Thanks to Lloyd DeWitt, Curator of European Art at the Art Gallery of Ontario, for providing tips and leads on researching works of art, and sculpture in particular, and for facilitating access to the AGO library.
My gratitude to Women’s College Hospital for providing access to Woman, for its leadership and mission to “advance and advocate for the health of women and improve health care options for all by developing, researching, teaching and delivering new treatments and models of integrated care” — and for inspiration.
Thanks to the numerous libraries and their efficient and knowledgeable librarians: Toronto Public Libraries — City of Toronto Archives Library; Toronto Reference Library — among others; University of Toronto Libraries; York University Libraries; Art Gallery of Ontario Library, among others.
Thanks to Toronto Police Service, Division 11, 22, and 14 for providing advice on police procedures.
The following works provided inspiration and the info on the period: Margaret Atwood, Double Persephone, a collection of poetry she had self-published in 1961 inspired certain scenes. Story has it that after having the poems printed, Atwood had the pages hand-sewn into booklets which sold at Yorkville stores and coffee houses at 50 cents a copy. Stuart Robert Henderson, Making the Scene: Yorkville and Hip Toronto, 1960-1970, a Doctorate thesis, Queen’s U, Kingston, ON, 2007; Nicholas Jennings, Before the Gold Rush: Peace, Love, and the Dawn of Canadian Sound, Viking, 1998; John Warkentin, Creating Memory: A Guide to Outdoor Public Sculpture in Toronto, Becker Associates, York U, 2010; David Burnett and Marilyn Schiff, Contemporary Canadian Art, Hurtig Publishers with The Art Gallery of Ontario, 1983; Sidney Lens, Vietnam: A War on Two Fronts, Lodestar Books, 1990; Don Lawson, An Album of the Vietnam War, Franklin Watts, 1986; Katie Daynes, The Vietnam War, Usborne Publishing, 2008; Denise Chong, The Girl in the Picture: The Story of Kim Phuc, The Photograph, and The Vietnam War, Penguin, 2001; Michael H. Hunt, The Vietnam War Reader: American and Vietnamese Perspective, Penguin, 2010; Dave Bidini, Writing Gordon Lightfoot: The Man, The Music, And The World In 1972, McClelland & Stewart, 2012; Lela M. Wilson, York Wilson, His Life and Work 1907-1984, York University Press & Carleton University Gallery, 1997; Henry Mietkiewicz and Bob Mackowycz, Dream Tower: The Life and Legacy of Rochdale College, McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd., 1988; Gino Gaudio, essay, “Vietnam War Draft Dodgers North of the Border: The Impress of the Dividing Line,” York U; Anita Aarons, “An Absent Minded Attitude and Events,” Architecture Canada, October, 1967; Arnaud Maggs fonds, 1967, City of Toronto Archives Library; “Look at What’s Happening in High Park,” Toronto Daily Star, July 3, 1967; “Sculptor’s 700 Ton Torture,” The Globe and Mail, Oct. 2, 1967; Anita Aarons, Urjo Kareda, “Sculpt-in: the hectic background,” The Globe and Mail, Sep. 2, 1967; “What the Dickens or a Tale of Two Cities,” Arts, 3, 1967; “Yes, Virginia (and New York) there is a ‘Canadian’ art,” Barry Lord, 1967; Hugh Garner, “A Sculpt-in comes to Toronto,” Toronto Life, July 1967; “The artists and Expo,” Norman Alexander Armstrong, Architecture Canada, 1967; Barbara Fischer, “Sculpture in the Garden,” Toronto Sculpture Garden, 2008; Paul King, “Urban Pose,” The Canadian, Oct. 1971; “Toronto International Sculpture Symposium 1967,” a pamphlet, Toronto Reference Library. Numerous other books, essays, journals, lectures, radio and TV programs, movies, magazine and newspaper articles and columns, conversations, and websites, were also very helpful.
