• Source: Betsy Warland

Betsy Warland (born 1946) is a Canadian feminist writer of over a dozen books of poetry, creative nonfiction, and lyrical prose. She is best known for her collection of essays, Breathing the Page: Reading the Act of Writing (2010).




Life


Warland was born in Fort Dodge, Iowa, in 1946. She studied at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, before emigrating to Canada in 1972. She started the Toronto Women's Writing Collective (1973–1981), which hosted events, including co-hosting (with the Toronto Women's Bookstore) Writers in Dialogue, featuring Adrienne Rich, Nicole Brossard, May Sarton, Audrey Thomas, Margaret Atwood, and Marge Piercy. She initiated and co-organized (with Victoria Freeman) the Women and Words/Les Femmes et les mots conference at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in 1983.
From 1986 to 1987, Warland was the executive director of the Federation of BC Writers; additionally, she initiated Spring Rites, the annual competition for BC Writers. Warland sat on the Special Council Committee of the Arts for the Vancouver City Council. Warland has mentored writers such as Jónína Kirton. She co-founded the Creative Nonfiction Collective with Myrna Kostash in 2004 and served on its board. She served on the National Council of the Writers' Union of Canada from 2009 to 2012.
She designed the Writer's Studio program at Simon Fraser University in 2001 and served as its director until 2012, during which time she helped initiate the Thursdays Writing Collective in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. In 2007, she founded the Vancouver Manuscript Intensive program, for which she continues to serve as a director. Warland has led multiple workshops in the United Kingdom at the Poetry School (London), the Poetry Library (London), and the Arvon Foundation (Devon). She also led workshops in Canada at Sage Hill, Booming Ground (UBC), the Metchosin International School of the Arts, Hollyhock, and Simon Fraser University, among others.
An annual book award honoring Warland, the VMI Betsy Warland Between Genres Award, was launched in 2021. Jordan Abel was the inaugural 2021 winner for his book, Nishga. In 2022, the winning book was Remnants, written by Céline Huyghebaert and translated by Aleshia Jensen. The 2023 winner was Nicholas Dawson, with translator D.M. Bradford, for the book House Within a House.
Warland's personal documents, interviews, photographs, and manuscripts have been acquired by the literary archives at Library and Archives Canada.




Writing


Much of Warland's literary output has been in the form of essays, memoirs, and poetry books relating to the writing process, feminism, women's studies, and lesbian issues. Her work has appeared in both Canadian and international journals, as well as anthologies.




Selected works


Breathing the Page: Reading the Act of Writing. Second edition. Cormorant Books, 2023,
Bloodroot: Tracing the Untelling of Motherloss. Second edition. Inanna Publications/York University, 2022
Lost Lagoon/Lost in Thought. Caitlin Press, 2020
Oscar of Between: A Memoir of Identity and Ideas. Caitlin Press, 2016
Oscar's Salon, an interactive online salon of excerpts from Oscar of Between in concert. BetsyWarland.com, 2012–2017
Breathing the Page: Reading the Act of Writing. Cormorant Books, 2010
Only This Blue: A Long Poem with an Essay. The Mercury Press, 2005
Bloodroot: Tracing the Untelling of Motherloss. Second Story Press, 2000
What Holds Us Here. Buschek Books, 1998
Two Women in a Birth (with Daphne Marlatt). Guernica Editions, 1994
The Bat Had Blue Eyes. Women's Press, 1993
InVersions: Writing by Dykes, Queers and Lesbians (editor). Press Gang, 1991
Telling It: Women and Language across Cultures (co-editor with Daphne Marlatt, Lee Maracle, and Sky Lee). Press Gang, 1990
Proper Deafinitions: Collected Theorograms. Press Gang, 1990
serpent (w)rite: (a reader's gloss). Coach House, 1987
Double Negative (with Daphne Marlatt). Gynergy books/Ragweed Press, 1986
open is broken. Longspoon Press, 1984
A Gathering Instinct. Williams-Wallace, 1981




Awards


The Vancouver Mayor's Arts Award for Literary Arts, October 2016
Pandora's Literary Festival BC Writer Mentor Award, 2011




References






External links


Betsy Warland
Archives of Betsy Warland (Betsy Warland fonds, R11827) are held at Library and Archives Canada

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• Betsy Warland
• Warland
• Daphne Marlatt
• Lee Maracle
• Room (magazine)
• Fort Dodge, Iowa
• The Well of Loneliness
• Sky Lee
• Darrel J. McLeod
• Dionne Brand