What: Literary Leanings 2005
Where: Uli’s Flipside Attic
When: Sunday, Feb. 20 & Monday, Feb. 21
What does a poet laureate sound like?
Measured and stuffy? A user of deliberately obscure vocabulary laced with a pretentious faux-English accent?
Or feisty, spry and candid? A spouter of aerobic phrases peppered with prankster humour, and an infectious, mischievous chuckle?
Canada’s first poet Laureate George Bowering is most definitely the latter and his participation in the Whistler Writer’s Group’s third annual Literary Leanings event this Sunday night guarantees a lively evening to say the least.
He’s officially a past Poet Laureate these days; his two-year term came to an end last November when the torch he lit is passed to Pauline Michel of Montreal.
"I wouldn’t have done it if I hadn’t been the first," he declares, his innate independent Western Canadian spirit intact even after extensive stays in the Ottawa area – his temporary employer’s home base. Despite the "miserable" weather, he deems the experience as "a lot of fun."
First Canadian Poet Laureate is only one of Bowering’s adjectives. He’s considered one of Canada’s most prolific writers with as many books published as he is years old (around 70)–not including volumes he has merely contributed to or edited.
He’s twice a winner of the Governor General’s Award: for works of poetry in 1969 for The Gangs of Cosmos and Rocky Mountain Foot and for fiction in 1980 for the novel Burning Water .
He’s taught at the University of Calgary and the University of Western Ontario and currently teaches at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver.
Despite the proximity of his current home, Sunday night will mark only his third ever trip to Whistler and his first trip during the winter. Of the previous two summer visits, one was a drive by en route to Cache Creek, the other for a public reading at the library.
"The library reading was kind of neat," Bowering declares, "because you saw people there who you were pretty sure were there before all this ski bullshit happened. Kind of like ‘the real Whistler.’"
No mincing words there.
Bowering pulls no punches on another subject near and dear to Whistler’s heart.
"I voted against the Olympics," he readily admits, after stating his intention to legally change his name to "Olympics Two-Thousand Ten" to see how long it would take him to get arrested. "They could call me ‘Ole’," he adds, (law abiding Norwegian immigrants take note).
Ironically, Literary Leanings is presented in conjunction with the Celebration 2010 Whistler Arts Festival – a month long extravaganza of local arts events in the years counting down to the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. Bowering is flippant when asked whether the upcoming event might have a positive effect on the literary arts.
"There’s supposed to be an arts contingent for the Olympics always, but I’ve been around a lot of Olympics and I haven’t seen much of it," he says, citing Montreal and Calgary specifically. "They seem to be more interested in entertainment than they are in the arts."
Would it be disrespectful then to say that Bowering’s reading at Literary Leanings on Sunday evening promises to be entertaining? A veteran of live spoken word events since the early 1960s, the format, often a cathartic experience for the newly published, is old-hat for Bowering. He just has fun with it now.
"Usually I don’t know what I’m going to read until I’m up there," he says, though to appease his publishers he characteristically chooses something from his most recent book.
"I enjoy it, so I just try to make the audience enjoy it, and they always do," he adds. "It’s the reason why you write."
It’s that simple. Our telephone conversation at a natural denouement I thank him and wish him well.
"Okee-dokee! Nice talking to you!" Canada’s First Poet Laureate says, chuckling even as he hangs up.
Literary Leanings spans two evenings, Sunday, Feb. 20 and Monday, Feb. 21, and features readings by local writers from the Whistler Writers Group and professional writers from around British Columbia. Joining Bowering on the list of invitees is Arthur Black, host of CBC Radio show ‘Basic Black’ and two-time winner of the Stephen Leacock Award for Humour, and Victoria-based novelist Bill Gaston — a Giller Prize nominee and Vancouver novelist. Also coming up is Aislinn Hunter, publisher of four critically acclaimed books, the most recent Stay garnering a mention on the Globe and Mail’s ‘Top 100 Books’ list.
Whistler-based writers participating include Writers group founder Stella Harvey, Stephen Vogler, Brandi Higgins, Lisa Richardson (author of the short story ‘Messages from the Attic’ on page 50 in this issue of Pique NewsMagazine) Pam Barnsley, Rebecca Wood-Barrett, Paul Malm and Sara Leach. Four writers from millieu press , a new organization focused on developing and publishing writing by women will also read selections of their work.
Both evenings take place in the attic at Uli’s Flipside restaurant in Creekside. Readings begin at 8 p.m.
Celebration 2010 events still to come include film events from the Whistler Film Festival Society and the Whistler Museum and Archives.
For more information on Celebration 2010 Whistler Arts Festival events contact the Whistler Arts Council at 604-938-9221 or go to www.whistlerartscouncil.com.
