Lee Maracle and Wayde Compton Read at the Rhizome Café

VANCOUVER — The final session of the season for Play Chthonics promises to be a stellar evening filled with inspiring voices as Lee Maracle and Wayde Compton share their energy, art, and creative thought. Please note the change from our usual location. As always, please arrive on time as seating is limited.


Date: FRIDAY, April 29, 2011
Time: 7:00 p.m, but feel free to come early for dinner!
Location: Rhizome Café, 317 East Broadway
Cost: Free

Lee Maracle is an esteemed teacher, a gifted orator, and a prolific author of many acclaimed books, including the groundbreaking Bobbi Lee: Indian Warrior (1975, rpt. 1990), Sojourners and Sundogs: First Nations Fiction (1999), Ravensong (1993), Daughters Are Forever
(2002), Bent Box (2000), and I Am Woman: A Native Perspective on Sociology and Feminism (1988). She is the co-editor of a number of anthologies, including the award-winning My Home As I Remember (1998) and Telling It: Women and Language Across Culture (1994). Born in North Vancouver and a member of the Sto: Loh nation, Lee Maracle has served as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at both the University of Toronto and Western Washington University. In 2009, she received an Honorary Doctor of Letters from the St. Thomas University. Her forthcoming work includes Memory Serves: And Other Words (2012). She is currently teaching in the Aboriginal Studies program at the University of Toronto and the Centre for Indigenous Theatre.

Wayde Compton is a Vancouver writer whose books include After Canaan: Essays on Race, Writing, and Region (2010), Performance Bond (2004), Bluesprint: Black British Columbian Literature and Orature (2002), and 49th Parallel Psalm (1999). 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. Wayde Compton teaches English composition and
literature at Emily Carr University of Art and Design and Coquitlam College.

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.

Spirited Writers Annharte and Joanne Arnott Read at UBC Green College

VANCOUVER — This March Play Chthonics presents the powerful voices of Annharte and
Joanne Arnott. Join us for an evening of reading, speaking, and engaging in the inviting glow
of Green College’s Graham House. All are welcome, but please arrive on time as seating is
limited.

Date: Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Location: Graham House at Green College, 6201 Cecil Green Park Road
Cost: Free

Annharte describes herself first and foremost as a Little Saskatchewan First Nations grandma.
She works with the Nokomis Storyteller Theatre Youth Outreach Project among other
community initiatives. She is the author of Being on the Moon (1990), Coyote Columbus Cafe
(1994) and Exercises in Lip Pointing (2003).

Joanne Arnott is a Metis/mixed-blood writer, originally from Winnipeg, living on the west coast of Canada since 1982. Her first book, Wiles of Girlhood, won the Gerald Lampert Award for best first book of poetry (Press Gang, 1992). She has published five further books, including Breasting the Waves: On Writing & Healing (Press Gang, 1995 ), Steepy Mountain love poetry (Kegedonce, 2004) and Mother Time: Poems New & Selected (Ronsdale, 2007). Her most
recent publication is, as editor, Salish Seas: an anthology of text + image (AWCWC, 2011).
Mother to six young people, all born at home, Joanne is a founding member of the Aboriginal
Writers Collective West Coast, has served on the National Council of The Writers Union of
Canada (as advocate), and continues to sit with the Author’s Committee, The Writers Trust
of Canada. She is also active with the Richmond Writers Group, hosting literary events in
Richmond BC. Joanne hosts two occasional blogs, Vera Manuel Tribute and Joanne Arnott,
as well as an online storytellers e-group.

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.

Renowned Wordsmiths Chris Hutchinson and Jay MillAr Read at UBC Green College!

VANCOUVER — This February Play Chthonics presents the superlative
finesse of Chris Hutchinson and Jay MillAr. Join us for an evening of
poetry and dialogue in the warmth of Green College’s beautiful Graham
House. All are welcome, but please arrive on time as seating is
limited.

Date: Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Location: Graham House at Green College, 6201 Cecil Green Park Road
Cost: Free

Chris Hutchinson is the author of two books, Unfamiliar Weather
(Muses' Company 2005) and Other People's Lives (Brick Books 2009), and
three chapbooks of poetry, including his most recent limited edition
publication, Not Unlike (Okanagan College, Ryga Chapbook Series 2010).
His poetry is characterized by “daring honesty, close observation, and
humanity, executed with exhilarating verve and humour”. His work has
been translated into Chinese and has appeared in numerous Canadian and
U.S. publications. His third collection, A Brief History of the
Short-Lived is near completion and a collection of post-millennial-malaise-
inspired short stories is rumoured to be in the works.