I would also like to thank my colleagues at various writers associations and critiquing groups: Bloorwestwriters who were the first to critique the very early chapters way back in 2007; Toronto Writers Co-op members who read excerpts and offered feedback; Wasaga Beach Writers for helping tweak excerpts from the most recent drafts of the novel; Algonquin Square Table at U of T, at the time led by Albert Moritz, for critiquing some of the stanzas in their early stages, back in 2007-9; to Mirko for listening to my many permutations of the plot and for providing feedback on early chapters; to Shellina for sharing details on emergency procedures; to Jake Hogeterp and Liisa Hypponen (board members during my presidency at the Canadian Authors Association, Toronto) for pondering the plot when the novel was only in its infancy. To friends and colleagues who offered suggestions and shared expertise.
An excerpt from Chapter 31 was published in an anthology, Gathered Streams, 2010, under the working title of the novel which at the time was Flower Power.
My heartfelt thanks to my family for their love and unwavering support. To Sierra Sunrise, Austin Robert, Sarah, Michelle, Marijan, Adrian, and Mirko.
For a map of High Park and its sculptures, please see: http://www.highparktoronto.com/map.php
Frances Gage’s Woman is housed at Women’s College Hospital in Toronto.
About the Author
Bianca Lakoseljac is an author and educator with special interest in women’s issues, the environment, and social justice. She holds a BA and MA in English from York University, and is the recipient of the Matthew Ahern Memorial Award in Literature. Bianca taught communication at Ryerson University and Humber College.
She has judged literary contests such as the National Capital Writing Contest, the Dr. Drummond Poetry Contest, the Canadian Aid Literary Award Contest, and served on panels for the League of Canadian Poets and the Writers Union of Canada.
Bianca is a liaison with the National Reading Campaign on behalf of The Writers Union of Canada, and sat on the TWUC National Council; she is past president of the Canadian Authors Association, Toronto Branch; served as a board member of the Book and Periodical Council; and sat on the Freedom of Expression Committee for a number of years. She is a member of the C.G. Jung Foundation of Ontario. She is also a member of the Writers Union of Canada, PEN, CWILA, and the League of Canadian Poets, among others.
Other Publications
Summer of the Dancing Bear
A novel exploring the rite of passage of a fourteen-year-old girl befriended by a gypsy clan, set in the countryside near Belgrade. Guernica Editions, Toronto, 2012.
Bridge in the Rain
A collection of stories linked by an inscription on a bench in Toronto’s High Park. Guernica Editions, Toronto, 2010.
Memoirs of a Praying Mantis
A collection of poetry addressing environmental issues, horrors of war, and legends of High Park. Turtle Moons Press, Ottawa, 2009.
Work in progress: another novel set in Toronto.
Her short stories and poems have been published in journals and anthologies such as: Canadian Woman Studies, Inanna Publications and Education, York University, 2007; Canadian Voices, BookLand Press, 2009; Migrating Memories: Central Europe in Canada, Central European Association for Canadian Studies, 2010; and 50+ Poems for Gordon Lightfoot, The Old Brewery Bay Press, Stephen Leacock Museum, 2014.
Bianca divides her time between Toronto and Woodland Beach on Georgian Bay.
Bianca Lakoseljac
www.biancalakoseljac.ca
Copyright © 2016, Bianca Lakoseljac and Guernica Editions Inc.
All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication, reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise stored in a retrieval system, without the prior consent of the publisher is an infringement of the copyright law.
Michael Mirolla, general editor
David Moratto, interior and cover design
Gabriel Quigley, author photo credit
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Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2016935362
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Lakoseljac, Bianca, 1952-, author
Stone woman [electronic resource] / Bianca Lakoseljac.
(Essential prose ; 114)
Issued in print and electronic formats.
ISBN 978-1-55071-987-1 (paperback).--ISBN 978-1-55071-988-8 (epub).
--ISBN 978-1-55071-989-5 (mobi)
I. Title. II. Series: Essential prose series ; 114
PS8623.A424S76 2016 C813’.6 C2016-901525-4 C2016-901526-2
Guernica Editions Inc. acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council. The Ontario Arts Council is an agency of the Government of Ontario.
We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada.
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