News

Women of the Klondike headed for the big screen

Award-winning writer-director Kate Melville has big plans for Women of the Klondike. At the recent TIFF film festival in Toronto, she announced that her production company, Snitch Pictures, has optioned my book, in association with Hawkeye Pictures. I’m excited about Kate’s goal of adapting it into what she describes as a “feminist western.”

In a press release put out by Snitch Pictures, Kate says: “Women of the Klondike is bursting with characters so vividly drawn, I was up all night reading it like a novel. Many different women lived in Dawson: Salvation Army missionaries, vaudeville performers, cooks, laundresses, women who panned for gold themselves, Tagish and Tlingit locals, society wives and nuns. Reading about these bold, adventurous characters, I wondered what their version of ‘frontier justice’ might look like. I’ve always loved Westerns, and these forgotten women from Gold Rush history deserve a movie of their own.” I couldn’t agree more!

Writer-director Kate Melville (photo courtesy of Snitch Pictures).

Snitch Pictures is known for Kate Melville’s directorial debut feature Picture Day, which premiered at TIFF in 2012, and won the Borsos Prize for Best Feature at Whistler and a 2013 ACTRA award for Maslany. Hawkeye Pictures is a Toronto-based production company working with some of Canada’s most exciting talents. Its latest feature, Mary Goes Round premiered at TIFF17. Bell Media’s Harold Greenberg Fund is supporting the project through the Script Development Program.

Second time around on the City of Victoria Butler Book Prize list

I’m not sure whether I was more surprised when I won the City of Victoria Butler Book Prize for Children of the Klondike in 2010 or when I found myself on the shortlist again in 2016. Although Once They Were Hats didn’t carry the day this time (so far, no one has won this prize twice), I was honoured to be among the finalists and appreciative of the jurors’ citation, which says: “Backhouse not only restores the dignity and grandeur of Canada’s national symbol, but along the way—through exhaustive research, fine writing, an eye for the telling anecdote—she tells a story as informative as it is entertaining.” As always, the gala was a wonderful celebration of writers and writing and a reminder of Victoria’s vibrant literary scene.

Reading at the 2016 Victoria Book Prize gala.

“Once They Were Hats” Shortlisted for the Lane Anderson Award

I’m delighted and honoured to announce that Once They Were Hats has been shortlisted for the Lane Anderson Award. This award celebrates the best Canadian science book of the year in two categories: Adult and Young Reader. The winners will be announced on September 30, 2016.

Tweet the title of your favourite finalist with the hashtag #laneandersonaward for a chance to win all four finalists in either the Adult or Young Readers category. Feel free to tag me – @franbwrites – when you tweet. The contest closes on Sept. 29, 2016.

The Lane Anderson Award was created by the Fitzhenry Family Foundation, a private charitable foundation devoted to the promotion of human rights and education, animal welfare, culture, and the protection of the earth and its resources from overzealous development.

The Calgary Stampede Hat Tradition

It’s Stampede time in Calgary and cowboy hats are everywhere. To celebrate this annual tradition, “Calgary Through the Eyes of Writers” turns to the hat-making chapter in Once They Were Hats, with this blog post. While you’re there, check out lit-blogger Shaun Hunter’s complete Calgary Reading List: a wagon-load of nonfiction, fiction and poetry works that bring Calgary to life on page from a multitude of perspectives.

The Smithbilt Hats factory, Calgary, Alberta (© Frances Backhouse)

The Smithbilt Hats factory, Calgary, Alberta (© Frances Backhouse)

When I visited Smithbilt Hats in 2011, while researching my book, I watched master hatter Brian Hanson craft a beaver-fur felt hat using vintage equipment (some of the machines and hat blocks are more than 100 years old) and skills that have almost died out. The day before, he had put the finishing touches on a pair of white cowboy hats, made of rabbit-fur felt, to be presented that week to Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge.

A beaver hat in the jam blocker at Smithbilt Hats (© Frances Backhouse).

A beaver hat in the jam blocker at Smithbilt Hats (© Frances Backhouse).

Once They Were Hats: “a must-have book to take to the lake”

Ottawa Magazine has declared Once They Were Hats to be one of the four books everyone should take to the lake this summer. Their round-up story on essential cottage reading says: “Frances Backhouse’s much-praised book will tell you more than you ever imagined about beavers, from their prehistoric past as two-metre-long rodents to their popularity as hat material, their elevation as national symbol, and their huge influence in reshaping the Canadian landscape. Every true-blue cottager should study, if not memorize, Backhouse’s writings. Amaze your neighbours with beaver trivia. Surely you don’t want to discuss just septic tanks and rotting deck boards.”

OTWH beach chair

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