UBC Home Page -
UBC Home Page -
UBC Home Page UBC Home Page -
-
-
News Events Directories Search UBC myUBC Login
-
- -
Robson Reading Series Events

Free readings from Canada's finest writers


For seven years the Robson Reading Series has been bringing people together for a common purpose: the broadening of minds. In that spirit of discovery, the UBC Bookstore and UBC Library at Robson Square are pleased to present a unique selection of writers, with a particular emphasis on authors who expand our knowledge of writing through their distinct approaches to style, subject, and form. As a university, a centre for learning, it is our intention to foster our next generation of writers, giving them a place to reach out to the community, while making a space for sharing, learning, and growth. We offer this free series to challenge our understanding of Canadian literature, and to expose us to fresh ideas from some of the country's finest writers.

The Robson Reading Series also presents monthly afternoon readings at the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre on the main Point Grey campus on Vancouver's West Side. Coming up next: November 26, 2-3pm: Jean Barman.



The Robson Reading Series wishes to thank its funders:




and the generous support of its event sponsors:






Welcome back to the launch of our Fall Season 2009


David Zieroth and Marguerite Pigeon
with a special introduction by Vancouver's Poet Laureate Brad Cran

Thursday September 10th, 2009, 7pm
UBC Library/Bookstore at Robson Square


David Zieroth


The Fly in Autum, David Zieroth's eighth poetry collection, is a nuanced work that constantly shifts between the inane and the macabre, between black humour and self-mockery. There is an absurdist twist to this collection in which the landscapes are sometimes recognizably our own but often, eerily irrevocably altered by water-light. From North Vancouver sleet and fog to palominos and Baghdad, from the inevitability of death to the cockiness of flight, from Dick and Jane readers to insurance clerks, The Fly in Autumn willingly, knowingly, risks the reader's unease by going beyond the usual contemporary mode into language that is both penetrating and tender.


Marguerite Pigeon

Inventory is a collection of 58 object poems. Taking as a starting point the reciprocal relation between subjects and objects, Marguerite Pigeon explores the unique way that objects appear in an individual consciousness. Each object in this inventory exists on its own and also reflects the author's experience, from the mundane stapler and tea bag, to the mysterious, extinct dodo bird, to entities that blur the line between person and thing. In this way, the collection highlights the often hidden dimensions of the objects we encounter, including their temporal, political, locational and psychic aspects. It offers an opportunity for readers to reconsider their own investments in what, by dictionary definition, should be static categories.

Marguerite Pigeon appears courtesy of The Canada Council of the Arts through The Writers' Union of Canada.





back to toptop

Robson Reading Series at the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre
presents

Rita Wong

Thursday September 24th, 2009, 1:00-2:00pm
Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, Room 301
Point Grey Campus, 1961 East Mall


Forage

Rita Wong is the author of three books: Sybil Unrest (co-authored with Larissa Lai, LINEbooks, 2008), forage (Nightwood Editions, 2007), and monkeypuzzle (Press Gang, 1998). Her poems have appeared in numerous anthologies including Prismatic Publics: Innovative Canadian Women's Poetry and Poetics, A Verse Map of Vancouver, RockSalt: An Anthology of Contemporary BC Poetry, and Making a Difference: Canadian Multicultural Literature. Wong received the 2008 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize and the Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop Emerging Writer Award and was a finalist for the 2008 Asian American Literary Award. An assistant professor at Emily Carr, she is currently researching the poetics of water.


The Robson Reading Series is proud to partner with the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre on the Point Grey campus on Vancouver's West Side to present a series of monthly afternoon readings. All events are free and open to the public.



