Deirdre Kessler to be 2007 Tasmanian Writer-in-Residence
Island writer and UPEI English Department sessional lecturer Deirdre Kessler has been selected by the Tasmanian Writers' Centre for the 2007 Tasmanian-Prince Edward Island island-to-island writers' exchange. During the month-long residency Kessler will stay at a writers' retreat in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
Deirdre Kessler teaches creative writing, children's literature, and composition with the UPEI English Department, and is author of many books for young people and fiction and poetry for adults. She is past recipient of the Prince Edward Island Award for Distinguished Contribution to the Literary Arts; in 2005 a chapbook of her poetry, "Subtracting by Seventeen," first-prize winner of the Milton Acorn Poetry Award, was published by Saturday Morning Chapbooks. This Christmas two of her stories were published in a new collection by Nimbus.
During the winter/spring 2007 semester, Kessler is teaching English 486: Advanced Creative Writing with a focus on writing for young people and English 245: Introduction to Children's Literature.
The Prince Edward Island-Tasmania writers' exchange was initiated in October 2006, when Austalian writer Danielle Wood spent a month at UPEI as writer-in-residence.
The writers' exchange is co-sponsored by the UPEI English Department, UPEI Institute of Island Studies, UPEI Dean of Arts, PEI Writers' Guild, and the Tasmanian Writers' Centre.
