Podcast appearances and mentions of Stephan G Stephansson

Calgary poet and longtime active WGA member Bob Stallworthy will read from his poetry book Impact Statement, followed by a Q&A led by Edmonton poet, fiction writer, and journalist Alexis Kienlen. Bob Stallworthy has been active in the Alberta writing community since he began writing full-time and professionally in 1985. He is a member of the Writers’ Union of Canada and the Writers’ Guild of Alberta. As well as publishing magazine articles and book reviews, he has four books of poetry previously published: Under the Sky Speaking (Snowapple Press, 1998), From a Call Box (Frontenac House, 2001), Optics (Frontenac House, 2004), and Things that Matter Now (Frontenac House, 2009). His work has been anthologized by Copp Clark Pitman and by McGraw-Hill Ryerson. His poetry has been shortlisted for The City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize twice and the Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry once. As the first Coordinator of the Writers’ Guild of Alberta’s Calgary region office, he established and ran this office (1991- 1996). While running the office he was co-organizer of the first Poet’s Stroll in Calgary, co-chair of the Freedom of Expression Committee in Calgary, and was one of the Writers’ Guild of Alberta representatives on the Steering Committee of Wordfest. Over his 35 year career he has given over 250 workshops and readings around Alberta. He is co-recipient of the Calgary Freedom of Expression Award (2002), a Lifetime member of the Writers’ Guild of Alberta (1988), and the recipient of the Golden Pen Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Writers’ Guild of Alberta (2019). He has been a Patient/Family Advisor with the Kidney Health, Strategic Clinical Network, Alberta Health Services since 2016. He is a full-time caregiver for his wife who suffered traumatic kidney failure in 2013.

The Koffler Centre of the Arts is thrilled to present writers Joshua Whitehead and Arielle Twist together in conversation. Joshua Whitehead is a Two-Spirit, Ojibwe-nêhiyaw otâcimow from Peguis First Nation (Treaty 1). He is the author of full-metal indigiqueer (Talonbooks 2017), shortlisted for the Inaugural Indigenous Voices Award in Poetry and the Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry, and Jonny Appleseed (Arsenal Pulp 2018), shortlisted for a Governor General’s Award for Fiction and longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. He is currently a doctoral student in the University of Calgary’s English Department (Treaty 7) where he focuses on Indigenous Lit and Cultures. Arielle Twist is a writer and sex educator from George Gordon First Nation, Saskatchewan, based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She is a Cree, Two-Spirit, trans femme supernova writing to reclaim and harness ancestral magic and memories. Her debut collection of poetry Disintegrate/Dissociate will be released in spring 2019 from Arsenal Pulp Press.

Trent University alumnus Richard Harrison ’76 has been named the winner of the 2017 Governor General's Literary Award for Poetry for On Not Losing My Father's Ashes in the Flood, published by Hamilton's Wolsak & Wynn. It was the latest honour for the book, which also won the Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry and the third prize for poetry in the 2017 Alcuin Society's Book Design Awards. On Not Losing My Father's Ashes in the was also shortlisted for the City of Calgary's 2016 W.O. Mitchell Book Prize and a finalist for the poetry category of the High Plains Book Awards.We caught up with Richard for a Skype interview to discuss the award. The conversation ranged from the nature of the Canadian literary voice to the poetry of hockey to how Trent helped shape his career. Of his award winning collection, he noted: “There is a pause moment, where many of the things I started 40 years ago [while at Trent] have now come to this point. And in some senses there is completion here.” Harrison credits former Lady Eaton College Principal Douglas McCalla and faculty members Orm Mitchell and Michael Peterman for hosting readings and introducing him to writers such as Patrick Lane, Robert Kroetsch, Susan Musgrave, Margaret Laurence, and Adele Wiseman. He found the experience of listening to Patrick Lane read in the Sr. Common Room so powerful that it led him to try his own hand at creative writing. He also credits Trent with helping feed his curiosity and creativity. “Trent was small enough – and the faculty were friendly enough, not just in their discipline, but across disciplines. They were understanding of the nature of inquiry and allowed me to let inquiry lead me to where it wanted to go. And they encouraged me all the time to keep going. My professors understood that what I was doing was looking for a lifetime’s work, and that this was how I would find it.” He looks back to academic movements such as those found in Trent’s Canadian Studies programs as being intergral to helping Canada focus on their own unique stories and their own unique literature – something he says has benefited him and his writing. Richard Harrison’s eight books include the Governor General’s Award–finalist Big Breath of a Wish, and Hero of the Play, the first book of poetry launched at the Hockey Hall of Fame. He teaches English and Creative Writing at Calgary’s Mount Royal University, a position he took up after being the Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at the University of Calgary in 1995. His work has been published, broadcast and displayed around the world, and his poems have been translated into French, Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic.