Fiction writer, poet, and arts journalist Steven Ross Smith has been appointed director of Literary Arts at The Banff Centre. As director, Smith will oversee the Centre’s writing residency programs, independent residencies for poets, fiction, and nonfiction writers, and the Banff Centre Press.
“Steven Ross Smith brings terrific experience to this role,” says Sarah Iley, The Banff Centre’s vice president, programming. “His knowledge of the writing community, and grasp of the details involved in running literary programs of this calibre, will make him a tremendous asset to Literary Arts.”
A Saskatoon-based writer and arts administrator, Smith is founding executive director of the Sage Hill Writing Experience, which he has been running for 18 years. One of Western Canada’s best-known short-term learning opportunities for creative writers at all levels, Sage Hill has an extensive list of award-winning alumni and faculty. Smith has published eight books of poetry, two books of short fiction, and one book of nonfiction, and he won the Saskatchewan Book of the Year Award in 2005. He has been business manager for the literary journal Grain, and created a press co-operative in 1978 with poet bpNichol called Underwhich Editions.
Literary Arts at The Banff Centre is one of the premier residency programs for writers in Canada. It includes programs for senior and emerging poets, fiction, and nonfiction writers, independent residency opportunities, and specialty programs in spoken word, literary translation, science communications, and mountain writing. Writers in residence work with acclaimed faculty drawn from among the best of Canadian and international writers, and acclaimed directors including Governor General’s Award-winning novelist Greg Hollingshead, novelist and columnist Fred Stenson, nonfiction editor and writer Marni Jackson, Calgary-based literary translator Susan Ouriou, science broadcaster and writer Jay Ingram, and spoken word poet Sheri-D Wilson. Literary Arts is also home to the Banff Centre Press.