Members of the CWLC say a sad goodbye to our longtime member Dorothy Elizabeth Little. On December 21, 2024, Dorothy peacefully passed away at the age of ninety-six with family by her side.

To state that Dorothy was a “longtime” member is quite an understatement. Dorothy joined the Calgary Women’s Literary Club in 1956, at the age of twenty-eight. She was an active member until 2014 and an honorary member until her passing. In the past year, Dorothy, accompanied by her daughter Nancy, attended several regular meetings and the Spring Luncheon and AGM. As a member of the CWLC for sixty-eight years, it is possible Dorothy is the longest attending member of any literary club in Canada.

Dorothy’s first presentation, in 1956, was on poet and playwright Christopher Fry. In total, she presented twenty-eight times, with her last presentation in 2014. Presentations include writers such as Kenneth Grahame, Aldous Huxley, Wole Soyinka, Maxim Gorky, Emily Carr, and Tennessee Williams. In addition to her presentations, Dorothy served on the CWLC Board as treasurer and vice president. Members remember Dorothy as “gracious, knowledgeable, organized, friendly, and cheerful.” One member recalls Dorothy covering a last-minute vacancy, when a scheduled member was unable to present.

Along with the CWLC, Dorothy contributed to many other organizations in Calgary including the University of Calgary, the Calgary Public School Junior High Commission, the Calgary Regional Arts Foundation, the Glenbow Museum, among others. Family was Dorothy’s greatest joy and passion.

While members of the CWLC sadly miss our longtime member and friend, we celebrate a life well lived and are grateful to have had Dorothy dedicate so much of her life to our club.

Posted by Mooréa G. and Anita M.

Fun was had by all at the annual CWLC Winter Party on Tuesday, November 26. The festive event was held in the beautiful Alexander Calhoun Salon at the Memorial Park Library. The towering windows and spaciousness of the room made this a magical location for our gathering.

A spectacular potluck tea with goodies, live music, a literary quiz, and the much-anticipated book exchange contributed to the afternoon’s fun. The Fall 2025 / Spring 2026 presentation theme was also announced (to be posted at a later date), which gave rise to excited conversations amongst the members.

While the Winter Party marks the end of the fall session, members take this time to reflect on past presentations and joyously settle upon their winter reading lists.

The Calgary Women’s Literary Club wishes you a winter season filled with love, good health, and hours of great literature.

See you back on March 4, 2025 for more presentations on Irish Writers!

Posted by Mooréa G.

Sandra E.’s presentation on Claire Keegan (October 29, 2024) did not only catch our club’s attention, but also the attention of a promotional company in Toronto.

On behalf of Cineplex Pictures, Touchwood Public Relations generously provided free tickets for all CWLC members to attend the movie Small Things Like These. This movie is based on Claire Keegan’s novella (2020) of the same name. Award-winning, Irish actor, Cillian Murphy plays the main character, Bill Furlong.

“Oscar® winner Cillian Murphy delivers a stunning performance as devoted father Bill Furlong in this film based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Claire Keegan. While working as a coal merchant to support his family, he discovers disturbing secrets kept by the local convent — and uncovers truths of his own — forcing him to confront his past and the complicit silence of a small Irish town controlled by the Catholic Church.” Cineplex Pictures

While tears were shed and deep discussions ensued, the movie was thoroughly enjoyed and well-attended by many of our members.

The Calgary Women’s Literary Club is thrilled to have our 2024 – 25 program on Irish Writers reach those both inside and outside our club. We are most grateful to Touchwood and Cineplex Pictures for their kindness and generosity.

Posted by Mooréa G.

On Tuesday, November 19^th, Shawna M. roused spine-tingling energy in the room with her presentation on nineteenth-century Gothic writer, Sheriden Le Fanu. With the use of dark photographs and eerie readings, Shawna unveiled the dread and fear portrayed in Victorian Gothic literature.

Le Fanu was born in 1814 in Dublin. He began to write at the age of six and took great interest in Irish lore. Although educated as a lawyer, Le Fanu turned to journalism and became the owner and editor of several newspapers. He began writing ghost, mystery, and horror stories—later to be known as the “Master of Gothic Dread.”

Gothic literature consists of dark imagery, women in distress, anti-heroes, the supernatural, and an ancient and decrepit castle or mansion (and butler). Atmosphere is important: stories take place at night, during the winter, or in gloomy, foreboding weather. Le Fanu commonly used a haunted rental property as a setting. For Le Fanu and other Gothic writers, this genre was a means to explore the underbelly of society and expose “hidden guilt, shame, and fear.”

In the late-eighteenth century and throughout the nineteenth century, Gothic literature was at its peak with the writings of Anne Radcliffe, Charlotte Brontë, Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Mary Shelley, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Lord Byron. Another Dublin-born writer, Bram Stoker, wrote the Gothic novel Dracula in 1897.

Le Fanu was a prolific writer: he published fourteen novels, five short-story collections, numerous novellas, and poetry.  Shawna provided an in-depth exploration of several of Le Fanu’s key writings: The Ballad of Seamus O’Brien (1837), The Purcell Papers (1938), The Last Heir of Castle Connor (1838), Spalatro (1843), An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aunger Street (1851), Uncle Silas (1864), In a Glass Darkly (1872), and the seminal novella, Carmilla (1872).

