A Toast by Kim Beach
Being asked to give this toast is one of the nicest honours I’ve received, ever, and I would like to thank Paula Jane Remlinger, the Sage Hill board of Directors, the 20th Anniversary committee, and my dear friend, Holly Borgerson Calder.
I credit Sage Hill Writing Experience in all its incarnations with a good deal of my success as a writer. I’m not discounting my own hard work, or whatever talent I have. But as I’ve said over and over the past fourteen years - to anyone who will listen - I probably would have become a successful writer without Sage Hill, but I’m not really sure how. Or when. And probably with not as much joy.
In 1995, my mentor, the late Birk Sproxton who also loved Sage Hill, introduced me to Steven Ross Smith, who was Red Deer College’s Writer in Residence for a week. He suggested I show Steve some of my terrible poetry, and for some unknown reason, I did. Steve read my terrible poetry with great grace, found a few good lines in it, took me out for a glass of red wine, and then attended a ceremony during which I was to receive a small creative writing award. I was too nervous to tell him that I have an allergy to red wine. I drank the whole glass, and my reading at the ceremony was a swirl of stoned, colourful surrealism. Somewhere that evening, he told me about a writing program he ran in Saskatchewan and said that I should apply. He made it clear that it was not an easy program to get into, but also said something that has become the primary mantra of my career: Don’t Apply, Don’t Get.
My husband encouraged me to apply and I got in. I appreciated the structure of that introductory program, as I had less than no idea how to be on a writing retreat. I met Holly, partied, and spent every night in the observatory with Friar Lucien till 3:00am while still managing to get up for morning workshops. But in amongst all that, I managed to get some excellent work done on what was to become my first book, published six years later.
I was an immature writer back then as we all are, starting out. I knew hardly anything about writing: only that I knew I wanted to be a writer. Following that first course, I went to University and emerged a few years later with an Honors Degree in English. I continued to come to Sage Hill whenever I could. In the fall of 1999, I was accepted - to my abject horror - into a fall poetry colloquium with Robert Kroetsch. It was my intention to finish the final edits on my first book there and submit it... somewhere. By then, I knew how to be on retreat, how best to use the time, and how best to make use of the instructor. Those three weeks of Sage Hill at St. Peter’s Abbey changed my life in several ways, not the least of which is that I mailed the manuscript of my first book from there and it was accepted. I was frequently yelled at over the breakfast table by kindly Robert Kroetsch, like so: “Beach! Have you sent that damn manuscript to Turnstone yet?!” I finally did that, to get him off my back. The submission copies of all four of my published books have been mailed from the Magic Post Office in Muenster.
More extraordinary and rare, though, than even the completion of my first book, was the beginning of one of the most important, enduring, and satisfying friendships of my life: my friendship with The Chicks, a very exclusive club of which Holly is a member. Holly, Catherine, Heidi, Rebecca and I have been inseparable, in a long-distance sort of way, since the 1st of October 1999 when we all entered into three weeks of work with one another and with Robert, and our daily email communication and frequent full and partial reunions take place to this day. Robert Kroetsch noticed our friendship developing. He nurtured it, took joy in it, and solidified it with an idea to produce a chapbook of work we had done at the Abbey. My friendship with The Chicks has helped sustain me through illness, uncertainty, rejection, joy, multiple drafts of all of my books, publication, love, and loss. And I have Sage Hill to thank for them. I only wish they were all here tonight.
I’ve attended Sage Hill five times as I believe that professional writing is like rocket science: you don’t come out of Space Rockets are Cool 101 and declare yourself a Rocket Scientist. You take a couple more classes and then you work at it.
As I look back on my years as a Sage Hill participant, I’m amazed by the who’s who of CanLit I’ve been fortunate enough to work with. Rosemary Nixon, William Robertson, Di Brandt, Dennis Cooley, Tim Lilburn, Robert Kroestch, my classmates, and overseeing it all, Steven Smith. Each was generous, informative, and instrumental to my development as an emerging writer and an emerging citizen of the writing world. I’ve not attended Sage Hill since 2000, and I miss it. The reins have changed now, and I’ve no doubt that with Paula Jane at the helm, the program will continue to be the world-class learning experience it’s always been. Though I’ve not been back to Sage Hill in a few years, I’ve not stopped retreating to write, and that - along with the entrance into a wonderful community of writers from across Canada - is the most valuable lesson I took from Sage Hill. I learned what I need to do for myself on retreat, and maybe make a couple of new friends along the way. I’ve given financially to Sage Hill over the years as well when I could, and I encourage every member of the current and former student body to do the same.
It is my great pleasure to raise my glass with you all on behalf of the alumni, and say, “Happy Twentieth Anniversary, Sage Hill. Thank you.”
Kim Beach
Sage Hill 20th Anniversary
July 25, 2009