- B.A. (Victoria)
- MA (Windsor)
Research Interests
- Film, especially experimental and documentary film.
- Creative writing: poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction.
- Blues lyrics from the folk tradition.
- Polar Exploration.
- Canadian literature, environmental literature, American poetry.
My books include Blue Himalayan Poppies (Nightwood, 2001), Writing on the Wall (Outlaw Editions, 1996), Painting The Yellow House Blue (House of Anansi, 1994), Am I Glad To See You (Thistledown, 1992), a novel called The Wolsenburg Clock (Thistledown 2009), and a work of creative nonfiction: In Antarctica: An Amundsen Pilgrimage (Nightwood, 2012). Another work of creative nonfiction, After Antarctica is forthcoming.
I studied at Okanagan College (with John Lent), the University of Victoria (with Constance Rooke), the University of Windsor (with Alistair MacLeod), and at the Banff Centre for the Arts (with Don Coles and Don McKay).
I am the book reviews editor at The Malahat Review and have been on the editorial board there since 1990. I guest-edited a special issue on environmental literature called “The Green Imagination” and also a special issue on the poet P.K. Page. I teach English, Creative Writing and Film Studies. My essays, interviews and art criticism have appeared in Brick, Poetry Canada Review, and selected gallery publications and my poems and stories have appeared in Canadian and American journals such as Caliban, Prism International, Canadian Literature, Event, Saturday Night, Descant,Border Crossings, and Poetry Northwest.
My films include Life Worth Telling (documentary), Carmanah (cinepoem -- selected for the Vancouver Island Short Film Festival), and Mine (cinepoem.