Take a trip through Alberta with some of Canada's finest established and emerging poets as your guides. Writing the Terrain: Travelling Through Alberta with the Poets is the first anthology dedicated solely to the poetry of the Alberta landscape and cityscape, by authors who have travelled the main roads, back roads, and gravel roads of this vast province. This collection offers a series of poetic journeys through Calgary and Edmonton, through the foothills, the badlands, the Rockies, the central parklands, and the northern boreal forests. Following in the Canadian literary tradition of "preoccupation with place" these are poems that demonstrate a response to the landscape and ponder its effect on the body, mind, and spirit.
With Contributions By:
Ian Adam Tammy Armstrong Margaret Avison Douglas Barbour John O. Barton Doug Beardsley BonnieBishop E.D. Blodgett Robert Boates George Bowering Tim Bowling Jan Boydol Gordon Burles Murdoch Burnett Anne Campbell Weyman Chan Leonard Cohen Dennis Cooley Joan Crate Michael Cullen Cyril Dabydeen Lorne Daniel Alexa DeWiel Jason Dewinetz Ryan Fitzpatrick Cecelia Frey Gary Geddes Gail Ghai Deborah Godin Jim Green Leslie Greentree Vivian Hansen Tom Henihan Michael Henry Walter Hildebrandt Gerald Hill Robert Hilles Nancy Holmes Richard Hornsey Tom Howe Bruce Hunter Aislinn Hunter Laurence Hutchman Sally Ito Pauline Johnson Aleksei Kazuk Robert Kroetsch Fiona Lam William Latta Tim Lilburn Alice Major Kim Maltman Miriam Mandel Sid Marty David McFadden Barry McKinnon Erin Michie Deborah Miller Anna Mioduchowska James M. Moir Colin Morton Erin Moure Charles Noble P.K. Page Rajinderpal Pal Ruth Roach Pierson Joseph Pivato Roberta Rees D.C. Reid Monty Reid r. rickey Ken Rivard Stephen Scobie Allan Serafino Joan Shillington Greg Simison Carol Ann Sokoloff Karen Solie Robert Stamp Stephan Stephansson Peter Stevens Ivan Sundal Anne Swannell Vanna Tessier Colleen Thibadeau John O. Thompson James M. Thurgood Eva Tihanyi Yvonne Trainer Aritha van Herk Rosalee van Stelten Miriam Waddington Wilfred Watson James Wreford Watson Tom Wayman Phyllis Webb Jon Whyte Christine Wiesenthal Sheri-D Wilson Christopher Wiseman Stacie Wolfer Rita Wong Richard Woollatt Jan Zwicky
Michael Henry is the author of ONTARIO'S OLD GROWTH FORESTS. He is a botanist and forest ecologist who has spent over two decades studying, writing about, and working to conserve Ontario's old—growth forests. He compiled and maintains the list of Ontario's oldest trees; he designed and constructed the Blueberry Lake Ecology Trails in Temagami; he confirmed that the Jackson Creek forest in Peterborough is an old—growth forest; and he has worked to protect threatened old—growth forests within Algonquin Park, where he and Nate Torenvliet found unprotected forest over 400 years old. He is currently working on a book about old—growth forests in Ontario's Greenbelt. Michael has also worked as a natural builder and is lead author of the book Essential Natural Plasters: A Guide to Materials, Recipes, and Use.
Cyril Dabydeen has published more than a dozen books of prose and poetry in the United Kingdom and Canada, including the novel Dark Swirl and the story collections My Brahmin Days, Black Jesus and Other Stories, and Jogging in Havana. The City of Ottawa appointed him Poet Laureate in the mid-1980s and granted him the first Award of Excellence for Writing and Publishing. He lives in Ottawa, ON.
Cyril Dabydeen has published more than a dozen books of prose and poetry in the United Kingdom and Canada, including the novel Dark Swirl and the story collections My Brahmin Days, Black Jesus and Other Stories, and Jogging in Havana. The City of Ottawa appointed him Poet Laureate in the mid-1980s and granted him the first Award of Excellence for Writing and Publishing. He lives in Ottawa, ON.
Cyril Dabydeen has published more than a dozen books of prose and poetry in the United Kingdom and Canada, including the novel Dark Swirl and the story collections My Brahmin Days, Black Jesus and Other Stories, and Jogging in Havana. The City of Ottawa appointed him Poet Laureate in the mid-1980s and granted him the first Award of Excellence for Writing and Publishing. He lives in Ottawa, ON.
Tim Lilburn is the author of six books of poetry, including the Governor Generals Award-winning collection Kill-Site. He is also the author of a book of essays, Living in the World as if It Were Home, and the editor of two anthologies, Thinking and Singing and Poetry and Knowing.
