Friday, November 20, 2009

Award-Winning Poets Roo Borson and Angela Rawlings Read at UBC

VANCOUVER—Step out of the windy rain and into the warmth of the Piano Lounge in the Graham House of Green College for a poetry reading by two great Canadian poets. The Play Chthonics Reading Series and the greater UBC community welcome award-winning poets Roo Borson and a.rawlings to read their work and discuss their poetics.

Date: Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Location: Graham House at Green College, 6201 Cecil Green Park Road
Cost: Free

a.rawlings’ first book, Wide slumber for lepidopterists (Coach House Books, 2006), documents a night in the life of Northern Ontario. rawlings co-edited Shift & Switch: New Canadian Poetry (The Mercury Press, 2005), co-organized The Lexiconjury Reading Series (2001-6), hosted Heart of a Poet (2005), and facilitates sound/text/movement workshops (2003-present). She is the recipient of the bpNichol Award for Distinction in Writing (2001) and a Chalmers Arts Fellowship (2008). rawlings is on the board of directors for the multidisciplinary performance company bluemouth inc. and frequently collaborates with improvising musicians.

Roo Borson is a poet and essayist. Her most recent book of poetry, Short Journey Upriver Toward Oishida, received the Griffin Poetry Prize, the Governor General's Award, and the Pat Lowther Award. Her book of literary non-fiction, Personal History, was published in 2008. She is currently working on a new book of poetry, as well as a collaborative project with poet Kim Maltman under the pen name Baziju.

The Play Chthonics reading series showcases innovative poetry, narrative, and cross-genre writing. We encourage creative, interdisciplinary conversations among writers, students, faculty, theorists, and community members in Vancouver. The series is sponsored by The English Department, The International Canadian Studies Centre at UBC, Green College and the Canada Council. We are grateful for their support.

For more information, see http://playchthonics.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Poets derek beaulieu and Fiona Tinwei Lam Read at UBC

VANCOUVER—Step out of the cold and into the warmth of the Graham House at Green College for a poetry reading by two of Canada’s most provocative poets. The Play Chthonics Reading Series and the greater UBC community welcome award-winning poets Derek Beaulieu and Fiona Tinwei Lam to read their work and discuss their poetics.

Date: Friday, November 20, 2009
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Location: Graham House at Green College, 6201 Cecil Green Park Road
Cost: Free

Fiona Tinwei Lam's first book of poetry, Intimate Distances (Nightwood Editions), was shortlisted for the City of Vancouver Book Prize. She is the co-editor and contributor to the non-fiction anthology Double Lives (McGill-Queen's). Her work has appeared in literary journals across Canada and is included in over a dozen anthologies. Her latest book of poetry is Enter the Chrysanthemum.

derek beaulieu’s four books of poetry all engage with textual production and the way that composition informs comprehension. His first book, with wax, was published by Coach House Books in 2003, and was followed-up by frogments from the frag pool: haiku after basho (Mercury Press, 2005) co-written with Gary Barwin and frfactal economies (talonbooks, 2006). His most recent book is chains (paper kite, 2008) which explores the relationship of meaning-making between the author and the reader through non-semantic concrete poetry. beaulieu is also the co-editor of the best-selling anthology Shift & Switch: new Canadian poetry. His collection of conceptual short fiction, How To Write is forthcoming from Talonbooks in 2010.

The Play Chthonics reading series showcases innovative poetry, narrative, and cross-genre writing. We encourage creative, interdisciplinary conversations among writers, students, faculty, theorists, and community members in Vancouver.

The series is based in the English Department at UBC.For more information, see http://playchthonics.blogspot.com/ or contact Gillian Jerome at gjerome@interchange.ubc.ca.

Friday, February 13, 2009

FUNDRAISCHTHONICS!

FUNDRAISCHTHONICS! A POETRY PERFORMANCE AND FUNDRAISER

Hey grammar geeks and philes of phonics - you're invited to sip hip poetics and gin and tonics at Fundraischthonics! Come support the UBC poetry series that maps tectonic shifts in textCanlit, on Wednesday, February 25, 2009 at 7 p.m. at Thea's Lounge, Thea Koerner House, UBC, 6371 Crescent Road.

The evening will feature special guest Taien Ng-Chan reading from her work. Also reading will be poets Mike Borkent, Ray Hsu, Sonnet L'Abbé, and Moberly Luger.

DJ Simon Rolston will spin tunes.

WHAT: A night of readings and tunes in support of Play Chthonics

WHEN: Wednesday, February 25, 7 p.m. Festivities begin 7:30 p.m.

WHERE: Thea's Lounge, Thea Koerner House, UBC, 6371 Crescent Road.

The Play Chthonics reading series showcases innovative poetry, narrative, and cross-genre writing. We encourage creative, interdisciplinary conversations among writers, students, faculty, theorists, and community members in Vancouver. The series is based in the English Department at UBC, and is in the midst of a six-reading season for 2008-9. We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Institute for Canadian Studies at UBC, the Department of English at UBC and Green College.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Dionne Brand and Rita Wong Read January 21

Step out of the cold and into the warmth of the the Coach House at Green College for a reading by two of Canada’s most provocative writers. The Play Chthonics Reading Series and the greater UBC community welcome award-winning writers Dionne Brand and Rita Wong to read their work and discuss their poetics.

Date: Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Time: Doors open at 7:00 p.m. Reading starts at 7:30 p.m.
Location: The Coach House at Green College, 6201 Cecil Green Park Road
Cost: Free


Rita Wong is the author of monkeypuzzle (Press Gang, 1998) and forage (Nightwood, 2007). She received the Asian Canadian Writer’s Workshop Emerging Writer Award in 1997, and the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize for forage in 2008. She teaches Critical and Cultural Studies at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver and is also a visiting instructor at the University of Miami.

Dionne Brand
won the Governor General’s Award for Land to Light On (McClelland & Stewart, 1997). No Language Is Neutral (M&S, 1998) and Inventory (M&S, 2006) were also nominated for the G.G. Award. She has won the Pat Lowther Award for poetry, and her volume thirsty (M&S, 2002) was nominated for the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2003. She is the author of three acclaimed novels: In Another Place, Not Here (Vintage, 1997), At the Full and Change of the Moon (Vintage, 2000), and What We All Long For (Vintage, 2005). She lives in Toronto and holds a Research Chair at the University of Guelph.

The Play Chthonics reading series showcases innovative poetry, narrative, and cross-genre writing. We encourage creative, interdisciplinary conversations among writers, students, faculty, theorists, and community members in Vancouver. The series is sponsored by UBC’s English Department, Green College, The International Canadian Studies Centre at UBC and The Canada Council.

Mark your calendar for our fundraiser on February 25, with special guest Taien Ng-Chan.

The last reading of the season will feature Ray Hsu and Karen Solie on March 18.

Watch this site for details.