The SoundBox Collection

The SoundBox collection contains literary audio that represents important UBC and Canadian cultural heritage. In particular, the poetics conversations recorded between the 1960s and late 1980s reveal much about the gendered division of labour in artistic communities, the custodianship of community history, and the practices of dialogue and critique that underpin the production of literature at UBC, in Vancouver, and in the wider arts community in Canada and the U.S. Other literary audio genres in the collection include the poetry reading, interview, literary lecture, speech, and recital.

UBC Okanagan is a member of the SpokenWeb partnership. SpokenWeb is a SSHRC-funded partnership grant. All material that appears on this website is used for the purposes of academic research and critical study.

A black cassette tape with a beige label. In handwriting reads, "Daphne's 2d (205) ... Friday, October 24, 86."

Sonic Spotlight

  • S2, Episode 1: Sharon Thesen’s reading at the Bowerings’

    University of Exeter undergraduates Sofie Drew and Emily Chircop carry out a close listening of a 1980 recording of Sharon Thesen reading from her first book Artemis Hates Romance at George and Angela Bowerings’ house. Drew and Chircop’s conversation focuses on the intimacy, sociality, and ambiguity of the recording, and how this shapes interpretation. The…

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  • A black cassette tape with a white label at the bottom. In handwriting reads, "November 14, 86', 205 Sharon Thesen."

    “Chrysanthemum Perfume”

    “Chrysanthemum Perfume” from The Beginning of the Long Dash

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  • A semi-transparent cassette tape. The label, in handwriting reads, "Sharon Thesen's Reading at Bowerings."

    On Sharon Thesen’s Reading at the Bowerings’

    Karis Shearer talks with George Bowering with contributions from Jean Baird about the Sharon Thesen’s reading and launch of Artemis Hates Romance at George and Angela Bowerings’ house in the early 1980s. Their conversation touches on other readings and literary events at the Bowerings’, a social hub for writers living in and visiting Vancouver.

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