Interview with Candace Savage
Sheila Lavender
Alice Walker wrote in The Color Purple, "I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it." We often need help paying attention to the world around us, but the rewards of following that help are well worth it. The discovery of the natural world is full of awe that can delight and enrich our living. Writer Candace Savage is one of those helpful guides. Candace will be the after dinner speaker at the YFBTA Bird Symposium slated for 17 February, 2007 in Esterhazy. Her subject: CROWS! (Did you know that crows not only use "tools;" they manufacture them?) Building on her first book about crows (Bird Brains: the intelligence of ravens, crows, magpies and jays published 1995), Candace incorporates new observations and research into her current book, Crows: encounters with the wise guys of the avian world. After talking with many of those around the world who generously share their detailed discovery of these birds, Candace through her writing provides the channel for us to better relate to these fascinating creatures. Our attention to crows will never again be the same!
Theologian Sallie McFague writes, "Nature writing is not scientific writing that hides behind pseudo-objectivity; rather, it combines acute, careful observation with a kind of loving empathy for and delight in its object." McFague adds: "Art frames fragments of our world; [and helps] us to look at colors, sounds, bodies, events, characters -- whatever -- with full attention." Candace Savage is just such an "artist." In her writing she displays the loving empathy and delight that she has for the subjects of her books. And through her writing we share in that delight as she frames with her words, for our attention, the hundreds of unique aspects of her natural subjects.
Many of her twenty-seven book titles are focused on such specific natural entities as crows, wolves, northern lights, wild cats, peregrine falcons, eagles, and prairie.
Her books include natural history/natural science as well as cultural history and books for children.
Growing up in a variety of small towns in northwestern Alberta, the daughter of school teacher parents, Candace only slowly recognized within herself an interest in writing (although one of her first stories was written as a "Brownie" at the age of seven). She majored in English literature at university, but is was her stint as a free-lance book editor with The Western Producer (Saskatoon) in the early 70's that got her heading into a life as an author of books. And it was "never out-growing her sense of awe" that inspired her to write about the natural world. She has gone on to be an award-winning writer many times over. As she has taught her daughter, "life gives you subtle hints and little moments of surprise and delight" to which you should pay attention. It was in "valuing the places that helped her pay attention" to the world around her that Candace learned to cease being self-conscious and to connect with "the other" about whom she would choose to write -- "to really look into the eyes of the crow" and meet it subject-to-subject.
When asked about her concerns for the natural world/environment, Candace reflected that her "over-riding concern is that those of us who care [about the natural world/environment] maintain our optimism and energy"! "There are two important lessons," says Candace: "One, that life is tenacious, and given half a chance the wild will come back, although sometimes differently; and secondly, that whatever we can do that is positive will make the future better than if we had done nothing." She went on to say that she believes "the solutions are within us [humans], but that we cannot let fear take over" -- preventing us from acting justly and with care towards the natural world in which we live.
Choosing to live as balanced and wholesome a life as she can with her family (extended with an assorted array of pets, including a tarantula), Candace Savage takes on many tasks and roles as she continues her personal journey of discovery and growth. And in all things with her writing, she attempts (and I would add, succeeds) "to communicate things that really matter."
Candace looks forward to the February event and to meeting people who share her interest in birds and the natural world. And I have no doubt that you will very much enjoy listening to and meeting Candace Savage!
Sheila Lavender interviewed Candace Savage
in December 2006