Le Fanu’s characters, themes, and narrative found their way into the works of other Gothic writers, as well as in current adaptations. The Ballad of Seamus O’Brien, for example, has been turned into a song, play, and opera. Uncle Silas was made into a film starring Peter O’Toole. Carmilla—a vampire fiction predating Dracula by twenty-five years—and its lesbian vampire character is a prototype for many books, comics, films, and music. While the name “Sheridan Le Fanu” may not be well known today, he has left a literary legacy that continues to tingle spines and have audiences question if “scary comes from within.”

Shawna’s presentation brings the fall session of Irish Writers to a close. How quickly the past two months have gone! Meetings resume on Tuesday, March 4th, 2025 with the continuation of Irish Writers. Guests are always welcome.

Posted by Mooréa G.

Contemporary Irish writer and award winner, Donal Ryan, is intrigued by today’s Irish people, regardless of whether they are new immigrants, or their Irish roots are generations deep. He cares deeply about them, which is understandable because he grew up in a “typical” rural Irish village. In her November 12 presentation, Barbara R. discussed five of Ryan’s books. Barbara’s use of online interviews provided illuminating insights into what explains Ryan’s drive to write, his evolving writing processes, and his goals for each book. 

Revealing and understanding “real” Ireland, from the 1980s to today, grounds the five books. The Thing about December (2013) and The Spinning Heart (2012), his first published books, are set, respectively, at the start of the “Celtic Tiger” economic boom and during its collapse. A Slanting of the Sun: Stories (2015) has nineteen short stories and nineteen characters. Each story is an opportunity to learn more about Ireland: its people, historical events that still influence everyday life, and the impact geography and place have on people’s aspirations and options. Ryan flexes his “creative muscle” by using different literary structures in various books, such as in A Low and Quiet Sea (2018).

Ryan excels at “getting in the head” of his characters. Readers are not simply told the idiosyncrasies, contradictions, pet peeves, puzzling loyalties, or unadmitted shame of a character. Instead, these traits become known gradually through a character’s behaviours, interactions with family and neighbours, and self-reflections. 

Ryan’s writing style makes characters and plots come alive and feel tangibly real. Excerpts read from his books demonstrate Ryan’s use of local Irish dialects and idioms, grammatically incorrect remarks and thoughts, and intermixing different characters’ viewpoints in the same paragraph. The presentation concluded with a longer reading from All We Shall Know (2016) to illustrate the kinds of literary gems Barbara discovered throughout Ryan’s work.

Posted by Barbara R. and Mooréa G.

Although his writing is dark and often disturbing, Maryliz Q. provided a humorous, informative, and creative presentation on Dublin-born writer Roddy Doyle on Tuesday, November 5.  

Maryliz began her presentation in an epistolatory fashion: “Dear Roddy…” and asked the writer numerous questions including why he uses such graphically explicit sex in his stories, and why he resorts to Irish stereotypes. 

Maryliz discussed and provided powerful reading selections from six books: Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, A Star Called Henry, Charlie Savage, The Woman Who Walks into Doors, The Women Behind the Door, and Smile. 

Doyle is a prolific writer having published eleven novels, eight children’s books, seven screenplays, and numerous short stories. His novels are mainly conversational in structure, and they often portray the Irish working class in a rather negative light. In 1993, Doyle won the prestigious Booker Prize for his novel Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha.

Doyle, also known as the “Mark Twain” of Ireland, charmed Maryliz and other CWLC members at a recent Wordfest event in Calgary. While charmed, Doyle’s relentless use of profanity was in question.

At the end of her presentation, Maryliz concluded that Doyle is not her kind of writer and his writing “exhausted” her. She concluded her letter to Roddy by wishing him continued success and signed off with a warm-hearted goodbye. 

The Q&A period was, once again, lively and turned to the discussion of profanity. Our CWLC resident Irishwoman reassured members that profanity is very much part of the vocabulary of Northern Dublin, and Doyle’s portrayals are not far from the truth.

Posted by Mooréa G.

Claire Keegan may not be a prolific writer (yet), but what she has written is worthy of impressive accolades, awards, and movie productions.

In her October 29^th presentation, Sandra E. provided an informative and engaging discussion on Irish short story and novella writer, Claire Keegan. 

Keegan’s writing has been compared to short story writers including Anton Chekhov, Alice Munro, and William Trevor. Her writing is economical: she tells The Guardian, “Elegance is just saying enough.” 

Sandra provided vivid summaries of Keegan’s short stories “So Late in the Day” and “The Long and Painful Death,” and novellas Foster and Small Things Like These. 

While Keegan’s writing frequently contains themes of male rage and misogyny, it also explores strong, female characters and quiet heroes. Issues surrounding the Catholic Church and Irish politics also find their way into Keegan’s works. The tragic and disturbing Magdalene Laundries, for example, are explored in Small Things Like These. Sandra describes Keegan’s stories as being notable for developing tension, without the drama: the drama has already taken place. 

