Hard on the heels of a remarkable academic career, William H. New turned his hand to writing poetry. Reviewing his recent collection Touching Ecuador, Hannah Main-Van der Kamp wrote, "For those who have been to South America and the Galapagos and for those who dream of going, Bill New's book is almost as good as the journey"
Don't miss New's reading at the Sunshine Coast Arts Centre in Sechelt, Friday, March 9, at 8 p.m. Admission is free courtesy of the Canada Council for the Arts and the literary committee of the Sunshine Coast Arts Council (SCAC). The SCAC gratefully accepts donations in support of its events and programs.
New is University Kil-lam professor emeritus from UBC; he retired from UBC in 2003, where he taught English and Canadian studies, specializing in post-colonial literatures, and where (for 18 years) he edited the critical quarterly Canadian Literature.Author of the seminal text Articulating West, an examination of form and purpose in Canadian writing, he is also editor of many anthologies of poetry and prose. His Encyclopedia of Literature in Canada appeared from the University of Toronto Press in 2002.
He has won several prizes for his teaching and scholarship, including the Gabrielle Roy Prize (1989), the Governor General's Award for International Canadian Studies (2004) and the Lorne Pierce Medal (2004).
New has also turned his playful and eclectic imagination to writing books for children, including the recent Llamas in the Laundry and Dream Helmet. Bill New will read poems from the forthcoming Along a Snake Fence Riding, due out this year, from Touching Ecuador (2006) and from Underwood Log, a finalist for the Governor General's Award in 2005. The judges called Underwood Log "a poem of exploration, as rich as any archaeological dig, a poem of stunning musicality, imagination and intellect."
