Introducing our guest speaker, Margaret Sparkes noted the appropriateness of having poet Shane Book on March 21, World Poetry Day!
Shane gave our group an illuminating and fascinating presentation on his life’s journey and how he ended up becoming a renowned writer and filmmaker. As the child of a Canadian father and a Trinidadian mother, he was born in Peru and spent several years as a child in Ghana, as his father worked for the Canadian International Developmental Agency as an economist and diplomat. They later returned to Canada where he lived in Vancouver and Ottawa.
While at the University of Victoria and New York University, he began to study poetry in earnest. He also began to seriously want to make movies.
His philosophy is that everything comes from poetry. Many novelists say they are failed poets. Poetry forces the writer to pay attention to each word. Poetry also trains the ear.
