Between 1910 and 1927, Thomas Hardy was nominated twenty-five times by his peers for the Nobel Prize in Literature, yet he never won. CWLC member Nonie J. began her presentation by asking, “why?” She surmised that award criteria of idealism and lofty moral standards were not met. Instead, Hardy’s work delved into the harsh realities of middle- and lower-class lives in Victorian England. 

Two factors were pivotal to Hardy’s outlook. First, the resilient, decisive, education-supporting women in his lower-class family: his grandmother, sister, and especially his beloved mother. Second, the centrality of family, which his father, brothers, and Hardy safeguarded tenaciously. 

Initially Hardy was a poet, writing over 900 poems in his life. But it was Far from the Madding Crowd that provided financial success and opened doors to socially privileged groups across England. 

Nonie highlighted three well-known novels in the Western English canon: Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1891), and his last completed book, Jude the Obscure (1895). In Madding Crowd, female characters endure disproportionate personal hardship from petty moral missteps, live with poverty, violence, harsh working conditions, and witness the halting emergence of women’s rights. In Tess, romance, financial insecurity, sexuality, and religion result in relationships evolving or shattering and love being uplifting or cruel. These relationships’ high drama reflects Hardy’s romanticism. Nonie suggested he might even qualify as an early Harlequin Romance novelist! Social mores, marriage and organized religion are challenged throughout Jude the Obscure. In fact, public reaction to Jude was so scathing Hardy stopped writing books and returned to writing poetry for the remainder of his life.

Hardy Women: Mothers, Sisters, Wives, Muses by Paula Byrne (2024) augmented Nonie’s analysis as to how Hardy the man informed his characters, settings, and storylines. Hardy liked and respected women, as evidenced by the female protagonists in his novels. “But did he love women?” Nonie asked. His mother, yes. His two wives, perhaps not.

During the lively Q & A period, one member recalled how much she treasured Hardy’s novels during her teenage years. Other members echoed the same sentiment: how his “everyday” female protagonists faced demanding social and familial norms, fewer opportunities than men, and stark contrasts between romance and love. And so, Nonie concluded, his novels remain very relevant today as well as him being a feminist and romanticist.

Written by Barbara R.

A great way to begin an inaugural presentation is by sharing a secret. Katherine I. admitted that when she chose Philip Roth, she mistakenly thought he was the author of Empire Falls (written by Richard Russo). After realizing her error, she was too deep into Roth to switch. What an unexpected literary journey it became!

Philip Roth (1933-2018) was born into a Jewish family in New Jersey. His Jewish background and New Jersey setting often found their way into his writing. During his lifetime, Roth was considered by many as the “greatest living American writer.” However, his work received polarizing reviews. It was widely criticized for its raw yet satirical views on middle-class Jewish-American life, explicit sexual content, and misogynistic portrayals of women.

Katherine and other club members question whether Roth’s reputation as a misogynist matters. Does it change the quality of his writing and his depiction of the era? At the time, other male writers explored similar themes and stereotypes, including John Updike, Norman Mailer, Vladimir Nabokov, and Canada’s own Mordecai Richler.  

From his thirty-one books, Katherine curated and discussed a fabulous selection of Roth’s works: Good-Bye, Columbus (1959), best-selling Portnoy’s Complaint (1969), The Prague Orgy (1985), Operation Shylock: A Confession (1993), I Married a Communist (1998), Indignation (2008), and Nemesis (2010). According to Katherine, Sabbath’s Theatre (1995) and American Pastoral (1997) are Roth’s best books.

Roth won many awards including the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1998), the Man Booker International Prize (2011), and the National Book Award for Fiction (1960 and 1995). Although Roth was a top contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature, his controversial themes, content, and portrayals may have contributed to the Swedish Academy not selecting him as a winner. 

After reading Roth’s works, Katherine describes his writing as character-driven, dialogue-rich, provocative, dense, and defiant of convention. Whether or not his raw, sexually explicit style is for every reader, it certainly gives us something to think about.

