Ralph Gustafson Distinguished Poets Lecture Series
The Institute for Coastal Research is proud to present the Ralph Gustafson Distinguished Poets Lecture Series. The series publishes the lecture presented annually by the Ralph Gustafson Chair of Poetry at Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada. The lecture honours Canadian poet Ralph Gustafson and features distinguished writers who speak on their poetics and read from their work. The series is published by the Institute for Coastal Research in cooperation with the Ralph Gustafson Poetry Trust.
Robert Bringhurst designed the first two titles in a workshop with publishing students at Vancouver Island University in January 2006. Bringhurst returned in 2008 and 2009 to work with new groups of publishing students to produce additional titles in the series.
Purchases
Please download an order form here, e-mail icrpublishing@viu.ca, or leave a voicemail message at +1-250-753-3245 extension 2915. Lectures are also available from the VIU Bookstore, Nanaimo campus.
Lecture Series
At the River's Mouth: Writing Migrations by Daphne Marlatt
At the River's Mouth: Writing Migrations, by Daphne Marlatt, Order of Canada recipient, is the fifth title in the lecture series. Daphne Marlatt was the 2008 Ralph Gustafson Chair of Poetry.
At the River's Mouth: Writing Migrations won Second Prize in the Prose Non-Fiction category of the 2009 Alcuin Society Annual Awards for Excellence in Book Design in Canada.
Over the past thirty-six years, the cycles in my writing trajectory have drawn me over and over again to Steveston at the mouth of the Fraser River. I have heard a call, much as wild geese are called southward or northward by changing seasonal cycles. To fly and fly, and then to land.
Format: Smyth-sewn paperback, 64 pp. Publication Date: June 2009. Dimensions: 4.5 x 7 in. Price: $20 (Plus GST). ISBN: 978-1-896886-21-3
Songs Without Price by Tom Wayman
Songs Without Price, by Tom Wayman, leader of the North American work poetry movement, is the fourth title in the lecture series. Tom Wayman was the 2007 Ralph Gustafson Chair of Poetry.
Poetry, which nobody wants to buy, stands nearly alone in possessing the potential to speak the truth. Its location outside the rule of money gives it a perspective unique in our dollar-haunted society. Precisely because poetry has no cash equivalent, poetry is both literally and metaphorically priceless.
Format: Smyth-sewn paperback, 64 pp. Published: June 2008. Dimensions: 4.5 x 7 in. Price: $20 (Plus GST). ISBN: 978-1-896886-07-7
A Kind of Perfect Speech by Dionne Brand
A Kind of Perfect Speech, by Governor General’s Award winner Dionne Brand, is the third title in the lecture series. Dionne Brand was the 2006 Ralph Gustafson Chair of Poetry.
Yes, poetry is our laughing and crying, much as its space is so fragile in me. Each time I open my pen I am fighting to recover something as precious as laughing and crying. I don't see writing as a career. I see it as a kind of perfect speech, which is a way to the liberatory.
Format: Smyth-sewn paperback, 48 pp. Published: June 2008. Dimensions: 4.5 x 7 in. Price: $20 (Plus GST). ISBN: 978-1-896886-05-3
Poetry and the Sacred by Don Domanski
Poetry and the Sacred, by acclaimed Maritime poet Don Domanski, is the second title in the Ralph Gustafson Distinguished Poets Lecture Series. Domanski was the 2005 Gustafson Chair of Poetry.
By sacred I don’t necessarily mean religious, or spiritual in the New Age sense of that word. I mean the fundamental experience one has with time and space, with the seemingly endless corporeality that flows into our consciousness. I mean how each thing holds a mystery, simply because it exists, because existence itself is sacred.
Format: hand-sewn single-section binding, 24 pp. Published: March 2006. Dimensions: 5.5 x 8.5 in. Price: $20 (Plus GST). ISBN: 978-1-896886-10-7
Wild Language by Robert Bringhurst
Wild Language, by renowned poet, typographer, and linguist Robert Bringhurst, is the first title in the Ralph Gustafson Distinguished Poets Lecture Series. Bringhurst was the 2003 Gustafson Chair of Poetry.
What are the essential characteristics of the wild? For one thing, it is coextensive with time: simultaneously ancient and brand new, stable and ever-changing. For another,it is the very essence of wealth: rich and varied and extensive and complex and intertwined with itself beyond your wildest dreams. Third, it’s astoundingly beautiful: delicate, fragile, adaptable, strong and immensely intelligent, attentive and responsive. The wild remembers its past and dreams its future and speaks its immediate present.
Format: Smyth-sewn paperback, 48 pp. Published: March 2006. Dimensions: 4.5 x 7 in. Price: $20 (Plus GST). ISBN: 978-1-896886-08-4
Robert Bringhurst, Rhonda Bailey, Bill Pennell, and Deborah Torkko, with publishing students, January 2006
Purchases
Please download an order form here, e-mail icrpublishing@viu.ca, or leave a voicemail message at +1-250-753-3245 extension 2915. Lectures are also available from the VIU Bookstore, Nanaimo campus.