins in Edmonton, ranges around the Balkans, and plunges into a renewed vision of Byzantium in search of the Great Saint of the East delivers the author to an unexpected place—the threshold of her childhood church. An epic work of travel memoir, Prodigal Daughter sings with immediacy and depth, rewarding readers with a profound sense of an adventure they have lived. This book will appeal to readers interested in Ukrainian-Canadian culture, the Eastern Church, and medieval history, as well as to fans of Kostash’s bold creative nonfiction. “Prodigal Daughter is at one and the same time an anthropological, cultural, and religious quest on two levels: the personal, autobiographical and the wider sociological and cultural. It is both deeply spiritual and intellectually satisfying.” —Tom Harpur, former author, journalist, TV host “Written in lyrical, vibrant prose, Prodigal Daughter is part travelogue and part memoir—a detailed account of findings from her travels to Greece, Bulgaria, Croatia and Macedonia . . . Winner of the 2011 City of Edmonton Prize, Prodigal Daughter is a thought-provoking book.” —Prairie Fire Review of Books “It may just be her best book to date . . . a shockingly honest and open articulation of a spiritual quest, one that is rich with possibilities.” —Lindy Ledohowski, Canadian Literature
It is said that one’s first love sets the template for all loves to follow. The Doomed Bridegroom narrates one woman’s attraction to rebel heroes, both real and imagined, in Canada, Eastern Europe, and the Mediterranean.
Myrna Kostash began the first of her travels into Eastern Europe in the spring of 1982. Over the next six years, she returned many times on a quest that took her into a landscape both foreign and somehow familiar. The result is Bloodlines, a heady brew of travel narrative, history, anecdote, political analysis and childhood memories. As Kostash journeys through Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Polar and Ukraine, meeting writers, dissidents, friends and relatives, she is intensely at home one moment, profoundly disoriented the next. What has this part of the world got to do with me? she asks herself again and again. How do these people imagine the place I come from? Can I trust what I see of theirs? What is my claim on them? Theirs on me? She pieces her answers together into a stunning collage that is equal parts reportage, memory and imagination. Provocative and deeply felt, Bloodlinesis clear evidence that Myrna Kostash is one of the most exciting writers working in Canada today.
In Ghosts in a Photograph, award-winning nonfiction writer Myrna Kostash delves into the lives of her grandparents, all of whom moved from Galicia, now present-day Ukraine, to Alberta at the turn of the twentieth century. Discovering a packet of family mementos, Kostash begins questioning what she knows about her extended families' pasts and whose narrative is allowed to prevail in Canada. This memoir, however, is not just a personal story, but a public one of immigration, partisan allegiance, and the stark differences in how two sets of families survive in a new country: one as homesteaders, the other as working-class Edmontonians. Working within the gaps in history--including the unsolved murder in Ukraine of her great uncle--Kostash uses her remarkable acumen as a writer and researcher to craft a probable narrative to interrogate the idea of straightforward and singular-voiced pasts and the stories we tell ourselves about where we come from. Rich in detail and propelled by vital curiosity, Ghosts in a Photograph is a determined, compelling, and multifaceted family chronicle.
Flower power, love-ins, psychoactive drugs, anti-war demonstrations--the Sixties were a time of immense change and upheaval in Canada, a radical departure from the social and political complacency of the Fifties. This book is a lively chronicle of how this change came about in Canada, how the "establishment" status quo was effectively challenged. It begins with a consideration of the anti-nuclear movement of the early 1960s, and continues with examinations of the civil rights and women's movements, the emergence of the New Left and opposition to the Vietnam War. Specifically Canadian developments such as the rise of Quebec separatism, the emergence of a native rights movement, and the struggle to Canadianize universities are also considered. First published in 1980, Long Way From Home is based on interviews with hundreds of people who participated in the events described--a report from the front lines of this turbulents decade's social and political revolutions.
In this book you'll meet ten fascinating Canadian women. Barbara Frum, today one of the most successful journalists in Canada, began her career when as a young mother she sold a piece to CBC Radio on how to amuse your kids. Margaret Atwood's highly acclaimed writing career started with poems published in literary magazines when she was an undergraduate. Runner Abby Hoffman first appeared in the sports pages when she was an all-star defenceman on a boys' hockey team. These are revealing portraits of women from a wide range of backgrounds, working at everything from housework to painting and politics.
Framed within her own view of this great river, well-known prairie writer Myrna Kostash has combed the available literature to compile this compendium of writings - poetry, fiction and non-fiction -- from those who spent time reading the river. Beginning with Saskatchewan River Crossing, at the river's source, she takes the reader through 21 communities along the North Saskatchewan, from Edmonton to Prince Albert, from Shandro Crossing (Alberta) to The Pas (Manitoba). Included are the words of people from writers like Hugh McLennan, Eli Mandel, Aritha van Herk, John V. Hicks, and Tomson Highway, to the explorer Alexander Mackenzie, 19th Century mountaineer James Monroe Thorington, to a Cree legend. Reading the River opens with an introduction by Myrna Kostash, and a charting of the geological origins of the North Saskatchewan River, and closes it with The Future River, a commentary in several voices on, among other things, the river's likely return to a place of prominence in prairie lives, not as a transportation route, but this time as a source of crucial fresh water. Each author has a concise biography, setting their remarks in the context of their time and their works. What emerges is a portrait of this vital lifeline, the terrain and the culture that grew, and is growing, on its shores, to be appreciated by anyone who travels on, along, or merely to, the great river.
Prodigal Daughter: A Journey to Byzantium is the narrative of a woman's journey through the Balkans as she embarks on her quest to find the real Demetrius. A deep-seated questioning of her inherited religion resurfaces when Myrna Kostash chances upon the icon of St. Demetrius of Thessalonica, the Great Saint of the East. The discovery leads Kostash on an historical, cultural, and spiritual odyssey that begins in Edmonton, ranges around the Balkans, and plunges into a renewed vision of Byzantium. As we travel with Kostash through the history of the Balkans, we are led to an unexpected placeùthe threshold of her childhood church.
Framed within her own view of this great river, well-known prairie writer Myrna Kostash has combed the available literature to compile this compendium of writings - poetry, fiction and non-fiction -- from those who spent time reading the river. Beginning with Saskatchewan River Crossing, at the river's source, she takes the reader through 21 communities along the North Saskatchewan, from Edmonton to Prince Albert, from Shandro Crossing (Alberta) to The Pas (Manitoba). Included are the words of people from writers like Hugh McLennan, Eli Mandel, Aritha van Herk, John V. Hicks, and Tomson Highway, to the explorer Alexander Mackenzie, 19th Century mountaineer James Monroe Thorington, to a Cree legend. Reading the River opens with an introduction by Myrna Kostash, and a charting of the geological origins of the North Saskatchewan River, and closes it with The Future River, a commentary in several voices on, among other things, the river's likely return to a place of prominence in prairie lives, not as a transportation route, but this time as a source of crucial fresh water. Each author has a concise biography, setting their remarks in the context of their time and their works. What emerges is a portrait of this vital lifeline, the terrain and the culture that grew, and is growing, on its shores, to be appreciated by anyone who travels on, along, or merely to, the great river.
Thank you for visiting our website. Would you like to provide feedback on how we could improve your experience?
This site does not use any third party cookies with one exception — it uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic.Learn More.