28 February 2009

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.”

25 February 2009

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!

23 February 2009

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

22 February 2009

’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).