Fred Wah studied music and English literature at the University of British Columbia in the early 1960s, where he was one of the founding editors of the poetry newsletter TISH.
He has published books of poetry, fiction, and criticism. His book of prose poems, Waiting For Saskatchewan, received the Governor General’s Award in 1986, and So Far was awarded the Stephanson Award for Poetry in 1992. Diamond Grill, a biofiction about hybridity and growing up in a small-town Chinese Canadian cafe was published in 1996 and won the Howard O’Hagan Award for Short Fiction. Faking It: Poetics and Hybridity was awarded the Gabrielle Roy Prize for Writing on Canadian literature in 2000, and is a door won the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize in 2009.
Wah was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2012. He served as Canada’s Parliamentary Poet Laureate from 2011 to 2013.
This week includes author interviews, books recommendations for all kinds of summer moods, book picks for armchair travel in the time of quarantine, and more!
This week we bookclubbed, completed another Read Harder Challenge, chatted with authors, and more!
Fred Wah's Music at the Heart of Thinking (Talonbooks) is is a lifelong poem project that responds to readings in contemporary writing, art, and ideas from the past forty years. It works through language as a practice of thought and improvisation as the tool that listens ... Read more
It’s the weekend before Valentine’s but the type of dating we lovingly embrace is of the book variety, so this weekend we’ve piled our stack higher than usual with four new(ish) reads about different kinds of love and friendship. And we made sure to stock up on chocolate ... Read more
Lauralyn Chow's debut, an interconnected collection of short stories, follows the Lee family from the 1960s to the present day – a journey of intergenerational gatherings, laughter, and unbelievable food. In fact, each story's title named after a Chinese food menu. Hungry ... Read more
Not enough literary festivals last week for you? Check out this week, with festivals in Victoria, Vancouver, Lethbridge, Winnipeg, and Toronto. But that's not all!
Are you hosting an event featuring an author whose titles are available on All Lit Up? Send the event details, including ... Read more
A common theme in Canadian literature is that of the immigrant coming to Canadian shores or airports, encountering displacement, racism, and/or struggle. Whether it’s the harsh climate and terrain in Susanna Moodie’s canonical Roughing it in the Bush, or acclimatizing to ... Read more
It’s the New Year, and we were inspired by the newest things out there: BABIES. Check out these seven bookish babes (or baby accessories).
The University of Alberta founded the Banff Centre in 1933, with help from the Carnegie Foundation. While the Centre initially started only in the area of drama, by 1935 creative writing was also taught and the stage was set for the printed word at the Banff Centre.
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