The Readers Salon
For the Avid—and Curious—Reader
The Writers Studio offers courses for novice, emerging, and experienced writers, but what about readers? This year, we invite avid readers of all forms of literature into The Readers Salon for intimate presentations designed especially for those who love books and want to know more.
These 60-minute lunch-hour journeys into the way we read promise to stretch your reading list and expand your understanding of specific genres and the style and substance of particular authors.
Join us 12:00 to 1:00 on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at the Kingston Marriott.
How to Read a Poem
Do you blanch at the sight of lines that don’t stretch all the way across the page? Noted poet and dynamic presenter Paul Vermeersch discusses some of his favourite poems, deconstructing their basic poetic forms, explaining how each poem can change the way we read, and discussing how these poems have informed and inspired his own writing. William Carlos Williams famously described a poem as “a small (or large) machine made of words.” Yes, says Vermeersch, but it’s the reader who operates the machine!
Please Don’t Cry, Mr. Wolf
Translators translate not only words; they translate culture. But how does a translator convey cultural difference while remaining faithful to the original text? And how to translate jokes and swear words? Novelist, translator of sixteen Quebec novels into English, and winner of the Governor General’s Award for Translation, Wayne Grady traverses the world of translated literature, sharing some of the hair-pulling conundrums that drive translators crazy, even when they get them right, and make readers laugh out loud when they don’t.
Developing a Reader’s Eye
Reading, like other encounters with art, deepens our experience of life itself. We can feel ourselves changed by a painting or a sculpture or a book. Drawing on her new collection of essays, In the Field, Kingston Poet Laureate and Governor General’s Award winner Sadiqa de Meijer explores the ways in which reading becomes transformative. What happens in our imaginations when we engage in the collaborative solitude of reading a book? And what are the implications of that alchemy for our culture and ourselves?
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