Thursday, November 4, 2010

Acclaimed Writers Phinder Dulai and Daniel Heath Justice Read at UBC

VANCOUVER — Mark your calendars for the November session of the Play
Chthonics reading series, and an opportunity for conversations with
our visiting writers. Phinder Dulai and Daniel Heath Justice join us
for a night of provocative readings. Please arrive on time as seating
is limited.

Date: Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Location: Graham House at Green College, 6201 Cecil Green Park Road
Cost: Free

Phinder Dulai is a Surrey-based poet and author of two books of
poetry: Ragas from the Periphery (1995) and Basmati Brown (2000) and
is anthologized in Making a Difference: Canadian Multicultural
Literature (Oxford University Press, 2007). Phinder Dulai is
particularly interested in migrant experiences, and he has spoken at
schools, colleges, and universities across Canada and internationally.

Daniel Heath Justice is a U.S. born Canadian citizen of the Cherokee
Nation. He lives with his husband near Georgian Bay in southern
Ontario, and teaches Aboriginal literatures and Aboriginal Studies at
the University of Toronto. He is the author of numerous essays on
Indigenous literature and cultural studies, as well as the scholarly
book, Our Fire Survives the Storm: A Cherokee Literary History. He is
also the author of Way of Thorn and Thunder, an Indigenous epic
fantasy trilogy, which is forthcoming in an omnibus edition from the
University of New Mexico Press in spring 2011.


The Play Chthonics Reading Series showcases innovative poetry,
narrative, and cross-genre writing. We encourage creative,
interdisciplinary conversations among writers, students, faculty, and
community members in Vancouver. The series is supported by the Canada
Council and the following UBC institutions and programs: the
International Canadian Studies Centre, Green College, the Department
of English, the First Nations Studies Program, the Program for
Critical Studies in Sexuality, and the Center for Cross-Faculty
Inquiry. We gratefully acknowledge their assistance.

Contact us at play.chthonics@gmail.com.

Friday, October 15, 2010

Fabiola Nabil Naguib Reads at UBC Green College

VANCOUVER — The second session of Play Chthonics promises to be another evening filled with inspiration as Fabiola Nabil Naguib share her energy, art, and creative thought. Please arrive on time as seating is limited.

Date: Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Time: 3:00 p.m.
Location: Graham House at Green College, 6201 Cecil Green Park Road
Cost: Free

Fabiola Nabil Naguib is an artist, writer, and activist and she profoundly integrates these roles in all of her work. Her first book, Uninhabiting the Violence of Silencing: activations of creativity, ethics, and resistance (Creativity Commons Press, 2007), fuses poetry, critical essays, and art work. She has published in multidisciplinary anthologies and journals such as Collision: Interarts Practice and Research (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008), Fuse, Yishu, Writing for Our Lives and Transdisciplinary Journal of Emergence, and her work is also forthcoming in collections such as Planetarity, Creativity and Social Justice: An Intra/International Collection of Critical and Creative Writings (Creativity Commons Press, 2011). Naguib has contributed to numerous projects and interventions in Cairo, New Delhi, Havana, Paris, Oujda, Dhaka, Florence, Pasadena, Vancouver, Ottawa, and Montreal. In 2010, Naguib was awarded the Usamah Ansari Creative Justice Award.

***Due to unforeseen circumstances, Lee Maracle is unable to attend.

The Play Chthonics reading series showcases innovative poetry, narrative, and cross-genre writing. We encourage creative, interdisciplinary conversations among writers, students, faculty, and community members in Vancouver. The series is supported by the Canada Council and the following UBC institutions and programs: the International Canadian Studies Centre, Green College, the Department of English, the First Nations Studies Program, the Program for Critical Studies in Sexuality, and the Center for Cross-Faculty Inquiry. We gratefully acknowledge their assistance.

