Two Vernon scribes are about to share words with their Enderby neighbours – all in the name of poetry.
Presented by the Enderby and District Arts Council, award winning author and poet Laisha Rosnau and poet Michelle Doege will read from their recent works and talk about the writing process and paths to publishing, Friday, Oct. 17 at the Enderby Drill Hall.
A new resident of the Okanagan, poet, writer and educator Doege recently left full-time teaching in London, Ont. to move to Vernon with her partner and commit herself to full-time writing.
“(I am looking) forward to nurturing and participating in the already thriving literary and arts community here,” she said.
As an educator, Doege has taught writing, literature and gender and diversity studies at colleges in both her native U.S. and Canada.
Currently enrolled in a master’s program at Augsburg College in Minneapolis, Minn., Doege is working on a series of poems about her great love of wood, and lumber, and building, and fine-working; the ancient connection to the land in her Germanic and Celtic roots; and the difficulty in now facing the source of that wood and lumber – on logging trucks or driving through or flying over clear-cut forests in B.C.
Many of her poems are grounded in nature, women’s stories, consumption and consumerism, and the deep celebration of life and honouring of death.
Doege’s writing has appeared in various humble publications in both the U.S. and Canada.
This year has been a busy one for Rosnau, who has been giving readings around the country on the release of her third book of poetry, Pluck, launched in the spring.
This latest collection takes on issues of sexuality, female vulnerability and parenthood with delicacy and intent. Rosnau often uses animal imagery to expose the primal innocence or ferocity of human nature, both of which emerge particularly in rural settings.
Pluck follows Rosnau’s other collections of poetry, Notes on Leaving, which won the Acorn-Plantos People’s Poetry Award, as well as Lousy Explorers.
Her debut novel, The Sudden Weight of Snow, published in 2002 by McClelland and Stewart, was a national bestseller and an honourable mention for the Amazon/Books in Canada First Novel Award.
Rosnau is working on a second novel and continues to live in Coldstream, where she and her family are resident caretakers of Bishop Wild Bird Sanctuary.
In honour of National Novel Writing Month, Rosnau will also be at the Caetani Cultural Centre in November for a month-long weekend series on how to write a novel. (For information or to register, visit www.caetaniculturalcentre.org.)
Admission to Friday’s reading at the Enderby Drill Hall (Highway 97A south) is by donation. It starts at 7 p.m. and refreshments will be available. For more information, call (250) 838-0626.
