Creative Writing Courses: Fall 2009

Here's what's on deck for Fall 2009 – note the new program courses ENGL 100 and 103: these are required for all incoming students in the Creative Writing Program.

English 100-01 – Academic Writing Strategies (Roger Farr)

This section of English 100 is designed specifically for Creative Writing students and is a required course for those in the Creative Writing Program. It introduces the genres and strategies – or, as we will come to know them, “the moves” – used by creative writers working in academic situations and contexts, focusing on expository and argumentative forms such as book reviews, research essays, and artist statements, as well as related, literary forms like photo-essays, creative non-fiction, and manifestos. In all cases, the course will emphasize the importance of solid research skills in both critical and creative writing. As for our reading, this will include student work, and a selection of contemporary literary journals and magazines, including several on-line publications. We will also attend readings and talks by writers visiting the campus as part of the Open Text Reading Series. By the end of the course, students will more imaginative in their critical writing, and their creative work will be more critically informed.

Required Texts:

• Graff, Gerald, and Cathy Birkenstein. They Say, I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing. New York, NY: Norton, 2006.

• Hacker, Diana. The Canadian Writer’s Reference Guide. 5th ed. NY: Bedford/St. Martins, 2004.

• Recent issues of The Capilano Review, West Coast Line, Matrix, Granta, and Geist.

• Other materials available in-class and/or on-line.


English 103-01 – Studies in Contemporary Literature (Roger Farr)

This section of English 103 is designed specifically for Creative Writing students and is a required course for those in the Creative Writing Program. The goal of the course is to put students into contact with some of the writers, texts, practices, and movements that compose “the contemporary.” What is “the contemporary,” you ask? We will only be reading work published within the last two years. Additionally, we will attend readings by writers visiting the campus as part of the Open Text Reading Series, who will present and talk about their current work. Finally, we will follow the lead of “the contemporary” by adopting an experimental, investigative attitude towards our writing assignments, which will require both critical and creative responses to the material we encounter.

Required Texts:

• Boykoff, Jules, and Kaia Sand. Landscapes of Dissent: Guerilla Poetry and Public Space. Long Beach, CA: Palm, 2008.

• Farr, Roger (Ed.) Open Text: Canadian Poetry in the 21st Century. Vol. I & II. North Vancouver, BC: CUE, 2008/09.

• Fiorentino, Jon Paul. Stripmalling. Toronto, ON: ECW, 2009.

• Stone, Anne. Delible. London, ON: Insomniac, 2007.

• other readings available in class and on-line.


Engl 190-01/02 – Creative Writing I (Reg Johanson)

This course introduces students to fiction and poetry through reading and writing. Students learn to become critical of their own work and that of others. Students write a variety of assignments intended to open up the horizon of their writing to innovation and experimentation. Students also attend the Open Text reading series. English 190 is a required course for the Associate of Arts Degree in Creative Writing. Students who take this course may also be interested in Academic Writing Strategies- Creative Writing Seminar, also a required course for the Degree program students.


ENGL 190-03/70 – Creative Writing I (Roger Farr)

This is a mixed-mode section of English 190 that meets in person on alternating Thursday evenings, and is split between the North Vancouver campus (section 03) and the Squamish campus (section 70). While this arrangement is a little onerous for the instructor, it works out well for students, as our classes will be nice and small (limited to 10 at each campus). Other than that, it’s business as usual: English 190 is an intensive course designed to assist students in developing their writing, and their thinking about writing, through guided experimentation with language. We will work in a variety of modes and genres, including poems, long poems, short stories, very very short stories, and writing for performance (radio/podcast scripts). As for reading, we will consider each other’s work, as well as work appearing in current literary journals and magazines (print and on-line), to see what other writers are up to. By the end of the course, you will have a decent portfolio of original writing of which you will feel proud, and which may or may not impress your friends and family.

Required Texts:

• Farr, Roger (Ed.) Open Text: Canadian Poetry in the 21st Century. Vol. I & II. North Vancouver, BC: CUE, 2008.

• Smith, Hazel. The Writing Experiment: Strategies for Innovative Creative Writing. Sydney, AU: Allen & Unwin, 2005.

