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Annual Sharon Thesen Lecture: The Embodied Word for Word
September 24 at 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Sharon Thesen was the first full professor in the Department of Creative Studies and is now professor emerita here at UBC. She is also a renowned Canadian poet and editor. The Creative Writing program at UBC intends for the Sharon Thesen lecture to acknowledge her contributions to British Columbian and Canadian literature and to the Creative Writing Program at UBC Okanagan. In her honour, a different writer each year will give a lecture that tackles key issues of contemporary writing, poetics, and Canadian literature. By recording each lecture, we will create a wonderful resource of contemporary thinking by writers.
The Embodied Word for Word
The 2025 Annual Sharon Thesen Lecture will be presented by Michael. V. Smith
Language is a shorthand for experience. A thought package. A virus leaving one body and entering others. A translation, travelling through media. In this dynamic lecture, Michael V. Smith discusses writing and living poetically, between genre. He addresses time-worn questions every mother asks her child, such as, “What can film teach us about poetry? Why do warmongers try to kill the poets? Can science save us from our grim future on a burning planet? Why should we care about anything?”
Participants Michael V. Smith and Sharon Thesen will be present in the UBC Okanagan Special Collections and Archives (OSC). As space is limited in the OSC, the public is invited to attend this event virtually.
