Skip to main content Skip to main navigation Skip to page-level navigation Go to the Disability Resource Centre Website Go to the DRC Booking Accommodation Portal Go to the Inclusive Technology Lab Website
The University of British Columbia
UBC - A Place of Mind
The University of British Columbia Okanagan campus
UBC Okanagan News
  • Research
  • People
    • Student Profile
    • Faculty Profile
    • Alumni Spotlight
  • Campus Life
    • Campus News
    • Student Life
    • Teaching & Learning
  • Community Engagement
  • About the Collection
    • Stories for Media
  • UBCO Events
  • Search All Stories
Home / 2010 / February / 24 / UBC Okanagan program helps Okanagan writers reach the next level
Arts & Humanities, Teaching & Learning

UBC Okanagan program helps Okanagan writers reach the next level

February 24, 2010

UBC Okanagan’s third annual writer-in-residence, novelist and poet Laisha Rosnau

The writer-in-residence program at UBC Okanagan can have a big impact on writers from the region. When Salmon Arm writer Karen Bissenden was accepted into the UBC Okanagan writer-in-residence program she didn’t expect the experience to leave such a lasting and meaningful impression.

“I left with a new perspective on my writing style,” says Bissenden, who met last year with novelist Fred Stenson, the 2009 writer in residence at UBC Okanagan. Stenson suggested foundation ideas for her writing, which “allowed me to understand some of my strengths, and taught me a technique of looking at my story from another point of view,” she says.

Rosnau’s second collection of poetry, Lousy Explorers, was released by Nightwood in April 2009

“It was an excellent opportunity. I have written a number of stories since that session — feedback is always inspiring,” says Bissenden, who has published one book of poetry and a number of magazine articles.

“There are many writers like me — not in a school environment and without the financial means to pay editing fees. Free feedback from capable authors? Who wouldn’t apply?”

Sponsored by the Department of Creative Studies at UBC Okanagan, the writer-in-residence program is an annual community service available to residents in the Central Okanagan. The program allows 16 selected local writers to get free critiques of their work.

This year, novelist and poet Laisha Rosnau will spend two weeks, from Mar. 1 to 15, on the UBC Okanagan campus as the third annual writer-in-residence. Rosnau’s second collection of poetry, Lousy Explorers, was released by Nightwood in 2009, and her first, Notes on Leaving (Nightwood), won the Acorn-Plantos Poetry Award in 2005. Her novel, The Sudden Weight of Snow (McClelland &Stewart), was an honourable mention for the Amazon/Books in Canada FirstNovel Award.

In addition to meeting with local writers, Rosnau will be giving a free public reading on Thursday, Mar. 4, at 7 p.m. at the downtown Kelowna branch of the Okanagan Regional Library, 1380 Ellis St.

Nancy Holmes, Head of the Department of Creative Studies, says Bissenden’s response to the writer-in-residence program reflects the feedback she has received from local writers who have taken part in the program.

“A writer in residence puts a rare creative resource at the disposal of a community,” says Holmes. “Emerging writers often work in isolation, especially once they have taken a few creative writing courses and perhaps no longer have a regular writing group.

“The writers in residence can offer encouragement and excellent editorial and publishing advice,” she says. “Our program, in its third year, is a great success. We have more and more writers applying to participate each year, and we’ve had incredibly positive feedback about the service. Part of this is due to the terrific writers we’ve invited to be in residence: Lynn Coady, Fred Stenson and Laisha Rosnau.”

Writer workshop Mar. 20

The Writer in Residence program and Continuing Studies will host an intensive four-hour workshop at UBC Okanagan on Mar. 20 looking at the role of place in creative writing. The workshop from 1 to 5 p.m. costs $50 and is aimed at writers of poetry or prose, fiction or non-fiction.

Writer-in-residence Rosnau will explore how place affects our creative lives, the choices writers make when creating a setting, and more. For information about participating in the Writing Place workshop with Laisha Rosnau, contact UBC Okanagan Continuing Studies at 250-807-9289.

— 30 —

Media Contact

Jody Jacob
Assistant Communications Coordinator
University Relations

The University of British Columbia
Okanagan campus
Tel: 250-807-8463
E-mail: jody.jacob@ubc.ca

Content type: Media Release
More content from: Uncategorized

Trending Stories

  • Work Study opens new doors for undergraduates
  • Finding new life for plastic waste
  • Strengthening Indigenous community through research
  • Safeguarding water quality
  • Pushing the boundaries of spinal cord research
All Stories
Contact Media Relations

About UBC Okanagan

UBC’s Okanagan campus is an innovative hub for research and learning founded in partnership with local Indigenous peoples, the Syilx Okanagan Nation, in whose traditional, ancestral and unceded territory the campus resides. The most established and influential global rankings all consistently place UBC in the top five per cent of universities in the world, and among the top three Canadian universities.

The Okanagan campus combines a globally recognized UBC education with a tight-knit and entrepreneurial community that welcomes students and faculty from around the world in British Columbia’s stunning Okanagan Valley. For more visit ok.ubc.ca.

Discover more about UBC Okanagan

Find a Program Admissions Book a Tour UBCO Facts
UBC Okanagan Campus News, University Relations

Innovation Precinct Annexation 1 (IA1)
3505 Spectrum Court
Kelowna, BC Canada V1V 2Z1

We respectfully acknowledge the Syilx Okanagan Nation and their peoples, in whose traditional, ancestral, unceded territory UBC Okanagan is situated.

 

Search all stories

Subscribe to receive news by email

Visit UBC's Vancouver news room

Global and Admin Messages

News

Okanagan Campus

TikTok icon Linkedin icon

UBC Okanagan News
Okanagan Campus
3333 University Way
Kelowna, BC Canada V1V 1V7
Find us on
  
Back to top
The University of British Columbia
  • Emergency Procedures |
  • Terms of Use |
  • Copyright |
  • Accessibility