UPEI writer-in-residence, Harry Thurston to deliver poetry reading and workshops
Award-winning poet, nature and environmental author, conservation activist, and the 2023 UPEI writer-in-residence Harry Thurston will read from his new poetry collection, Ultramarine, on Wednesday, September 27, at 7:30 pm at the Gallery Coffee Shop and Bistro, 82 Great George Street, Charlottetown. This free event is sponsored by the UPEI Faculty of Science and Faculty of Arts and The Bookmark.
The Nova Scotian author of 12 poetry collections, Thurston began writing poetry while studying biology at Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, which awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2013. His 17 non-fiction books and abundant articles have earned him numerous nature, environmental, and science writing awards.
In addition to the poetry reading, Thurston, in his capacity as UPEI’s 2023 writer-in-residence, will offer two workshops. The first, “Poetry and ‘The Other’ in this “More-than-Human World,” will take place on September 29 from 12:30–4:00 pm, in Memorial Hall 417 at UPEI.
“While much poetry is about the human condition of love and loss and written from a deeply personal point-of-view, there is poetry of ‘the other’ in this “more-than-human-world,” to borrow a phrase from eco-philosopher David Abram,” said Thurston. “In this workshop, we will look at poems about plants and animals, written about them from the human perspective as well as imagined from the other’s viewpoint.”
His second workshop, “The Future of Environmental Writing: Wonder, Despair, and Social Justice,” will be on September 30 from 9:30 am to 1:00 pm, on campus in SDU Main Building 213.
“The best writing in the genre is not really ‘nature writing’ anyway,” says Thurston, “but human writing that just happens to take place in nature. If this is true, what should the future of nature writing look like in this era of the Anthropocene, when human activity has become a geological force altering Earth’s life-sustaining climate and precipitating a sixth extinction event in Earth history? Is it still possible to see and write about the world with a sense of wonder, and without despair? Further, clearly the Eurocentric view of nature no longer addresses the needs of the disadvantaged and oppressed. We will examine these questions through readings and a round-table discussion.”
The workshops are sponsored by the UPEI Faculty of Arts and Faculty of Science. The fee for one workshop is $40 or $35 for students and seniors, and for both workshops $70 or $60 for students and seniors. Each workshop will be limited to 25 participants. To register, please use the link for Harry Thurston’s workshops or email lpottie@upei.ca.
