Alice Major
BornScotland
Occupationwriter
NationalityCanadian
Notable worksWelcome to The Anthropocene, and The Chinese Mirror.

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)

Shortlisted (selected)

Works (selected)

Books

  • The Chinese Mirror. (Irwin Publishing, 1988)  ISBN 0-7725-1707-X
  • Time Travels Light. (Rowan Books, 1992)  ISBN 1-895836-01-8
  • Lattice of the Years. Bayeux Arts Inc. 1998. ISBN 1-896209-25-4.
  • Tales for an Urban Sky. Broken Jaw Press. 1999. ISBN 1-896647-11-1.
  • Corona Radiata. (St. Thomas Press, 2000) ISBN 0-9685339-3-0
  • Some Bones and a Story. (Wolsak and Wynn, 2001)  ISBN 0-919897-74-6
  • No Monster (Victoria, Poppy Press, 2002)  ISBN 978-1-894603-03-4
  • The Occupied World. (University of Alberta Press. 2006) ISBN 978-0-88864-469-5.
  • The Office Tower Tales (University of Alberta Press, 2008)  ISBN 0-88864-502-3
  • Memory's Daughter (University of Alberta Press, 2010) ISBN 978-0-88864-539-5
  • Intersecting Sets: A Poet Looks at Science (University of Alberta Press, 2011) ISBN 978-0-88864-595-1
  • Standard Candles (University of Alberta Press, 2015) ISBN 978-1-77212-091-2
  • Welcome to the Anthropocene (University of Alberta Press, 2018) ISBN 978-1-77212-368-5
  • Knife on Snow (Turnstone Press, 2023) ISBN 978-0-88801-768-0

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) ISBN 978-0-921833-52-9
  • What if...? Amazing stories, Monica Hughes Ed. (Tundra Books, 1998) ISBN 978-0-88776-458-5
  • Threshold: An Anthology of Contemporary Writing from Alberta. (University of Alberta Press. 1999.) ISBN 978-0-88864-338-4
  • Poetry and Spiritual Practice: Selections from Contemporary Canadian Poets (St. Thomas Press, 2002)  ISBN 978-0-9685339-7-0
  • Reading the River: A traveller’s companion to the North Saskatchewan River (Regina, Coteau Books) ISBN 978-1550503173
  • How the Light Gets In: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry from Canada (Waterford, Ireland, School of Humanities at Waterford Institute of Technology, 2009) ISBN 978-0954028183
  • Locations of Grief: An Emotional Geography (Wolsak & Wynn, 2020) ISBN 978-1-989496-14-5
  • Waiting: An Anthology of Essays (University of Alberta Press, 2018) ISBN 978-1-77212-383-8

Further reading

  • Perkins, Don. "Metaphors, myths, and the eye of the magpie".[22]
  • Querengesser, Neil: "Science and the City".[23]

References

  1. ↑ "Alice Major Edmonton, Alberta Poet Laureate". Archived from the original on 2012-02-20. Retrieved 2010-01-21.
  2. ↑ Townsend, Sean. "U of A names honorary degree recipients for 2019 fall convocation". University of Alberta. Retrieved 26 April 2023.
  3. ↑ "Alice Major: Biography". Canadian Poetry Online. Retrieved 26 April 2023.
  4. ↑ "WGA Board of Directors Archive". WGA website. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
  5. ↑ ""Alice Major", League of Canadian Poets". Archived from the original on 2009-10-08. Retrieved 2010-01-21.
  6. ↑ "Alice Major: Biography". Canadian Poetry Online. Retrieved 26 April 2023.
  7. ↑ "Alice Major". The Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Arts Awards. Retrieved 26 April 2023.
  8. ↑ "Our Story". Edmonton Poetry Festival. Retrieved 26 April 2023.
  9. ↑ "Alice Major". The Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Arts Awards. Retrieved 26 April 2023.
  10. ↑ "BPAA Awards Winners Announced" (PDF). Book Publishers Association of Alberta. Retrieved 26 April 2023.
  11. ↑ "The Winners of the 35th anniversary National Magazine Awards!". National Magazine Awards. 8 June 2012. Retrieved 26 April 2023.
  12. ↑ Helm, Richard. "Edmonton writers dominate awards". Edmonton Journal. Retrieved 26 April 2023.
  13. ↑ Mather, Nicholas (24 June 2011). "2011 Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Memory's Daughter". Theatre Alberta.
  14. ↑ "Pat Lowther Memorial Award". League of Canadian Poets. Retrieved 26 April 2023.
  15. ↑ Stephens, Melissa. "Unconventional Insight: Melissa Stephens in Conversation with Alice Major". The Malahat Review. Retrieved 26 April 2023.
  16. ↑ "The Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize Past Finalists". Writers' Guild of alberta. Retrieved 26 April 2023.
  17. ↑ "Anne Szumigalski Lecture Series". League of Canadian Poets. Retrieved 26 April 2023.
  18. ↑ "September 17 Provost's Lecture with Alice Major". Stony Brook University. 28 August 2013. Retrieved 26 April 2023.
  19. ↑ "Bridges Waterloo 2017". The Bridges Archive. Retrieved 26 April 2023.
  20. ↑ Igali, Monika. "Alice Major's Convocation Address". University of Alberta. Retrieved 26 April 2023.
  21. ↑ "Bridges 2020". The Bridges Archive. Retrieved 26 April 2023.
  22. ↑ Don Perkins (2016). Carriere, Marie; Purcell, Jason (eds.). Ten Canadian Writers in Context. University of Alberta Press. pp. 122–138.
  23. ↑ Melnyk, Neil; Neil Querengesser (2017). Melnyk, George; Coates, Donna (eds.). Writing Alberta: Alberta Building on a Literary Identity. University of Calgary Press. pp. 117–134. ISBN 978-1-55238-891-4.
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