Ted Bishop, a travel writer and academic who teaches at the University of Alberta, will be presenting a hands-on workshop in support of his newest book The Social Life of Ink, at the Word on the Lake Writers’ Festival, which runs from May 20-22.
Bishop will read from his new book and produce traditional ink from crushed gall nuts with help from the audience.
“It was the ink of the Dead Sea Scrolls, was used by Shakespeare and was probably used by your grandparents to sign their wedding registry,” Bishop said.
Word on the Lake’s itinerary also promises attendees of Bishop’s session the opportunity to sniff a vintage Biro ballpoint, grind a Chinese ink stick, and write with a dip pen.
Research for The Social Life of Ink took Bishop from Uzbekistan to Buenos Aires and many places in between. In his travels, he saw the world’s oldest Qur’an and met the daughter of the inventor of the ballpoint pen in order to assess ink’s impact on culture, literature and the course of history.
Bishop concluded that in an increasingly paperless world, ink isn’t going anywhere.
“People have discovered that they live their whole life on screens and what they’re missing is the tactile dimension,” he said. “I believe in bringing back the notion of touch into our intellectual and scholarly encounters.”
Bishop said he noticed his students going back to pen and paper.
“Maybe 10 per cent are taking notes on screens,” he said. “The same way that Gore-Tex never replaced leather, I think that the pen and paper we now see has a kind of place,” Bishop said.
Bishop will present his The Social Life of Ink seminar twice at Word on the Lake: On Saturday, May 21 from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and on Sunday, May 22 from 12:30 to 2 p.m.