Tim Lilburn is the author of six books of poetry, including the Governor Generals Award-winning collection Kill-Site. He is also the author of a book of essays, Living in the World as if It Were Home, and the editor of two anthologies, Thinking and Singing and Poetry and Knowing.
Tim Lilburn is the author of six books of poetry, including the Governor Generals Award-winning collection Kill-Site. He is also the author of a book of essays, Living in the World as if It Were Home, and the editor of two anthologies, Thinking and Singing and Poetry and Knowing.
Tim Lilburn is the author of six books of poetry, including the Governor Generals Award-winning collection Kill-Site. He is also the author of a book of essays, Living in the World as if It Were Home, and the editor of two anthologies, Thinking and Singing and Poetry and Knowing.
Tim Lilburn is the author of six books of poetry, including the Governor Generals Award-winning collection Kill-Site. He is also the author of a book of essays, Living in the World as if It Were Home, and the editor of two anthologies, Thinking and Singing and Poetry and Knowing.
Tim Lilburn is the author of six books of poetry, including the Governor Generals Award-winning collection Kill-Site. He is also the author of a book of essays, Living in the World as if It Were Home, and the editor of two anthologies, Thinking and Singing and Poetry and Knowing.
Nancy Holmes has published four collections of poetry, most recently Mandorla (2005). She has lived in Alberta, Ontario, and, most recently, British Columbia, where she teaches creative writing at the University of British Columbia Okanagan in Kelowna.
Nancy Holmes has published four collections of poetry, most recently Mandorla (2005). She has lived in Alberta, Ontario, and, most recently, British Columbia, where she teaches creative writing at the University of British Columbia Okanagan in Kelowna.
Nancy Holmes has published four collections of poetry, most recently Mandorla (2005). She has lived in Alberta, Ontario, and, most recently, British Columbia, where she teaches creative writing at the University of British Columbia Okanagan in Kelowna.
Gerald Hill lives amid the leafy confines of downtown Regina. His forty-year teaching career took him across western Canada and to Papua New Guinea as a CUSO volunteer, finally to Luther College at the University of Regina, where Hill taught English and Creative Writing until 2018. Meanwhile, he maintained an active literary life as writer published in over 35 journals, literary festival presenter, event organizer, editor, leader, conference speaker, grant recipient, and mentor. Among the highlights: Instructor, Writing With Style, The Banff Centre, 2011; Writer-in-Residence, Convento São Francisco de Mértola, Portugal, February, 2010; Fellow, Hawthornden Retreat for Writers, Lasswade, Scotland, April, 2010; Resident, Leighton Studios, The Banff Centre, 2007, 2009, 2012, 2013; Resident, Wallace Stegner House, Eastend, Sask., 2007, 2009; Poetry Editor, Grain, 2003-2008. A two-time winner of the Saskatchewan Book Award for Poetry, Hill was Poet Laureate of Saskatchewan in 2016. Crooked at the Far End is his 7th poetry collection. Gerald Hill lives in Regina, Saskatchewan.
Gerald Hill lives amid the leafy confines of downtown Regina. His forty-year teaching career took him across western Canada and to Papua New Guinea as a CUSO volunteer, finally to Luther College at the University of Regina, where Hill taught English and Creative Writing until 2018. Meanwhile, he maintained an active literary life as writer published in over 35 journals, literary festival presenter, event organizer, editor, leader, conference speaker, grant recipient, and mentor. Among the highlights: Instructor, Writing With Style, The Banff Centre, 2011; Writer-in-Residence, Convento São Francisco de Mértola, Portugal, February, 2010; Fellow, Hawthornden Retreat for Writers, Lasswade, Scotland, April, 2010; Resident, Leighton Studios, The Banff Centre, 2007, 2009, 2012, 2013; Resident, Wallace Stegner House, Eastend, Sask., 2007, 2009; Poetry Editor, Grain, 2003-2008. A two-time winner of the Saskatchewan Book Award for Poetry, Hill was Poet Laureate of Saskatchewan in 2016. Crooked at the Far End is his 7th poetry collection. Gerald Hill lives in Regina, Saskatchewan.
Sally Ito was born in Taber, Alberta and grew up in Edmonton and the Northwest Territories. She studied at the University of British Columbia and the University of Alberta, and travelled on scholarship to Japan, where she translated Japanese poetry. Her first book of poems, Frogs in the Rain Barrel (Nightwood, 1995) was runner-up for the Milton Acorn People's Poetry Award. Her second book, Floating Shore (Mercury Press), won the Writers Guild of Alberta Book Award for short fiction, and was shortlisted for the Danuta Gleed Literary Prize and the City of Edmonton Book Prize. Her work has appeared in numerous periodicals such as Grain, Matrix and the Capilano Review and in the anthologies Breathing Fire: Canada's New Poets and Poets 88. Ito lives in Edmonton with her husband and son.
