Take a glimpse into the process of the literary experiment Emily LaBarge undertook in writing her acclaimed hybrid memoir Dog Days.
A deft, rhizomatic account that confronts the “narrative problem” of trauma writing, Emily LaBarge’s Dog Days intertwines memoir with literary close reading, psychoanalysis, film criticism, ekphrasis, and theory to give shape to the experience being held hostage with her family while on vacation in 2009. As it considers the cost of molding this event into a consumable, finite story, the book—through its glitches, redactions, perspective shifts, and repeated self-reconstruction—reflects trauma’s impact on not only the self but also one’s sense of form, language, and time. Join LaBarge as she shares a visual archive of charts and graphs, files, marginalia, art, and other materials from this experimental writing process.
Emily LaBarge is a Canadian writer living in London. Her work has appeared in Artforum, Bookforum, the London Review of Books, frieze, The Paris Review, and Granta, among other publications. Her first book, Dog Days, was published in the UK in 2025 by Peninsula Press, and in the US and Canada, with Transit and Hamish Hamilton, in 2026. She is a regular contributor to the New York Times and 4Columns.
Date: October 26, 2026 (Monday)
Time: 11:00 – 12:00 (Pacific Time)
Format: online
Reading party
On October 20, Kate Black, recent alum and author of Big Mall, will host a generative reading session at Upstart & Crow, featuring excerpts from Dog Days. This event is open to current students in the School of Creative Writing. Register here to save your seat!
More events from the Visiting Writers Series
Faculty & Alumni Showcase: Creative Research Across Genres and Modes | September 23 | Recent MFA grad Emily Chou celebrates the publication of her debut graphic novel On Your Way at our Faculty and Alumni showcase.
Publishing Industry Event: Paige Sisley and Janice Zawerbny In Conversation | October 21 | Get an insider’s look at fiction publishing and the bi-annual HarperCollins PublishersLtd/UBC Prize for Best New Fiction.
We: Layli Long Soldier in conversation with Billy-Ray Belcourt | November 23 | Oglala Lakota poet Layli Long Soldier talks with Billy-Ray Belcourt, writer and academic from the Driftpile Cree Nation, about the poems, essays and visual art in her long-awaited second collection, We.
