OPEN TEXT READING SERIES: KEN BELFORD

Sponsored by the Canada Council for the Arts

& the Creative Writing Program at Capilano University

The Fall 2009 OPEN TEXT series at Capilano University continues on Thursday, October 29th, 2009 with a reading by Prince George poet Ken Belford:

CE 148 @ 11:30
Capilano University
2055 Purcell Way
North Vancouver

In addition to 18 chapbooks, Ken Belford has published five books of poetry: Fireweed, The Post Electric Caveman, Pathways Into the Mountains, ecologue and lan(d)guage. Difficult to categorize, Belford’s poetics blend borders. He is a self-educated land(d)guage poet who mixes a learned and lived pre-industrial knowledge with the push and pull of present-day questions, conversations, and what he sees as new linguistic possibilities.

“The surface particulars – rivers, mountains, forest, lakes and all that live there – act not as backdrop but as the literal and imaginative source for the poem and the necessary syntax Belford generates and inhabits. His poems are ongoing, large and politically dimensional, brave in their opposition to any traditional practice that would diminish what the new poem must reveal.” – Barry McKinnon

I trust, not in men or their systems,

but in women, and I don’t care about

saving time, or covering more space.

Writing of cities is about power

and class, and poems about place

are towns that look alike. The only

thing that differentiates them is

the memories in the buildings of authority,

where memory is manufactured,

and time is not money, but space.

When we remember together, other

memories are silenced and called heritage

in the space of a few hours, broadcast

into every room until the storage capacity

is full. Clock time is something signaling

the total, but the way I remember, what

I heard was about the succession

of forms and temporal complexity.

Anyway, I was distracted and inattentive,

and looking for some breathing space,

an opening or break, something I could

say in the company of strangers.

– from lan(d)guage: a sequence of poetics

Upcoming Readings:

• Nov 12: Kim Minkus

For info:
Roger Farr, Creative Writing Convener
rfarr@capilanou.ca

604.986.1911 (2291)

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OPEN TEXT READING SERIES: THREE NORTHERN POETS

Sponsored by the Canada Council for the Arts
& the Creative Writing Concentration at Capilano College


"The north moves north. / The song is an article of evidence."

– Ken Belford


The FALL 2007 OPEN TEXT series at Capilano College continues on November 20th, 2007 with a reading by three Northern poets: Ken Belford, Rob Budde, and Si Transken.

Tuesday, November 20th
Library 197 @ 12:30
Capilano College
2055 Purcell Way
North Vancouver

KEN BELFORD was born to a farming family near DeBolt, Alberta, and grew up in East Vancouver. For 35 years he lived in the remote, unroaded Nass River headwaters at Damdochax Lake. His gaze is of subsistence and the other, in that he looks out at the consumptive habits of western culture from the mountains. In addition to 15 chapbooks. he has published four books of poetry; Fireweed, The Post Electric Caveman, Pathways Into the Mountains, and ecologue. His most recent chapbook, from Nomados, is When Snakes Awaken. Difficult to categorize, Belford's poetics blend borders. He is a self-educated land(d)guage poet who mixes a learned pre-industrial knowledge with the push and pull of the questions, conversations, and what he sees as new linguistic possibilities.

ROB BUDDE teaches Creative Writing at the University of Northern BC. He has published five books (two poetry - Catch as Catch and traffick - two novels - Misshapen and The Dying Poem - and, most recently, short fiction - Flicker). In 2002, Rob facilitated a collection of interviews (In Muddy Water: Conversations with 11 Poets). Finding Ft. George (Caitlin 2007) is a collection of poems about Rob's growing relationship with Prince George and Northern BC. He lives in Prince George with his partner, Debbie Keahey and four children: Robin, Erin, Quinlan, and Anya. Check out his online literary journal called stonestone <http://stonestone.unbc.ca> and his poetry blog writingwaynorth <http://writingwaynorth.blogspot.com>.

SI TRANSKEN uses her creative writing to educate, vent, stir up troubles and joys, have fun and accomplish solidarity. She reads at Gay Pride, Women's fundraisers and other social justice events. She has been an activist in these movements for more than two decades. Si works at a shelter with drug addicted/ homeless/ survival sex trade workers. In her ivory tower roles she teaches for two universities in sociology, women's studies and social work. Entirely unbelievably she gets people laughing. Her work has been published in scholarly contexts such as Cultural Studies & Critical Methodologies, Atlantis, Canadian Women's Studies and her funky stuff has been published in contexts such as This Ain¹t Your Patriarchs' Poetry Book; Groping Beyond Grief; Stress (Full) Sister (Hood); and Battle Chants.


For info:
Roger Farr
rfarr@capcollege.bc.ca
604.986.1911 (2554)