Arts and Humanities Colloquium Series: "Writing Sonnet�s Shakespeare: A Poet Overwrites the Bard"

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Friday, January 26th, 2018
10:00 AM to 11:30 AM

VIU English Professor and poet, Sonnet L'Abbé, will discuss her latest large-scale poetic project, in which she grapples with William Shakespeare, attempting to take his place in the canon in a concrete way by painstakingly writing her sonnets literally over his, one for each of his 154 sonnets, which are erased in the process, but not completely. It is an investigation of the complex legacy of colonization, of her own identity, in what she calls a "writer’s attempt at both a magnum opus and a mixed-race girl’s mixed-up diary; the voice of a settler on Indigenous people’s territories and of a survivor of racialized sexual assault.”

Professor L'Abbé will read from her poetry and discuss her technique, her artistic influences, and the personal experiences that informed the work. Professor L'Abbé is a poet, literary critic, and teacher. She earned an MA from the University of Guelph and a PhD from the University of British Columbia. She is the author of A Strange Relief and Killarnoe, and was the 2014 guest editor of Best Canadian Poetry. Her chapbook, Anima Canadensis, was published by Junction Books in 2016, and won the 2017 bpNichol Chapbook Award.

https://www2.viu.ca/artsandhumanities/Arts_Humanities_Colloquium.asp