Alice Major
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Alice Major is a Canadian poet, writer, and essayist, who served as poet laureate of Edmonton, Alberta.[1]
She has published 12 collections of poetry and a collection of essays on poetry and science. Her work has received multiple awards, most recently an honorary doctorate from the University of Alberta.[2]
Biography
Major emigrated from Scotland at the age of eight, and grew up in Toronto, Ontario before working as a weekly newspaper reporter in central British Columbia. She has lived in Edmonton, Alberta since 1981. She has a BA (English, history) from Trinity College, Toronto at the University of Toronto.[3] Her first book was a prize-winning YA fantasy novel. Since then she has published 12 books of poetry and an essay collection on poetry and science.
She is past-president of both the Writers' Guild of Alberta and the League of Canadian Poets,[4][5] as well as former chair of the Edmonton Arts Council.[6] In 2005, she was appointed to a two-year term as the first poet laureate for the City of Edmonton, and then went on to receive the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Distinguished Artist Award in 2017.[7] During her tenure as poet laureate, she founded the Edmonton Poetry Festival in 2006.[8] In November 2019 she received an honorary doctorate of letters from the University of Alberta.
Awards (selected)
- 2017 Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Distinguished Artist Award.[9]
- 2016 Robert Kroetsch Award for Poetry, for Standard Candles.[10]
- 2012 National Magazine Award Gold Medal (essay category) for “The Ultraviolet Catastrophe.”[11]
- 2012 Wilfrid Eggleston Award for Non-fiction, for Intersecting Sets.[12]
- 2011 Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Memory’s Daughter.[13]
- 2009 Pat Lowther Award for The Office Tower Tales.[14]
- 2001 Malahat Review Long Poem Competition.[15]
Shortlisted (selected)
- Raymond Souster Award, for Welcome to the Anthropocene (2019), and Standard Candles (2016).
- City of Edmonton Book Prize, for Welcome to the Anthropocene (2019), The Office Tower Tales (2009), Tales for an Urban Sky (2000), and Lattice of the Years (1999).[16]
Works (selected)
Books
- The Chinese Mirror. (Irwin Publishing, 1988) Template:ISBN
- Time Travels Light. (Rowan Books, 1992) Template:ISBN
- Lattice of the Years. Bayeux Arts Inc. 1998. Template:ISBN.
- Tales for an Urban Sky. Broken Jaw Press. 1999. Template:ISBN.
- Corona Radiata. (St. Thomas Press, 2000) Template:ISBN
- Some Bones and a Story. (Wolsak and Wynn, 2001) Template:ISBN
- No Monster (Victoria, Poppy Press, 2002) Template:ISBN
- The Occupied World. (University of Alberta Press. 2006) Template:ISBN.
- The Office Tower Tales (University of Alberta Press, 2008) Template:ISBN
- Memory's Daughter (University of Alberta Press, 2010) Template:ISBN
- Intersecting Sets: A Poet Looks at Science (University of Alberta Press, 2011) Template:ISBN
- Standard Candles (University of Alberta Press, 2015) Template:ISBN
- Welcome to the Anthropocene (University of Alberta Press, 2018) Template:ISBN
- Knife on Snow (Turnstone Press, 2023) Template:ISBN
Presentations/Papers (selected)
- Scansion and Science – The Anne Szumigalski Memorial Lecture, Toronto, 2017.[17]
- A superposition of brains – Provost’s Lecture at Stony Brook University of New York (cosponsored by the Humanities Institute at Stony Brook and the C.K. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics).[18]
- Numbers with Personality: Ordinal Linguistic Personification – presentation to plenary session, Bridges Conference on Mathematics, Music, Art, Architecture, Education, Culture (University of Waterloo, 2017).[19]
- Convocation address – University of Alberta honorary degree presentation, 2019.[20]
- Perhaps the Plaintive Numbers Flow – presented at Bridges Conference on Mathematics, Music, Art, Architecture, Culture (Online, 2020).[21]
Anthologies (selected)
- Going it Alone: Plays by Women for Solo Performance. (Nuage Editions, 1997) Template:ISBN
- What if...? Amazing stories, Monica Hughes Ed. (Tundra Books, 1998) Template:ISBN
- Threshold: An Anthology of Contemporary Writing from Alberta. (University of Alberta Press. 1999.) Template:ISBN
- Poetry and Spiritual Practice: Selections from Contemporary Canadian Poets (St. Thomas Press, 2002) Template:ISBN
- Reading the River: A traveller’s companion to the North Saskatchewan River (Regina, Coteau Books) Template:ISBN
- How the Light Gets In: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry from Canada (Waterford, Ireland, School of Humanities at Waterford Institute of Technology, 2009) Template:ISBN
- Locations of Grief: An Emotional Geography (Wolsak & Wynn, 2020) Template:ISBN
- Waiting: An Anthology of Essays (University of Alberta Press, 2018) Template:ISBN
Further reading
- Perkins, Don. "Metaphors, myths, and the eye of the magpie".[22]
- Querengesser, Neil: "Science and the City".[23]
References
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External links
- Alice Major's website
- University of Alberta Press – titles by author Alice Major