ARTS
& ENTERTAINMENTJohn Lent, English Department
Okanagan University College, North Kelowna
P R E S S R E L E A S E
PUBLIC READINGS BY P. K. PAGE
Internationally renowned
poet and visual artist, P.K. Page, will be giving a series of public readings
at Okanagan University College on March 13th, 14th and 15th. She will
read at the North Kelowna Campus at 4:00pm on Tuesday, March 13th in Room
A103; at the Vernon Campus on Wednesday, March 14th, at 7:00pm in The
Lecture Theatre, and at the Salmon Arm Centre on Thursday, March 15th
at 7:00pm. These readings are free and open to the public and are sponsored
by The English Department of Okanagan University College and The Canada
Council.
"There isn’t a poet writing in Canada today who has not been influenced, directly or indirectly, by the writing of P.K. Page," says John Lent, longtime Creative Writing instructor at OUC. "She really is, in some ways, incomparable. It’s a great honor to have her come here to read. If you get to one public reading this year, make sure it’s this one."
P.K. Page began to have her poetry first published in British and Canadian journals in the 1930s, and she has continued to write, publish and win awards over the past eight decades. She won The Governor General’s Award for Poetry in 1954, and has received honorary doctorates from The University Of Victoria, The University Of Calgary, The University of Guelph, and Simon Fraser University. Her work has also received The Oscar Blumenthal Award for poetry (1944), the National Magazine Award (1985), The Canadian Author’s Association Literary Award (1986), the Hubert Evans Prize, BC Book Awards (1988), The Banff Centre Of The Arts National Award (1989), and The Order Of Canada (1977). Her life and work was the subject of the NFB film, "Still Waters," and a special issue of The Malahat Review in 1996.
Some of her books are The Metal And The Flower (1954), Cry Ararat! (1967), Evening Dance of the Grey Flies (1981), The Glass Air (1991), Brazilian Journal (1987), and The Hidden Room (1998).
-30-
Contact: John Lent, Department of English
Okanagan University College, North Kelowna
(250) 762 5445, Local 7359 (office)
(250) 542 1785 (home)
http://www.library.utoronto.ca/canpoetry
Lent Fraser Wall Trio
Sun
Review PhotoDescribed as tighter than the Three Musketeers this Okanagan group is set for recognition by a much wider audience. Recently covered extensively but The Sun Review and The Morning Star, Lent Fraser and Wall have developed an intensely loyal following. Before long requests for appearances could take them farther a field as they are a truly unique Canadian asset.
LOCAL AUTHOR LAUNCHES BOOK OF FICTION
Local Vernon writer, Steven Lattey, has just had his book, Aphid & The Shadow Drinkers, released nationally by Thistledown Press. . Lattey was born and raised in Vernon, spent some years down at the coast and up in Prince George, then returned to Vernon ten years ago to write and to grow and market medicinal herbs. Aphid & The Shadow Drinkers is a collection of short stories set in a small Okanagan City and concerned with an almost mythic sense of the city's people, landscape and history. As Lattey's publicist says, "This is truly a new voice in Canadian writing: there is something of Kafka, something of Rabelais, something of H.P. Lovecraft at work here." Lattey studied Creative Writing at Simon Fraser University with Robin Blaser, where he was exposed to and influenced by the West Coast literary community. Upon returning to Vernon, Lattey became involved with The Kalamalka New Writers Society and helped produce three of their books. This should be a great reading and launching, celebrating one of our own.