Open Word: Readings and Ideas

Artist: Karen Solie (Toronto)

Date: Wednesday, April 30, 2008, 7:30 p.m.

Open Space hosted the acclaimed poet Karen Solie (Toronto) for the season finale of Open Word: Readings and Ideas on Wednesday, April 30 at 7:30pm, followed by an interview with Victoria poet and essayist Tim Lilburn.

Karen Solie’s writing is applauded for the risks taken with perception and language and her remarkably dense sense of humour. Her first collection, Short Haul Engine, established Solie as a distinctive voice. Modern and Normal (Brick Books 2005) investigated new terrain, exploring conceptual and perceptual in-betweenness in a collection that touched on topics as dense as fractals and physics, but also bar bands, broken hearts, and the trappings of desire.

Karen Solie was born in Moose Jaw and raised in southwest Saskatchewan. Short Haul Engine won the BC Book Prize Dorothy Livesay Award and was short-listed for the Griffin Poetry Prize, the Gerald Lampert Award, and the ReLit Award. Solie’s poetry, fiction and non-fiction have appeared in numerous North American journals, including The Fiddlehead, The Malahat
Review, Event, Indiana Review, ARC, Other Voices, and The Capilano Review. Solie’s poetry has additionally been published in the anthologies Breathing Fire (1995), Hammer and Tongs (1999), and Introductions: Poets Present Poets (2001). One of her short stories was featured in The Journey Prize Anthology 12 (2000). Solie was one of the judges for the 2007 Griffin Poetry Prize.

On Tuesday, April 29 Solie additionally read at the Pender Island Community Centre at 7:30 pm.