People may have read that Laurentian University English professor and Scrivener Press publisher, Laurence Steven, is retiring later this spring.
They may also have read that he has published a number of northern writers. What they may not know is that Laurie has put Sudbury, and Northern Ontario, on the map in terms of helping northeastern Ontario writers gain exposure.
As a previous English student of Laurie’s, I know I’m biased. Back in the early to mid-1990s, I found myself in his Modern Poetry class. I loved his class, even though I hadn’t really enjoyed studying poetry in high school.
With Laurie as guide, poetry came alive, and I began to realize that it had many things to offer me. I began to read it almost obsessively, and then started writing my own poems.
Then, while part of the English Arts Society, I had the opportunity to practise reading my work in public, amidst friends. Laurie liked my work and encouraged me to read and write more poetry, asking me if I’d submit a manuscript to him, in 1997, so that he could publish it.
That collection was "You Must Imagine the Cold Here." It was just a short chapbook, but it gained a favourable review from a critic in B.C. who spoke highly of my work.
Later that year, I used that same book of poems, and the positive review, to apply for the Humber School for Writers. As a result, I had the great honour of working with the late Timothy Findley as my mentor for a year.
I was also shortlisted for the CAA/Air Canada Award for Writers Under 30. It was a whirlwind time, most of which wouldn’t have happened without Laurie encouraging me to take my work more seriously and to pursue publishing it in national literary journals.
I soon became a member of the League of Canadian Poets, the Writers’ Union of Canada and PEN Canada. I even met Margaret Atwood at a LCP conference in Winnipeg in the late 1990s, which was a dream come true.
All of this led me to a publisher with national exposure and distribution, Penumbra Press. That press published my next two books of poetry, "braille on water" and "The Narcoleptic Madonna." Since 2012, with the publication of my last book, my writing career has really blossomed.
I work full time as a teacher at Marymount Academy, and I know my teaching style is influenced by his, especially in terms of how he taught poetry and encouraged creative higher-level thinking, but my writing has always been a priority in my life.
In summer 2012, I attended a poetry retreat in County Cork, Ireland, meeting internationally respected poets, Susan Rich and Pippa Little.
In spring 2013, I read in front of 300 people at Harbourfront in Toronto at the Battle of the Bards. I also took part as a featured reader in Wordstock, Sudbury’s literary festival, that June.
Last year, I went out to Saskatchewan to work with Ken Babstock, an internationally respected poet, at the Sage Hill Writing Experience.
While there, I met a number of truly excellent writers, including Larry Hill and Helen Humphreys. I’ve also made really important literary connections with fellow poets and writers because of my travels and stays at retreats.
My work has been strengthened by all of these interactions. I’ve recently had poems published in literary journals in England, Turkey and Canada. I’m truly blessed.
Currently, I’m working on my first novel, which is set in Creighton. I also began to read and study plays last fall, through Playwrights Junction 2 at the Sudbury Theatre Centre, and have begun to experiment with, and practise, writing for the stage. My fourth book of poems is almost complete.
All of this is just to say that I simply would not be where I am these days, in terms of my literary career, without the support and encouragement of Laurence Steven.
His leaving Laurentian University, Sudbury, and the dissolution of Scrivener Press is a real loss for us all. His support and marketing of the LUminaries Reading Series is significant in terms of bringing major Canadian authors to Sudbury to read.
How do you even convey the worth and role of Laurie Steven in terms of how the literary arts have flourished and grown here in the last 20 years or so? It’s almost impossible.
I can tell you, though, that while I’m happy for his retirement and moving on to a new chapter in his life, I am incredibly sad to know that he’s leaving us. The literary landscape in Sudbury will never be the same and we all have more to do to keep it vibrant and alive.
It’s the legacy that Laurie leaves us with, and I, for one, will never be able to thank him enough for what he’s done for my life as a writer. Because of his work, I’ve been able to live and work here in Sudbury, while still slowly but surely carving out a role in a national literary scene.
I will never be able to thank him enough, but I wish him well and send him much love as he moves forward. I know I’m only one of many former students and writers who extend him our best wishes.
Kim Fahner is a local published poet and a teacher at Marymount Academy.
