Bowering on SFU, the Governor General's Award & vegetarian chili
Lindsay Nielsen. Arts Editor

George Bowering has a saying: "you can do three things. You can write, you can teach or you can work. Working is the worst, writing is the best and teaching is in-between."

A prolific writer and two-time Governor General's Award winner, Bowering is retiring from his position as an English professor at SFU. He has been teaching at the university since 1972.

While Bowering says that he won't miss English department meetings, he will miss some of his students. He is particularly fond of the Contemporary Literature Collection in SFU's W.A.C. Bennett Library. "The thing I like the most about Simon Fraser is the special collections in the library. I had a lot to do with the CLC...it's one of the three great poetry collections in North America. It's astonishing. People come from all over the states, Europe, Australia, and so forth, just to do their research in that place."

Retirement from SFU does not mean that Bowering won't be busy. Some of his upcoming books include an April release of a collection of his literary memoirs entitled A Magpie Life, published by Key Porter. Also scheduled for the spring is And Other Stories, an anthology published by Talon Books. This collection is an updated version of an anthology that was published a decade ago. It contains many original pieces as well as work by newer writers. "It has the same Dionne Brand story in it because I had people threaten me and say 'if that story is not in there, we'll kill you'!" he laughs. Other projects include the third novel in a series of young adult books, a history book which he is on contract to write, and an autobiographical novel.

Writing has always been a part of Bowering's life. "Like a lot of other Canadian writers, I just think of myself as a writer," he says. "I was writing when I was a kid in school, but my ambition was to be a journalist. I wanted to be a sports writer, a baseball writer."

Bowering says that most of his writing is done in terms of projects which he thinks about for a long time before he embarks on the writing process. "It's not usually just some kind of inspirational, spur of the moment thing. It's usually like a job."

Bowering's creative process is constantly changing and it is influenced by his teaching duties. "When I'm not teaching, I'll be more likely to be working on a big book of prose," he says. "That means after the research is done, getting up every day and plunking myself down in front of the writing machine and doing whatever I have to do that day and not skipping days unless it's absolutely necessary."

Bowering does not separate himself from his art. "When I write novels that take place 125 years ago, you can still find all sorts of references to me in them," he laughs. "It doesn't start off that way, but they find their way in, that's for sure."

Life and art have merged in Bowering's home. Words from his 1969 poem "The House" are written across his living room walls. "When I came home from Europe one time, I looked up and they were on the wall in my living room, going around the top of the wall in gold letters...that was a surprise. I just sat down and laughed and laughed." His wife had the words painted while he was away.

In 1969, when Bowering won the Governor General's Award in poetry for The Gangs of Kosmos and Rocky Mountain Foot, he spent the money on some of life's pleasures. "I just went out and blew the money on a wonderful sound system and then a great, big dinner...where I got absolutely, completely smashed."

He promised his daughter that he would buy her a piano if he won the award again. In 1980, his work Burning Water won the Governor General's Award for fiction. "I put in my prize money, and she got a baby grand," he recalls. "I don't think I got smashed that time. You know, I was older and more reserved." Once again, his writing is receiving great recognition. Bowering's work His Life was recently nominated for the Governor General's award for poetry.

His advice for the SFU community involves taking a trip to the Alexander Mackenzie cafeteria in the AQ. "Get that vegetarian chili," he says. "It's really good."

Bowering will read with Sharon Thesen in SFU's Highland pub, Sat. 31 Mar., 3 p.m. Tickets are $3 and can be purchased at the door.

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