The Authority File

In 2001, United Church of Canada minister Cheri DiNovo conducted the first legal same sex marriage. This led to prominent news coverage and a member of Parliament reaching out and suggesting she run for office. Though Cheri had a history of social justice activism, she was new to the traditional political process and its challenges. “I thought … perhaps I could accomplish more sitting in one of those seats in government than I could standing at the pulpit, and so I threw my hat in the ring. And I was incredibly naive. I had no idea what I was getting myself into.”

In this second episode, Cheri dives into the perils and grit of securing a party nomination—an undertaking she wouldn’t repeat if she had known the vitriol she’d receive from the press. Cheri also reviews the legislation she passed during her time in office, including a $10 minimum wage bill and Toby’s Act, which bars discrimination based on gender identity or expression.

“Queer evangelist,” “socialist clergy,” and “honest politician” are not phrases you typically see thrown together. Cheri DiNovo, former member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario and current United Church of Canada minister, embraces all three.

Cheri lived on the streets, ran a headhunting agency, joined the clergy, and became a politician—one who passed the most LGBTQ bills in Canadian history, no less. Clearly, she had plenty of material to choose from for her memoir, The Queer Evangelist: A Socialist Clergy’s Radically Honest Tale. As she notes, “It’s been quite a life, and I think after I left politics I felt a need to kind of just do it for my own sake … I was writing it for myself.”

In the first episode of our four-part series, Cheri discusses her writing process and approach of radical honesty in and outside of politics. She also digs into the excessive capitalistic period of the 1980s, various factors that led her to join her church, and the culture shock of her first settlement charge in a rural town as a lifelong city-dweller.

The COVID-19 pandemic will leave a changed world in its wake. But will the changes continue post-pandemic? How many of the problems faced in the past year weren’t new, and only exacerbated due to underlying issues? How many will fix those flawed structures to soften the blow of future crises?

Greg Eow, President of the Center for Research Libraries, hopes that higher education will rise to the challenge. “Crises have beginnings and ends; COVID-19 will have a beginning and an end. But when I look at the crisis in the Humanities, and I look at the crisis in ‘scholcom,’ I’m thinking, those are not looking like crisis as much as they’re looking like condition. There’s something going on there where the institutions need to change.”

In this final episode, Emily Farrell, Library Partnerships and Sales Lead at the MIT Press, digs into how the pandemic has affected libraries—shrinking budgets, increased demand for digital options—and therefore, Direct to Open’s rollout plan. Greg unpacks current conditions that threaten the scholarly ecosystem, and how stronger bonds between the university library, press, and faculty could be the solution.

Who doesn’t love a good ice cream social? Greg Eow, President of the Center for Research Libraries, believes that partnerships between university presses and libraries are key to developing sustainable knowledge dissemination practices. During his time at MIT Libraries, he would invite members of the Press to their annual ice cream social—any opportunity to mingle between groups was essential.

Emily Farrell, Library Partnerships and Sales Lead at the MIT Press, agrees, noting that university press and library staff are often more alike than they realize. “There’s an incredible number of very idealistic, nerdy, bookish folks that … love what they do, and they do it because the mission really matters, and I think that that personal resonance and connection, it shouldn’t be undervalued in terms of what it can produce.”

In this third episode, Emily and Greg chat about the potential new relationships between presses and libraries can create. Emily also breaks down the adaptability of MIT’s Direct to Open model for other presses, and key performance indicators of its success, like increased author buy-in. Greg explains the valuable role consortia can play in highlighting innovative projects like Direct to Open for libraries to keep on their radar.

After receiving a grant from the Arcadia Fund in 2019, MIT Press got to work building a collective action model for open access monograph publishing. The press juggled several obstacles, like limited data on OA monographs and having to determine a realistic target needed to sustain the program. With Direct to Open (D2O) now officially launched, how did it evolve into its current form today?

Emily Farrell, Library Partnerships and Sales Lead at MIT Press, speaks on “[upholding] the editorial and production integrity” in the design criteria for the program. Communicating with MIT’s authors on the benefits of publishing OA or assuaging any potential concerns played a role in the model’s development. Greg Eow, president of the Center for Research Libraries, unpacks another central component of the model: participation. How can this model fit into a library’s budget? Beyond looking at price, licensing terms, and content, what’s the value proposition of increased data and metrics? How can librarians change their perspective to see D2O as an opportunity to better asses the user experience?

In this second episode, Emily and Greg discuss D2O’s evolution, including helpful feedback from academic consortia. They also dig into what happens when a library signs up for the framework—access to an administrative portal, user statistics, and more—and the number of institutions needed for the pilot to be considered a success.