Jay MillAr is a Toronto poet, editor, publisher, and virtual
bookseller. He is the author of False Maps for Other Creatures (2005),
Mycological Studies (2002), and The Ghosts of Jay MillAr (2000). His
most recent collection is the small blue (Fall 2007). Millar is the
shadowy figure behind BookThug, an independent publishing house
dedicated to cutting edge work by well-known and emerging North
American writers, as well as Apollinaire's Bookshoppe, a virtual
bookstore that specializes in the books that no one wants to buy. He
is the co-editor (with Mark Truscott) of BafterC, a small magazine of
contemporary writing. Singled out in the introduction of The New Canon
as a 'young firebrand' (which he reads as 'troublemaker') working
against what people hold dear to the Canadian poetic tradition, Jay is
one of Canada's voices of authority and risk on innovative,
experimental, contemporary poetry.

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.

Award-Winning Poets Philip Kevin Paul And Jeramy Dodds Read At UBC Green College

VANCOUVER —Play Chthonics opens the New Year with readings by two
stellar poets: Philip Kevin Paul and Jeramy Dodds. Join us for an
evening of storyful artistry, abundant wit, and glittering
conversation. (All are welcome, but please arrive on time as seating
is limited.)

Date: Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Location: Graham House at Green College, 6201 Cecil Green Park Road
Cost: Free

Philip Kevin Paul is a member of the WSÁ,NEC Nation from the Saanich
Peninsula on Vancouver Island. His work has been published in BC
Studies, Literary Review of Canada, Breathing Fire: Canada’s New Poets
and An Anthology of Canadian Native Literature in English. Paul has
worked with the University of Victoria's linguistics department to
ensure the preservation of the SENCOTEN language.

Philip Kevin Paul’s second book of poetry, Little Hunger (2008), was
shortlisted for a 2009 Governor General’s Literary Award. His first
book of poetry, Taking the Names Down from the Hill, won the 2004
Dorothy Livesay Award for Poetry.

Jeramy Dodds lives in Orono, Ontario. His poems have been translated
into Finnish, French, Latvian, Swedish, German and Icelandic. In 2007
he held a residency at the Baltic Centre for Writers and Translators
on the island of Götland, Sweden. He is the winner of the 2006 Bronwen
Wallace Memorial Award and the 2007 CBC Literary Award in poetry. He
works as a research archaeologist. His debut poetry collection,
Crabwise to the Hounds (Coach House Books, 2008), received the 2009
Trillium Book Award for Poetry, and was shortlisted for both the 2009
Gerald Lampert Award and the 2009 Griffin Poetry Prize.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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/

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.

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.

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.

Susan Holbrook and Mari-Lou Rowley this Wednesday at 4pm

Play Chthonics: Contemporary Canadian Readings presents
Mari-Lou Rowley & Susan Holbrook
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Green College, Graham House 4 pm

Please join us for a poetry reading and conversation with poets Mari-Lou Rowley & Susan Holbrook in the parlour of the Graham House at UBC’s Green College.

Mari-Lou Rowley has published six collections of poetry, most recently CosmoSonnets (JackPine 2007) and Viral Suite (Anvil Press 2004), and her work has appeared in journals anthologies in Canada and the US. A Globe and Mail critic called her work a place where “the subatomic world is a model of spiritual grace.” Uptown Magazine called her poems “haunting” pieces that are sometimes “horrific” in their articulation of nature fighting back.

Susan Holbrook is a poet and fiction writer whose first book, misled (1999) was short listed for the Pat Lowther Memorial Award and the Stephen J. Stephensson Award. Her long poem chapbook, Good Egg, Bad Seed, was released in the Spring of 2004. One critic called the poems in this chapbook, “a ping pong game you’ll never forget – where the tables keep flipping and players’ ironic bats spin the banal into deadly mischievous curves.” Holbrook teaches English at the University of Windsor.

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.

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.

Clint Burnham, Aaron Peck and Rishma Dunlop Read on November 12

Play Chthonics: Contemporary Canadian Readings presents

Clint Burnham, Aaron Peck and Rishma Dunlop
Wednesday November 12, 2008
Green College, Graham House 7:30 pm

Clint Burnham's Rental Van is "populated with tangled, pop-littered phrases, a work that is constantly challenging its readers" (Danforth Review)
"a very complex blend of avant garde technique, colloquial vulgarity, and political outrage" (Think Again).


