Canada / UNBC Reads

Canada Reads is an annual "battle of the books" which takes place on CBC radio airing the week of March 8 to March 12, 2010. Five prominent advocates defend their choice for the book that they believe all of Canada should read.

Again, this year the Geoffrey R. Weller will be holding its own campaign. Five prominent UNBC personalities have chosen a book that they believe all of the UNBC community should read. Each reviewer will prepare an argument hoping to win you over to their chosen book. A copy of each of these books will be placed on 1 week Reserve in the Library in early January giving you an opportunity to read them for yourself.

Voting will take place throughout the rest of the semester and the UNBC winner will be announced on April 2nd.

Vote for the book that you think all of UNBC should read online or by completing at ballot at the Circulation Desk of the Geoffrey R. Weller Library.

The UNBC Reads Book Choices:

The Collected Works of Billy the Kid by Michael Ondaatje (Chosen by Darcy Helkenberg)
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (Chosen by Tracy Summerville)
The Rider by Tim Krabbe (Chosen by Ian Hartley)
Tyndale's New Testament by William Tyndale
(Chosen by John Young)
Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World by Wade Davis (Chosen by Gohar Ashoughian)

Vote Here!

CBC Canada Reads Campaign

For more information on the CBC Canada Reads Campaign, click here.
The CBC Canada Reads Book Choices and Reviewers

Fall on your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald - Defended by Perdita Felicien
Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture by Douglas Coupland - Defended by Roland Pemberton aka Cadence Weapon
Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott - Defended by Simi Sara
The Jade Peony by Wayson Choy - Defended by Samantha Nutt
Nikolski by Nicolas Dickner - Defended by Michel Vezina

Poetry Cage Match?

If you haven't seen it yet, this is a debate between Christian Bok and Carmine Starnino about Canadian poetry and the tension between traditional and experimental forms. Two white guys in suits. I dunno. It is kinda sad all around and I think poetry can easily move into more productive, engaged forms of thought.

Polataiko Openings in New York and Toronto

In New York at 79th St and 5th Ave, in a gorgeous-looking venue, across the street from the Metropolitan Museum:










and in Toronto at Barbara Edwards Contemporary where Taras' film In the Land of the Head Hunters was featured:




Two other pieces were included in the show: a photography series called Human Locomotion and an installation called Kyiv Classical .

Declining America
book launch & reading
Wednesday, December 2
7:30 pm
Nancy O's
1261 3rd Ave

click here for a Declining America reading by Rob Budde

The 4th Annual UNBC Aboriginal Writers and Storytellers Festival

This year's festival was the best yet. It was held September 30 - October 3rd at UNBC and other sites in Prince George. This 4th and final festival in the cycle of festivals was called "Calling All Warriors." The purpose was to call out aboriginal men to protect their communities and especially women in the context of so much recent violence against aboriginal women.

Aboriginal authors who came from out of town to the festival were (left to right):

Janet Marie Rogers, Joanne Arnott, Eden Robinson, Richard Van Camp, Cherie Demaline, Neal McLeod, (not pictured) Garry Gottfriedson, and Richard Wagamese.















Once again the festival was a fine mix of performance, storytelling, readings, song, music, and sharing.



Look for next year's festival as we reinvent and restart another cycle of words, nations, and friendship.

Writers on the East Line

Saturday, October 17th, 2009
from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m.

A reading to introduce and appreciate the railway and sawmill communities along the Canadian National Railway line east of Prince George. The line closely follows the upper Fraser River for some 275 kilometers from Prince George to Tete Jaune Cache, British Columbia.

Through the eyes and words of those who have written about this fascinating area, attendees will appreciate the varied views of the physical, historical and cultural landscape. Featured speakers include:



Cecil Giscombe
lives in Berkeley and teaches at the University of California. His poetry books include Two Sections from Practical Geography, Prairie Style, and Giscome Road, among other titles. His memoir, Into and Out of Dislocation, is an account of his search—through central British Columbia—for traces of his “old arrivant” John Robert Giscome, for whom the Giscome Portage was named. His book-in-progress, Railroad Sense, is a poetry and prose work about train metaphors and references.

Kyle Kusch,
through his graduate thesis research and his employment with UNBC's Rural and Small Town Research Programme, has participated in numerous projects regarding the social health and well-being of the East Line communities. He has also conducted numerous oral history interviews for UNBC's Upper Fraser Historical Geography Project. His particular interest is in migration patterns in central British Columbia. An avid map collector and long-distance walker, he continues to reside in his hometown of Nakusp, British Columbia.

Barry McKinnon
lives in Prince George and Tumbler Ridge. He taught for over thirty years at CNC and is publisher of Gorse Press. His many books include I Wanted to Say Something, Sex at Thirty-One, The the, The Centre, and Pulp Log, among others. The the was short-listed for the Governor General's Award; Pulp Log won the Dorothy Livesay Prize. His writing is included in many anthologies, among which is The New Oxford Book of Canadian Verse. He is a life-long jazz fan.

Trelle A. Morrow
contributed postmarks to Postscript '90: commemorating 75 years of postal history in the Fraser-Fort George Region (published by the Fraser-Fort George Museum Society in 1990). His new book, Sternwheelers on the Upper Fraser (published by CNC Press) documents the era during which sternwheelers operated on the Fraser. The book is especially concerned with the social contexts of this time (1863-1921) and includes examinations of “resource exploitation, railway development and settlement.” Trelle Morrow is a retired architect; he lives in Prince George.

J. Kent Sedgwick
has researched, written, and published extensively on central British Columbia history and geography. He came to CNC in 1970 to teach geography and then worked, for many years, as a city planner for Prince George, where he continues to live. He is now an Adjunct Professor of Geography at UNBC. His new book, Giscome Chronicle, documents “the rise and demise” of the village of Giscome, one of the key East Line towns. He is one of the founders of the Upper Fraser Historical Geography Project.

Marilyn Wheeler
was born in Britain but came to Canada fifty years ago and now lives in McBride. Her book, The Robson Valley Story: A Century of Dreams, came out in 1979. The book, extensively revised and updated to include new oral histories, was re-published in 2008 and had its launch at the Beanery restaurant in McBride’s still-active railway station. She operates a sheep farm at McBride and has been a justice of the peace and a marriage commissioner and has been active in the field of public health. Marilyn Wheeler’s particular interest is the history of railroads.


Admission: $10 plus tax .Please call (250) 563-7351 to reserve a seat (seating is limited) and/or for more information.

influencywest

The KSW and the Downstream Project present: InfluencyWest!

The KSW and the Downstream Project with the support of the Canada Council for the arts are proud to present the InfluencyWest Literary Salon.

This fall we are pleased to offer an exciting lecture and reading series modeled on the highly successful Influency Reading series curated by Margaret Christakos. We share her dedication and enthusiasm for bringing poetry and readers together in dangerously close proximity with the goal of revising the relationship between readers, writers and text.