Written by Mooréa G.

Chinua Achebe, born in 1930 in eastern Nigeria, is often regarded as the father of modern African literature in English because of his deliberate and influential writing. He grew up within both Igbo tradition and the British colonial system. As a witness to the tension of these two worlds, Achebe was driven to “tell African stories from the inside, with clarity, dignity, and moral complexity.” Achebe wrote novels, short stories, essays, poetry, and children’s books. He received many literary awards and honorary degrees, and he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1975.

Eudy J., a CWLC member since 2023, shared engaging personal stories and insights from her research and long-time appreciation of Achebe’s work. She highlighted key examples from his most famous book, Things Fall Apart (1958) and also referenced his memoir, There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra (2012), which Eudy described as his most powerful book.

The Igbo people are an ethnic group primarily located in southeastern Nigeria. Drawing on Achebe’s writing, Eudy explored the traditional Igbo concepts of Duality, Chi, and Proverbs. As a fun exercise for her audience, Eudy shared several familiar Igbo proverbs and challenged members to interpret their meanings. Some of these proverbs included:

• He who walks slowly hardly ever gets injured.
• If the right hand washes the left hand, the left hand washes the right hand.
• What an old man sees sitting down, a child cannot see even if he climbs the tallest tree.
• If a snake fails to show its venom, little kids will use it to tie firewood.

Eudy’s presentation not only informed members about Achebe and his works but also provided insight into Nigeria (home to over 230 million people) and the Igbo culture, which includes more than 40 million people worldwide. Fantastic debut presentation, Eudy!

Written by Mooréa G.

Shawna M.’s presentation on Japanese writer Yukio Mishima on March 17^th was an insightful and nuanced synthesis of four decades of reading and discussing his works.

Three questions constituted her presentation’s scaffolding: why Mishima didn’t win the Nobel Prize in Literature, what are hallmarks of his writing, and is he relevant today (he died by seppuku in 1970, age 46).  

Mishima was nominated five times for the Nobel Prize in Literature during the 1960s (Wikipedia). He tackled very controversial topics, such as glorious (suicide) versus ignoble death (dying in hospital), sexual ambiguity/eroticism, cruelty/brutality versus perfection, imperialism versus boorish democracy. Moreover, Mishima was in the public eye: a model, actor, Kendo master, Samurai acolyte, the subject of lurid photos that he arranged. Was he too politically or socially controversial to win? Was he too young?  

Three books are especially noteworthy in his literary evolution. The success of Confessions of a Mask (1949) allowed Mishima to travel Europe and the Americas extensively. His outer and inner worlds expanded exponentially with new ideas, possibilities, and challenges. This may also have been the start of gay relationships, but Shawna cautioned there is much debate about his bisexuality (which, at times, overshadows discussions about his writings).  

In The Temple of the Golden Pavilion (1956), the protagonist, a monk, becomes psychologically unhinged by the Temple’s beauty contra friends’ mutual abusiveness. He eventually sets fire to the temple. Shawna noted the concept of “a beautiful, violent, futile gesture” was introduced here and it informed Mishima’s later years. The Sound of Waves(1959), by contrast, describes the idealized Japan Mishima believed is possible, wherein morality, hard work, and community are foundational.

Yes, Mishima is relevant today. The Sea of Fertility was written in the last years of his life and is a tetralogy. Through the characters’ lives, the personal philosophy of Mishima—a man of many contradictions—is helpfully explained. He skillfully interweaves Japanese and European literary techniques. Moods are created not by merely stating them, but through evocative metaphors. He tenaciously and unapologetically explores the proverbial “fine line” between good and evil. While his topics, plots, and characters may seem too daunting to engage, Shawna praised Mishima’s work as both profound and accessible. She concluded her engaging presentation by reading excerpts from three books to share the imagery, clarity, and beauty of his writing.

Written by Barbara R.

