{"id":3571,"date":"2018-07-10T20:52:43","date_gmt":"2018-07-11T02:52:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.library.ualberta.ca\/ualbertapressblog\/2018\/07\/10\/naming-right-alice-majors-anne-szumigalski-lecture\/"},"modified":"2018-12-20T10:09:28","modified_gmt":"2018-12-20T17:09:28","slug":"naming-right-alice-majors-anne-szumigalski-lecture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.library.ualberta.ca\/ualbertapressblog\/2018\/07\/10\/naming-right-alice-majors-anne-szumigalski-lecture\/","title":{"rendered":"Naming Right | Alice Major’s Anne Szumigalski lecture"},"content":{"rendered":"

How do you think up the title for a lecture\u2014especially after<\/em> you\u2019ve given it? This is the challenge facing UAP author Alice Major<\/a>, who was invited to give the prestigious Anne Szumigalski lecture<\/a> in June, at the Canadian Writers Summit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe title can be the toughest line to write in a poem,\u201d says Alice. \u201cOr in a lecture. You\u2019re trying to give a sense of what you\u2019re writing about and what its context is, all in a few snappy words.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like the whole challenge of poetry\u2014squared!\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n

She gave her untitled talk to acclaim, but the challenge has not gone away. The lecture will be published in an upcoming issue of Prairie Fire<\/a>, and as she prepares the print version, she\u2019s still wondering what to call it.<\/p>\n

The Szumigalski lecture is sponsored by the League of Canadian Poets, in memory of the celebrated poet, a founder of the Saskatchewan Writers Guild. Over the years, the annual talks have had titles like \u201cEvery Exit is an Entrance (A Praise of Sleep)\u201d by Anne Carson, or \u201cWhy Poetry?\u201d by Margaret Atwood.<\/p>\n

\u201cTitles like that are intriguing or magisterial and they set the bar pretty high,\u201d says Alice. \u201cYou feel you have to live up to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her talk concerns poetry and science\u2014not surprising, given her long engagement with these activities as humans try to find meaning in the universe in books like Intersecting Sets: A Poet Looks at Science<\/em><\/a> or her newest collection, Welcome to the Anthropocene.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

However, as a label, \u201cpoetry and science is rather broad and blah,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m talking about ideas like truth, and whether it matters that a poet gets the facts right, and where can a poet situate herself if she brings science into a poem. But just try boiling all that down to a catchy tag!\u201d<\/p>\n

Suggestions welcome!<\/p>\n