Alice Major

Alice Major is a Canadian poet, writer, and essayist, who served as poet laureate of Edmonton, Alberta.[1]

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

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. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-02-20. Retrieved 2010-01-21.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  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. Retrieved 26 April 2023.
  12. Helm, Richard. "Edmonton writers dominate awards". Edmonton Journal. Retrieved 26 April 2023.
  13. Mather, Nicholas. "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. 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. Melnyk, George; Coates, Donna (eds.). Writing Alberta: Alberta Building on a Literary Identity. pp. 117–134. ISBN 978-1-55238-891-4.
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