A Community Reading of Pat Lowther’s "A Stone Diary"

On the 50th Anniversary of Vancouver poet Pat Lowther’s death, we’ll gather in her memory to read her final collection A Stone Diary together. For this event, listeners take turns becoming readers as we voice each poem. There will be copies of the book for attendees to read from and follow along on the page. We’ll be joined by the community around the Dead Poets Reading Series, a series dedicated to keeping the work of dead poets alive and in our ears.

Pat Lowther's fourth book, A Stone Diary (Oxford University Press, 1977), was published two years after she was murdered at age 40 by her husband. This collection represented a potential new stage for the poet, who held promise as a major presence in Canadian poetry. Her previous books, This Difficult Flowering (1968), The Age of the Bird (1972), and Milk Stone (1974), demonstrated her interest in mothering, relationships, and nature. A Stone Diary deepens these concerns of feminism, power imbalance, and the delicacy of life and includes a series of poems concerning Chilean politics and others addressed to Neruda. "Lowther is a poet very conscious of destructive forces, but is herself essentially a preserver and renewer," writes Elizabeth Jones in Atlantis: Critical Studies in Gender.

Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, poet and activist Pat Lowther (1935-1975) published her first collection, The Difficult Flowering (Very Stone House), in 1968. Four years later, Lowther published The Age of the Bird (Blackfish Press), a long poem expressing her concerns for South American revolutionary politics. Her next book of poetry, Milk Stone (Borealis Press, 1972) quickly followed. Her writing career was taking off when she went missing in 1975; her body was found in a creek weeks later, and her husband was convicted of her murder. Lowther was a former co-chair of the League of Canadian Poets, and since 1980 the League has awarded the Pat Lowther Award to a book of poetry by a Canadian woman in her memory.

About Our Co-Hosts:

From 2007, the Dead Poets Reading Series has facilitated presentations on the work of deceased poets by living poets, scholars, and lovers of poetry. The organizing began with David Zieroth who started the series in North Vancouver. After a brief hiatus, the bimonthly series was started up again by Christopher Levenson, Diane Tucker, and Rob Taylor. Over time the organizing team grew to include Sandy Shreve, Kate Braid, and then later Joanne Arnott and Shazia Hafiz Ramji. Currently, the organizing team consists Kevin Spenst, Raoul Fernandes, Jane Munro, Elena Johnson, Fiona Tinwei Lam, and Alan Hill. Readings can be as varied as the poets themselves, with some presenters sharing stories of the poets they knew personally and sometimes presenters just diving into their chosen author's poems. To learn more about the series, upcoming readings, and the extensive list of poets covered so far, visit: http://www.deadpoetslive.com/.