Lecture
Monday, May 13, 2013, 3 PM

Stephen Scobie

In Scarlet Town Where I was Born

In support of Dylan’s nomination for the Nobel Prize, it may be argued that he continues, to this day, to produce complex and densely allusive literary texts. By way of illustration, Stephen Scobie offers a detailed reading of the recent song Scarlet Town, from the 2012 album Tempest.

Stephen Scobie, born 1943, is a Canadian poet, critic, and scholar. Scobie was born in Carnoustie, Scotland, and came to Canada in 1965. He earned a PhD from the University of British Columbia and taught at the University of Alberta and the University of Victoria. A founding editor of Longspoon Press, his literary criticism includes books on bpNichol, Leonard Cohen, Sheila Watson and Bob Dylan. He has published over twenty books of poetry, including The Spaces In Between: Selected Poems 1965-2001. His most recent book is The Measure of Paris. Scobie won the Governor General’s Award for Poetry in 1980 and the Prix Gabrielle Roy for Canadian Criticism in 1986. He is also an elected member of the Royal Society of Canada. His books on Dylan include Alias Bob Dylan: Revisited (1991, 2003) and And Forget my Name: A Speculative Biography of Bob Dylan (1999).

The event will be held in English