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Poets and professors make for 'soulful night'

UFV pulls together a night of love for Harrison Festival of the Arts
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Trevor Carolan will read with fellow poets Daniela Elza and Robert Martens on Monday

Summer love.  Don’t we all remember it well? The Literary Café at this year’s Harrison Festival of the Arts considers summer love through the works of three poets and a musician. As always, the café is presented by Continuing Studies at the University of the Fraser Valley in cooperation with the festival.

This year, UFV English professor and prolific writer Trevor Carolan will read along with fellow poets Daniela Elza and Robert Martens, Monday, July 11, 7:30 p.m. at Harrison Memorial Hall. Entertainment will be provided by alt-country musician and former UFV student Franklyn Currie.

“We’ll be presenting poetry, songs and music that ranges from down home to downtown, local and cosmopolitan,” notes Carolan. “Daniela will sing at least one of her works, a wedding celebration poem, in a beautifully haunting Bulgarian style and I’ll read at least one of my poems in Gaelic; maybe sing a little blues poem from New York in there too. Robert Martens was raised in Yarrow and he’s as local to the valley as blueberry cobbler and Jubilee sweet-corn.”

The artist will address the theme of summer love in its many manifestations.

“Franklyn sings about growing up in the valley, about young love and heartaches. Daniela and I write poems about family love, about the wonder of maturing love, about love that transcends physical passing,” says Carolan. “Robert writes poems that come right out of the ground here, spiritual poetry, with a Mennonite heart.  It’ll be a soulful night with good vibes and the magic of Harrison Lake.”

Acclaimed literary journalist Trevor Carolan collaborates frequently with musicians and artists. His many books include translations, anthologies and a novel, The Pillowbook of Dr. Jazz. His work has appeared in five languages and includes the contemporary Asian fiction anthologies The Lotus Singers and Another Kind of Paradise. He teaches English and Creative Writing at UFV and was recently featured in UFV’s new Skookum magazine.

Daniela Elza has published work in more 50 publications. In 2011, she completed her doctorate in philosophy of education and launched her first e-Book: The Book of It.

Robert Martens is a Fraser Valley favourite who returns to the Literary Cafe. He earned a BA in English literature from SFU, and his writing on local history and culture has earned him recognition as Literary Artist of the Year in Abbotsford.

Tickets for the Literary Café are $12 at the door. They can also be ordered at 796-3664.