Island Mountain Arts

Writing: The Story We Need To Sing with Patrick Lane

Writing: The Story We Need to Sing
Thursday, July 22 - Sunday, July 25, 2010

Patrick Lan

Insructor: Patrick Lane
Early Bird Fee: $449 + 22.45 GST (MUST PAY IN FULL BY JUNE 1st)
Regular Fee: $499 + 24.95 GST

Course Description:

THE STORY WE NEED TO SING
This course in writing anecdotal lyrics and narrative poems will be explored through daily exercises and discussions on poetry and poetry techniques with master poet Patrick Lane. This will be a “writing” course and not a workshop. All the poets and poems produced here will be encouraged from start to finish and then read aloud each day in an open, safe atmosphere. Writers will show their work to each other individually as well as to Patrick. The progress of the poem with ideas and suggestions arising from the free exchange of experience and knowledge will be invaluable to each writer. Patrick has been a writer-in-residence at many institutions as well as teaching the art of poetry for forty years, the last ten years privately at secluded retreats across North America. He has been called the best poet of his generation and his teaching has been lauded from coast to coast. New and emerging writers are strongly urged to apply.

Bio:
Patrick Lane was born in Nelson, British Columbia, Canada, on March 26, 1939. He has no formal education beyond high school in Vernon, B.C. . From 1957 to 1968 with his young wife, Mary, he raised three children, Mark, Christopher, and Kathryn, and began working at a variety of jobs from common laborer, truck driver, Cat skinner, chokerman, boxcar loader, and Industrial First-Aid Man in the northern bush, and as a petty clerk at a number of sawmills in the Interior of British Columbia. He has been a salesman, office manager, and an Industrial Accountant. In 1968 he divorced his first wife. Much of his life after 1968 has been spent as an itinerant poet, wandering over three continents and many countries. He began writing with serious intent in 1960, practicing his craft late at night in small-town western Canada until he moved to Vancouver in 1964 to work and to join in with the new generation of artists and writers who werecoming of age in the early Sixties.

In 1966 with bill bissett and Seymour Mayne, he established Very Stone House, publishing the new post-war generation of poets. In 1968 he divorced and decided to devote his life exclusively to writing, traveling to South America where he lived for two years. On his return he established a new relationship with his second wife, Carol, had two more children, Michael, and Richard, and settled first in the Okanagan Valley in 1972 and then in 1974 on the west coast of Canada at Middle Point near the fishing village of Pender Harbour on The Sunshine Coast where he worked as a carpenter and building contractor. In 1978 he divorced and went to work as a Writer-in-Residence at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg where he began his life with the poet, Lorna Crozier. Since then he has been a resident writer at Concordia University in Montreal, The University of Alberta in Edmonton, The University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, the Saskatoon Public Library, and the University of Toronto. He taught English Literature at The University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon from 1986 to 1990, and Creative Writing in both fiction and poetry at the University of Victoria, British Columbia from 1991 to 2004. He is presently retired from institutional teaching and leads private writing retreats as well as teaching at such schools as The Banff Writing Workshops, ‘Booming Ground’ at the University of British Columbia, The Victoria Writing School, and The Sage Hill Experience in Saskatchewan. He teaches private workshops at Glenairely in Sooke and at Hollyhock on Cortes Island (see his web site www.patricklane.ca). Both he and his wife, Lorna Crozier presently reside in a small community outside Victoria where he gardens and works at his craft.

He is the author of more than twenty-five books. His poetry, short stories, criticism, and non-fiction have won many prizes over the past forty-five years, including The Governor-General’s Award for, “Poems: New & Selected,” in 1979, The Canadian Authors Association Award for his, “Selected Poems,” in 1988, and in 1987 a “Nellie” award (Canada) and The National Radio Award (USA) for the best public radio program for the script titled, “Chile,” co-authored with Lorna Crozier. He has received major awards from The Canada Council, The Ontario Arts Council, The Saskatchewan Arts Board, The Manitoba Arts Board, The Ontario Arts Council, and the British Columbia Arts Board. He has received National Magazine awards for both his poetry and his fiction. He is the author of more than twenty books and he has been called by most writers and critics “the best poet of his generation.” As a critic and commentator he appears regularly on CBC, the national radio service in Canada, and on numerous other media outlets across Canada. In 2005 his book, There Is A Season – A Memoir In A Garden,” received the BC Award for Canadian non-fiction. The book was also nominated for The Charles Taylor Award and the Pearson Award for non-fiction. It has been released in the USA under the title, “What The Stones Remember,” and was nominated for The Barnes and Noble Award there. “Red Dog Red Dog,” his recent novel, was released in 2009 in Canada as well as in France, England, Holland, and other European countries. It has been nominated for the Impac Dublin prize. His Collected Poems will be released in 2011.

He has appeared at literary festivals around the world and has read and published his work in many countries, including, England, Scotland, France, Czechoslovakia, Italy, China, Japan, Chile, Colombia, Netherlands, and Russia. His poetry, fiction, and non-fiction appear in all major Canadian anthologies of English literature. A critical monograph of his life and writing titled, Patrick Lane,” by George Woodcock was published by ECW Press.

Events Included:

~Wednesday, July 21, 7pm: Welcome Reception - IMA Gallery (2323 Pooley Street) Meet your instructor and pick up your student information packages.

~Thursday, July 22, 5:30pm: Student BBQ, enjoy a meal with your instructor and fellow students.

~Thursday, July 22, 7:00pm: Literary Reading by Patrick Lane

IMA students also receive free admission to Barkerville Historic Town and many discounts to local businesses.