Jenny Penberthy
Jenny Penberthy taught for 24 years in the English department at Capilano University. A widely-published and renowned scholar in the field of modern poetry and poetics, she made crucial editorial and critical contributions to the study and appreciation of American poet Lorine Niedecker while remaining deeply engaged in every facet of life at the university.
Dr. Penberthy served on numerous committees, directed the Leon and Thea Koerner Foundation Lecture Series, expanded the operations of the Writing Centre, founded CUE Books in 2008, and edited The Capilano Review for six years while maintaining its national reputation as a lively magazine of experimental literary and visual arts and ensuring the magazine survived in its transition to off-campus production in 2015. In her capacity of TCR editor, she pioneered Sacred Space: The Tom Cone Festival of New Plays, a hugely successful annual festival of innovative short plays.
Since retiring in 2016, Dr. Penberthy has remained dedicated to both her scholarship and the continued vitality of TCR. In the year of her retirement, Flood Editions in Chicago published her book The Art of Language: Selected Essays of Kenneth Cox, and the collection Poetry and Praxis ‘After’ Objectivism from the University of Iowa Press featured her essay on Lorine Niedecker and Lisa Robertson. She is working on a collection of letters by Lorine Niedecker and a history of Fulcrum Press.
Still tirelessly committed to funding and programming initiatives as Board Chair of the Capilano Review Contemporary Arts Society, Jenny Penberthy’s presence and imprint on our local arts communities remains profoundly felt.