The University of Manitoba is pleased to present an evening of poetry with Jan Zwicky on Wednesday, May 9, 2012, at 7:00 pm in the Pembina Hall Student Lounge (formerly University Club) at the Fort Garry Campus. The event will be hosted by University of Manitoba president David Barnard and will feature poetry readings and dialogue.
President Barnard is an avid lover of poetry who regularly concludes his speeches and presentations with relevant lines of verse from the poems he holds most dear.
Barnard notes: “I first encountered Zwicky’s poetry and later looked at her philosophical work, which is?by her own word?also lyrical. I was attracted by two aspects of the poetry. First, it is beautifully expressed so that the poems compellingly carry the reader into the scenes Zwicky creates. Second, many of those scenes deal with human relationships with such wisdom and gentleness that I find myself moved by her words, and come away from the encounter feeling more deeply committed to demonstrating that wisdom and gentleness myself.”
Zwicky has published six poetry collections including her latest, Forge, which has just been shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize. She has also published widely as an essayist on issues in music, poetry, philosophy, and the environment. Zwicky has also taught creative writing and philosophy at a number of North American universities.
Zwicky’s other poetry collections include: Wittgenstein Elegies (Brick Books, 1986); The New Room (Coach House Press, 1989); Songs for Relinquishing the Earth (Brick, 1998), which won the Governor General’s Award in 1999; Robinson’s Crossing (Brick, 2004) which won the Dorothy Livesay Prize; and Thirty-Seven Small Songs & Thirteen Silences (Gaspereau Press, 2005). Her books of philosophy include: Lyric Philosophy (UTP, 1992; 2nd ed, Gaspereau, 2012); Wisdom & Metaphor (Gaspereau, 2003, 2nd ed, 2008); and Plato as Artist (Gaspereau, 2009). Her poetry has been translated into French, Spanish, Czech, and Serbo-Croatian.
Zwicky has published widely as an essayist on issues in music, poetry, philosophy and the environment. She is also a violinist, with a strong interest in baroque performance practice. Since 1986, she has edited poetry for Brick Books. A native of Alberta, she now lives on Quadra Island, off the west coast of British Columbia.
This is the second “President and the Poet” event. In 2010, Barnard hosted award-winning Irish poet Micheal O’Siadhail at a gala evening that packed Marshall McLuhan Hall.
RSVP to: Jocelyn_Striemer@umanitoba.ca
Parking is available in any student lot or the parkade.
Please call 204-474-9345 for more information.