Robson Reading Series at Robson Square
presents

David Chariandy and Ameen Merchant

Thursday September 24th, 2009, 7pm
UBC Library/Bookstore at Robson Square


Soucouyant

David Chariandy's first novel, Soucouyant (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2007), is titled after an evil spirit of Caribbean folklore, which within the novel evolves as a symbol of the unspoken past that haunts a mother with dementia and her Canadian-born son. The novel was nominated for several prizes and awards, including the International IMPAC Dublin Award, the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Governor General's Award, a Commonwealth Best First Book Prize, the ReLit Award, the City of Toronto Book Award, the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, and the Amazon/Books in Canada First Novel Award. David's second novel, Brother, is forthcoming from McClelland & Stewart. David lives in Vancouver and teaches in the Department of English at Simon Fraser University.


The Silent Raga

Ameen Merchant was born in Bombay and raised in Madras, India. His first novel, The Silent Raga (Douglas&McIntyre, 2007) was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book. It follows the stories of two sisters from a middle-class Tamil Brahmin family. In confident prose that resembles the rhythms and progression of an Indian raga, Ameen captures in rich detail the world of these Brahmin women, a world restricted by caste and cultural rules but also wrested apart by decisions which eschew tradition and set the tabloids on fire. Ameen now lives in Vancouver, where he is working on his next novel and programming a new Bollywood audio channel for the CBC.


back to toptop

Rachel Rose in conjunction with the Robson Reading Series presents
Cross Border Pollination - an evening of readings and discussion
with authors from the U.S. and Canada


featuring Nancy Mauro, Brenda Miller, Peter Pereira, and Shannon Stewart



Friday October 9th, 2009, 7pm
UBC Library/Bookstore at Robson Square


New World Monkeys

Nancy Mauro's debut novel, New World Monkeys (Shaye Areheart Books, Sept. 2009), is one of the most highly anticipated titles on Crown's fall list. Publisher's Weekly named it "a galley to grab" at this year's Book Expo America. Nancy has worked as a creative director and copywriter in both Canada and the U.S. and is a recent Fellow and graduate of the MFA program at UBC. Nancy's fiction and non-fiction have appeared in several literary magazines, newspapers, and anthologies and her work has been recognized by the Canada Council for the Arts. She lives in New York City and is currently at work on her second novel.


Blessings of the Animals

Brenda Miller is the author of Season of the Body (Sarabande Books, 2002) which was a finalist for the PEN American Center Book Award in Creative Nonfiction, and Blessing of the Animals (Eastern Washington University Press, 2009). She has received five Pushcart Prizes, and her work has appeared in numerous literary journals, including Fourth Genre, Creative Nonfiction, The Sun, Utne Reader, The Georgia Review, and Witness. She co-authored, with Suzanne Paola, the textbook Tell it Slant: Writing and Shaping Creative Nonfiction (McGraw-Hill, 2004), and she serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Bellingham Review.


What's Written on the Body

Peter Pereira is a family physician in Seattle, and was a founding editor of Floating Bridge Press. His poems have appeared in Poetry, Prairie Schooner, New England Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, Journal of the American Medical Association, and have been anthologized in 180 More: Extraordinary Poems for Everyday, and the 2007 Best American Poetry. They have also been featured online at "Verse Daily" and "Poetry Daily", as well as on National Public Radio's "The Writer's Almanac". His books include The Lost Twin (Grey Spider 2000), Saying the World (Copper Canyon, 2003) and most recently What's Written on the Body (Copper Canyon 2007), which was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award.

Penny Dreadful

Shannon Stewart's first book, The Canadian Girl (Nightwood Editions, 1998), was a finalist for the Milton Acorn People's Poetry Award and Gerald Lampert Award for Best First Book of Poetry. Her second collection, Penny Dreadful, (Véhicule Press Signal Editions, 2008) contains poetry of great psychological risk-taking that track the missing women of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Shannon holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia. She has been the poetry editor of PRISM international, and was included in Breathing Fire: Canada's New Poets. She lives in Vancouver, BC.



back to toptop


An Evening of Poetry and Short Fiction with Two of Canada's Most Critically Acclaimed Emerging Literary Talents


