Ralph Gustafson Poetry Chair 2003: International Poet Appointed

Scottish born British poet, Carol Ann Duffy, is the International appointment to the Ralph Gustafson Poetry Chair at Malaspina University-College for 2003.

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Duffy, who has been called “the representative poet of her day,” is loved for her accessible, people-centred poetry that is also ‘classical’ in its razor-sharp technique. 

Keith Harrison, of Malaspina’s Creative Writing department said, “With her startling imagistic power, linguistic grace, and unsettling dramatic insight, Carol Ann Duffy may be the most important British poet of her generation.”

Duffy’s work, which has brought her many honours--from the Whitbread Award and the Forward Poetry Award to a commission from the British Trades Union Congress--and resulted in her being named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Letters in 1999 and a CBE in 2001 for her services to literature--is known for its multiplicity of voices. These range from re-interpretations of the myths of Icarus, Faust and Tiresias to explorations of the worlds of Mrs. Aesop, Mrs. Faust and Queen Kong.  According to Duffy poetry can do ‘anything.’

Ruth Padel (The Independent Magazine) writes, “Carol Ann Duffy has an extraordinary verbal power to fuse Yeatsian lyric flow with cutting scepticism, social vignettes, vivid compassion and humour.”

Ms. Duffy will be on campus October 10-31. As poet Kate Braid said, “This is a tremendous honour.”

Malaspina’s poet-in-residence position is made possible by the Ralph and Betty Gustafson Trust created by the estate of the late Ralph Gustafson, one of Canada’s pre-eminent poets, together with his widow Betty Gustafson. The Trust endows a Chair of Poetry at Malaspina to advance Canadian poetry and support deserving poets. One year in five, the appointment is given to an ‘international’ poet.

 To make a donation to The Ralph Gustafson Chair of Poetry, contact the Malaspina University-College Foundation, 900 Fifth St., Nanaimo, B.C., V9R 5S5.