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Saga Connections 2.4 An Evening with Betty Jane Wylie
March 16, 2022 @ 7:30 pm - 8:30 pm
Saga Connections is pleased to be hosting Bettyjane Wylie on Saga Connections, Wednesday, March 16th, 2022 at 7:30 pm EST. The theme will be Exploring a Northern Soul.
You might know Bettyjane as our high spirited, witty ICCT Board member or from her regular and entertaining articles in our Fálkinn newsletter. But did you know that her published and produced work includes over 40 books and 20 stage plays as well as musicals, radio dramas and television documentaries? The University of Manitoba Archives (“Fonds”) houses her files and manuscripts, essays, tear sheets and correspondence–records of her long career.
Bettyjane was born and raised in Winnipeg but spent every summer of her childhood in the Icelandic town (and summer resort) of Gimli on Lake Winnipeg in a cottage two doors away from her Icelandic grandparents. She attended the University of Manitoba from 1946 to 1952, earning a B.A. with double honours in French and English and a Master’s degree with her major in 20th century poetry and her minor in Anglo-Saxon and old Norse, marking the beginning of her studies into her Icelandic roots. She married 17 days after she received her M.A. She had four children before the premature death of her husband compelled her to turn to writing to support her family. Her breadth of creativity was astonishing.
Bettyjane wrote puppet plays for children, self-help books, cookbooks and financial planning plus poetry and plays, and used her under-cover investigative journalism as research for many of her adult plays which included musicals, radio and television drama. Her blog, “Cobweblog”, available on her website (bettyjanewylie.com) provides a list of her published works.
In 2003, Bettyjane was awarded a Member of the Order of Canada, Canada’s highest civilian honour. But she had to keep on writing after that. In 2019, as she was approaching 90, Bettyjane self-published Endings: A Book for Almost Everyone, which comprises essays, stories and reflections on what she has learned in her journey through ‘the country of age’. She tells us, “This is a dipping book. Drop in anywhere, anytime and see what happens.”
Another reflective ‘dipping book’ Bettyjane wrote in 1995 ls called Letters to Icelanders: Exploring the Northern Soul. This delightful book takes the reader on an investigation of what it means to be a ‘Western Icelander’. Letters to Icelanders is fun, engaging, educational, inspiring and filled with practical information too. It’s a great book for learning about other aspects of our amazing Icelandic-Canadian heritage. Bettyjane has given her copyright to the book, which allows ICCT to publish a second edition with an updated introduction. We are so pleased that this treasure-trove has been made available to a new generation of Western Icelanders.
Please join us online for Saga Connections with Betty Jane Wyle on March 16, 2021 at 7:30 EST.
Event tickets are FREE but donations to the Saga Connections program are gratefully accepted:
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