Robert Currie

Published on November 16th, 2010
Rebecca Lawrence
Moose Jaw Times Herald

Moose Jaw’s Robert Currie will give his last reading as Saskatchewan’s Poet Laureate at the city’s public library on Nov. 23.

    Currie, who is an award-winning author of poetry, fiction and radio plays, said it was fitting his last reading will be in his home town and at the place where he has written much of his work.

    “I have done a lot of my writing right here in this library as they let me use the archives.

    “I was a teacher for 30 years and took six months off in 1975 unpaid and we had little kids at home and the staff at the library let me use the archives (room) just to go there and write there all day and I took my type writer in and just left it there and came in every day to work so in a sense, it became my office,” he said.

    Currie has been poet laureate since 2007 and in 2008 was asked to continue the position for another two years.

    His term officially ends on Dec. 31 but his last reading will be at the library and his last event will be a speech at the Saskatchewan Book Awards on Nov. 27 at the Conexus Arts Centre in Regina.

    “It’s been very interesting,” Currie said of his time as poet laureate.