On February 9th, 1906, Annie Davidson held the first meeting of the Calgary Women’s Literary Club in the parlour of her home. At this meeting, founding members established by-laws, elected officers, and selected the club’s first literary program. One hundred and twenty years later, women across Calgary, who share a passion for the written word, continue to come together to discuss literature while honouring the legacy of the women who came before them.

To mark this 120th Anniversary, members gathered for a lively celebratory lunch at Park by Sidewalk Citizen on February 11th. The room was filled with laughter, holiday updates, and a shared appreciation for the club’s long and impressive history. We are especially grateful to Robin S., our Social Chair, and to the team at Park for organizing such a wonderful event. Robin also provided a delicious cake for our first meeting of the Spring 2026 session.

War, pandemics, moon landings, and the advent of the Internet are just some of the momentous events that have occurred since the founding of the CWLC. In 1906, when our foremothers were gathering to discuss literature, significant events were also unfolding around the world. Undoubtedly, these developments would have found their way into the conversations of these curious and engaged women.

• Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen identifies the magnetic North Pole and establishes that it moves over time.
• San Francisco experiences the devastating earthquake and fire in April, 1906.
• Wilfred Laurier is Prime Minister of Canada (1896-1911).
• Alexander Cameron Rutherford was the first Premier of Alberta (1905-1911).
• President Theodore Roosevelt sails to the Panama Canal in November, 1906. This was the first time a sitting U.S. president made an official trip outside the country. President Roosevelt was also the first American to win a Nobel Peace Prize.
• The first permanent Canadian movie theatre, the Ouimetoscope, opens in Montreal.
• The passenger steamer SS Valencia ran aground off Vancouver Island resulting in one of Canada’s worst maritime disasters.
• Some notable books published in or around 1906: Kim by Rudyard Kipling (1906), The Call of the Wild by Jack London (1906), The Jungle by Upton Sinclair (1906), The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton (1905), A Room with a View by E.M. Forster (1908), Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maude Montgomery (1908). Many Canadian female poets were beginning to make their mark: Jean Blewett, Helena Coleman, Sophia Almon Hensley, Elizabeth Roberts MacDonald, and Elizabeth Nuttall Hopkins among others.
• The Alpine Club is founded in Winnipeg with a membership fee of $0.25.

The CWLC will be celebrating its 125th Anniversary in 2031! This will be an exciting event and milestone for our club members and for the broader Calgary literary and historical community.

For more information on the history of the CWLC, please visit the Our History page.

Written by Janet H. and Mooréa G.

On Tuesday, March 10^th, Thea K. impressed her audience with her first CWLC presentation. Her author of choice was the prolific American-born writer Patricia Highsmith (1921-1995), who was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature and received numerous awards and other nominations.

As readers, we are often challenged to keep the author’s biography separate from their work. We ask questions such as, “Is this book autobiographical, and does it matter?” and “Can we still appreciate the writing if we don’t agree with or have respect for what we know about the writer?” Thea’s presentation encouraged her audience to grapple with these questions in the face of a deeply flawed writer and her unsettling yet compelling works.

Highsmith was born into a broken family and, to escape her feelings of abandonment and her tumultuous relationship with her mother, she found solace in reading. At the age of nine, she developed a fascination with abnormal psychology and began writing detailed diaries. “In her later years,” states Thea, “Highsmith became increasingly isolated, struggling with alcoholism and depression, and displaying antisocial and bigoted attitudes.” Like many of her fictional characters, Highsmith experienced numerous failed relationships and love affairs.

Highsmith wrote twenty-two novels and nine short story collections. Her literary influences included Dostoevsky, Kafka, Edgar Allan Poe, and Joseph Conrad. Highsmith’s works are filled with “psychologically complex criminals, moral ambiguity, suspenseful atmospheres, and an unflinching examination of the darker impulses within seemingly ordinary people.” 

