Ross Klatte, Author
Prior to my recent trip to Toronto, compliments of The Writers’ Trust of Canada, to appear at the 11th annual Writers’ Trust Awards event on November 1, 2011, as one of three finalists for this year’s $10,000 Writers’ Trust/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize, I’d only visited that city once before.
Forty-eight years later, Toronto was a far different place. I arrived there, by air from Castlegar, via Vancouver, late on October 30, and after a ride on the shuttle bus from the airport to downtown, and a chilly walk of a couple of blocks, found myself nicely put up on the 17th floor of the Sutton Place Hotel on Bay Street.
While checking in, I was handed an envelope containing a schedule of Writers’ Trust events, a downtown map off Google with directions to the venues involved, and a cheque for $200 – “to help cover your ground transportation cost and other expenses incurred while in Toronto.” (I would come home with a few dollars left over.)