Canadian Poet John Terpstra to read as part of Lorenzo Reading Series
Author: Communications
Posted on Feb 26, 2015
Category: UNB Saint John
Canadian poet John Terpstra will read from Brilliant Falls and The House with the Parapet Wall on Monday, March 9 at 7 p.m. in the Ganong Hall Lecture Theatre.
John Terpstra is a poet and carpenter whose fine craftsmanship marks both his trades. He has published more than 10 books of poetry and his work is in major anthologies, including New Canadian Poetry (Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2000). His poems have won a Bressani Prize, the CBC Radio Literary Competition, and several Hamilton and Region Arts Council Book Prizes. His poetry has been short-listed for a Governor General’s Literary Award, and his non-fiction work was a finalist for the Charles Taylor Prize.
Terpstra’s poems often juxtapose incongruous and unlikely situations. In Brilliant Falls, nominated for the 2014 Raymond Souster Memorial Award, he writes poignant poems that explore the life transitions within families when brash energetic youth rubs against the aging and dying.
In his latest book of poetry, The House with the Parapet Wall, Terpstra’s poems follow the trails that run through his home city of Hamilton, Ontario.
In this work, he creates a conversational and historical meditation on human mortality. As layers of time shift forward and back during his travels along the city paths, the poems unite the act of exploration as an act of faith.
The reading is hosted by the Lorenzo Reading Series and supported by the Canada Council for the Arts. Admission is free and all are welcome to attend.
For more information contact Alison Hughes at (506) 654-3753 or email aehughes@unb.ca.