Monographs are an integral part of the Humanities, an area of academia known for its slower shift into the open access world. While journals and ebooks have adjusted to OA models with relative ease, publishers have struggled to do the same with monographs. What can be done?

In October 2019, MIT Press received a generous grant from the Arcadia Fund to publish a collection of monographs open access and to develop a sustainable publishing framework that other presses can use. Over a year later, with a pandemic in between, MIT Press is ready to unroll its library collective action model, Direct to Open (D2O).

In the first episode of our four-part series, Emily Farrell, Library Partnerships and Sales Lead at MIT Press, offers a refresher on the goals of D20 and an update on the development process in the past year. Greg Eow, President of the Center for Research Libraries, joins the conversation to offer his perspective on CRL’s and other consortia’s role in bridging the divide between libraries and publishers.

At the very least, embracing new topics, themes, and authors makes modern literature more dynamic. At the very best, it can redefine what literature is by making it more equitable and representative.

Austin Clarke, a Black Canadian author in the 1960s-2000s, has been largely left out of the Canadian literary landscape. With collections like ‘Membering Austin Clarke, editor of the volume Paul Barrett hopes younger writers will come to appreciate older, sidelined generations. “I think if contemporary Canadian literature were to learn one thing it would be that many of the things that we struggle with today in terms of racism in publishing, sexism in publishing … these struggles are not new and that older writers have things to tell us.”

In the final episode of this series, Paul picks apart an Austin Clarke anecdote from the volume, reflecting on how the discriminatory environment influenced Clarke’s personality and professional decision-making. Paul also discusses how Clarke’s passing affected the project, and the ways in which contemporary CanLit has included a more diverse group of authors, expanding the canon in the process.

Writers cultivate their own style over time. Environment, perspective, and craft all inform character types, dialogue, setting, and themes. A complex place in the world can yield complex writing, but that doesn’t mean we leave the writer and their work behind.

Austin Clarke, a Black Canadian author of novels, essays, and short stories, was widely published from the 1960s onward and regarded as an important public figure. Yet, he has been largely left out of the CanLit record due to his race and not fitting the “typical” Canadian writing style. Paul Barrett, editor of ‘Membering Austin Clarke, hopes to rectify that exclusion. “People are publishing literary histories today of Canada and Canadian literature in the 1960s where Austin Clarke is a footnote, maybe two footnotes, right? His material isn’t seen as central to the question of what constitutes Canadian literature. And I think that’s the goal of this volume, to insist that actually his work is central to what constitutes Canadian literature.”

In this third episode, Paul walks through the difficulty of Clarke’s writing, most notably his depiction of women, and the value of interrogating—not ignoring—these elements. We also hear Clarke give a lively reading of his story “Doing Right,” which criticizes (and pokes fun) at the narrative of Canadian multiculturalism—genuine and uncomfortable laughter from the audience included.

Note: This episode includes explicit language.

The contemporary monograph tends to follow a standard template. Multiple academics examine a topic in a collection of essays. A single scholar carves out their corner of a specialized discipline. There’s an introduction, lengthy index, and somewhat impersonal writing style. But what if the content doesn’t allow for a “typical” monograph structure?

Edited by Paul Barrett, ‘Membering Austin Clarke embraces its subject’s complexity. Replete with essays by writers, colleagues, and scholars who dissect Clarke’s work and legacy, the volume also includes unpublished pieces from Clarke’s archives and personal remarks from close friends. As Paul explains, “His style is so complex and contradictory, and he is a person. He’s not just a writer; he’s a public figure … How do you capture all of that in a traditional academic monograph?”

In this second episode, Paul dives into the development and origins of the volume. Inspired by his postdoctoral research in McMaster University’s Clarke archives, the book first took shape as a special issue of The Puritan literary magazine. Paul discusses Clarke’s work in the collection—poetry, a fantastical story—and what they reveal about Clarke’s writing style, perspective, and world around him.

When discussing 20th-century Canadian literature, which stories come to mind? What overarching subjects or themes stick out? Most likely, multiculturalism, urban life, or Black diasporas are not at the forefront of the conversation.

Austin Clarke, a Black Canadian writer of novels, short stories, and poetry didn’t fit into the typical CanLit narrative. As Paul Barrett, editor of ‘Membering Austin Clarke explains, Clarke’s writing depicted migration and anti-Black racism—”he’s not writing about … old farmers staring wistfully into snowbanks, and, you know, having lives of quiet desperation.” So where does that leave his writing and his legacy?

In the first episode of this four-part series, Paul introduces us to Austin Clarke. A man full of contradictions—associated with both the Black Power Movement and conservatism–Clarke confronted his rejection from CanLit and the anti-Blackness he experienced head-on, refusing to be read one-dimensionally in his writing and personhood.