Jan Zwicky

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Jan Zwicky (born May 10, 1955 in Northern Alberta , Canada ) is a Canadian philosopher , poet , essayist and violinist .

Life

Jan Zwicky received his BA from the University of Calgary in 1981 and graduated with a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto . Her doctoral thesis was entitled "A Theory of Indescribability". She then taught philosophy at Princeton University and philosophy and interdisciplinary humanities at the University of Waterloo . She has taught creative writing and philosophy primarily in North America and Europe, at the University of Western Ontario , the University of New Brunswick and the Banff Center Writing Studio. She is currently teaching philosophy at the University of Victoriain British Columbia. She is also a violinist, with a keen interest in baroque performance practice. As a violinist, she played with Canadian orchestras. Since 1986 she has been working on the subject of poetry for Bricks books.

Zwicky was a lecturer in philosophy at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, from 1996 to 2009, where she taught philosophy as well as leading courses in interdisciplinary humanities. In the summer of 2009, she quit her job at the university to lead writing projects in Quadra Island.

Publications

Books

  • Where Have We Been (1982)
  • A Theory of Ineffability (1982)
  • Wittgenstein Elegies (1986)
  • The New Room (1989)
  • Lyric Philosophy (1992)
  • Songs for Relinquishing the Earth (1998) - won the 1999 Governor General's Literary Award: Poetry
  • Twenty-one Small Songs (2000)
  • Wisdom and Metaphor (2003)
  • Contemplation and Resistance: A Conversation (with Tim Lilburn) (2003)
  • Robinson's Crossing (2004) - won the 2005 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize
  • Thirty-seven Small Songs & Thirteen Silences (2005)
  • Plato as an Artist (2009)
  • Recast for Lyric Philosophy 1992 (2010)

Essays

  • "Wittgenstein and the Logic of Inference", Dialogue, Vol. XXI, No. 4, (1982)
  • "Bringhurst's Presocratics: Lyric and Ecology" in Poetry and Knowing: Speculative Essays and Interviews, edited by Tim Lilburn (1995)
  • "Plato's Phaedrus: Philosophy as Dialogue With the Dead", Apeiron, Vol. 30, no. 1, (1997)
  • "Being, Polyphony, Lyric: An Open Letter to Robert Bringhurst", Canadian Literature, No. 156, (1998)
  • "The Geology of Norway", Harvard Review of Philosophy, Vol. 7, (1999)
  • "Dream Logic and the Politics of Interpretation" & "Once Upon a Time in the West: Heidegger and the Poets" in Thinking and Singing: Poetry & The Practice of Philosophy (edited by Tim Lilburn, with an introduction by Brian Bartlett (including the Work by Robert Bringhurst, Dennis Lee, Tim Lilburn, and Don McKay)) (2002)
  • "Wilderness and Agriculture" in The Eye in the Thicket: Essays at a Natural History, edited by Sean Virgo (2002)
  • "Integrity and Ornament" in Crime and Ornament, edited by Bernie Miller and Melony Ward (2002)
  • "Oracularity", Metaphilosophy, Vol. 34, No. 4, (2003)
  • "The Ethics of the Negative Review." In: The Malahat Review , No. 144, (2003)
  • Introduction to Hard Choices: Climate Change in Canada, edited by Harold Coward and AJ Weaver (2004)
  • "Mathematical Analogy and Metaphorical Insight", The Mathematical Intelligencer, Vol. 28, No. 2 (2006)
  • "Lyric, Narrative, Memory" in A Ragged Pen: Essays on Poetry & Memory (includes works by Robert Finley, Patrick Friesen, Aislinn Hunter, and Anne Simpson) (2006)
  • "Lyric Realism: Nature Poetry, Silence and Ontology", Malahat Review, no. 165, (2008)
  • "Alcibiades' Love" in Philosophy as a Way of Life: Ancients and Moderns, edited by Michael Chase and Michael McGhee, Oxford: Blackwells, in press.

Interviews

  • "There is No Place That Does Not See You" - 2002 Interviewed by Anne Simpson in Where the Words Come From: Canadian Poets in Conversation (edited by Tim Bowling)
  • "The Details: An Interview with Jan Zwicky" - 2008 Interviewed by Jay Ruzesky in the Malahat Review , no. 165, (2008)

Awards and nominations

  • 1999: Shortlist Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize , Songs for Relinquishing the Earth
  • 2005: Wins the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize, Robinson's Crossing
  • 2006: Shortlist Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize; Thirty-seven Small Songs & Thirteen Silences

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Zwicky, Jan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian philosopher, poet, essayist and violinist
DATE OF BIRTH May 10, 1955
PLACE OF BIRTH Northern Alberta , Canada