Hey guys!

So last week in ASTU we went on a field trip! We got to go check out the  Rare Books and Special Collections  in the Irving K. Barber Library. We learned a bit about how the system works, and how all of the materials are organized and filed,. but the main event was getting to look through Archives from Joy Kogawa the author of Obasan.

Right here on UBC’s campus is a massive collection of all of her records from her time writing the book. It includes drafts of the book, letters from her editor, fan mail and other correspondences, rejection letters from publishers, academic articles, etc. I found it so interesting to look through all of these little pieces of her process, but the most interesting part for me, and I would imagine many of my fellow students, was looking through some of the letters she sent and received. The first that caught my attention was in one of the “academic articles” files. It was a letter from around 1984 I believe written by a professor called Donald to Joy Kogawa asking if she remembered him. He told her they had met earlier that year and he was sorry for being delayed about it, but that he was finally sending her the essay he had written on Obasan. To my surprise, stapled to it was a typed response. Not only did she tell him that she did in fact remember him and looked forward to reading his paper, but she offered to meet with him to discuss it. I unfortunately didn’t get a photograph of this one, but it can be found in box 73 file 6 (73-6).

The next folder that caught my attention was marked “letters from readers” (box 13 file 3). It is filled with beautiful hand written letters from the 1980’s. My classmate Alex described it perfectly. He said “I love this, It’s like looking through a time capsule”.

From this file one letter in particular caught my attention. It is written to Kogawa’s editor and is very short, but her last line reads: “I would appreciate very much if you would forward me Ms. Kogawa’s address. Much to my surprise, she was my childhood friend”.

Here is a photo of that letter and a couple of others that I enjoyed reading through::

Thanks for reading!

Olivea