A Nice Mudslinging

Regarding “Kingmakers,” Stephen Henighan’s column on the Giller Prize (Geist 63)—well, who doesn’t like a nice mudslinging? Nothing like a heated exchange in the service of a larger discourse. I think it’s open season on prizes and who gets ’em, juries and who serves on ’em, what prizes mean to writers and books—for better or for worse—and I’m thrilled to see a vibrant discussion unfold in the pages of your magazine. However, I want to address Stephen Henighan’s rebuttal to the letter-writers in Geist 64. If Henighan is dumb enough to call Lisa Moore—one of the best, most internationally respected writers in our country—“provincial,” then who am I to stop him? It’s even a little amusing to imagine the spit collecting on his lower lip. I just hope he runs into her sometime soon. My problem, however, is with his comments about Margaret Atwood. Imputing to Atwood the intentions he does as to why she decided to read the work of a young man who happened to be Asian-Canadian when he approached her on a ship is worse than dumb: it makes it impossible to take anything Henighan says seriously. And the comments are really disgusting. Margaret Atwood glommed on to Vincent Lam to stay “trendy” because he’s Asian-Canadian? Is Henighan really this stupid? Explain to me, please, the reasoning behind this. Is it because Margaret Atwood has noticed her sales flagging among Asian-Canadians? Is it because she’s planning on writing a book with an Asian-Canadian character in it and she wants to corner the market in advance? Can Stephen Henighan produce the contract that Vincent Lam signed with Margaret Atwood that states that he will promote her books any time he’s asked what he likes in Canadian writing? If Margaret Atwood senses that she’s not being read by as many Jews as she was in 1982, can I expect a few strings to be pulled? I’d love to hear Henighan’s ideas about Jews now that I’ve read him on blacks, Asian-Canadians and Anglo-Greeks. Is there anything behind these comments but racism and personal venom? I didn’t think so. His speculations about Margaret Atwood’s relationship to and with Vincent Lam is nothing less than the bleatings of a self-declared outsider who actually hates his outsider status, although I do have to ask: if the man Margaret Atwood met on that ship was a white guy from Saskatoon, would Henighan be this angry? Those are my two cents. I hope that after Lisa Moore slaps him at the next Toronto cocktail party Henighan bitterly decides to go to, that Margaret Atwood walks up to him with a letter from her lawyer.