Members of University, local communities invited to tap into writer's expertise
BY REBECCA KENDALL
Roo Borson, a Governor General Award-winning poet and essayist, is writer-in-residence at U of G this fall. Her most recent book, Short Journey Upriver Toward Oishida, won the 2004 Governor General's Award for Poetry as well as the 2005 Griffin Poetry Prize and the 2005 Pat Lowther Award. She is also a member of the collaborative performance group Pain Not Bread.
“I know there are a lot of writers here in Guelph, and I hope they'll take the opportunity to come and see me,” says Borson. “Writing is a very technical art, and the interesting thing about literature is that what matters is not, say, a character in a novel, but rather how the mind moves and what the mind is saying.”
She will be on campus two days a week until the end of the semester to consult with U of G students, staff and faculty as well as those in the broader Guelph community who are interested in creative writing. She has previously been a writer-in-residence at the University of Western Ontario, the University of Toronto, Concordia University and the University of British Columbia.
“U of G's writer-in-residence program has been extraordinarily successful at drawing some of Canada's most important writers at the very height of their careers,” says Prof. Daniel O'Quinn, English and Theatre Studies.
“Roo Borson is arguably one of the most important poets working in Canada today. As an internationally recognized poet, she brings a sense of craft and of the ethical responsibility of poetry to everything she does. We are fortunate to have such a distinguished practitioner among us for the next few months.”
Borson holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia and has published nine other books of poetry. She will give a public reading Oct. 17 at 4 p.m. at the George Luscombe Theatre.
To book an appointment with her, call Ext. 53147.