Facilitators: Jordan Scott and Jason Christie

Location: Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, Room 410b

Time: 7:00pm

Cost for the entire run: $20 – $30 (Sliding scale in full effect). If the cost is prohibitive, please let us know. We will not turn anyone away.

Schedule

October 14th: Introductory Session
October 19th: Ken Belford on Lisa Robertson
October 20th: Lisa Robertson on Ken Belford
October 28th: Kim Duff on Larissa Lai and Rita Wong
November 10th: Larissa Lai and Rita Wong on Kim Duff
November 12th: Stephen Collis on Oana Avasilichioaei
November 19th: Oana Avasilichioaei on Stephen Collis
November 26th: Final Session

Marguerite Pigeon readings

Marguerite Pigeon is a writer of poetry and fiction. Since completing her MFA at the University of British Columbia in 2004, she has been working as an editor of academic publications while completing this collection of poems and her first novel. Her work has appeared in a variety of journals, including subTerrain, The Capilano Review, dANDelion, Grain, and Taddle Creek. Originally from Blind River, Northern Ontario. She currently lives in Vancouver.

Inventory is a collection of 58 object poems. Taking as a starting point the reciprocal relation between subjects and objects, the book explores the unique way that objects appear in an individual consciousness. Each object in this Inventory exists on its own and also reflects the author’s experience, from the mundane stapler and tea bag, to the mysterious, extinct dodo bird, to entities that blur the line between person and thing.

In this way, the collection highlights the often hidden dimensions of the objects we encounter, including their temporal, political, locational and psychic aspects. It offers an opportunity for readers to reconsider their own investments in what, by dictionary definition, should be static categories.

Monday, Sept 21st

UNBC at 1:00PM in Rm 10-4558
CNC at 7:30PM in Rm 1-306

'Democratas'

"P.G. will speak through portrait"

Written by Christine Skorepa
Citizen staff
Wednesday, 02 September 2009


There is an art project being created one photograph at a time at the Farmers' Market over the next several weeks in order for a whole community to tell a story.

The idea is to take snap shots of the citizens of Prince George holding up a sign with their favourite word on it and gather the photos all together to make one statement of who we are.

Last week there were 80 people who participated and only one word was repeated. Can you guess what it was? That's right, it was “love” - but only used three times and written in three different languages.













Dr. Rob Budde, who works at the University of Northern British Columbia is a poet, creative scholar, and cultural worker, Hardy Friedrich, poet, journalist and photographer and Denielle Wiebe, poet and masters student at UNBC, are working together on this project called ‘Democratas’ - voice of the people.

Each portrait will have a face and a word, an expression, a handwritten declaration of identity and the changing Prince George light that will be placed side-by-side on a large wall like a collective poem stating who we are, explained Budde.

"I'm always a bit dissatisfied with the way Prince George is represented in the media, especially in the South," said Budde. "Stereotypes come through and I thought, how can I counter that with a portrait of Prince George that is more organic and from the people - that's how I came up with the name ‘Democratas’, thinking about democracy and the voice of the people. Instead of votes it's a word."

Budde thought collecting up to 1,000 portraits with just a word and a face and displaying them all on a big wall would give us a picture of Prince George not otherwise seen.

Budde does not know where the exhibit will be displayed because he does not know how big the display will be. Some suggestions include the Two Rivers Gallery, city hall, UNBC, the airport, or even as a mobile unit could be considered. He doesn't even know how many portraits will be enough. Someone suggested 600 as Prince George sits at 600 feet above sea level.

When Budde, Friedrich and Wiebe set up at the Farmers' Market last week, Budde found people's reaction to it surprising in a couple of ways, he said. "It was a bit easier than I thought it would be," Budde said. Physically setting up the photos went well.

"The second surprise was how tentative people were," said Budde. "People were reluctant to come up to the table." And people would say they would have to come back after choosing the perfect word.

"There were some very rich, powerful words and each word tells its own story," said Budde. There were two that stood out for him when a police officer wrote the word 'shepherd' and an older Aboriginal man who just lost his mother, wrote 'mother'.

Visit the Democratas table at the Farmers' Market on Saturday, Wilson Square at Third and George Street to become a part of this work of art.

Arts Funding Cuts

The arts community, including many theatre companies in Vancouver, rely heavily on gaming for funding. What that means is, non-profit organizations (which includes many arts organizations) get grants for operating and projects from revenue that the goverment makes off of lotteries, bingo and the like.

On August 14, the government instituted a freeze on this money, pending a review. This freeze was lifted on August 24, but yesterday, many companies learned that grants that they were relying on for the next year or two have been cut.

Dear Friends of Arts and Culture,
Today is black Friday for our province’s arts and culture industries.
We are learning today that most arts and culture organizations who did not receive their gaming grant before the BC Liberal’s instituted their unannounced freeze will likely be getting zero dollars this year.
For some groups that can mean they will lose up to $100,000 in funding, and the money will likely not be there for organizations next year either.
Some groups will fold, others will go into massive debt, and others will lay off staff and cancel programs.
Some organizations had been guaranteed 3 years of funding by the government, and were waiting for the second year of funding after spending on the programs the government guaranteed them would be funded – and are now told they won’t receive it, and will have to re-apply.
This has come about because of the government’s budget lie.
They said the deficit would only be $495 million before the election despite top economists, and the Official Opposition’s warnings and now after the election acknowledge it will be much bigger.
One month before the election campaign kicked off I asked the Minister responsible about the province’s commitment to arts and culture and he said ‘there is no reason for the member to suggest that funding that has taken place in the past is somehow or other in jeopardy in this next fiscal year. It is not in jeopardy. This is assured funding during very, very challenging times.’
He also said in response to my first letter to the arts community about the government’s
plans to cut arts funding by 50% ‘The member goes on to say in this letter to the arts and culture community: “After the election, the budget will then decline by about 50 percent.”
That also is just wrong, and the member has no substantiation for saying that.”
The Minister’s statement is now proven to be a lie, and a lie that will cost us all economically, socially, and culturally.
From government reports we learn that BC Gaming’s investment in arts and culture is going from 19.8 million to somewhere in the area of 10.9 million, although none of this will go to people who have applied to gaming as it’s being used for the first time to pay for the BC Arts Council’s usual programs whose funding has been cut.
The government’s direct Ministry of Tourism, Culture, and the Arts budget is set to decline 50% next year, and possibly more depending on what comes out in the budget on Tuesday. on the whole it looks like a nearly 75% cut to arts and culture investment in BC. We’ll know more on Budget day, and I will let you know when I hear anything.
Can you pass this e-mail on to all of your contacts, and let me know what you are receiving from Gaming, and the BC Arts Council? Also please let me know if you are on multi-year funding, and were supposed to be getting your grants, but are now not and what this will do to your organization.
I will continue to stand for a strong creative economy, and support arts and culture organizations province wide.
We know that for every dollar invested by the province the province makes $1.38 back in taxes. That is sound economics.

