English head Karl Jirgens sits in the department's seminar room with a large jar with an image of former writer-in-residence W.O.Mitchell's face imposed on it. The room's other jars - made by professor Tom Dilworth - include images of Alistair Macleod and Joyce Carol Oates, and are jokingly referred to as the shrunken heads.
Over the last 50 years, some of Canada’s most highly regarded writers have taken up author’s residencies with the University of Windsor's English department, but perhaps none came with the level of national renown as the late, great William Ormond Mitchell.
“He was the Mark Twain of Canada,” said Tom Dilworth, one of the longest-serving professors in the department. “He was so affable, and he was better in real life than he was in print. He was a lovely, open-hearted person, and he just loved it here.”
Funded through the assistance of the Canada Council for the Arts, the writer-in-residence program has a long tradition in Windsor of attracting some of the country’s best authors, poets and playwrights.
Usually, the writer-in-residence spends half an academic year here, working on current projects while also being available to local writers who want an experienced professional to assess their work.
“They really provide a service to the community,” said Karl Jirgens, a professor in the department since 2004, now doing his second stint as department head. “Any aspiring writer is welcome to visit, have their work evaluated and get a candid professional opinion. They also do public readings, so you get to experience what really good quality writing is. The whole point is to introduce the community to a level of literary culture that they might not otherwise be familiar with.”
Besides W.O. Mitchell – who during the mid-to-late 1980s, was here for about seven years, the longest of any writer-in-residence – Morley Callaghan, Adele Wiseman, Daphne Marlatt, Mansel Robinson, Marilyn Dumont, Judith Fitzgerald, Lillian Allen, and Nino Ricci have all served here. More recently, Phil Hall, Ray Robertson, Alan Davies, Rosemary Nixon, Margaret Christakos, Terry Griggs, Marlene NourbeSe Philip, Christopher Dewdney, and David French have honed their crafts and shared their writing skills in Windsor.
It was the playwright David French who Dr. Jirgens has some of the fondest memories of. He recalls on one occasion going to a nearby Middle Eastern restaurant with former Dramatic Art department head Lionel Walsh so they could experience some fine local Mediterranean fare, only to see French order a grilled cheese sandwich on white, french-fries, and a Mountain Dew.
“He had to explain to them what a grilled cheese sandwich was,” Jirgens says, still laughing happily at the memory. “They looked at us like we were from Mars or something.”
While many universities offer writing residencies, it’s the reputation of UWindsor’s creative departments that attracts some of the best, Jirgens said.
“They’re happy to come here because they know they’ll have a receptive audience among people who appreciate their high level of achievement,” he said. “Our creative writing program is probably among the top five in the country and there’s a lot of respect for it, especially because of the names of some of the people who have passed through it. People like Alistair Macleod, Joyce Carol Oates, and Eugene McNamara. The rest of the country is watching us.”
Jirgens said he’s eagerly awaiting to see who will be announced as the 2013-14 writer-in-residence.
Former writer-in-residence Adele Wiseman, centre, walks across campus with colleagues in this undated file photo.
