Published by Communications and Public Affairs 519 824-4120, Ext. 56982 or 53338

News Release

October 06, 2005

Award-Winning Poet and Essayist Is Newest Writer-in-Residence

Roo Borson, a Governor General Award-winning poet and essayist, has been named writer-in-residence for fall 2005 at the University of Guelph. Borson, who is also a member of the collaborative performance group "Pain Not Bread," will give a reading from her most recent book Short Journey Upriver Toward Ōishida Oct. 17 in the George Luscombe Theatre at 4 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

Short Journey Upriver Toward Ōishida, won the 2004 Governor General's Award for Poetry as well as the 2005 Griffin Poetry Prize and 2005 Pat Lowther Award.

"I know there are a lot of writers here in Guelph, and I hope they'll take the opportunity to come and see me," said Borson. "Writing is a very technical art, and the interesting thing about literature is what matters is not, say, a character in a novel; but rather how the mind moves and what the mind is saying."

She will be on campus two days a week until the end of the semester to consult with U of G students, staff and faculty as well as those in the broader Guelph community who are interested in creative writing. She has previously been a writer-in-residence at the University of Western Ontario, the University of Toronto, Concordia University and Green College at the University of British Columbia.

"U of G's writer-in-residence program has been extraordinarily successful at drawing some of Canada's most important writers at the very height of their careers," said Prof. Daniel O'Quinn, School of English and Theatre Studies.

"Roo Borson is arguably one of the most important poets working in Canada today. As an internationally recognized poet, she brings a sense of craft and of the ethical responsibility of poetry to everything she does. We are fortunate to have such a distinguished practitioner among us for the next few months."

Borson, who is originally from Berkeley, Calif., and now lives in Toronto, holds a master of fine art in creative writing from the University of British Columbia. She has published nine other books of poetry, including Night Walk: Selected Poems, a finalist for the Governor General's Award in 1994, and given readings across Canada and in the United States and Australia. She is represented in many anthologies and has a long history of promoting poets across the country.

To book an appointment with Borson, contact Yvonne Yates at (519) 824-4120, Ext. 53147, or yyates@uoguelph.ca.