See this and more at http://artofthebiz.wordpress.com/2009/08/29/local-arts-community-rallies-in-the-face-of-massive-cuts/

Wednesday, August 25th DE COMP reading videos here.

‘DEMOCRATAS’

A portrait of Prince George -- one person at a time

Rob Budde, Hardy Friedrich, and Denielle Wiebe
(and anyone else who wants to help out)
are taking photographic portraits of Prince Georgians
at the Farmers Market (3rd & George St.)
beginning Saturday August 29.

Faces and language saying something about who we are collectively

‘Democratas’ takes a picture,
a snapshot of citizens of Prince George
holding up their ‘favourite word’

Each image will be a face & a word:
an expression, a handwritten declaration of identity
and the changing Prince George light

Placed side-by-side, ‘Democratas’ will be
a collective poem written on a large wall
to the world, saying ‘we are here, now
hear our words’

De Comp Reading

I Like Canada and Canada Likes Me

two rivers gallery

Theresa Sapergia: I Like Canada and Canada Likes Me
OPENING NIGHT: August 20

Artist’s Talk: Theresa Sapergia – 7:30PM

After Party – 8:30PM

Sounds, summer, and sushi provided by Sendo Sushi Factory.


(Theresa Sapergia, Untitled (detail of preparatory sketch), 2009. Coloured Pencil on paper.)

Sapergia teaches in the UNBC / Emily Carr BFA Program.

DECLINING AMERICA is a series of long poems which depict
“america” not as a nation but as a linguistic strategy. The long
poems range from overtly political (“my american movie”) to
language-based (“software tracks”). Many of the poems were
written while traveling America (the nation) and while reading
Jean Baudrillard’s America (the book). The poems here hold
the view that the cultural imperialism of the united States has
essentially rendered Canada ‘America’ (the regime).



Advance orders welcome here.

Richard Van Camp in PG

July 21, 2009
10:30am - 11:11am
Family Storytelling with Richard Van Camp



Families, join us at the library for an hour of Storytelling with reknowned author and storyteller, Richard Van Camp! Richard is a member of the Dogrib Nation and was recently recognized as the Wordcraft Storyteller of the Year. He has written 3 children's books (as well as novels and short stories for adults) and will share oral stories with us.

"An opportunity not to be missed!"

Ages: Families
Free Drop-in
July 23, 2009
7:00pm - 9:00pm


For Adults: Meet Author & Storyteller Richard Van Camp
Calling all aspiring teen and adult writers! Come out to hear author and storyteller Richard Van Camp. A lively interactive session on developing the skills you need to be a writer including writing graphic novels. Richard currently teaches creative writing with an aboriginal focus at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC. As an author and storyteller, Richard has presented at many festivals and workshops across the country including the Vancouver Storytellers’ Festival and the Winnipeg Writers’ Festival. This presentation is a great opportunity for writers and those interested in the writing process to hear a dynamic speaker.

"Don't miss your chance to meet a dynamic and charismatic writer and storyteller!"

Ages: Teens and Adults
Free Drop-in

http://www.lib.pg.bc.ca/events#events

The Line Has Shattered

Revisiting Vancouver’s Landmark 1963 Poetry Conference

George Bowering / Pauline Butling / Clark Coolidge / Judith Copithorne / Maria Hindmarch / Robert Hogg / Lionel Kearns / Bernice Lever / Daphne Marlatt / Michael Palmer / Jamie Reid /
Fred Wah

The 1963 Vancouver Poetry Conference was actually a three-week credit summer course offered by the University of British Columbia and organized by UBC English professor Warren Tallman and poet Robert Creeley. It featured lectures, readings, panel discussions and writing workshops by Charles Olson, Creeley, Robert Duncan, Allen Ginsberg, Denise Levertov and Margaret Avison—in Roy Miki’s words, some of “the most influential voices of the generation described as the ‘new American poets.’” The Conference marks the beginnings of a truly transnational “North American” poetic avant-garde: many of the “student” participants have gone on to have far-reaching impact on Canadian and American poetry, as they include figures such as George Bowering, Daphne Marlatt, Fred Wah, Michael Palmer, Clark Coolidge, and Phyllis Webb. Consistently referred to as “landmark,” “monumental,” and a “defining moment in the history of North American poetry,” The Line Has Shattered brings together 12 original participants 46 years later for a day of discussion and readings.


Friday August 14 2009

SFU Harbour Centre (515 West Hastings), room 1700 (Labatt Hall)

Panel discussion: 1-3pm

Readings: 7-10pm

Moderated and Hosted by Stephen Collis


Sponsored by the SFU Department of English

PG Arts and Culture Downtown

After the success of the Bridges Festival (see program of events here) and upon hearing the many discussions that occurred, it seems to me that a downtown cultural revolution is in order. This turnaround very well may occur because of the initiatives began at the recent Smart Growth symposiums (see smart growth website), a new commitment and energy at the Community Arts Council (website), and a renewed commitment to the arts by UNBC (for example, the BFA Program).

I would urge all arts and culture organizations to lobby the City and District hard to make a greater commitment to arts and culture in the city above and beyond the status quo of doling out money to the six stalwarts of PG culture (as good as they are). In the past, arts initiatives have stalled because of a lack of cohesive and sustained pressure; it's time for organizations to work together and really transform what has been a city that has underachieved in the arts.

Here is one of the conceptualizations that came out of the SGOG charettes:



Just imagine our walkable, inclusive, and sustainable downtown!

Bridges Festival

Detailed Schedule

---Day 1: Thursday, June 11, 2009

1:00 pm – 2:00 pm: Keynote Address: Will Garrett-Petts
"Narrative Constructions of the Small City."

2:00 pm – 3:00 pm: Panel discussion: “Why Support the Arts?”
Sharon Cochran – Performing Arts Center
Wendy Young – Community Arts Council
Frank Peebles – The Citizen
George Harris – Two Rivers Gallery

3:00 pm – 3:30 pm: Coffee Break

3:30 pm – 4:15 pm: Presentation: “Okal Rel Universe: The Creative Campfire of
Science Fiction”

4:15 pm – 5:00 pm: UNBC First Nations Center story telling and performances;
Paul Michel & friends

5:00 pm – 6:00 pm: Dinner Break

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm: Formal Welcome followed by Marcel Gagnon performance

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm: UNBC Bridges Rotunda art exhibition and reception

---Day Two: Friday, June 12, 2009

9:00 am – 10:00 am: Panel Discussion: “Where Do Arts Fit in Public Education?”

