George Bowering, Canada's first poet laureate, will read in Sechelt on Oct. 30.
Bowering has been a leading figure in Canadian Literature since the days of Tish magazine in the '60s, when a small group of young poets at the University of British Columbia set out to change Canadian poetry - and did.
Equally innovative in other genres, Bowering was a leader in the movement to post-realist, post-modern fiction. His award-winning novel, Burning Water, for example, is a highly comic, deeply serious exploration of our history through the voyage of Captain George Vancouver, and Bowering's critical writings have influenced a generation of younger writers.
His more than 80 books include poetry, fiction, drama, criticism, biography and history. His achievements have been have been recognized with the most prestigious awards and honours, including Governor General's awards for both poetry (Rocky Mountain Foot and Gangs of Kosmos, 1969) and fiction (Burning Water, 1980), and he has been inducted into the Order of Canada (2002) and the Order of British Columbia (2004).
Bowering will read from his new book of short stories, The Box, which confirms that here is a poet laureate as much at home on a baseball diamond as in the study, and from the book he has just co-edited with his wife, Jean Baird, The Heart Does Break: Canadian Writers on Grief and Mourning, a sensitively presented gathering of deeply moving reflections on dealing with death and personal loss. Baird, an English professor and former magazine publisher, will join George in the presentation and discussion of this book.
The reading takes place at 8 p.m. at the Sunshine Coast Arts Centre in Sechelt as part of the Arts Council's fall reading series. Admission is free.
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