Two University of Victoria writing events shine the spotlight on the written word this week.
Literature comes alive at the University of Victoria as the Malahat Review hosts its fourth annual WordsThaw Festival March 16 to 20.
Guests can mingle with more than 30 poets, novelists, short-story writers, film makers and journalists during the literary quarterly’s four-day symposium, kicking off at Cinecenta on March 16 with a screening of The Trick with the Gun. The film documents magic’s most notorious illusion, the bullet catch, as reinterpreted by the film’s writers Christopher Gudgeon and Scott Hamell. (Purchase tickets through Cinecenta.)
On March 17, as part of UVic’s Lansdowne Lecture series, Toronto writer Molly Peacock explore commonalities between the poem’s intuition and the essay’s savoir-faire in Fact, Metaphor, and the Single Voice: Where Creative Nonfiction Meets Poetry.
Admission is free.
On March 18, Words on Ice, a gala of poetry, spoken word, fiction and nonfiction will include readings by Green Party leader and MP Elizabeth May, Victoria Coun. Jeremy Loveday, Peacock, M.A.C. Farrant, Kim Trainor, Jordan Abel, Stella Harvey and UVic alumni Laura Trunkey and J.D. Zapf.
A full day of creative nonfiction panel discussions follows March 19, with topics including Literary Afterlives, The Investigative Poet and Creative Nonfiction in Canada Today: Fact, Fiction or Scandal?
March 17 is the UVic Author Celebration at the UVic Bookstore from 3 to 5 p.m.
The event celebrates two years of publications by UVic faculty, staff, students, alumni and retirees reflecting a wide array of research, teaching, personal and professional interests.
Hosted by UVic Libraries and the UVic Bookstore, the event is moderated by David Leach, chair of UVic’s writing department. Author panelists include Karen Hibbard, Eve Joseph, Frances Backhouse, Troy Wilson and Rob Hancock.
Admission is free.
For more information about WordsThaw 2016, visit malahatreview.ca/wordsthaw online.