Carolyn Holmes – Two Rivers Gallery
Julian Wittaker – College of New Caledonia
Linda Naess – BC Teacher’s Federation
Gerde Blok Wilson – SD #57 Art Advisor

10:00 am – 10:30 am: Coffee Break

10:30 am – 12:00 pm: Panel Discussion: “Feeding Artists in Small Cities”

Julie Fowler – Island Mountain Arts, Wells, BC
Betty Kovacic – CNC Visual Arts and Private Instructor
Judy Russell – Dance Studio Owner and Instructor
Elizabeth Aman Hume - Prince George Symphony Orchestra

12:00 pm – 1:00 pm: Lunch Break

1:00 pm - 2:00 pm: Panel Discussion: “Archiving Northern BC Archives and Digital
Collection”
Ramona Rose – UNBC Archives
Marc Saunders – Prince George Public Library
Bob Campbell – The Exploration Place

2:00 pm – 3:00 pm: Panel Discussion: “Organizing Culture, Arts and Community”

Joan Chess – River’s Day Festival
Jo Beattie – Coldsnap Festival
Jennifer Ferries – Millar Addition Citizen’s Coalition
Jovanka Djordjevich – Community Garden, film festivals, etc.

3:00 pm - 3:30 pm: Coffee Break
3:30 pm – 5:00pm: Panel Discussion: “Culture in the Small City--Other Views”

Jake Kennedy – UBC Okanagan
Blanca Schorcht – UNBC Quesnel
Greg Lainsbury - Northern Lights College, Fort St. John
Sheila Peters

5:00 pm – 6:00 pm: Dinner Break

Location Change: Prince George Railway and Forestry Museum
6:00 pm – 7:30 pm: Poetry Reading – “The Poetry Train –Return Trip”
Jake Kennedy
Ken Belford
Betsy Trumpeter
Sheila Peters
Mary MacDonald
Greg Lainsbury
Si Transken

Location Change: Books and Co.
8:00 pm – 9:30 pm: Local singers and songwriter evening hosted by Jeremy Stewart

--Day 3 - Saturday, June 13

UNBC Lecture Theatre 7-150: 10:00 am – 3:30pm
Prince George Public Library Sponsored Local Author’s Marathon
10:00-10:30 John Harris
10:30-11:00 Rob Bryce
11:00-11:30 Keith Billington
11:30-12:00 Linda Williams
12:00-12:30 Contributors to ORU anthologies
12:30-1:00 Vivien Lougheed
1:00-1:30 Nowell Senior
1:30-2:00 Mike Nash
2:00-2:30 Mark Shegelski
2:30-3:00 Jeremy Stewart
3:00-3:30 Marilyn Wheeler
3:30-4:00 Currently open

9:00 am – 10:00 am: Presentation: “How Does Local Government Fit Into the Arts?”
Doug Hofestede – City of Prince George
Rene McClosky – Regional District of Prince George

10:00 am – 10:30 am: Coffee Break

10:30 am – 12:00 pm: Panel Discussion: “Sense of Place: Location and Cultural
Narratives”
Jeremy Stewart
Shana Schwentner
Andreas Hahn
Rob Budde

12:00 pm – 1:00 pm: Lunch Break
Cultural Compass Fashion Show

1:00 pm – 2:00 pm: Panel Discussion: “Finding Health, Wellness and Spirituality
Within the Arts”

Greg Beattie – UNBC Wellness Center
Moses Kostomo

2:00 pm – 3:00 pm: Presentation: “Voices and Visions: Art as an Alternative Voice
for Subaltern Women”
Si Transken & Dahne Harding

3:00 pm – 3:30 pm: Coffee Break

3:30 pm – 5:00pm: Performance: Street Spirits Theatre Company

5:00 pm – 6:00 pm: Closing event followed by dinner break

Location Change: Two Rivers Art Gallery
7:00 pm – 9:00 pm Artist’s talk: Claire Kujundzic; reception and after party

UNBC BRIDGES FESTIVAL OF ARTS & CULTURE PROGRAM

Days: June 11-13, 2009
Place: UNBC Bentley Center

ONGOING EVENTS AT UNBC

* Prince George Regional Library sponsored Author’s Marathon (Saturday)
* Community arts & cultural information and displays, arts, crafts and more.
* Art exhibits – UNBC Bridges Rotunda; UNBC and CNC student show and sale;
AWAC art exhibition
* Wellness Center ‘Stress Busters’ art activities
* The Exploration Place slideshow
* Prince George Railway and Train Museum model railway bridge display

OFF-CAMPUS EVENTS

Friday
* Prince George Railway and Forestry Museum: (6:00 pm – 7:30) pm
Poetry reading – “The Poetry Train – Return Trip” Rob Budde and Co.
*Books and Co. – local singer songwriter evening: (8:00pm – 9:30pm)

Saturday
*Prince George Community Arts Council Studio Crawl: (2:00pm – 5:00pm)
*Two Rivers Gallery – artist’s talk and reception (7:00pm – 9:00pm)

PROGRAM OVERVIEW

Thursday June 11th : UNBC Bentley Center – program begins at 1:00 pm with keynote address, panel discussion, Okal Rel Universe presentation, UNBC First Nations Center music and story-telling. Official welcome. Performance by Marcel Gagnon at 6:00 pm. Bridges Art Exhibit opening and reception at 7:00pm in the UNBC Rotunda Gallery.

Friday June 12th: UNBC Bentley Center - program begins 9:00 am with panel discussions continuing throughout the day. Poetry event at the Prince George Railway and Forestry Museum at (6:00 – 7:30 pm). Local singer and songwriter evening at Books and Company from (8:00 pm – 9:30 pm).

Saturday, June 13th: UNBC Bentley Center - program begins at 9:00 am. Panel discussions, research presentation, Street Spirits Theatre performance. Program closing 5:00 pm. Prince George Public Library sponsored UNBC Local Author’s Marathon:
(10:00am-3:30pm). Community Arts Council Studio Crawl: (2:00 pm – 5:00 pm). Two Rivers Gallery: artist’s talk and reception: (7:00 pm – 9:00 pm)

Coming to PG in August: DE COMP

by Stephen Collis & Jordan Scott

DE COMP is a book to be collaboratively written by Stephen Collis and Jordan Scott. It will include a variety of texts, including lyric poetry and prose narratives, that explore issues of locality, ecology, and the continuing impact of human beings on the environment. The project will unfold in two main stages. First, in the Summer of 2009, the authors will travel to five distinct BC ecosystems and communities: the coastal rainforest (on Vancouver Island’s west coast), the Fraser River Delta/Vancouver, the Carribou/Chilcotin, the Rocky Mountains, and the North. In each ecosystem a copy of Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species will be placed in an outdoor location, to be left there for one year. Poetry and prose narratives about the region and the authors’ practice will be composed, and readings will be given in each area (ideally, Victoria, Vancouver, Kamloops, Nelson, and Prince George). The authors will then return to the same sites one year later (Summer 2010), collect the books left exposed in the local ecosystems, compose new work (in part based upon what has happened, physically, to the exposed texts), and once again give readings based on the project. DE COMP itself will then be assembled using the poetry and prose narratives composed on the two trips, and written in response to Darwin’s book and the physical record of what has happened to the books left exposed around the province.