• Stern, Jerome, ed. Microfictions. New York, NY: Norton, 1996.

• Recent issues of The Capilano Review, West Coast Line, Matrix, Granta, and Geist.

• Other materials available in-class and/or on-line.


English 191-01 – Creative Writing II (Crystal Hurdle)

When is a poem really a story? When should you leave a draft alone? Through in-class writing, weekly homework assignments, and personal projects, you will write up a storm in a number of genres. You’ll be introduced to professional writers, from Lorna Crozier to bp Nichol, from Thomas King to Gabriel Garcia Márquez, to visiting writers at the Open Text and Kinder Text Reading Series, as well as to the work of your colleagues, in aid of developing your style, articulating your voice.

Texts:

* Gary Geddes, ed. 20th-Century Poetry & Poetics
* Gary Geddes, ed. The Art of Short Fiction
* And assorted recommended texts to kick-start your imagination


Engl 291 – 01/02 Narrative and Fiction (Reg Johanson)

This course will focus on “biotext”, a hybrid prose form which combines fiction, autobiography, memoir, history, found texts and prose poetry. Students also attend the Open Text reading series. English 291 is a required course for the Associate of Arts Degree in Creative Writing. Students who take this course may also be interested in Academic Writing Strategies—Creative Writing Seminar, also a required course for Degree program students.


For more information contact:
Reg Johanson, Creative Writing Convener


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Robin Blaser: 18 May 1925 - 7 May 2009

"Death is not final. Only parking lots."

-- Jack Spicer





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POETRY AND PROVO!

A READING AND PRESENTATION BY JORDAN ZINOVICH, WITH HANS PLOMP IN ATTENDANCE: MAY 5th, SPARTACUS BOOKS

Sponsored by the Writer’s Union of Canada, The Canada Council for the Arts
& the Creative Writing Program at Capilano University

Open Text is pleased to present poet, historian, and editor Jordan Zinovich, who will read from a new work, “Chronicle of an Unverifiable Year,” followed by a screening of documentary film footage related to Richard Kempton’s book "Provo: Amsterdam's Anarchist Revolt" (Autonomedia). Provo activist and poet Hans Plomp will also be in attendance.

Tuesday, May 5th @ 7:30
Spartacus Books
684 East Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC

JORDAN ZINOVICH was born and raised in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia. He left Canada in 1974, and since then has lived in Crete, England, France, Guinea Conakry, Holland, India, Spain, and New York City, where he now resides. He has published two historical biographies about personalities who opened the western Canadian north (“The Prospector: North of Sixty” and “Battling the Bay”); the critical anthology “Semiotext(e) CANADAs” (of which he was Project General Editor); the novel “Gabriel Dumont in Paris”; The Poetry Collections “Cobweb Walking,” “The Company I Keep,” and “Chronicle of an Unverifiable Year”; the poetic radio play “John Chapman’s Harvest”; and, most recently, “Tantric Panic,” a collection of Hans Plomp’s short stories translated from Dutch. His work has been translated into French and Dutch, with radio performances in New York and Amsterdam. At present he is a senior editor with the Autonomedia Collective, one of North America’s most notable underground publishing houses.

Born in Amsterdam in 1944, HANS PLOMP took an active part in the “Provo revolution” and in 1973 was part of the occupation of the village of Ruigoord, which for over 35 years has thrived as creative community of “spiritual anarchists” from different cultures and generations. He has published novels, stories, poems and essays, and organizes the annual Fiery Tongues festival of poetry and music at Ruigoord. He is also an avid traveler and has spent some five years in India, an account of which was published in English by Ekstasis Editions. Plomp has toured Europe and the U.S. with Gregory Corso, Allen Ginsberg, Anne Waldman, Ira Cohen, Gerard Malanga, Diana di Prima, Jack Micheline and Bob Kaufman. His work has also been collected in "Nine Dutch Poets" (City Lights, 1982).

