Robert J Sawyer Artist

It seems he is upset with the
Canada Council for the Arts.

Not only do they not give him grants but they refuse grants to usually funded organisations who support him.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/touch/news/Thanks+nothing+Canada+Council/8208145/st...

Sigh he pitches it as sf against the literary establishment terms but for all his popularity I suspect few sf readers read him for his literary worth.

I think he has a pretty good point. Apparently only eight writers have won the Hugo, Nebula and John W. Campbell awards, and Sawyer is the only Canadian writer to do so. Hard to dismiss his "literary worth" considering that.

It's fine if he's not your cup of tea, but I'd imagine that could be true of all the grant winners.

2> I am not trying to deny his strengths which I see as , plot, ideas, and polemic. It just seems to me that those strengths are not ones that I would expect an arts council to value.

Well, art is always quite subjective. I wonder, has the arts council EVER awarded a major grant to a science fiction grant application? That would make me seriously question whether they value SF whatsoever.

Also, this bit from the article was pretty questionable: But in 2007, after I arrived in the Klondike at Pierre Berton House, the famed writer’s retreat, I discovered the Canada Council had, for the first and only time, overruled the unanimous choice of the selection committee in Dawson City, denying funding for my stay.

I don't know how many of the readers here are Canadian but the Arts in general are enjoying less funding than in previous years. The Harper government is not very generous in that regard. So that is the context of this piece.

He does sound a bit of a whiner though. Uncharacteristic for a Canadian...If he is as successful as he shows he should not be in need of grant money to the extent that an up-and-coming writer would....You don't hear Atwood whinging.

I haven't read any of his writing though. As far as not being funded for the stay in the Yukon...that smacks of Harper...I suppose if I went there to write a book and expected money from a grant I would be pretty ticked when they welched on the deal.

The arts community is not too happy with the Harper government over the last 8 or so years.

Nods that quotation was the section that stood out for me. I specificity mentioned it in the comments.

to answer your question here is another quote "Yes, from time to time, writers of “speculative fiction” — the obfuscatory term used to hide what’s really being produced — do receive Canada Council grants, but for most of us whose work is widely read, crumbs may be had but not plums:"

What does this mean well? Margaret Atwood got a substantial sum before she started writing sf, and Terrence M. Green has received a few grants as an sf writer he is not a big name but he is a respected genre author.

Jeffrey Archer's publisher tells of him asking if the publisher though uh Kain and Abel I think would win the Nobel prize. I believe Sawyer suffers a similar myopia. he knows he is popular and mistakes popularity for evidence of "artistic worth" whatever that is.
Like Archer Sawyer thinks he belongs in the more prestigious pond. but the council are not selecting its fish on the basis of size.

6> I agree that new writers need a leg up to get started but when I look at the number of published books that Sawyer has, he should be self-sufficient now.

However, having said that I don't know the context of the article and he could have been egged on by the writer to say controversial things...I am not a writer myself or painter for that matter but I have heard stories of cutbacks in funding by the PC's since they have been in power hurting new artists of all stripes.

Edit: I guess they are not "PC" and more...just "C"....don't want to lump former PC's in the Harper group.

Yeah, but if you read his article:
a) He started applying before he WAS self-sufficient
b) The arts council gives out grants to plenty of other self-sufficient writers

And apart from many other issues here, that grant money doesn't come from the grant money fairy. A portion of his tax dollars on his self-sufficient writing goes to these grants. If I felt that the people running such a group just didn't like science fiction, I'd be kind of pissed, too.

8> Sawyer is forthright he stands up for himself and for his friends. I do not see see him as either being easily egged on or particularly in need of it. He has integrity. I just don't see why the evidence points to a dislike of sf rather than of his writing.

Sigh I don't want to repeat myself, Repeated assertions make it seem that my feelings are stronger than they are. I think we need to know more about the councils criteria before we can judge if they are either good or followed.