Horsefly Manor: A secluded retreat for writers

Imagine yourself alone with your thoughts—and the time to put them in writing. The Federation of BC Writers invites members to apply for a free stay at Horsefly Manor, a tiny cabin in the woods above the south shore of Quesnel Lake in the Cariboo Mountains.  

There is no set deadline for applications: the Horsefly Manor committee will review applications on a regular basis, and let you know by email whether your application is accepted. (Contact the Federation office at bcwriters@shaw.ca for an application form.) Once accepted, you can reserve the cabin for the dates you want—any time between July and September 2007, or July and September 2008. We have found that a flexible schedule is necessary, since people’s commitments and plans often change. You will be included in a moderated email group for negotiating changes in scheduling, if changes are needed.

If you currently aren't a Fed member, you can sign up online or contact the Federation of BC Writers for more information at 604-683-2057.

Horsefly lake

Quesnel Lake in the Cariboo

horsefly lake 2

The interview below with the Fed's new benefactor, author George Fetherling, was published in the Spring 2002 edition of WordWorks:

Horsefly Manor Writer's Retreat

 

George Fetherling

WORDWORKS: What's the story behind the property that people at the Fed are starting to call Horsefly Manor?
George Fetherling: I bought it about 10 years ago. I was living in Toronto then but spending more and time in BC. I'd starting making writer-friends in Vancouver in the very late '60s, and as time went on I was out here more frequently and for longer stays. I guess a kind of horizontal gravity was telling me to move here. In retrospect I can see that I bought the place on Quesnel Lake as part of this silent imperative, a sort of halfway house. 
 
WW: Did you use it as a place to write?
GF: I wrote some of The Gentle Anarchist up there. That was a biography of George Woodcock that Douglas & McIntyre published. And some poems as well. In the collection Madagascar: Poems & Translations there's actually a poem about the cabin. It's called "Bush Architecture". Written by hand, of course; the place doesn't have hydro. Mostly, though, I used the lake as a spot to go and chop wood and haul water and decompress and think. I'd go to Vancouver for a while, then up to the lake, then back down to Vancouver on my way out. 

WW: Why did you decide to gift it to the Fed?
GF: I'm tempted to answer: because I decided that a writer, one like me anyway, shouldn't own anything that's too big to pawn. But needless to say it's more complicated than that. When I moved to Vancouver, I didn't have to have a cabin in BC any longer, didn't have to have a mere toehold, you might say, once I had both feet here. Then there were practical matters. The shack's a slightly difficult place to get to by car. For a non-driver like myself, it's really hard.

And then there are more ideological reasons. I'm a big believer in the importance of local, regional and provincial writers' organizations. When I was in New Brunswick, which is where I came here from, I was a supporter of the group there. When I lived in Toronto, I was on the board of the city arts foundation. And so on. It's obvious that arts organizations such as the Fed won't be able to depend on the same level of government funding as in the past. New sources of revenue have to be developed, one of which (maybe the most difficult one to get going) is gifts and bequests. My continued existence poses an obvious obstacle at the moment to an instantly meaningful death-bed bequest. So I thought I'd donate this little place-and it really is very very modest-in the hope of starting the ball rolling-he said, optimistically. And I like the idea that other writers might find it a spot conducive to work. I suspect writers from the big cities are the ones most likely to think it attractive.