Aaron Peck's first novel: "Bernard Willis was an archivist at work in a residency at Gibraltar Point Centre for the Arts when he mysteriously disappeared. Two unnamed people, lovers, find Willis's manuscript-in-progress and decide to prepare it for publication."


The Toronto Star says about Rishma Dunlop: "Her phrasing can spur leaps of the heart; she's a writer whose passion and large-spiritedness are inspiring." Dunlop "seduc[es] us with a relentless passion for the intangible beauty wrought visible in objects cathected with reverence and desire." - West Coast Line





Clint Burnham's most recent book of poems is Rental Van (Anvil, 2007). He is the author of several other books including the novel Smoke Show (Arsenal Pulp, 2005, shortlisted for the BC Book Prize), Airborne Photo (Anvil, 1999) and The Jamesonian Unconscious (Duke UP, 1995). Burnham taught at UBC from 1996-2002 and currently teaches in Simon Fraser University's English Department and is a freelance art critic for the Vancouver Sun.

Aaron Peck's first novel is The Bewilderments of Bernard Willis (Pedlar Press, 2008). He is also the author of a chapbook, Crepuscule on Mission Street (Nomados, 2006) and of numerous reviews and articles (most recently in Fillip and Canadian Art). He is the co-editor of Doppelganger, an online journal of critical writing on visual art and literature, and has served on the board of directors at Artspeak. Peck holds an MA in English from York University and currently lives in Vancouver.

Rishma Dunlop is an award winning Canadian poet, playwright, essayist, and fiction writer. Her books of poetry are: White Album (Inanna Publications 2008), Metropolis (Mansfield Press, 2005), Reading Like a Girl (Black Moss Press, 2004), and The Body of My Garden (Mansfield Press, 2002). She received the Emily Dickinson Prize for Poetry in 2003, and her radio drama, "The Raj Kumari's Lullaby," was produced by CBC Radio in 2005. She is a professor in the Department of English at York University, Toronto, where she is Coordinator of the Creative Writing Program. She is founding editor of the international poetry journal Studio.

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.

Christine Stewart and Christian Bok this Wednesday!

Play Chthonics Contemporary Canadian Reading Series presents:

Christian Bök and Christine Stewart

Wednesday October 22 at 7:30pm.

Coach House, Green College, 6201 Cecil Green Park Road, UBC.

Christine Stewart is the author of Pessoa’s July: or the months of astonishments (Nomados, 2006), From Taxonomy (West House, 2003, selections were awarded the Gertrude Stein Award in Innovative Poetry), and Daddy Clean Head (Lumpe, 2000). Her poetry has also appeared in numerous journals including, ecopoetics,Raddle Moon,how2, The Gig, Writing and Big Alice. She currently writes and teaches experimental poetry and poetics in the English and Film Department at the University of Alberta.

Christian Bök is the author of the bestselling experimental work, Eunoia (Coach House, 2001), which won the Griffin Prize for Poetic Excellence. His previous book, Crystallography (Coach House, 1994) was nominated for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. Bök has created artificial languages for two television shows, Gene Roddenberry’s Earth: Final Conflict and Peter Benchley’s Amazon, and has earned accolades for his performances of sound poetry (particularly the Ursonate by Kurt Schwitters). His conceptual artworks have appeared at the Marianne Boesky Gallery in New York as part of the exhibit Poetry Plastique. Bök is a Professor of English at the University of Calgary.

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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.

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.

Don't miss the first reading of the season, September 24!

Play Chthonics: Contemporary Canadian Readings presents
poets Margaret Christakos and Nathalie Stephens

September 24, 2008
Green College Coach House

Doors open 7pm
Reading begins at 7:30
Cash Bar

Margaret Christakos is the author of six books and a novel, including Sooner (Coach House, 2005, nominated for the Pat Lowther Memorial Award), Excessive Love Prostheses (Coach House, 2002, winner of the ReLit Award), and Charisma (Pedlar, 2000, shortlisted for the Trillium Book Award). A new collection of poetry, What Stirs is forthcoming from Coach House this year. Christakos was Canada Council Writer in Residence at the University of Windsor on 2004-2005. She lives in Toronto where she has taught Creative Writing at the Ontario College of Art and Design (York University), with Writers in Electronic Residence, and at the University of Toronto.

