I wrote it with two purposes: first to document, like literary polaroids, a neighbourhood that was changing with an influx of revitalization funding and improving housing market conditions. Second, I wanted to explore the human connections that are integral to the quality of life all of us experience in our built environment.<\/p>\n
Before the University of Alberta Press picked up\u00a0Little Yellow House<\/em>\u00a0for publication, I spoke to a literary agent about the process of selling the book to a commercial publishing house and one of the first things she said was, \u201cWho in Toronto wants to read stories set in Edmonton?\u201d<\/p>\n Although it was intended as a rhetorical question, I tried to defend the universality of \u201clocal stories.\u201d While local stories are helpful for recording and teaching in their specific locales, I argued that they are critical for finding shared learnings across regions and oceans.\u00a0Is this not why many of us read? By reading one another\u2019s local stories we better understand the \u201cother\u201d and\u2014even better\u2014discover our own stories in the other\u2019s local stories. In fact, the wide circulation of \u201clocal stories\u201d is, I believe, at the heart of empathy, ecumenicalism, and peace-building.<\/p>\n It is to expand and enable this curiosity that drives university presses and thank goodness for them! There are many \u201cbusiness cases\u201d that limit books like mine from finding their way onto the lists of commercial publishers. University of Alberta Press, and editor Peter Midgley, had the flexibility to see the literary and theoretical merit of\u00a0Little Yellow House<\/em>\u00a0and then took a chance on it. While the press does not have any mandate that urges them to pursue Alberta stories, as a small publisher connected to our city\u2019s literary community, they are accessible to independent writers like me. It is these connections to local and regional communities where university presses offer a unique service to the literary arts community and readers\u2014well, I think I have argued\u2014everywhere!<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/holeinthebucket.files.wordpress.com\/2018\/11\/halton_little-yellow-house.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"