It will be informed by historical and political contexts of war and violence and their ecological and sociological consequences. “The quest for home is navigated through the contemporary landscapes of cities, suburbia, dreamscapes, deserts, oceans, gardens, schoolyards and ruins,” says Dunlop. Urban portraits of violence, grief, mourning and joy are underscored by philosophical, historical, moral and theological concerns.'ĭunlop plans to investigate the themes of linguistic and cultural hybridity, immigrant identities, sensual and sexual life, and the ways in which places and travel shape identity in the 21st century. The poet sees contemporary cities as sites of contradictory beauty where genteel culture leans hard against ghettos where prostitutes and cocaine dealers ply their trade next to green streets immaculate with rose gardens where hotel rooms become characters in the traveller’s narratives.

The themes resonate with concerns of my earlier books of poetry, Metropolis and to some extent Reading Like a Girl. 'The work is a creative investigation of contemporary cities, including Paris, New York, Toronto, Montreal and settings in the American Southwest. “It is part travelogue, part memoir, and includes poetry, lyric prose and creative non-fiction,” says Dunlop, an award-winning Canadian poet, playwright, essayist and fiction writer. She also plans to work on a multi-genre book, Midnight at the Algonquin Hotel. “I’m looking forward to the opportunity to work with faculty, and students across faculties at the Virginia Piper Center, and to the cultural and intellectual exchanges that will be possible,” says Dunlop, coordinator of the Creative Writing Program at York. Involved in the centre’s Program for Global Engagement, Dunlop will be engaged in creative and scholarly activities, public lectures and literary readings.

As this year’s recipient of a Canada-US Fulbright Visiting Research Chair in Creative Writing, Dunlop will be spending January to May at Arizona State University’s Virginia G. Come January 2010, York English and education Professor Rishma Dunlop will forgo the iciness of Toronto for the hot, dry breezes of Arizona, the sweet scent of orange groves and the brilliance of a midday sun.

Reading Like A Girl by Rishma Dunlop