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On June 28, the 2012 George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Daphne Marlatt at the Vancouver Public Library in an event that starts at 6:30 pm.
Born as Daphne Buckle, Marlatt spent six years in Malaysia after World War II before she immigrated to North Vancouver in 1951. Much of her postmodernist writing would be attuned to the adjustments, struggles and accomplishments of immigrants. While Marlatt attended UBC (1960-1964), her literary associations with the loosely-affiliated TISH group encouraged her non-conformist approach to language and etymological explorations.
She was the founding editor of two literary magazines: periodics and Tessera. She co-edited West Coast Review, Island, The Capilano Review, and TISH. In 2004 she was appointed as the first writer-in-residence at Simon Fraser University in three decades. She currently co-directs the annual Banff Writing Studio.
In 2006, Daphne Marlatt was appointed to the Order of Canada. She now lives with her partner, Bridget MacKenzie, in Vancouver. Collaboration has been a significant element of her career, beginning with her 1970s oral history research in the Japanese-Canadian community of Steveston and then in the multi-ethnic neighbourhood of Strathcona. Opening Doors in Vancouver’s East End: Strathcona was the first book to be republished under Vancouver’s 125 Legacy Books Collection program in 2011.
Daphne Marlatt’s recent ventures into theatre have extended this element. In 2008, The Gull, her contemporary Canadian Noh play, was awarded the international Uchimura Naoya Prize. In 2009, she won the Dorothy Livesay Prize for The Given. In 2011, Marlatt completed the libretto for a chamber opera, Shadow Catch.
We are also pleased to announce that Daphne Marlatt’s Liquidities: Vancouver Poems Then and Now will be appearing from Talonbooks in 2013.

Daniel MacIvor’s Cul-de-sac Reviewed by Ed Huyck
Cul-de-sac, a play by Daniel MacIvor, is currently being staged in Minneapolis, Minnesota, put on by the Loudmouth Collective at the Open Eye Figure Theatre.

Ed Huyck reviewed the play for CityPages.com. A few excerpts follow.
Monday May 6, 2013 in Meta-Talon
Way More Than A Thousand Words: Coping with Emotions and Otters Launch
Ash Tanasiychuk takes pictures. Of Dina Del Bucchia. Nuff said. Oh, and Otters!
Monday April 29, 2013 in Meta-Talon
Other People’s Moccasins: Joanne Arnott Interviews Wanda John-Kehewin
Joanne Arnott interviews Wanda John-Kehewin about her new book In the Dog House:
I can’t really say there were many poets of the past that influenced my writing. I think when I really started to be inspired was when I heard that there were other Native writers, and that wasn’t until I moved to the West Coast in 1991. For some reason I didn’t think it was actually something an “Indian” could do. There weren’t any books in the library that were by First Nations people when I was growing up.
Thursday April 25, 2013 in Meta-Talon
Text in the City: Music Somewhere Near a Griffin
Garry Thomas Morse on poetry prizes and/or music in poetry. Whatever!
Not to pull an academy-bashing Joaquin Phoenix, but strictly off the record, I’ve never understood how prizes relate to poetry, exactly, and a number of acclaimed poets have confessed a similar sentiment in my presence, in one way or another. One would hope that a poet only gets into the racket out of an imperative need to do so, if not a compulsive love, implying all the emotions and forms of resentment love can contain. In that case, how can a prize for being the greatest lover compare to said love itself?
We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts; the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program; and the Province of British Columbia through the British Columbia Arts Council for our publishing activities.