The SoundBox Collection
George Bowering (1935-) was born in Penticton, B.C. and grew up in Oliver. At UBC, Bowering was one of the founding editors of TISH. Bowering is a prolific poet, novelist, essayist, and critic, who has written over 80 books and 35 chapbooks to date. Some of his honours include the Governor General’s Award in both poetry (1969) and fiction (1980), and the Order of Canada (2002). Bowering lives in Vancouver.
Peter Quartermain (1934– ) is an English writer, critic, publisher and teacher. Quartermain spent his early life in England and migrated to Canada in the 1960s. He is the author of Basil Bunting, Poet of the North (1990), Disjunctive Poetics: From Gertrude Stein and Louis Zukofsky to Susan Howe (Cambridge U Press, 1992), Stubborn Poetries: Poetic Facticity and the Avant-Garde (U Alabama Press, 2013), and a recent memoir. Peter taught contemporary poetry at UBC for over thirty years, retiring in 1999. He and his partner Meredith Quartermain ran Slug Press, followed by Keefer Street Press, where they produced hand-set letter-press broadsides and pamphlets, and Nomados Literary Publishers, publishing many innovative poets across North America.
Sharon Thesen was born in Tisdale, Saskatchewan. She spent spent most of her early years in Kamloops and Prince George, eventually moving to Vancouver to study and teach. In 2005 she joined UBC Okanagan where she is now Professor Emerita. Thesen is the author of 11 books of poetry including a number of chapbooks. Her books have been finalists for a number of prestigious awards including the Governor-General’s Award and the Dorothy Livesay Prize; her book of poems A Pair of Scissors won the Pat Lowther Memorial Award. She currently lives in Lake Country, BC.
Due to the sheer volume of this collection, subjects are many. They include: Basil Bunting, Gertrude Stein, T.S. Eliot, Susan Howe, Steve McCaffery, Lyn Hejinian, William Carlos Williams, Charles Olson, Robert Duncan, Louis Zukofsky, Kathleen Fraser, Joan Retallack, Beverley Dahlen, Rachel Blau Du Plessis, Rae Armantrout, Susan Gevirtz, Rosemarie Waldrop, Robin Blaser, Jerome McGann, Marjorie Perloff, Nathaniel Mackey, Joseph Conte, Jenny Penberthy, Ezra Pound, P.G. Wodehouse, Meredith Quartermain, Daphne Marlatt, Don Byrd, John “Jack” Clarke, Burton Hatlen, Gael Turnbull, Judith Draycott, Bruce Andrews, George Bowering, Miriam Nichols, Douglas Oliver, Tom Raworth, Geraldine Monk, Nicole Brossard, Diane Ward, Myung Mi Kim, Gary Snyder, Allen Ginsburg, Robert Creeley, Joanne Kyger, Stan Persky, Colin Stuart, Brian Fawcett, George Stanley, Gerry Gilbert, Lorine Neidecker, John Cage, Stephen Cummings, Allen Fisher, Sharon Thesen, John Hulcoop, Joe Rosenblatt, Bill Bissett, David Bromige, Tony Baker, Harry Gilonis, Bob Perelman, Lorraine Weir, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Roy Fisher, Jonathan Williams, Theresa Clark, Carletta Wilson, Peter Courtemanche, Scott McLeod, G.P. Skratz, Bob Davis, Fel Santos, Douglas Oliver, Marc Karlin, Helen Adam, Charles Stein, Jackson MacLow, François Dufrêne, Geraldine Monk, Jack Spicer, James Joyce and Hugh Kenner.
Subjects include: Angela Bowering, Thea Bowering, Warren Tallman, Louis Dudek, Sheila Watson, Wyndham Lewis, Sharon Thesen, Robin Blaser, Gerry Gilbert, and Roy Kiyooka (as well as others in the recording collage who are unidentified).