Not one but two Vernon authors were recognized at the BC Book Awards this past summer, and both are set to read poetry at an event in town this weekend.<\/p>\n
Virginia Dansereau and Harold Rhenisch both went home with wins in the poetry category at the Book Awards on Aug. 23. Dansereau’s award was for her latest book of poems, called I Know That Woman, while Rhenisch was awarded for his book titled The Salmon Shanties, his 34th book.<\/p>\n
Dansereau went to the Awards not knowing her book was on the winner’s list, and was pleasantly surprised when her name was called.<\/p>\n
She said it was the third year of the awards and the first time self-published works like hers were made eligible.<\/p>\n
I Know That Woman is, as the title suggests, all about women, from ages three to 93, Dansereau said.<\/p>\n
She has a bevy of poems she’s written over the years. She used to journal every morning and at the end of each entry she would write a poem — usually something that came out of the journaling, she said.<\/p>\n
“And that’s where a lot of these poems come from.”<\/p>\n
Winning the award was a chance for Dansereau to view her book again with a renewed sense of appreciation for what it offers.<\/p>\n
“To pick it up again and read it again, it’s quite fun actually,” she said. “I’ve noticed that from my own writing, just reading old stuff, you rediscover it.”<\/p>\n
Asked what inspires her to write, Dansereau said “mostly people. They’re so changeable, and the behaviour is so different in each person.”<\/p>\n
She likes to work a healthy dose of nature into her writing as well.<\/p>\n
Dansereau has lived in Vernon for more than 40 years and has been a writer for most of that time.<\/p>\n
She is friends with Rhenisch, who said it was a “thrill” that The Salmon Shanties was deemed worth honouring at the Awards.<\/p>\n
Out of 14 of his poetry books it’s the first that has earned royalties.<\/p>\n
“Being a poet requires hope and patience,” he said. “Kind of like farming.”<\/p>\n
Rhenisch went on tour last year and read from The Salmon Shanties 25 times. He launched the book in Tofino at the 2024 Salmon Festival.<\/p>\n
“The final reading was in Cumberland this August, exactly a year after the first launch, on the same night as the awards ceremony in Sechelt. That night I talked about how the sound of the sea created the shape of the book,” he said.<\/p>\n
In a humorous twist, songwriters have come to several readings expecting sea shanties. One friend thought the shanties were little shacks for salmon.<\/p>\n
“I kind of love that,” Rhenisch said.<\/p>\n
The form of the poems comes from listening to Chinook tribal drum songs on a trip up the Columbia in 2009.<\/p>\n
“The intent is to include settler and Indigenous experience together, as one historical and cultural continuum,” Rhenisch said.<\/p>\n
Rhenisch had words of appreciation for Dansereau upon her Book Awards win.<\/p>\n
“She went way out on a limb, self-published her book, and won book of the year for it. What an achievement,” he said. “She has been a literary anchor in Vernon for so long, she really deserves this.”<\/p>\n
The chance to hear from both poets in person is fast approaching. Both Dansereau and Rhenisch will be reading poems at Gallery Vertigo’s Poetry Parade on Saturday, Nov. 22, at 7 p.m. Rhenisch is the judge for the contest that will take place that night.<\/p>\n
The BC Book Awards were sponsored by the Sunshine Coast Writers and Editors Society.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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