Coyote on Campus

by Nicole Findlay

Ivan Coyote has a new home – if only temporarily. The Yukon born and bred spoken word performer has been lured “south” as Carleton’s new writer-in-residence.

Many on campus may already be familiar with her work following several performances, lectures and workshops she has given at Carleton and in the Ottawa community.

An author of four collections of stories, Boys Like Her, Close to Spider Man, One Man’s Trash, and Loose End, and a novel, Bow Grip, Coyote will use her residency to focus on writing her next novel, The Truth About That Man.

“Her writing and storytelling are exceptionally accessible and address a range of contemporary subjects, including coming-of-age, family dynamics, community, place, urban and rural Canadian identity, and most recently, the impact of contemporary corporate practices on communities,” said Jodie Medd, associate professor, Department of English. “Her work has a very broad appeal across genders, sexualities, ages and experiences.”

In tandem with the launch this year of the minor in sexuality studies, Coyote gave a reading to and discussed writing with the students enrolled in Dan Irving’s second year sexuality studies class.

“Ivan challenges people’s notions of the binaries of gender, yet she does this by who and how she is, rather than in a confrontational way,” said Katherine Arnup, director, Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies. “She is enormously appealing to a wide range of audiences, from GLBT events like Wilde About Sappho to undergraduates just grappling with issues of gender and sexuality to seniors, attempting to write their family histories.”

Coyote has also worked on memoirs, although not her own. This year, CIE offered a course in memoir writing to seniors through its Learning in Retirement Series. Coyote helped 15 students record their individual histories. The project interested her on both professional and personal levels. As she draws the stories out of her students, she enriches her own storytelling. The relationships she has been developing are also a reminder of her own family dynamics. Her own grandmothers, the family matriarchs, connected Coyote’s generation to their ancestors through their oral histories.

During the winter term, Coyote will give another reading to the English Literature Society and the contributors to In/Words.

This year’s writer-in-residence is housed in both the Department of English and the Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies, and is funded by Dean of FASS, CIE, the Canada Council for the Arts and the Lambda Foundation. Donations were also made by Ottawa businesses and individuals. “It has been a very successful partnership among university units, as well as between Carleton and the Ottawa community,” said Medd.

The reluctant urbanite may yet remain nearby – a house by the river in Fitzroy Harbour strikes the balance between rural and urban living and ultimately provides a hub from which Coyote can tour the eastern seaboard and eventually Europe once she has completed her sojourn in Ottawa.