Required Reading: A witness in words and drawing to the Reena Virk Trials 1998-2000

By: Heather Spears

January 2000
96 pages | ISBN 0-919897-70-3
$19.00

**Winner of the Pat Lowther Award**

In 1999 and 2000, two Victoria teenagers were convicted of the murder of their schoolfellow, fourteen-year-old Reena Virk. Of the more than 500 drawings she prepared as courtroom artist for the trials, Heather Spears has selected some 50 to accompany the poems that record her experience of the process. The poet describes her aim as a visual and verbal record "without sentimentality," that "set[s] it down and leaves no residue."

Other Titles by Heather Spears

• I can still draw (2008)
• Poems Selected and New (1998)
• The Word for Sand (1998)
• Human Acts (1991)
• How to Read Faces (1986)