Acclaimed poet and food critic offers free critiques to local writers
Gerry Shikatani is UBC’s 2014 Writer-In-Residence
Award-winning Canadian poet and food writer Gerry Shikatani is the seventh annual Writer-in-Residence at UBC’s Okanagan campus. Sponsored by the Department of Creative Studies and the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies, this program allows 16 selected local writers to get free critiques of their work.
Shikatani will spend two weeks on UBC’s Okanagan campus from March 10 to 22, giving in-class talks on campus, and meeting with students and members of the local community to discuss their work one-on-one. Shikatani’s free public reading at downtown Kelowna’s Okanagan Regional Library, 1380 Ellis St., part of the Visiting Author Series, is Wednesday, March 12, 7 p.m.
Writers of all genres are encouraged to meet with Shikatani. If you would like to be considered for an appointment, send a maximum of four to six double-spaced pages of your poetry or prose (plus a one-page synopsis if it is an excerpt from a longer work.) Your submission should be sent by email by February 28 to toby.wesenberg@ubc.ca. Provide your name, student number (if applicable), phone number, and email address. Please put “Writer in Residence” in the subject line.
About Gerry Shikatani
Gerry Shikatani’s most recent collection is The Port’s Seasonal Rental (Teksteditions/The Mercury Press, 2011.) His diverse projects include poetry, prose, text-sound performance, concrete poetry and experimental film.
His current writing, niwa, set in Japanese gardens, follows his Three Gardens of Andalucía (A Capilano Review book.) He is the founding director of Lorca’s Granada: writers’ retreat & colloquia (Granada, www.gerryshikatani.com) an homage to Federico García Lorca. Shikatani is also an international culinary critic and specialist of Spanish gastronomy and was decorated with the Cross of the Order of Civilian Merit, granted by King Juan Carlos of Spain.
Based in Ontario, he often mentors and coaches writers.
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