Capilano Universe Lecture Series – What Is & What If: The Speculative in Creative Nonfiction
What is speculative creative nonfiction? And why might writers use obviously imaginary elements, like the mythic, ghostly, surreal and weird, to tell stories from real life? This talk will examine how the speculative is an exciting tool in creative nonfiction that allows writers to expand the possibilities of storytelling. Integrating the fantastic into nonfiction is a creative choice that helps writers wrangle events from real life into narrative and articulate complex emotional truths. How does explicitly making use of imagination to tell stories based on lived experience complicate our understanding of truth? Is this technique new or is it, perhaps, an integral part of creative nonfiction’s lineage? And finally, we will explore how to wield speculative elements to enrich our own writing drawn from life.
Registration is required – click here to sign up! This event will take place on Zoom.
About the Series:
Capilano Universe was initiated by retired faculty member Leonard George 15 years ago. The idea was that through volunteer faculty connecting with the community over topics of interest, the vast universe of knowledge housed by the University could be expanded beyond campus boundaries.
Every spring, a series of talks is put together in collaboration with nearby public libraries — this year, the series brings on board libraries from the Sea to Sky region, in both Squamish and Whistler. Click here to learn more about the series and to explore the other lectures being offered!
About the speaker:
Adèle Barclay (PhD) (she/they) is the recipient of the 2016 Lit POP Award for Poetry, The Walrus’ 2016 Readers’ Choice Award for Poetry, The Fiddlehead’s 2022 Fiction Prize, The New Quarterly’s 2025 Edna Staebler Personal Essay Prize and a 2025 Gold National Magazine Award for Best Column or Essay. Their debut poetry collection, If I Were in a Cage I’d Reach Out for You won the 2017 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. Their second collection, Renaissance Normcore placed third for the 2020 Fred Cogswell Award and their third collection Shame Engine will be released in Spring 2027. Excerpts from their forthcoming memoir Black Cherry have received numerous nominations from The Fiddlehead, The Malahat and CRAFT Literary and placed in contests by Room, PRISM International and Event.