Sally Ito was born in Taber, Alberta and grew up in Edmonton and the Northwest Territories. She studied at the University of British Columbia and the University of Alberta, and travelled on scholarship to Japan, where she translated Japanese poetry. Her first book of poems, Frogs in the Rain Barrel (Nightwood, 1995) was runner-up for the Milton Acorn People's Poetry Award. Her second book, Floating Shore (Mercury Press), won the Writers Guild of Alberta Book Award for short fiction, and was shortlisted for the Danuta Gleed Literary Prize and the City of Edmonton Book Prize. Her work has appeared in numerous periodicals such as Grain, Matrix and the Capilano Review and in the anthologies Breathing Fire: Canada's New Poets and Poets 88. Ito lives in Edmonton with her husband and son.
One of Canada's most respected poets, Margaret Avison was born in Galt, Ontario, lived in Western Canada in her childhood, and then in Toronto. In a productive career that stretched back to the 1940s, she produced seven books of poems, including her first collection, Winter Sun (1960), which she assembled in Chicago while she was there on a Guggenheim Fellowship, and which won the Governor General's Award. No Time (Lancelot Press), a work that focussed on her interest in spiritual discovery and moral and religious values, also won the Governor General's Award for 1990. Avison's published poetry up to 2002 was gathered into Always Now: the Collected Poems (Porcupine's Quill, 2003), including Concrete and Wild Carrot which won the 2003 Griffin Prize. Her most recent book, Listening, Last Poems, was published in 2009 by McClelland & Stewart.
Margaret Avison was the recipient of many awards including the Order of Canada and three honorary doctorates.
One of Canada's most respected poets, Margaret Avison was born in Galt, Ontario, lived in Western Canada in her childhood, and then in Toronto. In a productive career that stretched back to the 1940s, she produced seven books of poems, including her first collection, Winter Sun (1960), which she assembled in Chicago while she was there on a Guggenheim Fellowship, and which won the Governor General's Award. No Time (Lancelot Press), a work that focussed on her interest in spiritual discovery and moral and religious values, also won the Governor General's Award for 1990. Avison's published poetry up to 2002 was gathered into Always Now: the Collected Poems (Porcupine's Quill, 2003), including Concrete and Wild Carrot which won the 2003 Griffin Prize. Her most recent book, Listening, Last Poems, was published in 2009 by McClelland & Stewart.
Margaret Avison was the recipient of many awards including the Order of Canada and three honorary doctorates.
One of Canada's most respected poets, Margaret Avison was born in Galt, Ontario, lived in Western Canada in her childhood, and then in Toronto. In a productive career that stretched back to the 1940s, she produced seven books of poems, including her first collection, Winter Sun (1960), which she assembled in Chicago while she was there on a Guggenheim Fellowship, and which won the Governor General's Award. No Time (Lancelot Press), a work that focussed on her interest in spiritual discovery and moral and religious values, also won the Governor General's Award for 1990. Avison's published poetry up to 2002 was gathered into Always Now: the Collected Poems (Porcupine's Quill, 2003), including Concrete and Wild Carrot which won the 2003 Griffin Prize. Her most recent book, Listening, Last Poems, was published in 2009 by McClelland & Stewart.
Margaret Avison was the recipient of many awards including the Order of Canada and three honorary doctorates.
One of Canada's most respected poets, Margaret Avison was born in Galt, Ontario, lived in Western Canada in her childhood, and then in Toronto. In a productive career that stretched back to the 1940s, she produced seven books of poems, including her first collection, Winter Sun (1960), which she assembled in Chicago while she was there on a Guggenheim Fellowship, and which won the Governor General's Award. No Time (Lancelot Press), a work that focussed on her interest in spiritual discovery and moral and religious values, also won the Governor General's Award for 1990. Avison's published poetry up to 2002 was gathered into Always Now: the Collected Poems (Porcupine's Quill, 2003), including Concrete and Wild Carrot which won the 2003 Griffin Prize. Her most recent book, Listening, Last Poems, was published in 2009 by McClelland & Stewart.
Margaret Avison was the recipient of many awards including the Order of Canada and three honorary doctorates.
