July 14, 2000
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THE UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA July 14, 2000 |
| by Miguel Strother Forget the muse, poetry is about hard work. This is a distinctly Canadian philosophy that 24-year-old poet Steven Price has adopted, employed and prospered from as an undergraduate writing student at UVic. In August, Price will begin a month-long trip that will eventually end up at the University of Virginia where he recently accepted the Henry Hoyns Fellowship — the school’s top graduate prize for a student in creative writing. Five years ago, Price entered his first-year poetry class and heard an unforgettable speech by Patrick Lane, a Governor-General award winner for poetry. “Patrick said, ‘After five years, only 30 of you will still be writing poetry and after 10 years only three of you will still be writing poetry. It won’t be the three of you who are the most gifted. It will be the three of you who work the hardest.’ I believed that,” says Price. Price struggled through Lane’s first-year trial, but the speech obviously had a profound and lasting effect. Price’s poetry has been published in a variety of local publications, including the Inner Harbour Review and Bloom, and a $30,000 (US) scholarship to the University of Virginia will help Price develop his poetic talent even further. Although Price had offers from other universities, Virginia’s impressive list of faculty members motivated his decision. “There are people I really admire working there, (1998 Pulitzer Prize winner) Charles Wright for example,” says Price. “I figure if I’m going to be there for two years I better like who I’m working with.” Price’s most recent writing focuses on locks and keys, a subject with which he should be very familiar. Price’s family owns the oldest lock business in Canada and he says much of the inspiration for recent work stems from the traditions he’s been exposed to. “I think most writing comes back to tradition,” he says. “What I write usually goes back to where I come from.” |