Writer-in-residence wants greater sense of community

By Tom Morrison

The University of Windsor’s writer-in-residence wants creative writing students to have a better sense of community after his term finishes at the end of March.

Phil Hall, an award-winning poet, has been the university’s writer-in-residence since the beginning of March. He is responsible for holding morning office hours to talk with students about their writing.

“I’d like it if after my month here, the people taking creative writing at the university – graduate, undergraduate – would all have a better sense of community,” said Hall, who earned his master’s degree in creative writing at the University of Windsor. “We’re going to organize an informal – all creative writing, people in the (English) department – get together and read poems so they can hear each other.”

As writer-in-residence, Hall has been holding readings like the ones he describes, one of which was held March 14 at the Artspeak Gallery. The reading, a part of the “Having Words” series at the gallery, was hosted by Marty Gervais, Windsor’s first Poet Laureate, and was sponsored by his office and the university’s English department.

“The idea was to hold readings, engage the public, engage readers and writers in conversation about poetry,” said Gervais, who has published one of Hall’s books.

Hall’s latest book, 2011’s Killdeer, won the Governor General’s Award for Poetry and the 2012 Trillium Book Award. Gervais said he was very excited when he found out Hall had received these awards.

“It’s like somebody in your neighbourhood winning the lottery and you want to call them and congratulate them and bug them for money,” said Gervais

Hall said Killdeer is a collection of “essay-poems” and the writing style arose from getting bored with traditional line breaks.

“I wanted to have width so that I could say more than something chiselled, I wanted to say everything I wanted to say,” Hall said.

Although Hall studied in Windsor, the resident of Perth, Ont. said he hasn’t stayed connected to the city outside of a few readings and events. He said he was surprised to see how some things haven’t changed.

“I thought for sure that the places I had lived would have been torn down,” said Hall. “I see a lot of changes, but I see a lot things have stayed the same.”

Hall has a new book called The Small Nouns Crying Faith scheduled for release in May. He finishes his term as writer-in-residence March 28.

[embedplusvideo height=”281″ width=”450″ standard=”http://www.youtube.com/v/yJAAKc5h08Y?fs=1″ vars=”ytid=yJAAKc5h08Y&width=450&height=281&start=&stop=&rs=w&hd=0&autoplay=0&react=1&chapters=&notes=” id=”ep5666″ /]