Gary Geddes, Writer in Residence

Mackie House writer-in-residence arriving September,2008

One of Canada’s most renowned writers, Gary Geddes, will take up residency in The Mackie House as the 2008 Writer In Residence this September.

Geddes will give a Public Reading of some of his work on Monday, September 23 at 7:00pm in Room D212 at The Kalamalka Campus of Okanagan College.  Everyone is invited to attend.  The reading is free of charge. 

As Writer-In-Residence at The Mackie House Geddes will join the exciting company of the first six writers who began this tradition with Okanagan College and The Mackie House: Ron Ayling, Dennis Cooley, David Pitt-Brooke and Christine McPhee, Robert Kroetsch and Dawne McCance. Kalamalka Press has published each of these writers and their books can be ordered online by going to www.kalwriters.com.

Geddes writing career has spanned four decades of work and, aside from editing two of the most popular poetry anthologies in the country---20th Century Poetry & Poetics and 15 Canadian Poets X 3---Geddes has written a powerful and significant body of original work including these books: Letter Of The Master Of Horse !1973); War And Other Measures (1976); The Acid Test (1980); The Terracotta Army (1984); No Easy Exit (1989); Sailing Home: A Journey Through Time, Place & Memory (2001); The Kingdom Of Ten Thousand Things: An Impossible Journey From Kabul to Chiapas (2005) and, most recently, Falseworks (2007), a book of poems about the collapse of the Second Narrows bridge in 1958, a book short-listed for The George Ryga Award, and a book that contributed to Geddes being awarded the 2008 British Columbia Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence.

“George Woodcock once described Geddes as Canada’s best political poet,” said John Lent, Regional Dean of Okanagan College, “and I think that in his own quiet way, alongside the work of Tom Wayman and Milton Acorn, that’s a very accurate statement still.”

Lent went on to say that having Geddes here as Writer In Residence will be exciting for writers in Vernon and Kelowna, and especially for students enrolled in Okanagan College’s new two-year Diploma In Writing & Publishing, offered in Vernon at the Kalamalka Campus of Okanagan College.