Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Open Text Reading Series: Spring 2009


Tuesday Feb. 10 11:30-1 LB321

Originally from Coquitlam, British Columbia, JORDAN SCOTT now wanders between the Pacific and the Shield. Jordan’s first book of poetry, Silt (New Star Books), was nominated for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. In the fall of 2006, Jordan worked on the final sections of blert while acting as a writer in residence at the International Writers’ and Translators’ Centre in Rhodes, Greece.


Thursday Feb. 26 11:30-1 LB 321
DAPHNE MARLATT After moving from Malaysia to Vancouver in 1951, Marlatt attained her BA from the University of British Columbia in 1964, MA in Comparative Literature from Indiana University in 1968, and LL.D. from the University of Western Ontario in 1996. After publishing poetry for many years, she published two novels, Ana Historic (1988) and Taken (1996), and numerous critical articles. Most recently Marlatt has edited Mothertalk: Life Stories of Mary Kiyoshi Kiyooka by Roy Kiyooka.


Thursday March 5 11:30-1 LB 321

ROY MIKI is a writer, poet, and editor who lives in Vancouver. He is the author of Justice in Our Time (co-authored with Cassandra Kobayashi) (Talonbooks 1991), two books of poems, Saving Face (Turnstone 1991) and Random Access File (Red Deer College Press 1995), and a collection of critical essays, Broken Entries: Race, Subjectivity, Writing (Mercury Press 1998). His third book of poems, Surrender (Mercury Press 2001), received the Governor General’s Award for Poetry. His two most recent publications are Redress: Inside the Japanese Canadian Call for Justice (Raincoast 2004), and There (New Star Books 2006), a book of poems. He received the Order of Canada in 2006.

Thursday March 12 11:30-1 AR 314
ROGER FARR is the author of SURPLUS (LINEbooks, 2006), a co-author (with Reg Johanson and Aaron Vidaver) of N 49 19. 47 - W 123 8.11 (Recomposition Books, 2008), and the editor of PARSER: New Poetry and Poetics. Recent poetry, micro-fiction, and critical writing appears or is forthcoming in Anarchist Studies, Boog City, The Capilano Review, The Encyclopedia of Protest and Revolution, Fifth Estate, Matrix, Magazine Minima, Perspectives on Anarchist Theory, The Poetic Front, The Rain Review, W, West Coast Line, and XCP: Cross Cultural Poetics. In 2005 he edited the “6 Cities” issue of The Capilano Review; currently he is editing a three-volume anthology of contemporary Canadian poetry and poetics, Open Text: Canadian Poetry in The 21st Century (CUE, 2008). His work has been heard on the airwaves of Anarchy Radio in Eugene, Oregon; Free Radio Olympia and KAOS FM in Washington State; and Tree Frog Radio, Denman Island, BC.


Thursday March 19 11:30-1 LB 321

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: West Coast Line, The Capilano Review, Memewar Magazine, Rungh, Ankur and Matrix. His work is also found in a number of anthologies: Making a Difference – Canadian Multicultural Literature (OUP 2006) and Companions and Horizons – Anthology of SFU Poetry 40th Year anniversary (2005). As a South Asian Canadian writer interested in post colonial Diaspora perspectives, Dulai works in diffusing and exploring these roots through the contemporary poetics.


Thursday April 2 11:30-1 LB 321

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.


Contact: Reg Johanson, Creative Writing Convener



The Open Text Series is brought to you by the Associate of Arts Degree in Creative Writing, The English Department, The Humanities Division, The Dean of Arts and Sciences, and the Canada Council.


For information on the Associate of Arts Degree in Creative Writing, see www.capilanou.ca/programs/english/creative-writing.html.


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Friday, January 23, 2009

KinderText Reading: Bill New, Jan 29

William New, University Killam Professor Emeritus, University of British Columbia, 2003-d., will read from and discuss his works for children, among other things, at Capilano University on Thursday Jan. 29th, in LB321, at 11:30 am. Free. His work for kids includes Vanilla Gorilla, Llamas in the Laundry, Dream Helmet, and his latest, The Year I was Grounded. Sponsored by the Writers’ union of Canada and Canada Council for the Arts, this is 2009’s first Kinder Text reading.

Contact: Crystal Hurdle
churdle@capilanou.ca
604-984-0353 local 2420

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Monday, December 8, 2008

Fall 2008 Liar Launch

The new issue of The Liar, Capilano University's creative writing student magazine, will be launched this Wednesday (December 10th) at Pat's Pub, 403 E. Hastings St., from 7:30-11:30pm.

Readings by the Fall '08 Collective and the students of Cap U (past and present), as well as the musical prowess of keyboardist and human being, LASERGIANT!

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Friday, November 14, 2008

Creative Writing at Capilano University - SPRING 2009


English 100-14 & 15 Academic Writing Strategies (for Creative Writing)– Reg Johanson
This section of English 100 is designed specifically for Creative Writing students and is a required course for students in the Creative Writing Degree program. It meets for 90 minutes once a week for the fall and spring semesters. This composition class will introduce the genres and strategies that are required of creative writers working in academic situations and contexts with a focus on expository and persuasive forms such as research essays, book reviews, paratext (blurbs, bios, acknowledgements), project descriptions and grant proposals. In addition to each others work, our reading will include a survey of contemporary literary journals. These journals will provide the raw data for the year's study. What can we say about the practices, values and concerns of these "discursive communities"?

