The Writer and Responsibility
A panel moderated by Trevor Carolan and featuring Gary Geddes, Stephen Henighan, Walter Hildbrandt, Rhona McAdam and Hans Plomp.
Social and political critique marks the work of many of our finest contemporary writers. Join moderator Trevor Carolan and these distinguished panelists in exploring how the writer invigorates his or her material for a public audience. How does the socially-engaged writer help shape a new vision of what can be? Can cultural responsibility become a burden for the literary artist?
At the Festival Extravaganza and Literary Marketplace
St. John Hall, Church of St John the Divine, 1611 Quadra St. (enter Balmoral side)
11:00 am - 12:30 pm
Festival admission: $5.00. Doors open at 10:00 am.
Trevor Carolan
Born
in Yorkshire, Trevor Carolan emigrated as a boy to British Columbia and was
raised in the family building trade in New Westminster. He began writing for
the city newspaper at age 17. After travelling Europe and India for three years
he completed a M.A. in English at Humboldt State in California. He later worked
in Alberta with the 15th Olympic Winter Games. He has published 13 books of
poetry, fiction, translation, memoir, and anthologies. Active in Pacific Coast
watershed issues, aboriginal land claims, and Asia-Pacific human rights campaigns,
he served three years as elected municipal councillor for North Vancouver, then
as a political columnist. He earned an interdisciplinary PhD from Bond University
in Queensland, Australia in 2007, and now teaches English at University of the
Fraser Valley in Abbotsford, B.C. beneath Kul-Shan, Mount Baker.Gary Geddes
Gary
Geddes has written and edited over thirty-five books, including seventeen books
of poetry, as well as fiction, non-fiction, drama, translation, criticism and
anthologies. His work has been translated into five languages. Geddes is known
as one of Canada’s best political poets, having been singled out for this
honour by literary critic George Woodcock in the late 1960s, whose claim graced
the back cover of many of Geddes’ books. Geddes has explored human rights
issues in places such as Chile during its dictatorship, in Nicaragua during
its civil war, and in Palestine and Israel after the Oslo peace accord. Currently
he lives on Vancouver Island, dividing his time between Victoria and French
Beach.Stephen Henighan
Stephen
Henighan is the author of three novels, three short story collections and four
books of essays and travel memoirs. His short stories have been published in
more than 30 magazines and anthologies. He is a columnist for Geist
magazine.Walter Hildebrandt
Born
in Brooks, Alberta, Walter Hildebrandt is known as both a poet and historian.
A consultant on Aboriginal treaties, he is co-author of The True Spirit
and Original Intent of Treaty 7 and The Cypress Hills: The Land and Its People,
and author of Views From Battleford: Constructed Visions of an Anglo-Canadian
West. Finding Louis O’Soup, his fourth book of poetry, was
published in 2008. His previous volume, Where the Land Gets Broken,
received the Stephen G. Stephensson Award for Poetry in 2005. Director of the
Athabasca University Press, Walter Hildebrandt currently resides in Edmonton.
Rhona McAdam
Rhona
McAdam studied in Edmonton during the 1980s where she witnessed the birth of
the Writers Guild of Alberta. She returned to Victoria in 2002 after living
in England for 13 years, during which she immersed herself in the poetry world
of London. She spent 2007 in Italy studying food culture at Parma, Italy. Her
fifth and most recent poetry collection is Cartography (Oolichan).Janet Marie Rogers
A
Mohawk writer from the Six Nations territory in southern Ontario, Janet was
born in Vancouver British Columbia January 29th 1963. She began her creative
career as a visual artist, and started writing in 1996. She continues to stretch
her abilities as a writer working and studying in the genres of poetry, short
fiction, science fiction, play writing, spoken word performance poetry and video
poetry. Her literary passions are her native heritage, feminism, historical
territories, human love, sexuality and spirit. Janet receives many invitations
to share her performance poetry all over North America. Her first book, Splitting
the Heart, was published in 2007. Check out www.janetmarierogers.com/HOME | ABOUT | PRESENTERS | PERFORMANCES | WORKSHOPS | EXHIBITORS
SCHEDULES | SPONSORS | VOLUNTEERS | CONTACT US
copyright 2007 Victoria Arts Connection Multidiscipline Society- all rights reserved