The Creative Writing Program Speaker Series presents one of their own on Monday. Professor Priscila Uppal will read from her bestselling book To Whom It May Concern on Monday, March 16 from 2:30 to 4pm in the Paul A. Delaney Gallery, 320 Bethune College.
Right: Priscila Uppal
Uppal used Shakespeare’s King Lear as a starting point for To Whom It May Concern. The book presents a modern, multicultural retelling of King Lear. Published by Doubleday Canada, the book’s narrative explores the vulnerability and complexity of family and inheritance. In its pages, Uppal exposes the tragic and comedic dimensions of our failures to communicate and the consequences of our betrayals, which result in disappointment and disillusionment, but also in moments of compassion and love.
Uppal will also read from selections of poetry and she will discuss the artis
tic process. In particular, she will speak about writing in multiple genres, the joys of adaptation and the progress an artist makes from book to book.
This lecture is free and open to the community. No preregistration is required. Light refreshments will be served.
Born in Ottawa, Uppal is a Toronto-based author and academic. She was one of three Canadian writers on the 2007 short list for the prestigious Griffin Poetry Prize.
She is the author of five collections of poetry and the internationally acclaimed 2002 novel The Divine Economy of Salvation. The American Library Association recently named Uppal a "Canadian Writer to Watch". Uppal is also the author of a critical study of elegies We Are What We Mourn. Her work has been translated into Croatian, Dutch, Greek, Latvian and Italian.
Her latest book "Successful Tragedies: Selected Poems 1998-2010" is forthcoming from Bloodaxe Books (UK).