Thea provided detailed summaries on Strangers on a Train (1950), The Blunderer (1954), and The Tremor of Forgery (1969). These novels vividly illustrate Highsmith’s reoccurring themes of moral collapse, guilt, paranoia, anxiety, and complicity in evil.

A lengthy and enthusiastic Q&A period followed Thea’s presentation, as members continued to wrestle with the reader’s paradox of admiring the work while questioning the writer. 

Written by Mooréa G.

Our good friend and fellow club member, Wilda Dow, passed away on February 23 at the age of 95 after a short illness. Wilda started with the CWLC in 2015 and only in 2025 did she find it harder to leave her home for outside engagements. She enjoyed the camaraderie and friendships she made in the club and presented two authors: Amy Tan and Amor Towles. 

Wilda was an avid reader, as her girls will attest, and when presenting, she organized her thoughts and communicated what she loved most about each author’s writing. All three of her girls came to CWLC when Wilda was presenting and, although she was a good public speaker, she always felt it was good to be supported by family while she spoke into the microphone.

Wilda belonged to a second book club and had strong opinions as to plot, character build-up, themes, and other interesting anecdotes of each book reviewed. Any time a friend shared the news about a new book, Wilda’s most often reply was, “Oh yes, I just finished it!”

We will miss Wilda with her gentle smile and warm heart. One of her favourite sayings was:

 “Life’s hard! But what’s that got to do with anything? (Eleanor Roosevelt)

You can read more about Wilda in her obituary at: https://www.piersons.ca/obituaries/wilda-dow

Written by Cathy R.

What a fantastic start to the CWLC Spring 2026 session! As we continue our theme on “Nominees for the Nobel Prize in Literature Who Never Won,” Judith C. presented an eloquent and well-researched presentation on writer Christa Wolf. This was Judith’s inaugural presentation.

Christa Wolf was a German novelist and essayist, considered to be one of the most significant writers of East Germany, and later, reunified Germany. The Guardian called her the most important writer of her time, and she was nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature multiple times between the years of 1987 to 2007.

Wolf’s work reflected authenticity and a personal moral engagement. She spoke her mind and was often punished for it: bad reviews were published and her books were not sold in East German bookstores for several years. Yet, she was an internationally recognized author who wrote many best sellers that were widely translated.  

Her novel Patterns of Childhood (1976) is semi-autobiographical about growing up in Nazi Germany. This novel is considered to be one of the finest books to deal with the country’s war time past, and Wolf bore the criticism of the East German regime when she spoke against it. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, when Stasi records were released, she confirmed what she had long suspected: she had been under scrutiny for thirty years. She also bore the criticism of the west for not speaking out more. Wolf was a feminist writer who wrote what she wanted despite the criticism.  

Judith read from Cassandra (1983), considered to be Wolf’s most important work. Cassandra is a character in the Trojan War, a prophetess who was ignored. Cassandra’s retelling reinterprets the war as a shift from a matriarchal society to a patriarchal one. “If you only read one book by Christa Wolf,” Judith said, “read this one.”

Written by Sandra E. and Mooréa G.

The commonly used phrase “the year has gone by in a flash” has become something of a cliché at this time of year. Looking back over the past twelve months, it certainly feels true, but perhaps it is because of our engagement in the year, much like flipping through pages of a gripping book. If we think of a quickly passing year as a “page-turner,” this cliché takes on a more positive tone.

For many, a book (like a year) is meant to be slowly savoured. Whether you prefer a page-turner or a tea-sipping epic novel, both offer stories, characters, moments, and themes that stay with us long after the book is closed. And there is always anticipation for the upcoming book, with pages filled with the excitement of the unknown. Perhaps this is how we can look upon the quick passing of 2025 and the coming of 2026.