We have chosen to use Darwin’s Origin for several reasons. The book remains one of the most influential interventions in our understanding of the “natural” world and our place in it. Conveniently, 2009 also happens to be the 150th anniversary of its publication. At the core of Origin is the issue of “variation”: how does variation (evolutionary difference) between and within species occur? In our project we will submit Darwin’s book itself to the variations of climate and ecosystem within British Columbia. We will thus bring the “variations upon a theme” typical of the arts into dialogue with the “variations” tracked by biologists and naturalists in the physical environment.

Our intention is thus to use the book, quite literally, as a “touchstone” for writing poetry on ecological issues. What is often now referred to as “ecopoetry” is based on the notion “that poetry derives from the living earth as surely as our human bodies and minds do” and “that poetry itself can manifest the intricate, adaptive, and evolving balance of an ecosystem” (Ecopoetry ix). The “decomposition” of Darwin’s text is an opportunity to reflect poetically upon the ecological degradation of our contemporary environments. “Decomposition” becomes a poetics and writing strategy—a mode of making new texts out of the decomposing bodies of other texts. We decompose, in order to compose our return to the material word and world. Our taking Darwin’s book into “nature” is a way of reversing the usual flow of ecopoetry, in which “nature” is brought into text via human reflection and description. By doing so we hope to produce work which moves beyond the typical dualisms that keep the processes of the human degradation of the environment going.

Forthcoming from New Star

Two new Northern BC books:

Prince George's Barry McKInnon's long-awaited In the Millenium


and Terrace's Simon Thompson's debut book Why Does It Feel So Late?

Robin Blaser

May 18, 1925 – May 7, 2009

"The poems of the Holy Forest are points on a map of a cosmos that does not exist in historical terms, that cannot exist, yet that must exist, if we are to make it to a Century 22 that is more than the name of a clothing store. The points form a constellation that we are not quite ready to apprehend but through which we are already formed. We grope and we stumble, but then, out of the blue or black or ultra suede, something unexpected happens: we are ensnared by the encounter."
--Charles Bernstein

"the last words in Robin's The Holy Forest: 'language is love.' much as he could rail against the misuses of language, the terrible injustices we inflict on one another, he worked always towards that open potential that pure-pitch words can offer, the sheer loving openness of a mirroring intelligence in language. now his 'window-heart' has shattered & we have lost a great spirit. so thankful his words live on."
--Daphne Marlatt


Books of Poetry:

The Moth Poem (San Francisco: White Rabbit Press, 1964)

Les Chimères: Translations of Nerval for Fran Herndon (San Francisco: Open Space, 1969)

Cups (San Francisco: Four Seasons Foundation, 1968)

Image Nations 1-12 & The Stadium of the Mirror (London: Ferry Press, 1974)

Image Nations 13 & 14, Luck Unluck Oneluck, Sky-stone, Suddenly, Gathering (North Vancouver: Cobblestone Press, 1975)

Harp Trees (Vancouver: Sun Stone House & Cobblestone Press, 1977)

Image Nation 15: The Lacquerhouse (Vancouver: W. Hoffer, 1981)

Syntax (Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1983)

The Faerie Queene and The Park (Vancouver: Fissure Books, 1987)

Pell Mell (Toronto: Coach House Press, 1988)

The Holy Forest (Toronto: Coach House Press, 1993)

Nomad (Vancouver: Slug Press, 1995)

Wanders, with Meredith Quartermain (Vancouver: Nomados, 2002)

EPC Resources
Readings at Pennsound
Persky on Blaser

Al Purdy A-Frame Residency

I am involved in developing a residency program at the historic Al Purdy A-Frame on the south shore of Roblin Lake, a mile or so from the village of Ameliasburgh in Ontario. I worry this is going to be a very Ontatio-centric program so hoping to spread the word out west. Please pass on the information.


The A-Frame

So we built a house, my wife and I
our house at a backwater puddle of a lake
near Ameliasburg, Ont.
. . .
Working on my own A-frame we pounded nails
and sawed boards, cussing and seating a little
without money for electricity or plumbing
three lamps together and you might read a book
chopping thru winter ice for water
—Al Purdy, “In Search of Owen Roblin”



The list of people who travelled to the A-frame (if it would be possible to compile a comprehensive list) reads like a who’s who of Canadian letters—Margaret Atwood, Earle Birney, George Bowering, Lynn Crosbie, Dennis Lee, Steven Heighton, Patrick Lane, Margaret Laurence, Jack McClelland, John Newlove, Anna Porter, Elizabeth Smart, and the list goes on and on.

And it wasn’t just those aspiring to be poets who were welcomed. Poets, publishers, booksellers, academics, pool players, students, radio broadcasters, journalists, photographers, painters, and readers made their way to Ameliasburgh. Linda Crosfield reports the following story: "Over dinner the other night, I mentioned to my husband that I was writing a letter to support the initiative to preserve Al’s house. ‘I went there once,’ he mused, ‘it was 1972, the summer Judie and I drove across Canada with the kids. She grew up around there so we were able to find the place. Al wasn't home, but his wife was, and she opened her house to us as I explained how I’d taken courses from Al at Simon Fraser and was a big fan of his poetry.” This is how Al's house has always been, according to those who have found their way there.

The house draws people in. It's a pilgrimage to see the country, search out the places Al mentions in the poems, find the church spire and the site of Roblin's Mill, visit the Purdy Library in Ameliasburgh, cross the street to stroll down Purdy Lane to the graveyard where Owen Roblin and Al Purdy are buried along with the other pioneers of Prince Edward County—Al’s book-shaped gravestone bearing the inscription “This is where I came to / when my body left its body / and my spirit stayed / in its spirit home."

Continuing the Tradition—Writer-in-Residence Program

The residency program for the A-frame was designed by poets David Helwig, Steven Heighton, Karen Solie and Rob Budde. The poets were selected to include a broad poetic sensibility, geographical reach, breadth of experience with residency programs, knowledge of Purdy’s work and personal experience of the property. Both David and Steven were long time friends of the Purdys and spent many decades visiting Roblin Lake.

To begin, the residency will operate for 8 months, from April 1 to November 30. Later the winter months may be added. The A-frame will provide time and a place to work that is attractive and of historic significance. Writers can apply for a term of one to three months. The residency will be open to all writers, but preference will be given to poetry and poetry projects. The jury will also consider proposals for a one month project in critical writing about Canadian poetry each year and will be open to unusual and creative ideas for residencies.

Travel to Ameliasburgh will be paid. Those awarded the residency will be given a stipend of $2500 dollars a month while living in the A-frame, and will be free to spend their time on their writing. Residents will be expected to give one public reading or lecture for each month of their stay—presumably in one of the larger communities nearby, Picton, Belleville, Kingston—and to consider other reasonable requests. All this will be organized in collaboration with the Prince Edward County and Quinte Arts councils. The house is somewhat isolated, but the local liaison will be able to help with occasional rides for those who don’t have a car. Residents will be offered a temporary library card for the excellent library at Queen’s University in Kingston, where many of Al Purdy’s papers are held. Those awarded a residency will be asked to donate at least one copy of one of their books to the Residency Library. Writers in residence will also be encouraged to make themselves known at the Purdy Library in Ameliasburgh and to donate a book. They may also wish to discuss with the local liaison the possibility of working with local schools.

