Wednesday, March 24, 7:00 PM
Matt Rader + Sarah Beauchamp, Carina Costom, Tressa Ford, Bre Harwood and Meredith MacDonald
Zoom (R.S.V.P. required)
A teacher of writing from UBC Okanagan together with five students from Selkirk College’s creative writing classes will read from their work on Wed., March 24 at the fourth Zoom reading in the 2020-21 author reading series presented by Nelson, B.C.’s Oxygen Art Centre. Featured will be Kelowna author Matt Rader and Selkirk students Sarah Beauchamp, Carina Costom, Tressa Ford, Bre Harwood and Meredith MacDonald.
The event begins at 7 p.m. Those interested in attending need to R.S.V.P. by emailing info@oxygenartcentre.org to receive the Zoom link and accompanying event information. The reading is free and everyone welcome to attend. Donations are encouraged: $2 – $5 via Oxygen’s CanadaHelps page.
Rader, who teaches in UBC Okanagan’s Creative Studies Department, is the author of four collections of poems, a book of stories, and most recently a book-length lyric essay, Visual Inspections, from Nightwood Editions in 2019. In 2014 he won the Joseph S. Stauffer Prize in the literary category, awarded by the Canada Council to an emerging or mid-career author based on a submitted grant application. His writing has appeared in such journals as The Walrus, Geist, and The Malahat Review.
All five Selkirk College writing students who will read on March 24 have been published by Selkirk’s literary magazine, the Black Bear Review. Harwood is the producer of a new arts and culture podcast called “This Black Bear Has 22 Minutes,” with Ford acting as the host and MacDonald is an interviewer. Costom is currently the Black Bear Review’s managing editor, and Beauchamp writes for two local magazines, Freya and Living Here.
“Public readings are often turning points for emerging writers,” said Selkirk College creative writing instructor Leesa Dean, a member of Oxygen’s Author Reading Series committee and the emcee for the March 24 reading.
“With audience support and the chance to read alongside professionals, the dream of being a writer suddenly seems more attainable,” Dean said.
Oxygen will kick off National Poetry Month on March 31 with “Dark Times Come Again No More”, a previously postponed book launch by Winlaw, B.C. author Tom Wayman along with a reading and music by Vernon, B.C. writer and musician John Lent. R.S.V.P. to attend.
Oxygen’s Author Reading Series is supported in part by the B.C. Arts Council and the Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance, and is co-presented by Nelson’s Elephant Mountain Literary Festival.
Author Bios
Matt Rader
Matt Rader is the author of three collections of poetry, Miraculous Hours (2005), Living Things (2009), and A Doctor Pedalled Her Bicycle Over the River Arno (2011). He is also the author of the story collection What I Want to Tell Goes Like This (2014) and several chapbooks including I Don’t Want to Die Like Frank O’Hara (2014). His work has appeared in journals, magazines, and websites across Canada including Geist, The Walrus, The Malahat Review, The New Quarterly, Joyland, and Hazlitt.
Bre Harwood
Bre’s an artist, occasional musician, and professional nerd. On any given day, she can be found watching cat videos, over analyzing fictional characters, and planning elaborate D&D shenanigans. While studying social work on the side, she (not at all) expertly fits assignments between bouts of creativity and cups of tea. As of late, she’s been involved with the Black Bear Review’s fiction committee, promoted to podcast producer, and can generally be spotted forcing her way into the Kootenay writing community in a not at all desperate way. Eventually, her goal is to find a way to pair therapy with writing and other forms of artistic expression.
Meredith MacDonald
Meredith MacDonald moved to Nelson in January of 2018 after living many years in the DTES (Downtown Eastside of Vancouver). In 2019, she signed up for CWRT 100 with Leesa Dean and liked the class and the other students so much that she took all the other CWRT classes. She is currently enrolled in other UAS courses including Philosophy and is excited to have her personal essay, “The Poorest Postal Code in Canada,” published in the Black Bear Review.
Tressa Ford
Tressa Ford is a queer writer and an eternal student. They were born and raised in the Kootenays, but have had many different homes. Their love of writing is born out of a deep and abiding respect for the power of stories.
Carina Costom
Carina Costom grew up in Montreal and has a degree from McGill University. She is currently the Black Bear Review’s Managing Editor and has been published in The Black Bear Review and the Nelson Star. She is working on her first collection of short stories. Find more at http://www.carinacostom.com.
Sarah Beauchamp
Sarah Beauchamp lives and creates on the unceded and traditional territory of the Sinixt, also known as Nelson, British Columbia. Sarah is both Indigenous and settler, and writes about her experience with identity and complicated family dynamics. She and her musical husband prefer to live as though both time and space are merely a suggestion, allowing themselves the freedom to create magic through various forms of art.
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