Nathalie Stephens (Nathanaël) writes l'entre-genre in English and French. Recent works include The Sorrow and the Fast of It (2007), Paper City (2003), Je Nathanaël (2003 / 2006), L'Injure (2004), and the imminent essay of correspondence, Absence Where As (Claude Cahun and the Unopened Book), (2009). Translated into Basque and Slovene, with book-length translations in Bulgarian, Stephens has herself translated Édouard Glissant, Catherine Mavrikakis, and Gail Scott. Of late, she has been studying rooftops in
Chicago.


Play Chthonics is a reading series that showcases innovative Canadian poetry, narrative, and cross-genre experimental writing. It is designed to foreground creative, interdisciplinary conversations between students and faculty of multiple departments, while bridging current gaps between UBC and the wider community of writers, theorists, and the general public in Vancouver. We host joint readings that encourage conversations between writers and audience members at a moderated discussion following each reading. Play Chthonics pairs writers whose work speaks to one another in order to promote lively discussion about poetics, translation, media, identity, environment, globalization, textuality, performance, narrativity, and sound. The series is very grateful for funding and support from Green College, The Canada Council, Canadian Studies at UBC and the UBC English Department.

Aaron Kunin

Late Breaking News!

Play Chthonics Reading Series hosts poet Aaron Kunin * this week! *

When: Thursday April 10, 8 PM
Where: Spartacus Books, 319 West Hastings, 2nd floor

Aaron Kunin is a poet, critic, and novelist. He is the author of Folding Ruler Star (Fence Books, 2005), a collection of small poems about shame. The Mandarin, a novel, is forthcoming in April. He lives in California and is assistant professor of negative anthropology at Pomona College.

Kunin will also give a talk April 10 at UBC: Buchanan Tower, Room 599, 3:30

Jacqueline Waters writes of Folding Ruler Star:

“With alarmed intelligence, Folding Ruler Star exposes the violence of an expectant look and synthesizes the organic and the robotic, then unzips them just as machines unzip/concrete dividers/on the highway.”

You can read some of his poems here:
http://www.bostonreview.net/BR28.1/sampler.html

You can download some work here:
http://www.ubu.com/ubu/kunin_mauberley.html

You can read a review of Folding Ruler Star here:
http://jacketmagazine.com/28/gordon-r-kunin.html

You can read an interview on the “Here Comes Everybody” blog here:
http://herecomeseverybody.blogspot.com/2004/10/aaron-kunin-is-poet-critic-and.html

Souvankham Thammavongsa and Garry Gottfriedson

For the final reading in our 2007-2008 series, Play Chthonics Reading Series will host writers Souvankham Thammavongsa and Garry Gottfriedson. Please join us!

When: March 18, 2008 at 7:30 PM.
Cash bar at 7:00 PM.

Where: Coach House, Green College, 6201 Cecil Green Park Road, UBC.

Map: http://www.maps.ubc.ca/PROD/index_detail.php?show=y,n,n,n,n,y&bldg2Search=n&locat1=412

Souvankham Thammavongsa was born in 1978, in Nong Khai, Thailand. She is the author of Small Arguments (Pedlar Press 2003); the poems in Small Arguments were first self published over a series of handmade chapbooks. Her work has garnered praise for its "quiet, beautiful, jeweler's-eye lyrics" and has won the national Relit prize for poetry. Her chapbook Residual (greenboathouse 2006) and book Found (Pedlar Press 2007) follow this award-winning debut. Thammavongsa has presented her poems at the Emily Carr Institute, Mercer Union, and Harbor Front's Premiere Dance Theatre.

Garry Gottfriedson, a member of the Secwepemc First Nation, lives in Kamloops, B.C. He is a self-employed rancher with a Masters degree in Education from Simon Fraser University. His published works include Cowboy and Indian Heritage Poems (Ronsdale Press 2006), In Honor of Our Grandmothers: Imprints of Cultural Survival (Theytus Books 1994), 100 Years of Contact (Secwepemc Cultural Education Society 1990), Glass Tepee (Thistledown Press 2002), which was nominated for a First People's Publishing Award in 2004, and Painted Pony (Partners in Publishing 2005), his first children's story. He has read from his work across North America and Europe, and in Taiwan.

Play Chthonics reading series showcases innovative poetry, narrative, and cross-genre writing. We encourage creative, interdisciplinary conversations between writers, students, faculty, theorists, and community members in Vancouver. The series is based in the English Department at UBC.

We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Green College, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Institute for Canadian Studies at UBC, and the Department of English at UBC.