For more information about the project, contact Jean Baird at jeanbaird@shaw.ca or 604-224-4898.

Donations can be made by cheque, made to “The Al Purdy A-frame Trust” and mailed to:
4403 West 11th Ave.
Vancouver BC
V6R 2M2
(Tax receipts will be issued for amounts over $50)

The Butcher of Penetang Shortlisted

SHORTLIST ANNOUNCED FOR THE DANUTA GLEED LITERARY AWARD

The Writers’ Union of Canada is pleased to announce the shortlist of nominees for the twelfth annual DANUTA GLEED LITERARY AWARD. The Award recognizes the best first English-language collection of short fiction by a Canadian author published in 2008.



Judges Merilyn Simonds, J.J. Steinfeld, and Rudy Wiebe shortlisted the following nominees:
Ian Colford: Evidence (The Porcupine’s Quill)
Pasha Malla:The Withdrawal Method (House of Anansi Press Inc.)
Rebecca Rosenblum: Once (Biblioasis)
Ahmad Saidullah: Happiness and other Disorders (Key Porter Books Limited)
Betsy Trumpener: The Butcher of Penetang (Caitlin Press)

"The five shortlisted books exhibit an exhilarating array of voices and styles, presenting stories ranging from the idiosyncratic and fanciful, to the satirical and exotic, to the hard-edged and realistic; these works comment on the human condition in insightful, inventive ways that show the short story is thriving in Canada."

The Award consists of cash prizes for the three best first collections, with a first prize of $10,000 and two additional prizes of $500. The winners will be announced in Calgary, Alberta on May 23, 2009, during the Alberta Literary Awards at the joint Annual General Meetings of The Writers’ Union of Canada and The Writers Guild of Alberta. Their names will be posted on the Union’s website (www.writersunion.ca).

A Northern BC Literature Quiz – Part 3

Pony up!

1. Which of the following couples are not Northern BC writing couples?

a) Ken Belford and Si Transken
b) Lorna Crozier and Patrick Lane
c) Rob Budde and Debbie Keahey
d) John Harris and Vivien Lougheed

2. Which is an early Prince George novelist?

a) Sinclair Ross
b) Frederick Philip Grove
c) Robert Harlow
d) Sheila Watson

3. Longtime Terrace teacher George Stanley was acquainted with what famous San Francisco writer?

a) Jack Kerouac
b) Jack Spicer
c) Robin Skelton
d) Kurt Vonnegut

4. What author published a recent Caitlin book oddly titled (flood basement?

a) Rob Budde
b) Ken Belford
c) Jeremy Stewart
d) Sarah de Leeuw


5. What Northern BC writer recently won the CBC Literary Award for nonfiction and was published in En Route magazine?

a) Rob Budde
b) Ken Belford
c) Jeremy Stewart
d) Sarah de Leeuw

A Northern BC Literature Quiz – Part 2

Impress your friends! Answer all five correctly and be a star. Prizes prizes prizes!

1. What Prince George post-secondary institution has hosted a literary reading series since 1969?

a) University of British Columbia
b) Sprott College
c) The College of New Caledonia
d) University of Northern BC

2. What is the name of the reading series?

a) Just West of Unruly
b) BC Reads
c) Café Underground
d) Caledonia Reading Series

3. Poet Ken Belford came to live in Prince George after leaving what lake?

a) Damdochax Lake
b) Great Bear Lake
c) Pinche Lake
d) Takla Lake

4. Poet Jacqueline Baldwin’s first book of poetry has what title?

a) Threadbare
b) A Northern Woman
c) Threadbare Like Lace
d) Your One Good Hat

5. Gillian Wigmore grew up in what Northern BC town?

a) Quesnel
b) Vanderhoof
c) Prince George
d) Dawson Creek

A Northern BC Literature Quiz – Part 1

Answer in the comments and win an extravagant chapbook-related prize if you get all five right.

1. Which poetry title was launched this April by a prominent Prince George writer?

a) How it Feels Like For a Girl
b) Lousy Explorers
c) The Sudden Weight of Snow
d) Ecologue

2. What mythological/theological creature stars in Eden Robinson’s Monkey Beach?

a) Coyote
b) Abominable Snowman
c) B’gwus
d) Wetigo

3. What press published Barry McKinnon’s book The Centre: Poems 1970-2000?

a) Caitlin and Talon
b) Talon
c) Anvil
d) Caitlin

4. Which of these writers has NOT read in Prince George?

a) Al Purdy
b) Tomson Highway
c) Robert Creeley
d) Aritha van Herk
e) Carol Shields
f) Lorna Crozier
g) Richard Wagamese
h) Robert Kroetsch

5. Which has not been a bookstore in Prince George?

a) Another Art
b) Books on 3rd
c) Mosquito Books
d) Other Art

The Poetic Front out of SFU.

magenta whip

See a surprisingly adept review of Lisa Robertson's Magenta Soul Whip. Mark Callanan sentiments on reading post-avant poetry is that it is like "the frustration of trying to remember a forgotten word that flits past one's mind, tantalizing, never quite apprehended." I think this touches on the common resistance to new poetries that involves the reader "not getting it"--whatever "getting it" means--instead of a different kind of reading act in which the reader interacts with the poem less as a resource extraction machine and more like a walk in the woods.

Muskwa-Kechika Artist Camp

The Muskwa-Kechika (M-K), located in the northern Rockies, is one of the few remaining places on the planet where a fully-functioning wilderness ecosystem still lives and breathes as it always has.

The Muskwa-Kechika Artist Camp, now in its fourth year, seeks to raise awareness of this important wilderness area as well as to provide artists with an incomparable environment in which to explore their artwork.

Ten professional artists working in a variety of disciplines (visual art, writing, music, performance art) will be selected for this year's camp, being held August 1-8, 2009. The work produced during the camp will be compiled into a collaborative show and exhibited in art galleries throughout the country.

This year's featured artist at the 2009 camp will be Toronto poet Sue Sinclair. Sue's fourth book of poetry, Breaker, was recently nominated for The Pat Lowther Memorial Award, given for the best book of poetry by a Canadian woman. Past attendees have included internationally renouned visual artist Brian Jungen, and poets Tim Lilburn and Don McKay.

The camps are organized by Writing on the Ridge and hosted by award-winning conservationist and photographer Wayne Sawchuk. Wayne has been conducting guiding trips into the Muskwa-Kechika since 1985. His work was featured in the November 2008 issue of National Geographic (http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/11/muskwa-kechika/vaillant-text).

