Video, Past Event, Arts & Culture
Too True: The Poetry of Elizabeth Bachinsky, Marita Dachsel, Amber Dawn and Jennica Harper
Acclaimed BC poets, Elizabeth Bachinsky, Marita Dachsel, Amber Dawn, and Jennica Harper read from their most recent books and engaged in a discussion about the nature of truth in poetry, mining biography and autobiography in their works, and whether or not it is possible to be too true.
Speaker Bios
Elizabeth Bachinsky is the author of five collections of poetry: Curio, Home of Sudden Service, God of Missed Connections, I Don’t Feel so Good, and The Hottest Summer in Recorded History. Her poetry has been nominated for awards including the Pat Lowther Award, The Kobzar Literary Award, The George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature, the Governor General's Award for Poetry and the Bronwen Wallace Award, and has appeared in literary journals, anthologies and on film around the world. She was born in Regina, raised in Prince George and Maple Ridge B.C., and now lives in Vancouver where she is an instructor of creative writing and the Editor of EVENT magazine.
Marita Dachsel is the author of Glossolalia , Eliza Roxcy Snow, and All Things Said & Done. Her poetry has been shortlisted for the Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry and the ReLit Prize and has appeared in many literary journals and anthologies, including Best Canadian Poetry in English, 2011. Her play Initiation Trilogy was produced by Electric Company Theatre, was featured at the 2012 Vancouver International Writers Fest, and was nominated for the Jessie Richardson Award for Outstanding New Script. She is the Artist in Residence at UVic’s Centre for Studies in Religion and Society. After many years in Vancouver and Edmonton, she and her family now live in Victoria.
Amber Dawn is a writer from Vancouver, Canada. Author of Lambda Award-winning novel Sub Rosa and editor of the anthologies Fist of the Spider Women: Fear and Queer Desire and With A Rough Tongue: Femmes Write Porn. Until August 2012, she was director of programming for the Vancouver Queer Film Festival. Amber Dawn was the 2012 winner of the Writers’ Trust of Canada Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBT writers. She currently teaches Speculative Fiction writing at Douglas College.
Jennica Harper’s most recent book of poetry is Wood. Her previous books are What It Feels Like for a Girl and The Octopus and Other Poems, and she has a poem forthcoming in the anthology I Found It at the Movies. Her long poem “Liner Notes” won a Silver National Magazine Award, and her work has twice been selected for Vancouver’s Poetry in Transit program. Jennica is also a film and TV writer, and most recently wrote on YTV’s teen comedy Mr. Young.
Presented by
SFU's Vancity Office of Community Engagement