Chris Hutchinson and Pasha Malla

Monday October 19th, 2009, 7pm
UBC Library/Bookstore at Robson Square



The Withdrawal Method

Pasha Malla burst onto the Canadian literary scene with the publication of his debut short story collection The Withdrawal Method (House of Anansi Press, 2008), which was longlisted for the Giller Prize and won the 2008 Danuta Gleed Literary Award and the 2009 Trillium Book Award. It was also selected as one of the Globe and Mail's Top 100 Books of 2008. Pasha is the author of a book of poems, All our grandfathers are ghosts (Snare Press, 2008), as well as being a regular contributor to McSweeney's. His first novel, People Park, will be published by House of Anansi Press in 2010. Pasha spent the summer of 2009 as the writer-in-residence at the Berton House in Dawson City, Yukon, and is currently on faculty at the University of Toronto and the Banff Centre's Wired Writing Studio. Originally from St.John's, Newfoundland, he now lives in Toronto.


Other People's Lives

With imagination, wit, and scrupulous candour, Chris Hutchinson's poetry negotiates and renegotiates the shifting no-man's-land between self and others, introspection and public life. His second collection of poems Other People's Lives has just been released by Brick Books. Poems from his debut poetry collection, Unfamiliar Weather (The Muses' Company, 2005) have been translated into Chinese and have appeared in numerous Canadian and U.S. publications. Chris was born in Montreal and has lived in Victoria, Edmonton, Vancouver, Tempe, AZ, and most recently Kelowna, BC where he teaches English at Okanagan College.

Chris Hutchinson appears courtesy of The Canada Council of the Arts through
The Writers' Union of Canada.






back to toptop


Robson Reading Series at the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre
presents


Patti Gully

Thursday October 22nd, 2009, 2:00-3:00pm
Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, Room 301
Point Grey Campus, 1961 East Mall


Sisters of Heaven

Patti Gully is the author of the non-fiction work Sisters of Heaven: China's Barnstorming Aviatrixes: Modernity, Feminism, and Popular Imagination in Asia and the West (Long River Press, 2008). In the late 1930s, as the world moved closer to war, three vivacious Chinese women defied gender perceptions by becoming pilots. Driven by a fierce independent spirit, they realized their dream of flying, completed barnstorming goodwill exhibitions across the Western Hemisphere, and captured the imagination of all those whose lives they touched. In a story almost forgotten to history, Patti Gully's exhaustive research delves into the personal lives of these women, uncovering their fascinating personalities, loves, passions, and above all their overwhelming sense of patriotism and duty. In a time when few Chinese women could even drive a car, these aviatrixes used flight as a metaphor for their own freedom as well as a symbol of empowerment.

Patti Gully holds a B.A. from the University of Winnipeg in English, Religious Studies, and Classics, and a Master of Library and Information Studies degree from UBC. In addition to Sisters of Heaven, Gully is the co-author of the two -volume book, Overseas Chinese from the Five Counties and Chinese Aviation History (wu yi huaqiao yu zhongguo hangkong), and has recently completed Time Flies, a biography of the Chinese-American aviator, General Art Lym. She is currently engaged in creating a documentary film of the life of General Lym. Patti Gully lives in Vancouver, BC.


The Robson Reading Series is proud to partner with the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre on the Point Grey campus on Vancouver's West Side to present a series of monthly afternoon readings. All events are free and open to the public.




back to toptop

Celebrate Learning: Readings from The Journey Prize Stories 21


with authors Daniel Griffin, Paul Headrick, Sarah L. Taggart, Yasuko Thanh
and editor Lee Henderson


Thursday October 29th, 2009, 7pm
UBC Library/Bookstore at Robson Square


Journey Prize Stories

As part of UBC's Celebrate Learning Week, please join us for a special reading and discussion from The Journey Prize Stories 21 with contributing authors Daniel Griffin, Paul Headrick, Sarah L. Taggart, Yasuko Thanh, and editor Lee Henderson.

For more than two decades, The Journey Prize Stories has been Canada's most celebrated annual fiction anthology, presenting the best stories published each year by some of the most exciting emerging writers. This year the stories were selected by renowned authors Camilla Gibb, Lee Henderson, and Rebecca Rosenblum.

