Okanagan College Media Release - Oct. 10, 2007

On Monday, Oct. 15, Okanagan College’s Kalamalka Press will release Abundance, a book of conversations about writing and the writing life by internationally acclaimed writer Robert Kroetsch and local writer John Lent.  Both writers will be in attendance and the evening starts at 7 p.m. in the Lecture Theatre at the Kalamalka campus of Okanagan College.

Abundance is the fourth book in the Mackie Lake House Writer-In-Residence Project, a collaboration between the Mackie Lake House and Okanagan College’s English Department.

Robert Kroetsch and John Lent

Kroetsch is a Governor General’s Award-winning writer of fiction, poetry and literary theory.  Kroetsch has over 20 books in print and has received critical acclaim in this country, in the United States and in Europe, Australia and New Zealand. He has been referred to as “Mr. Canadian Postmodern” by Linda Hutcheon and others, and his work has always been characterized by its comic exuberance and his love of the tall-tale on the one hand, and his willingness as a writer to experiment in a wide variety of genres and materials.


Local writer John Lent has published seven books of poetry and fiction and considers Kroetsch to be a mentor for a new generation of Canadian poets and novelists.

“It was a thrill to sit down and have these conversations with Kroetsch,” Lent said, “because his thinking and his work is so vital to the unfolding of our literature now.  He is a Canadian writer who has always taken these beautiful risks in his writing, in both fiction and poetry, and his literary theory serves as a preliminary map for new writers at the beginning of this century.  There is no other contemporary writer quite like him.”

Staff of the Kalamalka Press, writers of The Kalamalka Institute For Working Writers, and students in Okanagan College’s new Diploma in Writing and Publishing are proud to host this evening of readings, commentary and questions.  This event is free and the general public is welcome to attend. 

Copies of Abundance will be available at the launch for a cost of $10