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50 Canadians Who Changed the World


So this is what it looks like, the most anticipated book of the year . . . at least around our house. Early on, I decided to make things harder for myself rather than easier -- and also more fun. I decided to include only those Canadians born after 1900. End result, more than two thirds of the transformative figures to be found in these pages are still alive and thriving. The book turns up this autumn from HarperCollins Canada.
Ken McGoogan
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Return to Rae Strait


In August 1854, during a single prodigious Arctic expedition, the Scottish Orcadian superman John Rae solved the two great mysteries of 19th-century Arctic exploration. First, beating his way overland with his two hardiest men, an Inuk and an Ojibway, he discovered the final link in the Northwest Passage, the only channel navigable by the sailing ships of the day. Second, Rae correctly determined the fate of the Franklin expedition -- specifically, that the final survivors of that unlucky, two-vessel undertaking had been driven to cannibalism. I told the whole story in my book Fatal Passage. In the epilogue to that work, I described how, in 1999, with Cameron Treleaven and Louie Kamookak, I erected a plaque beside the cairn that Rae built in the High Arctic, overlooking the waterway he discovered. In August 2012, sailing this time with Adventure Canada, I revisited that hard-to-reach spot -- this time, with eighty or ninety voyagers keen to establish the site as a viable historical destination. Just in time to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Rae's birth (September, 1813), this story turns up in the latest issue (April-May) of Canada's History magazine.
Ken McGoogan
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New MFA program in Creative Nonfiction


Our Hero turns up on a roster of nine writer-mentors for a new Master of Fine Arts program in Creative Nonfiction. The program, which launches this August at the University of King's College in Nova Scotia, is the brainchild of the well-known Halifax author Stephen Kimber. The nine writer-mentors from across the country have together published nearly 100 books. Ken is excited to be part of a CNF initiative coming out of the East, and to find himself on a team that includes Marq de Villiers, Tim Falconer, David Hayes, Lori A. May, Lorri Neilsen Glenn, Candace Savage, Alisa Smith, and Harry Thurston. Don Sedgwick, the veteran publisher, literary agent, and university professor, will serve as executive director of the program, which is the first of its kind in Canada. Deadline for applications is April 1, 2013. Maybe see you there!
Ken McGoogan
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Before turning mainly to books about arctic exploration and Canadian history, Ken McGoogan worked for two decades as a journalist at major dailies in Toronto, Calgary, and Montreal. He teaches creative nonfiction writing through the University of Toronto and in the MFA program at King’s College in Halifax. Ken served as chair of the Public Lending Right Commission, has written recently for Canada’s History, Canadian Geographic, and Maclean’s, and sails with Adventure Canada as a resource historian. Based in Toronto, he has given talks and presentations across Canada, from Dawson City to Dartmouth, and in places as different as Edinburgh, Melbourne, and Hobart.