The stories are contenders for the $10,000 Writers' Trust of Canada/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize for which the winner will be announced in fall 2009.


Contributing Authors:

Daniel Griffin's short stories have appeared in numerous literary magazines across North America. Along with Rachel Rosenblum and Alice Petersen, he was featured in Coming Attractions '08. In addition, his work was published in The Journey Prize Stories in both 2004 and 2009.

Paul Headrick's first novel That Tune Clutches My Heart was short-listed for the 2009 Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. His previous work has been published in numerous journals, including The Malahat Review, The Antigonish Review, and Image. Paul teaches literature and creative writing at Langara College. He lives in Vancouver with his partner, novelist Heather Burt.

Sarah L. Taggart is a graduate of the University of Victoria Writing Program and is now a Master of Publishing candidate at Simon Fraser University. Earlier this year, Sarah's story "Deaf" won The Malahat Review's Jack Hodgins Founders' Award for Fiction. Sarah lives in East Vancouver with her partner, Metal Steve.

Yasuko Thanh has lived in Germany, Mexico, and Central America. Her stories have been published in numerous literary journals, and in addition to fiction, her nonfiction has appeared in publications as diverse as Island Parent Magazine and subTerrain. A finalist for the Hudson Prize, the Millenium Award, and the David Adams Richards Award, she is currently a Masters' Candidate and Academic Assistant at UVic.

Editor:

Lee Henderson's highly anticipated first novel The Man Game was published in 2008 to rave reviews and won the 2009 Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. Henderson's short story collection The Broken Record Technique (Penguin Canada, 2002) won the 2003 Danuta Gleed Literary Award. He has published fiction and art criticism in numerous periodicals and co-organizes "Father Zosima Presents", a monthly night of sound performances in Vancouver.



back to toptop

New BC Poets Series: Poetry - Translations - Interviews - Poetics


Readings from 4 Poets featuring Daniela Elza, Peter Morin, Al Rempel,
and Onjana Yawnghwe



Thursday November 12th, 2009, 7pm
UBC Library/Bookstore at Robson Square


4 Poets

4 Poets, is the first book in a new series by Mother Tongue Publishing which brings emerging and established BC poets together in a fresh format that explores the broader scope of the poet's work. This first collection includes over a dozen new poems by Daniela Elza, Peter Morin, Al Rempel, and Onjana Yawnghwe, as well as writing drafts, interviews, poetics, short biographies and author photographs, and translations of select poems into French, Thai, Bulgarian and Tahltan.





Daniela Elza is a PhD student in Philosophy of Education who poeticizes philosophy and philosophizes poetry, and hopes to bring them both to bear on school reform and cultural ferment: Philo-poesis not just as a practice, a more courteous way of being in the world, but as a vehicle for transforming consciousness. Her work has appeared in numerous publications including The Capilano Review, CV2, Van Gogh's Ear, Vallam, Rocksalt Anthology, A Verse Map of Vancouver, and Poetic Inquiry. To date she has released well over a hundred poems into the world.

Peter Morin is of the Crow clan of the Tahltan Nation of Telegraph Creek, BC. Peter spent 4 years working with the Redwire Native Youth Media Society and Redwire Magazine, as a community educator and advocate for youth, through media, writing, and art. As a visual and performance artist, Peter's work looks deeply into issues of identity, family, and healing. His performance work includes "Team Diversity Bannock, the World's Largest Bannock Attempt", "7 Suits for 7 Days of Colonialism", and "Stop, Drop and Bingo". Peter currently lives and works in Victoria, BC.

Al Rempel is currently a teacher in Prince George, BC where he lives with his wife and daughter. His poems have been published in The Malahat Review and GRAIN; the on-line journals Reflections on Water and stonestone; and anthologized in Rocksalt, Half in the Sun, Forestry Diversification Project, and Down in the Valley.

