Date: April 5 and April 6
Time: 7 pm
Admission: Free
Location: Stan Hagen Theatre, NIC's Comox Valley campus (April 5) and Room S-108, Port Alberni campus (April 6)
Abel will be performing a piece from his award-winning book Injun, a long poem about racism and the representation of Indigenous peoples that received the Canadian 2017 Griffin Poetry Prize, Canada’s largest poetry award. His other books include The Place of Scraps (winner of the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize) and Un/inhabited.
He will also be discussing his current project, Empty Spaces, which is reinterpretation of The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper. This work-in-progress seeks to disrupt colonial logic by displacing and reorienting the novel to expose the problematic representation of Indigenous peoples, particularly around the concept of terra nullius and empty, uninhabited land.
Abel is pursuing a PhD at Simon Fraser University where his research concentrates on intergenerational trauma and Indigenous literature. He recently accepted a tenure-track position in the Faculty of Arts, English & Film Studies department at the University of Alberta.
“Jordan Abel is one of the most important young writers in Canada and we are very honoured to have him visit NIC,” said NIC Write Here Readers Series event organizer Nick Van Orden.
Abel’s reading is the accumulation of a talented line-up of readings hosted by NIC’s English department as part of the Write Here Readers Series, made possible through funding from the Canada Council of the Arts. The series highlights the richness of literary arts in our region and offer students and community members the opportunity to hear from some of Canada’s top writers.
Each semester, NIC’s English department offers a wide selection of university transferrable English and creative writing courses. In fall 2018, the department is excited to launch three new courses. Essay Writing and Indigenous Perspectives (ENG-116) and Indigenous Literatures in Canada (ENG-127) will introduce students to the oral traditions of Canadian and Indigenous writers and teachers, while Reading Literature (ENG-122) will engage students to be better readers who think critically about how humans live and find meaning
To find out more about NIC’s programs and courses visit www.nic.bc.ca. For more information on this event or the Write Here Readers Series, visit www.nic.bc.ca/university-transfer or contact Nick Van Orden at nicholas.vanorden@nic.bc.ca.
