Vancouver’s Poet Laureate McWhirter to lead festival workshop

One of poet and novelist George McWhirter’s students has said this of him: “He teaches you without you realizing you’re being taught.”

And when McWhirter was named to a two-year term in 2007 as Vancouver’s first Poet Laureate, a student from the UBC Creative Writing Program – which the much-loved poet headed for a decade – lauded him in the Georgia Straight: “As eccentric as he was, he was incredibly good natured, warm-hearted, nurturing, and endlessly enthusiastic about student work,” wrote Craig Takeuchi. “No matter how bad someone’s work was, he would always find something positive to say about it. And it was genuine, not faked.”

So it seems that everyone with poetry in their hearts who registers for his Write on Bowen! literary festival workshop, 4D Word Drawing (Saturday, July 12 at 1 p.m. in Artisan Square), is in for an unorthodox but rewarding learning experience.

“The aim of the workshop is to get participants to put their thought into a thing and to let the features and nature of that thing develop the poem and the thought attached to it,” says McWhirter – an organic process with a simple premise: “A poem is anything you look at twice.”

In addition to leading the Saturday workshop, McWhirter joins Bowen writers James Glave, Julie Vik, Lisa Shatzky and Bernice Lever at the festival’s Opening Night celebration on Friday, July 11, 7:30 p.m. at Cates Hill Chapel.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Vancouver’s inaugural poet laureate to Bowen’s inaugural literary festival,” says Write on Bowen! co-director Carol Cram. “For this first year we’ve drawn almost entirely on our island’s talented artists, but it’s a pleasure to make George McWhirter an honorary islander for the weekend.”

The three-day festival features eight workshops with pre-registration, three free panels, two sessions of storytelling for children, one-on-one editing sessions, a celebration of Bowen literary arts at The Gallery in Artisan Square on Saturday evening and a Lieben Lands Walk on Sunday morning.

For full festival details and to register online or to download registration forms, go twww.biac.ca/writersfestival or pick forms up at Phoenix Books, where $15 tickets for the Opening Night readings are also available.