UBCO’s Creative Writing Professor Anne Fleming is hosting this year’s Sharon Thesen lecture via Zoom on September 25.
What: Annual Sharon Thesen Lecture: “truth beauty”
Who: UBCO Creative Writing Program, Professor Anne Fleming
When: Wednesday, September 25 at 7 pm
Where: Online via Zoom
UBC Okanagan’s Creative Writing Program is hosting its fifth annual Sharon Thesen Lecture with local author and Creative Writing Professor Anne Fleming.
Fleming’s virtual lecture titled “truth beauty” will be broadcast live in the Corbishley Family Reading Room at UBC Okanagan’s Special Collections and Archives (OSC), located in the university’s Commons building. Fleming will be joined by Sharon Thesen, but as space is limited in the OSC, the public is invited to attend this event via Zoom.
Fleming says her own experiences hearing Thesen speak at previous events have guided her topic for this year’s lecture.
“When Sharon gives a talk or a reading, I always feel as if I could listen to her all day long. She has this deep knowledge of poetry and writing combined with her own deep thinking that is revelatory—plus she’s irreverent, funny and down to earth,” says Fleming.
Fleming explains that the Sharon Thesen Lecture is an opportunity to tackle the persistent big questions about writing: what’s it for, why do we do it and what do we love about it?
“The big questions preoccupying me right now are: How is fiction true? Why does beauty matter? Which also means asking, what is beauty?” says Fleming. “If I come close to emulating Sharon in this year’s lecture, I’ll be happy.”
A Professor of Creative Writing at UBCO, Fleming has published six books of fiction and poetry. Her latest publication, Curiosities is a literary-historical novel and is on the 2024 Giller Prize longlist.
Thesen, a renowned Canadian poet and editor, was the first full professor in UBCO’s Department of Creative Studies and is now a UBC professor emerita. Both Fleming and Thesen are considered artists and scholars who are core to the story of UBC’s Okanagan campus. Many of their works can be found within the OSC including their joint editorial venture Lake: A journal of arts and environment, published by the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies from 2007 to 2012.
Some 100 items relating to Thesen, Fleming and past lecture hosts have been selected from OSC’s holdings for a special exhibition and display as a backdrop to this year’s lecture in the Corbishley Family Reading Room. The public is invited to view the exhibition starting Tuesday, October 3. The OSC is open for walk-ins Monday to Thursday, from 11 am to 3 pm, or by appointment.
For more information and access to the exhibition, contact osc-contact@lists.ubc.ca.
To register for the September 25 event, or learn more about the Sharon Thesen Lecture Series, visit fccs.ok.ubc.ca/authors.
