VIU 2022 Ralph Gustafson Distinguished Poet Reading and Lecture

I am honored to announce that I have been named Victoria Island University’s Ralph Gustafson Distinguished Poet for 2021-22. This residency includes a public poetry reading, a visit to students in an advanced VIU creative writing seminar, and an annual public lecture, all of which take place between March 2nd and 3rd, 2022.

The public reading portion of the Gustafson series will take place on Wed March 2, 2022, at 4pm PST (7pm EST). I will read from my work at the Innovation Room in the Windsor Plywood Trades Discovery Centre (Bldg. 108, Room 105, max 30 persons, proof of vaccination may be required, please inquire with the host, below). For those unable to attend in person, the reading will also be broadcast live via Zoom.

I will then deliver this year’s Gustafson Lecture to the public on March 3, 2022. My talk, entitled “Poetry: Present Future of the Past” will discuss the phenomenon of what writers choose to let live on the page. “For all my love of writing, reading, books, printed pages, I insist that poetry is in its sound….Then what is the role of the preserved poem, the written poem, the poem perhaps written while it is being sung, bit by bit?” After recently publishing a collection of my selected works, I have come to believe that all poems engage the mystery of what memories and feelings in us are chosen and developed, what is not just experienced but left for posterity. This lecture will take place on March 3, 2022, at the Ralph Gustafson Lecture Theatre in the Arts and Sciences Building (Bldg. 355, max 50 persons; proof of vaccination required) beginning at 7:30 pm PST (10:30pm EST). Like the reading, above, this event is open to the public and will be streamed.

Reading and Q&A   

Wednesday, March 2, 2022 – 4 pm (Pacific) / 7 pm (Eastern)
Innovation Room in the Windsor Plywood Trades Discovery Centre
(Bldg. 108, Room 105, max 30 persons, proof of vaccination may be required, please inquire with the host, below.)
And live streamed.

Gustafson Lecture  

Thursday, March 3, 2022 –  7 pm (Pacific) / 10 pm (Eastern)
Ralph Gustafson Lecture Theatre in the Arts and Sciences Building
(Bldg. 355, max 50 persons; proof of vaccination required)
And live streamed.

Registration

Click HERE to Register for the Zoom online streams for both events.

To put your name on the list for in-person attendance for one or both events, please email Sonnet.lAbbe@viu.ca.

VIU is located on the unceded territories of the Snuneymuxw, Tla’amin, Snaw-naw-as and Quw’utsun peoples. We are grateful for the opportunity to live, work, and create on this beautiful land.

Gustafson Trust Official Presser | VIU News Presser

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