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Dufour featured in Lived Experience

Van Andruss, my stalwart writing companion down Lillooet way, has compiled yet another volume of Lived Experience.
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Author Van Andruss and lakecity poet and horse logger Lorne Dufour discussed Lorne’s contribution to LE13 last summer.

Van Andruss, my stalwart writing companion down Lillooet way, has compiled yet another volume of Lived Experience.

Just in time (barely) for the Christmas season.

This is Van’s 13th such “labour of literary love” he has wrested from the ethers, compiling the work of his friends and colleagues since 2001 – one volume a year since that time.

For those who don’t know, Lived Experience: a literary journal from the Mountains of B.C. includes the writings of a number Cariboo authors and poets, as well as those from further afield in British Columbia and beyond.

The latest LE13 volume features the work of Lorne Dufour, Caterina Geuer, John Schreiber, Jools Andres and yours truly (Sage Birchwater).

Past editions have included local writers Barb Coupe, Sally Bland, Gloria Atamanenko, Martin Comtois and Doug Gook.

Van Andruss starts off LE13 in his usual way with an informal seven-page detailed introduction of the authors and their work.

“To the Reader” is like Van’s Christmas letter, summarizing the highlights of his year, then rolling into the contents of the magazine, introducing his stable of authors and their work in a relaxed and seamless fashion.

Apart from my own literary combobulation and the offerings of Caterina Geuer and Lorne Dufour, I haven’t seen the contents of LE13.

But I have seen the cover. It’s a knock-out. Another amazing art piece by talented Luther Brigman of Lillooet.

Adding to the artwork inside the magazine is former Cariboo artist Lynda Higginbottom-Lord.

Other writers found in the pages include Bob Sarti, Dave Bouvier, Reina Le Baron, Howard Brown, Edye Hanen, Alejandro Frid, Ken Wright, Rachel Reimer, Brian Hayden, Joram Piatigorsky, Toby Mueller, Koten Benson, Tim McNulty, Mary Morgan, Lisa Enquist, Christine Magliocco, Robert Sund and Jonathan Kerslake. Many of these are familiar names to loyal Lived Experience readers.

While I haven’t seen the final product, I trust Van and his assembled team of layout, editorial, graphic design and proof reading personnel, Eleanor Wright, Kerry Coast, Meghan Fandrich and Susannah White.

I’m sure they will have created a literary gem we can all be proud of.

Those of us who contribute to the magazine are part of a team, and Van Andruss is the helmsman, the spirited conductor of the orchestra.

Lived Experience Number Thirteen is available in Williams Lake at the Open Book store on Oliver Street, and in the Station House Gallery on Mackenzie Avenue.