Two accomplished local women writers, Cornelia Hoogland and Judy LeBlanc, will read from their recently published books at the Courtenay Library on Thursday, Nov. 23 at 6 p.m.
Though these writers have distinct voices, both their books are grounded in the landscape of Vancouver Island, particularly in and around the Comox Valley.
Hoogland’s seventh book of poetry, Trailer Park Elegy, (Harbour Publishing) is structured as a long poem that deals in dark themes (chaos theory, dark matter, the effect of noise pollution on whales) while running through a compelling meditation on a brother’s death.
LeBlanc’s short stories in The Promise of Water (Oolichan Books) also grapple, in part, with the loss of a brother and explore daily lives embedded in our coastal environment: a coal mining village, an indigenous burial ground, in a kayak in coastal waters.
The Comox Valley is fortunate to have a poet as accomplished as Cornelia Hoogland who has been very recently shortlisted for the 2017 CBC Poetry Award. Her poem was one of five selected from 2,400 submissions.
As well, Hoogland has been recognized for earlier work. Woods Wolf Girl was a finalist for the Relit Award for Poetry and Sea Level was shortlisted for the 2012 CBC Creative Nonfiction Prize. Hoogland serves on national and international literary boards, and was the founder and artistic director of Poetry London and, most recently, of Poetry* Hornby Island.
The Promise of Water is LeBlanc’s first book, though her short fiction has been published in numerous literary journals. In 2015, she won the Islands Fiction contest and in 2012, she won the Antigonish Review’s Sheldon Currie Fiction contest and was longlisted for the CBC short story prize.
She teaches creative writing at North Island College and is locally known for originating and serving as the artistic director for the Fat Oyster Reading Series.
For more information, see the Courtenay Library website at: http://virl.bc.ca/event/authors-reading-judy-leblanc-cornelia-hoogland