2026/27 Ralph Gustafson Distinguished Poet Readings and Lecture Series

Wednesday, October 21, 2026

Vancouver Island University, 900 Fifth St, Nanaimo

Published by Nanaimo Arts Council

Renowned poet Stephen Collis is Vancouver Island University’s (VIU’s) Ralph Gustafson Distinguished Poet for 2026/27. Collis’s lecture is October 22nd from 7 to 8:30 pm on the Nanaimo campus in Building 355, Room 203. It is free to attend and will be followed by a catered reception, cash bar, and book signing in Room 211. Collis will also perform two poetry readings. First, there will be a reading and Q&A for students on October 21st from 11:30 am – 1:00 pm in Building 310, The Malaspina Theatre lobby. Second, there will be a community reading that night (October 21st) at Windowseat Books (321 Wesley St) from 7-8 pm; student poet Lee Groen will open for Collis, and there will be music. *** Collis’s lecture on October 22nd, “Small Craft Warning,” will trace and explore the recurrence of small boats as both images in and an image of his work in poetry. In his abstract for the lecture, Collis writes the following: In a small craft one cannot buy into the lie of mastery, but must come to the elemental world asking, in respect, seeking nothing more than fluid intra-relation, slipping over the surface of powerful forces and Big Things Beyond your Ken. What are Big Themes but swelling seas? What can one’s craft do with them, other than skirt their limits, ride their swells, stay afloat and seek safe harbour? VIU professor Dr. Mike Roberson will introduce Collis at the Distinguished Poet’s Lecture. In reflecting on the impact of Collis’s poetry, he offers the following celebratory words: “Stephen Collis is a Punk Romantic! Imagine Johnny Rotten channeling Henry Thoreau among the climes of Wordsworth’s Lake District suddenly transported to the various brambles of southwest BC, without an amp and microphone (although perhaps a megaphone), but with a narrow pad of paper and a fierce love for the unownable—words and water alike.” VIU Chair of Media Studies Joy Gugeler notes the poignant interplay of responsibility and wonder she feels when reading Collis’s work: “Stephen