POETS ON CAMPUS SERIES AT VIU MARCH 11

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, March 6, 2013

NANAIMO, BC – Vancouver poet Rhea Tregebov will read from her 7th book of poems, All Souls, and Toronto poet Sarah Pinder will read from her debut collection, Cutting Room, at a free Vancouver Island University Poets on Campus presentation Monday, March 11 at 5 pm in Building 365 (the log cabin) on VIU's Nanaimo campus.

All Souls (Véhicule, 2012) has been called "bluesy, opinionated, sly, self-chastising and tender.”

Tregebov’s first collection since 2004 is inspired by crises both personal (divorce, adult children, aging parents) and societal (global warming, financial implosion). Reviewer Anne Michaels says, “For decades Rhea Tregebov has been writing poems of penetrating honesty. At their core is a deep familiarity with the necessities of love; inconsolable loss, inconsolable hope…. The clarity of her voice is deeply moving, a voice at home in its skin, entirely aware, deeply compassionate.”

Tregebov’s poetry has received the Pat Lowther Award and the Malahat Review Long Poem prize, and was awarded Honorable Mention at the National Magazine Awards.

She is also the author of The Knife-Sharpener’s Bell, (alive), The Strength of Materials, Mapping the Chaos, No One We Know, The Proving Grounds, Remembering History, and five children’s picture books including Sasha and the Wiggly Tooth and The Big Storm as well as editing 10 anthologies. Tregebov lives in Vancouver, where she is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at the University of BC.

Poet Sarah Pinder's debut collection, Cutting Room (Coach House Books, 2012) navigates domestic and ‘natural’ spaces as landscapes charged with possible violence and desire. Ottawa poet Rob Mclennan says, "Compared often to small films, her poems exist on the knife-edge between being bulletproof and shattering entirely, presenting a kind of vulnerability that gains strength through the telling.” Pinder’s poetry has also appeared in literary magazines and the anthology She’s Shameless.

This is the final presentation of the 2012/13 Poets on Campus reading series at VIU. Poets on Campus is sponsored by Canada Council for the Arts, the League of Canadian Poets, the Writers Union of Canada, and VIU's Faculty Association, Department of Creative Writing and Journalism, and Dean of Arts and Humanities.

For more information, including a map, visit www.viu.ca/poetsoncampus.

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