Photo: Holley Rubinsky

 

 

INsid

 

June 1999

The Douglas College Newsletter m New Westminster Campus, David Lam Campus & Thomas Haney Campus

IN

Douglas College

Zieroth brings humanity to age of

technology

Creative writing instructor David Zieroth,
winner of the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize
for the best book by a BC poet in 1998.

1970~2000
Coldbrating 30 Yours of Building Futures

Douglas College turns 30
in 2000, making it a year
of celebration and special
opportunities. Join us as
we look back in time to
1969....

College administration ate
hired its first principal,
Dr. George Wooton, in
1969. The one thing that
everyone remembers best
about him is his dislike
of shoes. He even
removed them during his
job interview at Douglas
College. “I just don’t like
shoes,” he explained. “I'd
take off more if I could

get away with it.”

Ottawa.”

Bill Day, Citizenship
Judge

Retirement has been anything but quiet for past
Douglas College President Bill Day. In addition to
co-authoring and co-editing two different writing
projects, he’s also working on a research project at
UBC and chairing committees, Now, he’s been
appointed as a Citizenship Judge for British

“The appointment was simple,” he says. “I got a
phone call from David Anderson's office asking if I
would consider the appointment. I said “ok,” and
my CV went into the hopper in the Prime
Minister's office. A month later, I received a letter
of appointment from the Cabinet Secretariat in

Poetry is hip again and, thanks partially to the
Internet and CD-ROMs, reaching a much
wider audience than when Allen Ginsberg and
the Beat Poets inspired the college crowd of the
sixties.

There's little doubt that technology in some
ways enhances access to the arts, putting us a
mouse-click away from museums, art galleries
and verse. But award-winning Douglas College
poet David Zieroth offers his own vision about
the relationship between technology and

poetry.

“Poetry is a counter to technology,” Zieroth
explains. “It’s extremely personal and
vulnerable. The resurgence of poetry is
humanity resurfacing in the face of
technology.”

Humanity is at the core of Zieroth’s work. How
I Joined Humanity At Last, his latest collection
of works, garnered him the Dorothy Livesay
Poetry Prize for the best book by a BC poet in
1998. Described as “one man’s journey to
compassion,” Zieroth explains it as a book
about “family, teaching, walking and thinking.”

»

Zieroth has five books of poems
to his name, has been published
in various magazines and
anthologies, and is a 1999
National Magazine Award
nominee. He’s also past editor
of Event, Douglas College’s
award-winning literary
magazine. Busy as he is, Zieroth
still manages to teach creative
writing courses full-time at the
College, coaxing poems and
stories from budding authors.

While he doesn’t use a
computer or have an e-mail
account, Zieroth is no Luddite.
“I use a word processor — and
the phone!” he laughs. “I’m not

a grumpy old poet resisting the
future.”

“Life is about choices,” he
continues. “We don’t have a lot
of time, so I made a conscious
effort to focus on my reading
and writing.”

 

   

»

File photo

Bill Day 's view of retirement: “Life
continues to be good and exciting —/ have

always been a very lucky man."

Day’s new position involves four primary functions: assessment and decision regarding language
sufficiency, Canadian knowledge sufficiency, residency requirements and officiating at ceremonies.

So what else is our intrepid ex-President up to? His list includes “honking around on the motorcycle,
desultory carpentry and animal feeding on Pender Island at the cabin, hiking on the North Shore
mountains, etc...” We think it’s time he took a retirement from his retirement!

Eventful times

Douglas College’s very
own award-winning
literary magazine Event
is at it again. Recently
nominated for two
National Magazine
Awards and two Western
Magazine awards, Event
has won 24 awards since

1988.

“Simply being
nominated for one of
these awards is like
winning,” says Event
editor Calvin Wharton.
“To make the shortlist
from the huge number
of submissions received
by the awards
foundation is an honour
in itself. Every year for
the last three years we've
been nominated for
Western and National
Magazine awards.”

Checking the list of
now-popular authors
who were published in
Event yields many
recognizable names:
Charles Bukowski,
Sharon Butala, Carol
Shields, Gordon
Pinsent, Susan
Musgrave, Don McKay,
Nino Ricci, Jack
Hodgins and most
recently, 1998 Chapters/
Books in Canada First
Novel Award winning
author Andre Alexis.

Event also won The
Georgia Straight’s Best
of Vancouver 1997
award for “Best edited-
in-Vancouver magazines
with few pictures, lots of
good words.”

Now in it’s 28th year of
publication, Event is
available at many fine
bookstores or by
subscription for $18 per
year. For more
information, contact

Wharton at 5293.

 

 

Quote of the Month

"My life has a superb cast but I can't figure out the plot."

Ashleigh Brilliant