Check http://playchthonics.blogspot.com/ or contact us at play.chthonics@gmail.com.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Coyote and Raven in Conversation: Acclaimed Writers and Environmental Justice Scholars Peter Cole and Pat O’Riley Read at UBC Green College

VANCOUVER— Awaken your mind and engage with these two special guests for the first reading of the Fall. The Play Chthonics Reading Series and the greater UBC community welcome Peter Cole and Pat O’Riley to read their work and to unfold trickster discourse and narrative shapeshifting.

Date: Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Location: Graham House at Green College, 6201 Cecil Green Park Road
Cost: Free

Peter Cole is an assistant professor in the Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy at UBC, and a member of the Douglas First Nation ( Southern Stl'atl'imx). Peter also has Celtic (Welsh/Scottish) heritage. His research interests include orality, narrativity, Aboriginal education, environmental thought, Indigenous self-determination, and Aboriginalizing methodology. He is the author of Coyote and Raven go Canoeing: Coming Home to the Village (McGill-Queen’s UP 2006) and co-editor, with Randolph Haluza-DeLay, Pat O’Riley, and Julian Agyeman of Speaking for Ourselves: Environmental Justice in Canada (UBC Press 2009).

Pat O’Riley is a visiting associate professor in the Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy at UBC, and an associate professor in the Department of Equity Studies, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies at York University. She is of Irish, French, and Mohawk heritage and married into Douglas First Nation. Her research interests include Environmental education, Indigenizing research methodology, Indigenous education, Indigenous technologies, community and environmental sustainability. Professor O’Riley is the author of Technology, Culture and Socioeconomics: A Rhizoanalysis of Educational Discourses (Peter Lang 2003), and co-editor, with Randolph Haluza-DeLay, Peter Cole, and Julian Agyeman of Speaking for Ourselves: Environmental Justice in Canada (UBC Press 2009).

The Play Chthonics Reading Series showcases innovative poetry, narrative, and cross-genre writing. We encourage creative, interdisciplinary conversations among writers, students, faculty, and community members in Vancouver. The series is supported by the Canada Council and the following UBC institutions and programs: the International Canadian Studies Centre, Green College, the Department of English, the First Nations Studies Program, the Program for Critical Studies in Sexuality, and the Center for Cross-Faculty Inquiry. We gratefully acknowledge their assistance.

Contact us at play.chthonics@gmail.com.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Poets Jeff Derksen and Adam Dickinson Read at UBC

Poets Jeff Derksen and Adam Dickinson Read at UBC

VANCOUVER—Join us at Green College’s Graham House to hear Canadian poets Jeff Derksen and Adam Dickinson read from their work and discuss their poetics.

Date: Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Time: 7:30 p.m.

Location: Graham House at Green College, 6201 Cecil Green Park Road

Cost: Free

Adam Dickinson’s poems, articles, and reviews have appeared in a number of journals in Canada, the UK, and the USA. His work has also been anthologized in Breathing Fire 2: Canada’s New Poets, Post Prairie, The Echoing Years: An Anthology of Poetry from Canada and Ireland, and in The Shape of Content: Creative Writing in Mathematics and Science. His first book of poetry Cartography and Walking (Brick Books, 2002) was short listed for an Alberta Book Award. His second collection Kingdom, Phylum (Brick Books, 2006) was a finalist for the 2007 Trillium Book Award for Poetry. Adam is currently Assistant Professor of poetics at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, where he teaches poetry, creative writing, and literary theory, and also serves as co-editor of the literary journal PRECIPICe.

Jeff Derksen is a poet and cultural critic and who works at Simon Fraser University. His books of poetry include Down Time, Dwell, and Transnational Muscle Cars (all from Talonbooks). His poetry has been anthologized in The Gertrude Stein Anthology of Innovative North American Poetry, Writing Class, The Canadian Long Poem Anthology and Half in the Sun: an anthology of Mennonite Writing. His work has been translated into French, Icelandic, and Italian. A former editor of Writing magazine, he also edited “Poetry and the Long Neoliberal Moment” for West Coast Line and “Disgust and Overdetermination: a poetics issue” for Open Letter.

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 and we are grateful for their support.