In spring 2025, CWLC completed its program on Irish writers. “Irish Writers” was a fun theme, which offered our members Irish culture (including a lot of coarse language), writers from the past and present, and Calgary’s St. James Pub. The fall 2025 program, “Nominees for the Nobel Prize in Literature Who Never Won,” has included wonderful presentations and literary greats such as James Joyce, Margaret Atwood, Leo Tolstoy, Elie Wiesel, Janet Frame, and Mark Twain. While CWLC is currently on a break, we continue our theme and meetings on March 3, 2026. Guests are always welcome!

Robbie Burns’s poem “Auld Lang Syne” has become a familiar song shared at new year’s eve gatherings and at other events that mark significant moments of transition. Auld lang syne is literally translated to “old long since” and loosely means “for the sake of old times.” As a new year approaches, the 18th-century Scottish poem/song reminds us not to forget the friendships and experiences of the past. The new year is a good time to reflect on what has been, while welcoming what comes today and in the future.

Happy New Year and Happy Reading to All!

CWLC – posted by Mooréa G.

Auld Lang Syne by Robert Burns (1788)

Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne?

For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we’ll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

And surely you’ll buy your pint cup!
and surely I’ll buy mine!
And we’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

Chorus

We two have run about the hills,
and picked the daisies fine;
But we’ve wandered many a weary foot,
since auld lang syne.

Chorus

We two have paddled in the stream,
from morning sun till dine;
But seas between us broad have roared
since auld lang syne.

Chorus

And there’s a hand my trusty friend!
And give me a hand o’ thine!
And we’ll take a right good-will draught,
for auld lang syne.

Chorus

Ernest Hemingway famously claimed, “All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn. […] There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since.” How can such high praise be reconciled when The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is both one of the most beloved and one of the most controversial novels in American history? 

On Tuesday, November 18, Janet H. delivered a well-researched and passionate presentation on Mark Twain. Janet examined the man, the writer, and Huckleberry Finn’s lasting place in modern literature. Twain’s writings address the horrors and injustices of slavery, and Janet handled this sensitive subject with care and insight. 

After showing Conan O’Brien’s heartfelt acceptance speech for the Mark Twain award for American Humor, Janet admitted she knew little about the writer before her research—other than knowing he was funny. She learned numerous autobiographies exist (“shouldn’t there be only one?”) and recommended The Autobiography of Mark Twain (1959), edited by Charles Neider.

Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in 1835 and spent his childhood along the Mississippi River in Hannibal, Missouri. Twain was adventurous, humorous, and empathetic by nature. Upon his father’s death, Twain lived a “Charles Dickens-type misery” as a printer’s apprentice. He later became a journeyman printer, a steamboat pilot, a Confederate soldier, and a newspaper reporter. Writing about fraud and corruption was dangerous, so he began using the pen name “Mark Twain” (a nautical term). His extensive travels through Europe, the Middle East, and Hawaii inspired his humorous and satirical travel writings. Twain married and had four children—only one living passed the age of thirty.

While living in Hartford, Connecticut, Twain wrote many of his classics: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), The Prince and the Pauper (1881), Life on the Mississippi (1883), and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884). Huckleberry Finn tells the story of fourteen-year-old Huck, who befriends Jim, an enslaved man escaping toward freedom. Narrated in Huck’s colloquial voice, they share an eventful journey as they drift down the Mississippi River. Throughout the story, Huck struggles between his own conscience and societal prejudices. The book faced controversy as early as 1885: It was described as “coarse, trashy, inelegant, irreligious, obsolete, inaccurate, and mindless.” In later decades, it was challenged and even banned because of its racial slurs and prejudices of the time. Modern readers who defend the novel argue that Twain’s language is a deliberate critique of racism and slavery rather than an endorsement. 

Upon spending so much time with Mark Twain and his works, Janet joked that she was sad to part with her “new boyfriend.” 

Janet’s presentation wraps up the CWLC Fall 2025 session. Spring 2026 meetings will commence on Tuesday, March 3. Please refer to the program schedule for upcoming presentations on “Nominees for the Nobel Prize in Literature Who Never Won.”  

Have a wonderful holiday season and HAPPY READING!

Posted by Mooréa G.