Among her long list of awards, Keegan won the lucrative Davy Byrnes Irish Writing Award in 2009 for Foster. Small Things Like These was shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize and won the 2022 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction.

Many of Keegan’s stories including Foster and “So Late in the Day” can be found in The New Yorker. Both her novellas have been made into movies to be experienced on the big screen. Foster is renamed The Quiet Girl and was nominated in 2023 for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. Small Things Like These, starring Cillian Murphy, is coming to theatres this month (November 2024). This is a movie you won’t want to miss it!

Posted by Mooréa G.

Kevin Barry is yet another Irish writer who was unknown to most CWLC members. On Tuesday, October 22, however, Robin S. impressed and enlightened her audience with her presentation on this talented, Limerick-born writer.

Barry was born in 1969 and had a slow start to writing and publishing. He spent much of his twenties as a freelance reporter, travelling, and having no problem enjoying a few pints. At the age of thirty-nine, he published the short story collection, “There are Little Kingdoms.” Barry and his wife, Olivia Smith, have been living near Lough Arrow in County Sligo (northwestern Ireland) for the past seventeen years.

Barry’s literary influences include Saul Bellow, Phillip Roth, Phillip Larkin, Harold Pinter, and Samuel Beckett.

Robin discussed Barry’s novels, City of Bohane (2011), Beatlebone (2015), Night Boat to Tangier (2019), and The Heart in Winter (2024). Robin also introduced Barry’s short story “Beer Trip to Llandudno.” Most of his stories can be described as lyrical, dark comedies: they are tragic, offbeat, poetic, funny, and filled with profanity. Barry’s stories are often situated in western Ireland, though some are set in other locations such as Night Boat to Tangier, which takes in Spain; and The Heart in Winter, which takes place in Butte, Montana in the late-nineteenth century. Robin described this Irish western as a “Beautifully written book.”

Barry’s first novel, City of Bohane won the very prestigious and lucrative International Dublin Literary Award (€100,000). Other awards include the Sunday Times Short Story Award (£30,000) for “Beer Trip to Llandudno.” A Sunday Times judge said “Barry has performed a deft bit of alchemy in his writing by taking a very ordinary group of amateur ale connoisseurs and transforming them and their not instantly appealing tastes into something sweet, funny, and unexpectedly moving.” Robin feels this is an apt description of what Barry does with all his fiction.

After Robin’s presentation, the Q&A period became one heck of a discussion about the necessity and effectiveness of profanity in literature.

Posted by Mooréa G.

With the temporary closure of the Memorial Park Library (home to the Calgary Women’s Literary Club), Mooréa G.’s presentation was moved to Zoom, where thirty-eight active members, honorary members, and guests were in attendance.

Prior to discussing the works of writer Elizabeth Bowen, Mooréa provided background on the Anglo-Irish Big House. In order to understand some of Bowen’s writing, Mooréa felt it was important to become familiar with these houses and the families who inhabited them.

Elizabeth Bowen (1899-1973) was the only child of well-to-do Anglo-Irish, Protestant parents. As a child, she spent many summers with her family at the ancestral home, Bowen’s Court. Upon the death of her father in 1930, Bowen inherited Bowen’s Court, though was forced to sell it in 1960 as it was financially unsustainable. The house was demolished shortly after. Bowen wrote: “It was a clean end. Bowen’s Court never lived to be a ruin.”

Bowen published ten novels, over one hundred short stories, non-fiction, a children’s book, reviews and articles. Mooréa discussed at length three books: The Last September, The Death of the Heart, and Bowen’s Court. In the two novels, The Last September and The Death of the Heart, the main, female characters closely resemble the writer, and take place in Ireland and England, respectively. Bowen’s Court is a non-fiction account of the house, the Bowen family, and the decline of the Anglo-Irish ascendancy.

Posted by Janet Halls and Mooréa G.

With great sadness, the members of the Calgary Women’s Literary Club say their goodbyes to our longtime member and friend Ruth Hilland.

Ruth peacefully passed away on October 14^th in her one hundredth year. 

Since joining the club in 2006, Ruth served in many positions on the board. At the age of 88, Ruth served as the club’s president for her two-year term. Ruth presented on writers including Khaled Hosseini, Anne Lindberg, and PD James. For several years, Ruth generously invited club members to her home at Amica (now Verve), where we celebrated our annual Winter Party. 

Ruth was a wise, interesting, elegant, and kind woman. As president of the club, she made everyone feel very welcome by standing at the entrance greeting members as they arrived. Within the library and outside the library doors, Ruth enjoyed socializing with members, to whom she became a close friend. Ruth was a “doer.” When the club needed a microphone system so everyone could hear the presentations, she quietly made it happen.

Ruth’s Icelandic heritage was shared and celebrated by other Icelandic members of the club. To many, she was like the gentle matriarch of the club.

Dorothy, Ruth’s assistant and close friend, helped the club throughout the years. Dorothy created beautiful programs for the Spring Luncheon and AGM, and she was Ruth’s contact person in the later years. Dorothy kindly provided the attached photo.

We will miss Ruth’s warm, calm nature and are grateful to have had her as a member of the club and as a friend.

Posted by Mooréa G.