West Coast poet, author makes Okanagan appearance as Visiting Author

“Collis is slightly off-step/beat, just out of range of any comfortable assumption, and a good shuffle away from clear understanding.”
– Prairie Fire Review of Books, on Stephen Collis’s novel, The Red Album

“This is a moving and also a challenging book, precisely because it confronts this enduring imperative: ‘We must see again what ways we can be together.’ ”
– David Chariandy, author, on Stephen Collis’s novel, The Red Album

Established poet, author and critic Stephen Collis will present a reading of his work this month as part of UBC’s Visiting Author series.

Collis will be at the Okanagan Regional Library, 1378 Ellis St., on Monday, November 18, at 7 p.m.

Collis is a poet and professor of contemporary literature at Simon Fraser University. In September Coach House Books published DECOMP, a collaborative photo-essay and long poem written with Jordan Scott.

His many books of poetry include The Commons (Talon Books 2008), On the Material (Talon Books 2010 – awarded the BC Book Prize for Poetry), and To the Barricades (Talon Books 2013).

He has also written two books of criticism and a novel, The Red Album (BookThug 2013). His collection of essays on the Occupy movement, Dispatches from the Occupation (Talon Books 2012), is a philosophical meditation on activist tactics, social movements, and change.

Collis lives in Tsawwassen, part of the Coast Salish Territories.

The Visiting Author series is sponsored by the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies, UBC Okanagan campus Bookstore, Okanagan Regional Library, and the Canada Council for the Arts.

There are more Visiting Author evenings planned for 2014 featuring acclaimed Canadian authors and poets. These include:
- Wednesday, January 15 – Camille Martin, noted Canadian poet and collage artist, and author of four volumes of poetry;
- Wednesday, January 22 – Don McKay, lauded as Canada’s foremost eco-poet and author. McKay is the 2007 winner of the prestigious Griffin Poetry Prize, has won two Governor General Literary Awards for Poetry and is co-founder of Brick Books;
- Tuesday, February 11 – Mariko Tamaki, award-winning Canadian artist and writer who has produced several works of both traditional written fiction and non-fiction.
- Wednesday, April 2 – Sheila Heti, critically acclaimed Canadian writer and editor who has authored five books and who will service as Writer in Residence at UBC’s Okanagan campus.

News from © iNFOnews, 2013