For more information, see http://playchthonics.blogspot.com or contact Gillian Jerome at gjerome@interchange.ubc.ca

Monday, March 8, 2010

Award-Winning Poets Steve Collis, Rachel Zolf and Tenney Nathanson Read at UBC!

VANCOUVER - Three very talented poets, including Canadian poets Steve Collis, Rachel Zolf as well as American poet Tenney Nathanson, will join us at Green College’s Graham House for what stands to be one of the best poetry readings of the year!

Date: Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Location: Graham House at Green College, 6201 Cecil Green Park Road, UBC
Cost: Free

Poet Stephen Collis is the author of Mine (New Star 2001), two parts of the on-going “Barricades Project”—Anarchive (New Star 2005) and The Commons (Talonbooks 2008)—and On the Material (Talonbooks 2010). He is also the author of two books of criticism: Through Words of Others: Susan Howe and Anarcho-Scholasticism (ELS 2006) and Phyllis Webb and the Common Good (Talonbooks 2007). A member of the Kootenay School of Writing, he teaches poetry, poetics and American literature at Simon Fraser University.

Rachel Zolf’s Human Resources (Coach House, 2007), won the 2008 Trillium Book Award for Poetry. Previous collections are Masque (Mercury, 2004) and Her absence, this wanderer (BuschekBooks, 1999). Her work appears in the anthologies Shift & Switch: New Canadian Poetry and Prismatic Publics: Innovative Canadian Women’s Poetry and Poetics (Coach House, 2009). She was the founding poetry editor for The Walrus magazine and has edited several books by other poets. Her latest book, Neighbor Procedure, is out this spring 2010.

Tenney Nathanson is an American poet and critic who teaches American Poetry at the University of Arizona. His poetry books include Erased Art (Chax Press, 2005), Home on the Range (The Night Sky with Stars in My Mouth) (O Books, 2005) and Ghost Snow Falls through the Void (Globalization) (Chax Press, forthcoming). He is also the author of Whitman’s Presence: Body,Voice, and Writing in Leaves of Grass (NYU 1992; rpt. 1994) and of an ongoing series of related essays focusing on the intertwining of political critique, utopian vocation, and visions of the sacred in such innovative contemporary poets as John Ashbery, Charles Bernstein, Leslie Scalapino, Philip Whalen, and Charles Olson.

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 and we are grateful for their support.

For more information, see http://playchthonics.blogspot.com
Contact Gillian Jerome at gjerome@interchange.ubc.ca

Friday, January 15, 2010

Greg Scofield and Christine LeClerc Read at UBC January 20th, 2010

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 poets Greg Scofield and Christine LeClerc to read their work and discuss their poetics.

Date: Wednesday, January 20th, 2010
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Location: Graham House at Green College, 6201 Cecil Green Park Road
Cost: Free

Gregory Scofield is a poet, playwright, teacher and social worker. A MÉTIS of Cree, Scottish, English, French, and Jewish descent, Gregory Scofield has taught First Nations and Métis Literature at Brandon University and the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, and has served as writer-in-residence at Memorial University. Much of Scofield's writing is an examination of his own life and that of his Native heritage. Scofield's debut collection, The Gathering: Stones for the Medicine Wheel (1993) won the 1994 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize and was followed by Native Canadiana: Songs from the Urban Rez (1996). Love Medicine and One Song (1997) is a collection of love poems and erotic verse. I Knew Two Métis Women (1999) celebrates the lives of his mother and aunt, and integrates songs by the Carter Family, Hank Snow, and other country-music artists.

Christine LeClerc, originally from Montreal, now lives in Vancouver. She is currently pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia. Her work has appeared in 42opus, Dig, FRONT, FU, Memewar, OCHO, Pistola, subTerrain, terry, the Worksound gallery, and is forthcoming in Interim. Leclerc is the author of Counterfeit, a book of poetry published by Capilano University Editions (CUE) in fall 2008. She teaches creative writing at Langara College Continuing Studies.

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.