For more information on the camps, including fees and application form, please visit the following website:
http://www.donnakane.com/communityevents-mkcamps.php

(flood basement

Jeremy Stewart's first book, (flood basement, is a young poet's search for and discovery of his place in the local landscape. The poet is haunted by the legacy of colonialism and propelled by the struggles of a community seeking its own identity. (flood basement is the raw, shocking and innocent journey of an emerging artist in a seemingly inflexible world. In this collection Stewart shares a collage of fragments that amount to a portrait of the Prince George of his youth, a transcription of a midnight audio journey, and an introspection of the fluctuating and sometimes fragile identity of the writer. Stewart's work pushes the boundaries of innovative and experimental poetry while weaving a visual narrative of the world in which he lives.

“Finally! Lyrics of outrageous displacements! Stewart’s experimental narrative text will bust up your tedious humdrum ideas! Poetry as subversion! (flood basement—buy this book, muthaflippas!” —Jake Kennedy

Please join Jeremy Stewart as he launches his
book of poetry, (flood basement, at Books and
Company (1685 3rd avenue) in Prince George on
Wednesday, April 15 at 7:00pm.

Bridges Festival

Call for Entries – Bridges Festival of Arts and Culture 2009 Juried Exhibition

What impact does the non-human or human landscape have on our sense of self and location? How do we represent ourselves in a reality where our physical environment has been pervaded by mass media and globalization? This multitude of physical and virtual layers of existence challenges our sense of place and presence. This group exhibition will reflect the wide-ranging practices of artists in the region and provide a forum to express a sense of who you are in relation to where you are. We are looking for work that explores the notions of space specific to our central interior region.

The first annual Bridges Festival of Arts and Culture is currently seeking submissions for our June 11-13, 2009 exhibition in the UNBC Rotunda. The Bridges Festival of Arts & Culture welcomes artists working in all media (painting, sculpture, fiber, video, poetry, short story, etc.) to submit up to three works of art or two pieces of writing up to four pages each. If you have a piece of work or any ideas which you would like to develop further in relation to this project and in dialogue with the Bridges Festival, we would very much like to hear from you.

Works need to include some marker that locates the work in the general Prince George region. Submission topics might include but are not limited to:

• Public vs. private places
• Phenomenological approaches to space and place
• Home/land
• Borders
• Changing landscapes
• How people occupy the city

Notes:

Travel and exhibition expenses are the responsibility of the artist; however, some of the work will be published in “The Small Cities” book project that is a result of the research and discussion at the festival. Writing will be published in a chapbook format. Artworks will be displayed in safe but unsecured area and will be moved, if possible, to a secured area each evening of the show. Work that requires production budgets or extensive set-up times cannot be taken on. Single screen films should be no longer than 15 min.

Please fill in the Submission Form download at this site.

Submissions should be received/postmarked by April 15. Files and essays should be sent to: Bridges Festival Exhibition c/o Gina MacDonald, Admin 2014, University of Northern British Columbia, 3333 University Way, Prince George BC, V2N 4Z9.
Writing:
• Please send hard copies.
Images:
• slides, prints, or digital images are acceptable; please submit only one format. Multiple images will be accepted if needed to best represent the work; details are encouraged.
Slides or Prints:
• slides and prints should be clearly labelled with artist’s name and title of work, and marked with an arrow in the upper right hand corner to indicate the top and correct viewing side of the slide. If submitting details, number images in order of viewing. Submit with completed art submission form.
Digital Images;
• Images should be either jpeg or tif files at a resolution of 72 dpi with a maximum width of 1024 pixels and a maximum height of 768 pixels in RGB mode.
• Images must be pc compatible.
• Label each file (image) with the artist’s name and title of the work in the following format: last name, first name. title of work. format (eg. brown,jane. title. jpg)
• If detail images are included, label each file (image) with the artist’s last name, first name. title and sequential number. (eg. brown_jane_title01.jpg, brown_jane_title02.jpg
• Submit with completed art submission form.
*Media files and 50-word bios from all accepted contributors. Artistic submissions should include a brief original statement that elucidates, expands or reflects on a conceptual or technological aspect of the work.

Contributors will be notified of acceptance by May 24, 2009.
Deadline for Submissions: May 10, 2009.
For More Information:
Joanna Smythe 250.970.0144 or smythej@unbc.ca
Gina MacDonald 250.960.6788 or macdonag@unbc.ca

Please check out our website.

LANGUAGE POETRY AND THE LYRIC SUBJECT by MARJORIE PERLOFF

It was Roland Barthes, after all, who insisted, in "The Death of the Author" (1968), that writing, far from being the simple and direct expression of interiority, is "the destruction of every voice, every point of origin. Writing is that neutral, composite, oblique space where our subject slips away, the negative where all identity is lost, starting with the very identity of the body writing." "Linguistically, " Barthes declared, "the author is never more than the instance writing, just as I is nothing other than the instance saying I: language knows a 'subject', not a 'person'." And he famously concludes:

We know now that a text is not a line of words releasing a single 'theological' meaning (the message of the Author-God). . . . The text is a tissue of quotations drawn from the innumerable centres of culture. The writer can only imitate a gesture that is always anterior, never original. His only power is to mix writings, to counter the ones with the others. . . . Succeeding the Author, the scriptor no longer bears within him passions, humours, feelings, impressions, but rather this immense dictionary from which he draws a writing that can know no halt: life never does more than imitate the book, and the book itself is only a tissue of signs, an imitation that is lost, infinitely deferred.

Here Barthes anticipates Foucault's equally famous pronouncement, in "What is an Author?" (1969), that "The writing of our day has freed itself from the necessity of 'expression'." In Foucault's words:

Writing unfolds like a game that inevitably moves beyond its own rules and finally leaves them behind. Thus, the essential basis of this writing is not exalted emotions related to the act of composition or the insertion of a subject into language. Rather, it is primarily concerned with creating an opening where the writing subject endlessly disappears.
The author is now replaced by the "author function"--the function of a particular discourse-- and the pressing questions about a given text become, not "What has [the author] revealed of his most profound self in his language?", but "Where does [this discourse] come from; how is it circulated; who controls it?"
_____________

Read the entire essay here.

