One Book One Kootenay selects Renata story
By Contributor
Anne DeGrace’s first novel, Treading Water, a series of linked stories based on the flooding of Renata in the 1960s, has been chosen for the second annual One Book One Kootenay (OBOK) selection.
One Book One Kootenay covers the East and West Kootenays and Boundary, and each year chooses one book written by an author residing in the region. The selected author will read throughout the region, which encompasses 19 libraries in the Kootenay Library Federation. In Treading Water, DeGrace links characters like the indomitable Ursula Hartmann—first child born in the fictional community of Bear Creek (based on Renata)—with other residents and their stories from 1904 until the area was flooded in the wake of hydroelectric dam development. “The OBOK designation is an honour,” said DeGrace, “because the stories are about my home turf. While fictional, they are about, and belong to, the people of the Kootenays; these are the human stories behind the land and the flooding, and I tried to approach them with honesty and integrity. This One Book One Kootenay designation is a vote of confidence.” She was very happy to be in the company of the two iconic Kootenay writers also shortlisted for the designation: Luanne Armstrong of Boswell with her memoir, Blue Valley; and Vivien Bowers of Nelson with her non-fiction novel, In the Path of an Avalanche. DeGrace is writer, columnist and librarian. It will be an extremely busy fall for her. As well as the OBOK tour and readings with Treading Water, she launches two new books: Seasonings: A Year of Local Flavour in Words and Recipes is a fundraiser for the Nelson Municipal Library, co-sponsored by the library and Kootenay Country Store Co-operative; and Nelson, British Columbia is photographic essay co-written with Steve Thornton, with photos by David Gluns. One Book One Kootenay tour of Treading Water will be at the Castlegar & District Public Library, 1005 – 3rd St., on Oct. 20 at 7:30 p.m. DeGrace will be joined by special guests Wally Penner, vice president of community partnerships with the Columbia Basin Trust, who moved to Renata at age eight, and Takaia Larsen, curator of the historical exhibition “Remembering Renata.” The event is sponsored by Castlegar & District Public Library, Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance and the Kootenay Library Federation. For more information and tour details, contact the Castlegar Public Library, (250) 365-6611, or visit the OBOK website, www.obok.ca.
