Angela Bowering – The SoundBox Collection

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

July 15, 2024 | 43:28 | S2:E1

EPISODE NOTES

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 episode features multiple archival clips from the digitized cassette tape, alongside interview audio from Karis Shearer and George Bowering. “Sharon Thesen's Reading at the Bowerings’” was co-produced by Emily Chircop and Sofie Drew as part of the Press Play project. The SoundBox Collection is part of the SpokenWeb SSHRC Partnership Grant.

Sofie Drew is a Classical Studies and English undergraduate student at the University of Exeter who is particularly interested in creative writing and poetry. She is the current Head of Poetry of the University of Exeter’s creative writing journal, ‘Enigma’, and was recently elected as Journal Director for the next year. Having written and directed an audio drama as part of the BBC New Creatives scheme, and written another audio drama as part of the “United Kingdoms” series which aired on BBC Radio 4, she is looking forward to working on further writing projects. Follow Sofie on Instagram: @sofiefdrew

Emily Chircop is an English and Communications undergraduate student at the University of Exeter, who has been working on podcasts since 2020. She is the co-founder of Archives Abound, an online student-run publication. Her main interests include early modern theatre and digital humanities, and she enjoys exploring texts by considering medium, performance, and representation of identities. Follow Emily on Instagram: @e.chircop

Karis Shearer is Associate Professor of English at UBC's Okanagan campus, specializing in literary audio, poetry, and archives. She is UBCO lead researcher on the SpokenWeb SSHRC Partnership Grant and co-produces the SoundBox Signals podcast series. She is a guest contributor to this episode.

George Bowering 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.

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.

These readings helped inform our research and/or may be of interest to listeners of this episode.

“Side A: Sharon Thesen's Reading at [George and Angela] Bowerings'” from Sharon Thesen fonds, nd. 2019.002.002, SoundBox Collection, AMP Lab at UBC Okanagan, Kelowna, B.C. https://soundbox.ok.ubc.ca/sharon-thesens-reading-at-bowerings/

Sharon Thesen’s “The Fire”: Studio Reading of “The Fire.” Ed. Amy Thiessen.
https://sharonthesenthefire.omeka.net/reading

Thesen, Sharon. Artemis Hates Romance. Toronto: Coach House Press, 1980.

Thesen, Sharon. Refabulations: Selected Longer Poems. Ed. Erin Moure. Talonbooks, 2023.
https://talonbooks.com/books/?refabulations

SpokenWeb Podcast Season 1 Episode 1 “Stories of Spoken Web”:
https://spokenweb.ca/podcast/episodes/stories-of-spokenweb/

SpokenWeb Podcast Season 1 Episode 2 “Sound Recordings Are Weird”: https://spokenweb.ca/podcast/episodes/sound-recordings-are-weird/

The Capilano Review, The Sharon Thesen Issue. Spring 2008.
https://thecapilanoreview.com/issues/spring-2008-the-sharon-these-issue/

Specifically, Thea Bowering’s article “Sharon Thesen: Poem in Memory, and growing up there”
https://journals.sfu.ca/capreview/index.php/capreview/article/view/2674/2674

SHOW CONTRIBUTORS
Emily Chircop
Sofie Drew
George Bowering
Karis Shearer
Sharon Thesen

Bowering Party Readings (1986)

This tape consists of an amateur home recording of a private reading among poets and friends hosted by George and Angela Bowering on August 16, 1986. Guest readers include Sharon Thesen and Robin Blaser. Other readers may include Rob Dunham reading Luis Posse’s poems and Dwight Gardiner.

The sociality and community-focus of the event is referenced throughout. Sharon Thesen mentions that “it’s nice to be part of the garden anthology,” which one might assume to be the intimate home setting of the reading itself. Rob Dunham introduces the event by heralding a classroom context, saying “class, come to order please, boys and girls.” Most probably humorous in intention, this invocation also possibly cites the historical interspersion of pedagogy and more intimate community of practice with the so-called 1963 Vancouver Poetry Conference or ENGL 401.

Additionally, poems in this recording are dedicated to members of the audience, including Angela and George Bowering respectively, and Robin Blaser. Sharon Thesen’s first reading from Confabulations is also mentioned, creating a network of past and present poetry events, a sense of mutual support and respect for each other’s work.

The tape stops recording mid-poem.—Klara du Plessis & Karis Shearer

Citation: “Bowering Party Readings Aug 16, 1986,” 2019.003.012. George Bowering fonds. SoundBox Collection, AMP Lab at UBC Okanagan, Kelowna, B.C. https://soundbox.ok.ubc.ca/george-bowering/

| Bibliography

Gardiner, Dwight. New York Book of the Dead. Talonbooks, 1984. Print.

Posse, Luis. Free the Shadows. Talonbooks, 1986. Print.

Thesen, Sharon. Confabulations: Poems for Malcolm Lowry. Oolichan Books, 1984. Print.

| Metadata

“Bowering Party Readings Aug 16, 1986.” SpokenWeb Search Engine. https://search.spokenweb.ca/catalog/4175

Find Us

Where

The SoundBox collection is digitized, archived, and remediated on the traditional and unceded territory of the Syilx Okanagan Nation. The collection encompasses the thoughts and work of voices recorded across so-called British Columbia and so-called Canada, including on the traditional and unceded territories of the Syilx Okanagan Nation, Secwépemc, Tiohtià:ke (Montreal), xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples.

Located on the ancestral and unceded lands of the Syilx Okanagan Nation. The collection is housed at The University of British Columbia (Okanagan) and loved by The AMP Lab.

3333 University Way
Kelowna, BC V1V 1V7