Films about Writing

Adaptation
Stranger than Fiction
Pinero
Smoke
Almost Famous
Finding Forrester
Il Postino
Sylvia
Wonder Boys
Deconstructing Harry
Barton Fink
Elling
Henry & June
The Hours
Storytelling
Secret Window
The Shining
Gothic
Factotum
Barfly
Where the Buffalo Roam
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Before Night Falls
Shakespeare in Love
Whisper of the Heart
Slam
Naked Lunch
Throw Momma From the Train
Finding Neverland
My Left Foot
Misery
Bullets Over Broadway
An Angel At My Table
Nim’s Island
Funny Farm
The Producers
Wilde
Atonement
Freedom Writers
Dead Poets Society
Delta of Venus
Winter Passing
The Neverending Story
Capote
The Holiday
The Fountain
Music and Lyrics
I Want Candy
He Said, She Said
Tenebre
Stand by Me
The Philadelphia Story
84 Charring Cross Rd
Shadowlands
Cyrano de Bergerac
Martian Child
The Pillow Book
Prospero's Books
Possession
Little Women
I Capture the Castle
Wit
Blue in the Face
Sideways
Moulin Rouge
Leolo
Inkheart
Casanova
Becoming Jane
Beatrix Potter
Diary of Anne Frank
Tom and Viv
Henry Fool
Kafka
Beloved Infidel
The English Patient
Velvet Goldmine
1001 Nights
My Brilliant Career
Impromptu
Stealing Heaven
Julia
His Girl Friday
The Front Page
Gaily, Gaily
All the President's Men
The Year of Living Dangerously
Sunset Boulevard
Breakfast at Tiffanys
Behind the Lines
The Lost Weekend
Watchmen
Tune in Tomorrow
Sex and Lucia
Quills
Suddenly Naked
Kind Hearts and Coronets
Cabaret
The Moderns
Stevie
Miss Potter
The Jane Austen Book Club
Capote
In the Mood for Love
2046
Children of Huang Shi
Just Write

4th Annual Barry McKinnon Chapbook Award

Chapbook displays, sales, and trading

Friday, April 24
7:30 pm
College of New Caledonia 1-306

Even free and open to the public

Eligible chapbooks:
--between 8 - 48 pages
--written and published by an author from Northern BC
--produced after April 2008
--printed in a run of a minimum of 20 copies

Submission deadline April 10th
Judging will be based on a coordination of form and content but an emphasis will be placed on poetry.
$250 prize sponsored by the UNBC Arts Council.

Send chapbooks (2 copies) to:
Graham Pearce (pearce@cnc.bc.ca)
English Program, CNC
3330-22nd Ave.
Prince George BC V2N 1P8

CBC Literary Award Winner

2008
Creative Nonfiction

First Prize - English
COLUMBUS BURNING
Sarah de Leeuw, Prince George, BC
Sarah de Leeuw is a human geographer who grew up in northern British Columbia. She is the author of Unmarked: Landscapes along Highway 16, a collection of creative non-fiction essays exploring the geographies of her home. Sarah is an assistant professor in the Northern Medical Program at the University of Northern British Columbia, the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia. She is ever grateful to those who want to linger…

Jury’s Comments:
“Columbus Burning, the story of a fire at The Columbus Hotel, a flop house housing the nameless disinherited, speaks not just for the downtown St. George poor, but for all the impoverished people in the backwaters of this country. The piece moves deftly between the anonymity of disenfranchisement; the bigotry of bystanders, and the fleeting conscience of the liberal fringe. In the flames that burn is our paradise lost. Columbus Burning speaks to us, in poignant, subtle and beautiful language, reminding us that our treatment of the nameless and voiceless is a measure of our humanity.”

UNBC/Canada Reads Campaign 2009

Help us celebrate a truly Canadian cultural event!

Canada Reads is an annual "battle of the books" which takes place on CBC radio airing the week of March 2-6, 2009. Five prominent advocates defend their choice for the book that they believe all of Canada should read.

Once again the Geoffrey R. Weller Library is holding its own campaign. Five members of the UNBC community have each chosen a book that they believe all of UNBC should read. Reviewers include:

· Dr. Charles Jago campaigning for The Lost Garden by Helen Humphreys

· Dr. Lisa Dickson campaigning for The Wars by Timothy Findley

· Dr. Heather Smith campaigning for Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels

· Paul Burry campaigning for No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod

· Crystal Campbell campaigning for Finding Ft. George by Rob Budde

Each reviewer has prepared an argument hoping to win you over to their chosen book which you can find on the Library’s website. The chosen books have been placed on 1-week Reserve in the Library to give you an opportunity to read them for yourself.

And don’t forget that you can read the arguments and vote for the book that you think all of Canada should read by visiting the library’s website, http://library.unbc.ca/canadareads/unbcreads_main.asp, or dropping by the Circulation desk in the library.

Voting will take place throughout the rest of the semester and the UNBC winner will be announced on April 2nd.

**New This Year – Check Out the UNBC Reads Blog - Do you have an opinion on your choice of the five books? Is there a book that you would recommend as the book that all of UNBC should read? Have your say at the new UNBC Reads Blog found at http://web.unbc.ca/~gpotter/unbcreads/.

Watch the site for the UNBC Reads Debate vodcast coming soon!

Friends of the Library: Poetry Event

The Friends of the Prince George Public Library are pleased to host an evening of poetry.

Al Rempel, Gillian Wigmore and Rob Budde will read from work that addresses "landscape" in various ways. Accompanying the reading will be a display of quilt and fibre art by Debbie Keahey and Gillian Wigmore.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009, 7:30 p.m.

The event is free and all are welcome.


“If a given combination of trees, mountains, water, and houses, say a landscape, is beautiful, it is not so by itself, but because of me, of my favor, of the idea or feeling I attach to it.”
Charles Baudelaire

A great set of links on American poetry

http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88v/schedule00a.html

’A politics of pure hypotaxis can only succeed through the mass subordination of every element. A politics of pure parataxis will never complete a thought. . . . Our goal should not (indeed, cannot) be the stasis of resolution but learning to balance and negotiate never-ending tensions’ (Ron Silliman, ’What/Person’ 67).

CNC 1-306

This site of PG's rich poetic history will be the venue for a reading new CNC and UNBC creative writing students.

Thursday February 12

7:30 pm CNC 1-306

refreshments and freshmen

LINH DINH : What I Usually Say to my Students


Hoard your time, since you’ll need it to be alone to think and to write.

Be frugal, since it’ll allow you to work less and have more time to think and to write.

Try, as best you can, to have an overview of what’s possible in writing, the various strategies attempted throughout history, throughout the world.

Identify the writers or works you admire the most, and read them very slowly, as many times as necessary.

Have faith that you will get better at thinking and writing, and that people will notice it, even if stingily and reluctantly, since you’re not entitled to any attention.

Be prepared to be disappointed over and over.

For the sake of experimentation, it’s OK to write badly, even foolishly, but don’t try to pass off crap you yourself are disinterested in.

Even if you’ll end up a mediocre writer, there’s an outside chance you will become an excellent reader, so this pursuit will still be worthwhile, sort of, even as you lie there, unheated, loveless and clutching your last packet of Ramen Pride.

Don’t be afraid to be as weird, meaning as PECULIARLY YOU as possible. Try to say it all. Be shameless. Don’t hesitate to revisit a piece over and over to follow and capture everything that it really wants to say. Use each draft as a lead and a springboard into revealing something truly astounding, even if the actual changes (a revised noun here, an added adjective there) may be minimal.

Be as crazy and as perverse as possible, be inspired to the point of madness, but don't be glib.

Poetry should astound and frighten, not make you giggle for two seconds.