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Burnaby author delves into history through haiku

A Burnaby author has been awarded a grant from the B.C. Historical Federation.
Haiku, iStock

A Burnaby author has been awarded a grant from the B.C. Historical Federation.

Jacqueline Pearce is the recipient of a $4,300 grant from the 2019 Centennial Legacy Fund, an award announced on Saturday, June 8 at the historical federation’s annual conference in Courtenay.

A press release notes that Pearce will put the money towards her work on the Internment Haiku Project. For the project, Pearce will research the social and historical context of haiku poetry written in Japanese-Canadian internment camps – using both primary and secondary printed sources, as well as interviews with haiku club members still living.

Pearce will work with translators to translate haiku documents from the Midway and Tashme internment camps into English and write articles for history and haiku journals. Her research and writing will be used as a basis for public and conference presentations.

The Centennial Legacy Fund supports projects that encourage historical research in regard to B.C.’s history, its communities and its diverse peoples.

Also earning grants were the Dixon Entrance Maritime Museum in Masset ($4,800), for a project that will tell the stories of the boat-building families of Masset and Old Masset, and the Atlin Historical Society ($900), for a transportation exhibit project.

See www.bchistory.ca for more details.