East & West Dialogue – How We Got Here: Two Writers in Conversation

At our monthly East & West Dialogue, guest speakers from different cultural backgrounds volunteer their time and expertise to share life experiences, thoughts, concerns, , and have a dialogue with our audience.

This month, we are very much delighted to welcome two renowned Canadian poets and writers, Alice Major and DC Reid, who both have broad interest in literature, science, and social issues. They’ll talk about how they came to make their living as writers, and share how their interest in science informs their work. They’ll also talk about having some of their poetry translated into Chinese, and together with their translator, Mississauga’s first poet laureate Anna Yin, read a little of their work.

Click here to register .

Time: Sunday October 27, 2024 at 7-8:30 P.M. (Eastern Time; starts at 5 P.M. Mountain Time, and 4 P.M. Pacific Time)

Meeting floor will open 15 minutes prior.

Free English online event, transcript of translations in other languages available on Zoom


Guest Speaker Bios

Picture of Alice Major.

Alice Major

Alice has been a poet fascinated by science since she was very young. She has now published 12 poetry collections and a book of essays, as well as two young-adult novels. 

Science has been a source of inspiration for much of Alice’s work, including the award-winning collection of essays Intersecting Sets: A Poet Looks at Science. She was the invited to read her poems at COP15, the UN’s Biodiversity Conference held in Montreal in 2022. Her 12th poetry collection Knife on Snow published  by Turnstone Press and recently received the Stephansson Award for best book of poetry from the Writers Guild of Alberta.

Alice found her way to Edmonton in 1981, found a writing community there, and has been the city’s first poet laureate, the founder of the Edmonton Poetry Festival, as well as many other community activities. She was given an honorary doctorate from the University of Alberta in 2019 and a Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Medal last year.

For more information about Alice, visit:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Major.

Picture of DC Reid.

DC Reid

As cross-disciplinary as his academic background in biochemistry, English and Philosophy, and Public Administration, DC has written 18 books of poetry, novels, non-fiction, lit-non-fiction and sport fishing, and has published 2000 articles across North America on gear, fly, Spey and Switch, and poems in 50 magazines around the world. 

His memoir, A Man and His River, published with Hancock House Publishers in 2022, won the gold medal in the Professional Outdoor Media Association of Canada’s book
contest.

Having battled with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome for over 30 years, DC has played an active role in career and for society. He won silver in the Bliss Carman Award twice, and other twenty-five awards including the Colleen Thibaudeau award for significant support of Canadian poetry, such as donating $1.5 million to the Writers’ Trust to provide eight grants to poor poets. He is a former president of the League of Canadian Poets and the Federation of BC Writers.

DC plays clarinet and sax, for jazz, Dixie and symphony. He lives in Victoria, BC, and is planning a trip to Ukraine to read poems for President Zelensky with other poets. For more information, please visit www.dcreid.ca.


Everyone is welcome to join us for an intriguing evening, and have a dialogue with the two interesting icons!

For inquiries, please contact info@eawlc.org. Thanks.