Award-winning poet Don McKay will read from his work at the Comox Valley Art Gallery on Thursday, June 30, 7 p.m.
Public / All Ages / In-Person at CVAG + Live-Streamed Event — Click here to watch the livestream recording.
All CVAG events are free — donations are always welcomed.
One of the prize-winning collections McKay will be reading from is Strike/Slip, poems inspired by field work on Southern Vancouver Island, where the poet explored the landscape and geology of Loss Creek. McKay’s poems combine a deep attentiveness to place with warmth and humour. In the poem “Pond,” McKay dwells lovingly on the characteristics of still water and concludes with a challenge to Greek myth:
Suppose Narcissus
were to find a nice brown pond
to gaze in: would the course of self-love
run so smooth with that exquisite face
rendered in bruin undertone,
shaken, and floated in the murk
between the deep sky and the ooze?
Don McKay is a multi-award-winning author. Educated at the University of Western Ontario and the University of Wales, he earned his PhD in 1971, with a dissertation on the poetry of Dylan Thomas. He taught creative writing and English for 27 years in universities including the University of Western Ontario and the University of New Brunswick. McKay has lived in southwestern Ontario, New Brunswick, Vancouver Island and Newfoundland. In 2008, he was made a Member of the Order of Canada. He has been shortlisted twice for the Griffin Poetry Prize, first in 2001 for Another Gravity and in 2005 for Camber: Selected Poems, which was also named a Globe and Mail Notable Book of the Year. McKay’s 2006 collection, Strike/Slip, won the 2007 Canadian Griffin Poetry Prize. He is the winner of two Governor General’s Literary Awards for Poetry for Night Field (1991) and Another Gravity (2000).
This reading is organized by CVAG’s community partner The McLoughlin Gardens Society.
Don McKay is writer-in-residence at the McLoughlin Gardens, June 20 – July 7. More about the McLoughlin Gardens can be learned here.
The Comox Valley Art Gallery is honoured and privileged to be present on the Unceded Territory of the K’ómoks First Nation. CVAG recognizes the enduring presence of First Nations people on this land.
CVAG is grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with artists, guest curators, writers, cultural advisors, community partners, our volunteers, donors + members. CVAG’s convergent programming is made possible through the support of our funders: Canada Council for the Arts, BC Arts Council, Government of Canada, Province of BC, City of Courtenay, Town of Comox, Village of Cumberland, Comox Valley Regional District, BC Gaming, The Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council / local support: ABC Printing, SD71 Print Shop, Sherwin-Williams Paint Store, Muir Engineering Ltd., Izco Technology Solutions, Shine-Eze, Cumberland Village Works, Sid Williams Theatre Society, School District 71 Indigenous Education, McLoughlin Gardens Society.
IMAGE: Poet Don McKay at the McLoughlin Gardens, June 21, 2022. Photo taken by artist Marlene Creates.