Canadian Store (CAD)
You are currently shopping in our Canadian store. For orders outside of Canada, please switch to our international store. International and US orders are billed in US dollars.
The following is excerpted from an interview with Sandra Djwa author of Journey with No Maps: A Life P. K. Page:
Julie Wilson: You were approached directly by P. K. Page write this biography. I’m curious to know, how does P. K. Page ask someone to relay her life’s story?Sandra Djwa: I think that choosing a biographer is a kind of dance between subject and biographer. I had seen P. K. read at the Vancouver International Writers Fest in the late ’80s. There was deep emotion in her voice when she spoke about her father—she said they had not reconciled. This led me to wonder about her life and whether she would have a biography. P. K., in turn, had seen me writing F. R. Scott’s biography. P. K. and her husband, Arthur Irwin, had been very helpful when I asked them about topics relating to the 1940s and 1950s. [Editor’s note: Page and Scott had an affair.]
Then, in 1987, both P. K. and I were shortlisted for the BC Non-Fiction Prize. I arrived one evening for dinner at her home in Victoria and found Arthur reading my F. R. Scott biography, and liking it. A few years later, I wrote a paper about biography and P. K. asked me if she could read it. My impression at the time was that she did not want to have a biography. I think now that she was probably sussing me out for some time before she decided to take the plunge.
P. K. phoned one morning in December 1996 when I was making Christmas cookies. She asked, quite directly, would I like to write her biography? I said I would. We agreed to get together in Victoria in the New Year to discuss the matter. Later in February of 1997, and again in September of that year, she sent a formal letter authorizing me so write her biography and stating that I would be free to interpret her life as I saw fit.
Click here to read the full interview and an excerpt from Journey with No Maps
To learn more about Journey with No Maps, or to order online, click here.
For media inquiries, contact MQUP publicist Jacqui Davis.
No comments yet.