Required Texts:
A variety of literary journals, TBA.
Course pack available in bookstore.


English 190-01 Creative Writing I – Reg Johanson

This course introduces students to the cunning of 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 and are encouraged to leave the past behind. 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.

Required Texts:
TBA

English 191-01 & 02 Creative Writing II – Ryan Knighton
In English 191 we will continue to develop our skills as writers by asking how writing can be made, not what it might mean. Specifically, we will further engage with questions of poetry, microfiction, and so-called creative non-fiction, as directed by their form and history. Our workshops, however, are neither roundtable editing sessions, nor, worse, copyediting boot camps. Rather, we will share draft examples of our own work in order to further our discussions, to expose new questions, and to seek the effects of craft. Some case examples from published works may be provided in class, but our own writing will serve as the primary texts. So will Stephen king’s memoir, On Writing, which is pretty damned fine. By the final class, students should have at least one reworked submission of writing ready for a magazine or periodical. To that end, we will survey some of the nuts-and-bolts of pitching and publishing, too.

Required Texts:
King, Stephen. On Writing. S&S.


English 290-01 Creative Writing: Letter and Line – Reg Johanson
This course focuses on “documentary” poetry and poetics. Our starting point is Kaia Sand’s challenge, “why leave journalism to journalists, news to news services?”. We study the various ways in which poets can use, co-opt, subvert, and challenge the media, the ways in which we can “document” contemporary issues and struggles, and how our work can respond to a “social command”.

Required Texts:
TBA


English 292-01 Creative Writing: Children’s Literature – Crystal Hurdle
Experience an intensive workshop in writing literature for children of various ages. Examine and practice the art of writing for children by exploring a range of different strategies and techniques: identify narrative structure, myth, character development, levels of diction, voice, etc. Discover voices and forms for your writing and express your ideas in styles appropriate for children’s interests at different ages, from picture books and nonsense rhymes for children to young adult novels in verse. In developing your own projects, become a successor to J. K. Rowling!

Required Texts:
Ellis, Sarah From Reader to Writer
Ellis, Deborah. The Breadwinnner
New, William. Dream Helmet
Porter, Pamela. The Crazy Man
Print Pack with assorted readings

Thursday, October 30, 2008

OPEN TEXT READING SERIES: Wayde Compton

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


The Fall 2008 OPEN TEXT series at Capilano University concludes on Thursday, November 6th, with a reading by Vancouver poet and public historian Wayde Compton.

November 6th
2:30 – 4 p.m. LB 194
Capilano University
2055 Purcell Way
North Vancouver

WAYDE COMPTON is a Vancouver writer whose books include 49th Parallel Psalm, Performance Bond and Bluesprint: Black British Columbian Literature and Orature. He and Jason de Couto perform turntable-based sound poetry as a duo called The Contact Zone Crew. Compton is also a co-founding member of the Hogan's Alley Memorial Project, an organization dedicated to preserving the public memory of Vancouver's original black community. He is also one of the publishers of Commodore Books. Compton teaches in Simon Fraser University's Writing and Publishing Program, where he is a creative writing instructor in The Writer's Studio; he also teaches English composition and literature at Coquitlam College. He was Writer-in-Residence at SFU in 2007-08.


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

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Monday, October 27, 2008

OPEN TEXT READING SERIES: Renee Rodin

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


The Fall 2008 OPEN TEXT series at Capilano University continues on Thursday, October 30th, with a reading by Vancouver writer Renee Rodin.

October 30th
11:30 am, Library 321
Capilano University
2055 Purcell Way
North Vancouver

RENEE RODIN, poet and visual artist, was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec. She came to Vancouver in the 60s and in the 80s began R2B2 Books along with its reading series which she ran for 8 years. Rodin is the author of Bread and Salt (Talonbooks, 1996) and the chapbook Ready for Freddy (Nomados, 2005).


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


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Sunday, October 19, 2008

Open Text Reading Series: Steve Collis, Oct. 23rd

Sponsored by the Canada Council for the Arts and the Creative Writing Program at Capilano University.

The Fall 2008 Open Text series continues with a reading by poet and critic Steve Collis.

Thursday, Oct. 23
11:30 am, LIB 321
Capilano University
2055 Purcell Way
North Vancouver, BC

STEVE COLLIS is the author of three books of poetry, Mine (New Star 2001) Anarchive (New Star 2005), which was nominated for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize, and The Commons (Talonbooks 2008). His essays on contemporary poetry and poetics have appeared in many Canadian and American journals, and he is the author of two book-length studies, Phyllis Webb and the Common Good (Talonbooks 2007) and Through Words of Others: Susan Howe and Anarcho-Scholasticism (ELS Editions 2006). A member of the Kootenay School of Writing collective, he teaches American literature, poetry, and creative writing at Simon Fraser University.

For information contact:

Reg Johanson
Convener, Creative Writing Program
Capilano University
Email: rjohanso@capilanou.ca
Phone 604-986-1911 local 2428

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