Although her family is originally from Shan State in Burma, Onjana Yawnghwe was born in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and came to Canada at the age of seven. She grew up in Vancouver and Coquitlam, and received both a Bachelor and Master's degree in English from UBC. She has been published in various literary journals and anthologies, and dabbles occasionally in book design. She is also the co-editor of Xerography, a 6x6 literary journal, and the co-founder of Fish Magic Press, a micropress that specializes in unique, hand-made chapbooks. She currently lives in Burnaby, BC.



Robson Reading Series at the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre
presents


Jean Barman

Thursday November 26th, 2009, 2:00-3:00pm
Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, Room 301
Point Grey Campus, 1961 East Mall


Spirit of the People

Jean Barman's ten books and numerous articles on British Columbian and Aboriginal history have won awards from the Canadian Historical Association, Canadian Committee on the History of Sexuality, Coalition for Western Women's History in the U.S., British Columbia Historical Federation, and the City of Vancouver. Her prize-winning The West beyond the West: A History of British Columbia recently appeared in a third edition. Her latest book, British Columbia: Spirit of the People (Harbour Publishing, 2008), was commissioned by the provincial government to celebrate the 150th birthday of the naming of British Columbia. This masterful work is enhanced by images selected from the province's most talented photographers, including David Nunuk, Chris Cheadle, and Vance Hannah. Jean is professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. She lives in Vancouver, BC.



back to toptop

Robson Reading Series at Robson Square
presents

Sonja Greckol and Rebecca Hendry

Thursday November 26th, 2009, 7pm
UBC Library/Bookstore at Robson Square


Gravity Matters

"A gorgeous, intelligent churner of a debut," writes Margaret Christakos of Sonja Greckol's first collection of poetry, Gravity Matters, launched from Inanna Publications in April 2009. Sonja's previous work has appeared in Literary Review of Canada, Canadian Literature, Dalhousie Review, CV2, Canadian Women's Studies, The Fiddlehead, and Matrix. She coordinates poetry for Women and Environments International Magazine. She has taught college and university, studied order and disorder in jokes, done human rights and gender-based research and consulting, and does local activism while she writes. Her long poem, "Emilie Explains Newton to Voltaire", was short-listed for the CBC Poetry Prize in 2008. Newspaper headlines spin on their heads in her next poetry project, Skin of the Day. Sonja lives in Toronto. ON.


Grace River

Rebecca Hendry was born in Ottawa and grew up in Brockville, Vancouver, Peterborough, Montreal, and Yellowknife before settling on the Sunshine Coast at age eleven. Her fiction writing has appeared in the Windsor Review, Dalhousie Review, Artistry, Wascana Review, Event, paperplates, and Room of One's Own. Rebecca's short story "The Woman Across the Way" was longlisted for the 2005 Writers' Union of Canada short prose competition and her short story "Jesse Beautiful" was nominated for the 2003 Journey Prize. Her debut novel, Grace River (Brindle & Glass, Feb. 2009), is set in a tight-knit smelter town in the interior of British Columbia. It is a powerful and courageous story told from the perspective of four friends which explores the reasons why people continue to stay in harmful situations and asks us to think about the damage we all do, not only to the environment, but also to the ones we love the most. Rebecca has worked in film, theatre and on music videos, and has taught creative writing to children. She lives in Roberts Creek, BC.



back to toptop


Coming Soon to the Robson Reading Series:

December 10, 7pm at the UBC Library/Bookstore Robson Square: Hope in Shadows Anthology: 2010 Calendar sale and readings by Helen Hill, Tom Quirk, Russ Zillman, and more.

January 14, 2010, 2-3pm at the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre: Ian Ferguson.

January 14, 2010, 7pm at the UBC Library/Bookstore Robson Square: Ian Ferguson and Mark Leiren-Young.

January 28, 2010, 7pm at the UBC Library/Bookstore Robson Square: Billeh Nickerson and Craig Boyko.

March 25, 2010, 7pm at the UBC Library/Bookstore Robson Square: Nairne Holtz.

back to toptop



Library Contact: AMM Last Updated: 14-Nov-2009

© The University of British Columbia Library, 2009   (Library Web Server 4.0)