For info:
Roger Farr
rfarr@capilanou.ca
604.986.1911 (2291)


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OPEN TEXT READING SERIES: SHIRLEY BEAR

Sponsored by The Canada Council for the Arts
& the Creative Writing Program at Capilano University

The Spring 2009 OPEN TEXT series at Capilano University concludes on Thursday, April 2nd with a reading by Shirley Bear:

Library 321 @ 11:30
Capilano University
2055 Purcell Way
North Vancouver

The author of a book of poems entitled Virgin Bones (McGilligan Press, 2007), SHIRLEY BEAR is a multi-media artist, writer, activist, and native traditional herbalist. Born on the Tobique First Nation, she is an original member of the Wabnaki language group of New Brunswick, Canada. Shirley Bear was the 2002 recipient of the Excellence in the Arts Award from the New Brunswick Arts Board.

For Info:
Reg Johanson
Creative Writing Convener
604.986.1911 (2428)

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OPEN TEXT READING SERIES: PHINDER DULAI

Sponsored by The Canada Council for the Arts
& the Creative Writing Program at Capilano University

The Spring 2009 OPEN TEXT series at Capilano University continues on Thursday, March 19th, 2009 with a reading by Vancouver poet Phinder Dulai:

Library 321 @ 11:30
Capilano University
2055 Purcell Way
North Vancouver

PHINDER DULAI is the author of two books of poetry: Ragas from the Periphery (Arsenal Pulp Press 1995); and Basmati Brown (Nightwood Editions 2000). His work has been published in various journals, including: West Coast Line, The Capilano Review, Memewar Magazine, Rungh, Ankur and Matrix, and can also be found in the anthologies Making a Difference – Canadian Multicultural Literature (OUP 2006) and Companions and Horizons – Anthology of SFU Poetry (Line Books, 2005). As a South Asian Canadian writer interested in post colonial Diaspora perspectives, Dulai works in diffusing and exploring these roots through contemporary poetics.

For info:
Reg Johanson
rjohanso@capilanou.ca
604.986.1911 (2428)

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P3: PoetryPianoPoetry

Please join LINEbooks for a reading by Kim Minkus and Glen Lowry.
Hank Bull will play piano between sets.

Friday March 20th, 7:30 pm
1067 Granville Street. (Alley Entrance)
BYOB

Hank Bull has been an important member of the legendary Western Front Society since 1973. He is the also the founder and executive director of Centre A (Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art) since 1999. His works have been collected by National Gallery of Canada, Netherlands Media Art Institute and many private collectors. He has a long history of playing piano in many settings.

Glen Lowry is a Vancouver-based writer, photographer, scholar, and editor. He co-edits West Coast Line and his work appears in the anthology, Shift & Switch: New Canadian Poetry (The Mercury Press, 2005). Pacific Avenue is forthcoming from LINEbooks. He lives in Vancouver and works at ECUAD.

Kim Minkus is a poet, researcher and writing instructor. She is a PhD candidate in Simon Fraser University's English Department where her research interests are contemporary poetics, avant-garde book history, and archival experiment and risk. She has had articles published on poets Susan Howe and Stephen Cain. LINEbooks published her first book of poetry 9 Freight in the fall of 2007 and her second book Thresh is forthcoming. She has had reviews and poetry published in FRONT Magazine, Interim, West Coast Line, The Poetic Front, LOCUSPOINT, ottawater, Memewar and Jacket. She currently teaches at Capilano University.

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OPEN TEXT READING SERIES: ROGER FARR

Sponsored by The Canada Council for the Arts
& the Creative Writing Program at Capilano University

The Spring 2009 OPEN TEXT series at Capilano College continues on Thursday, March 12th, 2009 with a reading by Vancouver writer, editor and teacher Roger Farr:

Arbutus 314 @ 11:30
Capilano University
2055 Purcell Way
North Vancouver

Roger Farr is the author of SURPLUS (Line Books, 2006), a co-author (with Reg Johanson and Aaron Vidaver) of the collaborative research project N 49 19. 47 - W 123 8.11 (Recomposition, 2008), and the editor of PARSER: New Poetry and Poetics. Other work appears or is forthcoming in The Canadian Journal of Communication, Fifth Estate, The International Encyclopedia of Protest and Revolution, Perspectives on Anarchist Theory, Rad Dad, and XCP: Cross Cultural Poetics. He works at Capilano University.

For info:
Reg Johanson, Creative Writing Convener
rjohanso@capilanou.ca
604.986.1911 (2428)

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