When Canadians think of Saskatchewan—if they think of it at all—they think "flat and boring," a place to drive through or fly over, a gap between the bigger cities to the east and west.

Yet thanks to its damn-the-critics spirit, Saskatchewan is the birthplace of socialism, Medicare, and public funding for the arts—all essential to the national identity. It is impossible to imagine Canada without these things and equally as impossible to imagine another part of the country filling Saskatchewan’s singular role in the development of the nation.

But within the country’s narrative, Saskatchewan remains on the margins. In Overlooking Saskatchewan, twenty writers articulate the challenges and the power of this identity, revealing how the citizens of Saskatchewan continue to lead the way in the creation of culture and the nation’s sense of self.

Randal Rogers is an associate professor in the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Regina.

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Christine Ramsay is an associate professor in media studies at the University of Regina, Saskatchewan. She is a past president of the Film Studies Association of Canada and a member of the editorial board of Topia: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies. She publishes in the areas of Canadian and Saskatchewan cinemas, masculinities in contemporary cultures, philosophies of identity, and the culture of small cities.

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