LITERATURE SAID VITAL FORCE FOR WORLD PEACE

Rick Gamble, Staff Writer

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* First appeared in The Expositor (daily),

Canada. Wednesday, Sept. 8, 1976

Stephen Gill builds bridges with his books. A poet, novelist, historian, and critic, with 10 works to his credit, the India‑born Canadian author believes strongly that literature is a vital force in promoting world peace and understanding.

After attending the World Federalists of Canada annual conference in Paris, Mr. Gill said in an interview that prejudice is based on ignorance.

"But through Literature," he said, "we enrich our own culture by borrowing certain elements from other cultures. This makes society more rational, and more friendly, and it helps to promote brotherhood."

The author, who has travelled widely, said books were also valuable tools in understanding human nature. "Human beings are the same everywhere in the world. If I just change the names of the people and the cities in my stories, I can place a character in any world setting," he said. "People are people, and that was a big lesson I had to learn."

Mr. Gill attempts to share that lesson through his writing. Anxious to foster respect and proper recognition for ethnic writers in Canada, he recently collected some of the works of Asian‑Canadian poets for an anthology entitled Green Snow. Speaking of the poets, in his introduction to that volume, Mr. Gill said their contributions, in various fields, to the development of Canada cannot be ignored. "Their (ethnic) groups have their own distinct values and heritages which have enriched and are still enriching the mosaic tapestry of the Canadian culture."

His anthology, he said, was "conceived primarily as a bridge among ethnic groups themselves, and between them and the country's two charter groups (French and English), to foster understanding and multi‑culturalism".

Mr. Gill called writing "the one field in the world where racial and color prejudices exist the least," but he said, it was difficult for Canadian authors to get their message into print.

"It is not easy for writers here. Canadian publishers do not like to take chances, and they will not accept any material which is written by beginners." Even when a novice sells a manuscript, he said, he often receives inadequate publicity.

"Whereas an American publisher will print 10,000 copies of your book just to break in, publishers here release only between 500 and 2000."

However, the situation was getting better, said the author, because publishing firms like Vesta Publications, with whom he is associated, are giving new writers much deserved attention.

Vesta, a firm in Cornwall, Ont., provides financial assistance to fledgling authors. Mr. Gill believes that, like him, most writers are in the business for personal satisfaction rather than monetary reward. "My writing is self‑fulfilment. It is a part of my life-- like breathing-- and I have to write to prove that I am living," he said.

"But my books are not my biography, and I don't want people to mix or confuse the two. My poems are my spiritual biographies‑- part of my spiritual self or subconscious-- but my books are not taken directly from my life."

The author does admit that his travels have had a great influence on his work. While he was a teacher in Ethiopia, for instance, he noticed that his students had only books geared for British and American students. This encouraged him to write a grammar text for students learning English as a second language.

His novels, too, reflect his international experience. His latest effort, entitled Why?, is set in Montreal, Ottawa, and Ethiopia.

This new novel, to be released in November, is about an artist who falls in love, mostly with married women, despite his repeated regrets and self‑recrimination. "1 give reasons for the man's weakness, in a subtle way, and there are moral judgments in the book," said Mr. Gill.

"The story is also about boredom, and there are philosophical discussions as to why people become bored with their lives. The answer is there, but the novel is a work of art, not a book of ethics."

Now that Why? is ready for release, the author has begun work on three new books; a history of Winchester (a small town near Cornwall, a comparative study of Buddhism and Christianity, and a novel about an immigrant's experiences in Canada.

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