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Leading Canadian author Steven Heighton to read

Steven Heighton is one of the most respected figures in Canadian literature. Described by Yann Martel as a “man of letters,” Heighton has written four novels, three books of short fiction, two works of non-fiction and six collections of poetry.
Author Steven Heighton
Author Steven Heighton

Steven Heighton is one of the most respected figures in Canadian literature. Described by Yann Martel as a “man of letters,” Heighton has written four novels, three books of short fiction, two works of non-fiction and six collections of poetry. He is also an active critic, reviewer, translator and teacher.

His first poetry collection received the Gerald Lampert Award for Poetry, and his latest, The Waking Comes Late, won the Governor General’s Award for Poetry in 2016. Two of his works of fiction have been optioned for film.

No less an authority than Al Purdy described Heighton as “one of the best authors of his generation, maybe the best.”

His three later novels depict small communities of people trapped by powerful and hostile forces, natural or political, and pose the question, in the words of reviewer T.F. Rigelhof, as to what “it means to behave responsibly in a world fractured by political and personal responsibilities.”

It is, perhaps, Heighton’s political awareness, together with a recent sense of “sleepwalking through life” that drove him to travel to Greece to assist in the relief offered to refugees from Syria, and his poem, Samos, which describes this atrocious situation, is a finalist for the prestigious Moth Poetry Prize.

Steven Heighton will be reading at the Arts Centre in Sechelt on Saturday, April 6, at 7:30 p.m. The Sunshine Coast Arts Council’s Reading Series is sponsored by the Canada Council for the Arts. Admission is by donation.

– Submitted by Paulette Caillé