Meet KPU: Dale Tracy

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Dr. Dale Tracy is an English instructor at Kwantlen Polytechnic University with a Bachelor of Psychology, an HBA, a Master’s degree, and a PhD in English Literature. She has volunteered as a co-facilitator in Book Clubs for Inmates. Her monograph With the Witness: Poetry, Compassion, and Claimed Experience explores a different way to approach suffering and trauma through poetry, uniting her psychology and English Literature experience. Tracy is also the author of poetry works including the chapbooks The Mystery of Ornament and Celebration Machine. Her latest published work, Derelict Bicycles, is her first full-length poetry book.

Tracy is interested in many different subjects like stand-up comedy, literary theory, and hip-hop, which have inspired her publications. The unifying theme of her work is metonym, a figure of speech where a word associated with a concept is used to refer to it. Her interest lies in questioning conventions on poetry and everyday life, as well as changing the meanings people make together. 

When did you join the KPU community, and why?

I joined in September 2021 because there was an opportunity here to teach permanently. When I was in Ontario, I was on contract, so I was happy to get the chance to take up a position at KPU. Even though I’m from Ontario, I know so many people who teach at KPU. I don’t know what happened, but for some reason, I had a huge network of people I already knew, so it was wonderful to join them here. 

What is your favourite story of your time at KPU?

I haven’t been here very long yet, so I haven’t experienced a whole lot of special events. But my favourite moment is something that repeats all the time, which is when a student in ENGL 1100 suddenly makes a connection and this new path opens for them for thinking and writing. It’s a wonderful moment to be part of. 

What is something that you’d like to say to people new to the community?

Something I’ve noticed already is how many people there are who are passionate about what they do, and what they want to make happen with other people. There’s so much opportunity to collaborate with others and join people who care about the same things you do. Since I’m new, I just started going to events and that worked so well that I can’t even believe how quickly I found exciting things to be a part of. 

And there’s so much green space near campus, so many parks and walkways. Taking a little walk when you have a moment is a great way to get inspired. 

What are you working on right now?

I just published my first collection of poetry. That’s been something that’s been on my mind for a long time, and now it’s on my mind in a new way because now I get to share it with other people. 

I do research on poetry as well. So what I’m thinking about right now is poems about poems. I’m really interested in metapoems like that, Ars Poetica-type poems — poems about the art of poetry. I’m interested in the conventions in a poem, which are different from the conventions that we live. I’m trying to figure out what those conventions, along with the structures and patterns of poems, might do to help me understand and live the conventions, structures, and patterns of everyday life. 

What is something you would like people to know about you?

I like to be an instructor because it lets me see how other people think. There aren’t that many jobs where you can get inside other people’s minds, so I think it’s a really wonderful opportunity to get to do that. That idea of recording a thought process, my own thought process, to share with others, and also connecting to what other poets have written before me and joining my thought process to theirs, I think that is a big part of that book. 

I’ve been able to attend some poetry events, like at the Surrey Art Gallery and talk to other poets at KPU. Moving here has changed my thinking because the trees around me are so different from the trees that were around me in Ontario. I swear the air smells different, and the sights are so different.