Upcoming Events
The Greatest Australian Poet Who Never Was with faculty member Peter Robinson
Wednesday, March 19, 2025 7:30 pm
Grace-Westminster United Church Social Hall
Free and open to the public
In 1944, the Australian literary magazine Angry Penguins published a special number “to Commemorate the Australian Poet Ern Malley.” Inside, readers found 17 poems by a completely unknown poet, Ernest (“Ern”) Lalor Malley, and an introduction by the editor of Angry Penguins, Max Harris. Harris's introduction tells the brief story of Ern’s unhappy life: he worked as a garage mechanic and insurance salesman and died of Graves disease aged just 25, his poetry unknown. Yet Harris declared him a “great poet,” “one of the most outstanding poets we have produced here.” What a story! Australia’s own John Keats! And then it all went wrong.
Literature Matters: Literature in the Community is a lecture series sponsored by the University of Saskatchewan's Department of English.
Info: 306-966-1268 | english.department@usask.ca
Literature Matters Line-up for 2024-2025
Sept. 25: “ ‘Holy Mackerel! What a Show!’: Spectacle and Spectatorship in Giant Monster Films,” with faculty member Brad Congdon
Oct. 23: “Why Writing is Like Death (in Early Medieval England),” with faculty member Yin Liu
Nov. 20: “matriarch rising,” poetry reading and discussion by graduate student Tenille Campbell (NOTE: held in Gordon Oakes Red Bear Centre at 4:30 pm)
Jan. 22: “Sustainably Don(n)e: Taking Care of Digital Literary Resources,” with faculty member Brent Nelson
Feb. 26: “Listening to the Voices of Children in William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience,” with Professor Emerita Lisa Vargo
March 19: “The Greatest Australian Poet Who Never Was,” with faculty member Peter Robinson
May 7 (note new date): "Concept, Adaptation, and Taking Liberties with Shakespeare’s Plays,” a panel discussion led by Jessica McDonald, with Kayvon Khoshkam and Alyson Cook of Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan.
About
Reading, studying, and talking about literary works helps us to make sense of the world around us. Since 2012, the Department of English has sponsored its literature in the community series, Literature Matters, featuring talks about our research for the Saskatoon community. Presenters are members of the department, including professors, sessional lecturers, and graduate students. All events are held on Wednesdays between September and May at 7:30 p.m. in the social hall of Grace-Westminster United Church, 505-10th Street East, Saskatoon. Everyone is welcome.
For our upcoming lectures, please watch for our Facebook and front page event postings for more detailed day/time information or contact english.department@usask.ca.