One of Canada's most respected poets, Margaret Avison was born in Galt, Ontario, lived in Western Canada in her childhood, and then in Toronto. In a productive career that stretched back to the 1940s, she produced seven books of poems, including her first collection, Winter Sun (1960), which she assembled in Chicago while she was there on a Guggenheim Fellowship, and which won the Governor General's Award. No Time (Lancelot Press), a work that focussed on her interest in spiritual discovery and moral and religious values, also won the Governor General's Award for 1990. Avison's published poetry up to 2002 was gathered into Always Now: the Collected Poems (Porcupine's Quill, 2003), including Concrete and Wild Carrot which won the 2003 Griffin Prize. Her most recent book, Listening, Last Poems, was published in 2009 by McClelland & Stewart.
Margaret Avison was the recipient of many awards including the Order of Canada and three honorary doctorates.
Tom Wayman’s prolific literary career includes writing more than twenty poetry collections, three collections of critical and cultural essays, three books of short fiction and a novel, as well as editing six poetry anthologies. He received British Columbia’s 2022 George Woodcock Award for Lifetime Achievement in the literary arts. In 2015, he was named a Vancouver Literary Landmark, with a plaque on the city’s Commercial Drive commemorating his championing of people writing for themselves about their daily employment. He won the Western Canada Jewish Book Awards prize for fiction in 2016 (for the short story collection, The Shadows We Mistake for Love) and for poetry in 2023 (for Watching a Man Break a Dog’s Back: Poems for a Dark Time). His memoir, The Road to Appledore (or How I Went Back to The Land Without Ever Having Lived There in the First Place), was published in 2024. Wayman lives in Winlaw, BC, and his website is www.tomwayman.com.
Tim Bowling has published numerous poetry collections, including Low Water Slack; Dying Scarlet (winner of the Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry); Darkness and Silence (winner of the Canadian Authors Association Award for Poetry); The Witness Ghost and The Memory Orchard (both nominated for the Governor General's Literary Award); and his Selected Poems (winner of the Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize). Bowling's work in poetry and prose has been honoured with two Canadian Authors Association Awards; two Writers' Trust of Canada nominations; a Guggenheim Fellowship; five Alberta Book Awards; the Acorn-Plantos People's Poetry Award; and a Roderick Haig-Brown Award nomination. Bowling served as the 2015 Canadian judge for the Griffin International Poetry Prize.
Tim Bowling has published numerous poetry collections, including Low Water Slack; Dying Scarlet (winner of the Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry); Darkness and Silence (winner of the Canadian Authors Association Award for Poetry); The Witness Ghost and The Memory Orchard (both nominated for the Governor General's Literary Award); and his Selected Poems (winner of the Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize). Bowling's work in poetry and prose has been honoured with two Canadian Authors Association Awards; two Writers' Trust of Canada nominations; a Guggenheim Fellowship; five Alberta Book Awards; the Acorn-Plantos People's Poetry Award; and a Roderick Haig-Brown Award nomination. Bowling served as the 2015 Canadian judge for the Griffin International Poetry Prize.
Rita Wong is the author of four books of poetry: monkeypuzzle (Press Gang, 1998), forage (Nightwood Editions, 2007), sybil unrest (Line Books, 2008, with Larissa Lai) and undercurrent (Nightwood Editions, 2015). forage was the winner of the 2008 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize and Canada Reads Poetry 2011. Wong is an associate professor in the Critical and Cultural Studies department at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design on the unceded Coast Salish territories also known as Vancouver.
Rajinderpal S. Pal was named "Best Local Author" by the readers of Calgary's Fast Forward magazine. He also won the Henry Kreisel Award for Best First Book for his critically-acclaimed poetry collection pappaji wrote poetry in a language i cannot read, which spent six weeks on the Calgary Herald bestseller list. He also has won the Calgary semi-finals of the CBC Radio Poetry-Face Of. Pulse has been nominated for both the Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry (an Albert Book Award) and the W.O. Mitchell Book Prize from the City of Calgary. He lives in Vancouver.
The former president of Calgary's Sage Theatre and former managing editor of filling Station magazine, he is presently on the Board of Directors of the Calgary Folk Fest and the Arts and Culture Committee of Calgary Foundation. He has participated in international arts festivals such as ArtWallah. Rajinderpal has published in literary magazines throughout North America, and is in translation in Brazil and Portugal.
Christine Wiesenthal is the critically acclaimed author of The Half-Lives of Pat Lowther, a biography shortlisted for the 2006 Governor General's Literary Award for Nonfiction. She has published numerous works of nonfiction and poetry, including Instruments of Surrender, a collection shortlisted for the Stephan G. Stephannson and the Gerald Lampert awards in 2001 and 2002. She currently lives in Edmonton.
Joseph Pivato is Professor Emeritus of Literary Studies at Athabasca University in Edmonton. His Ph.D. is in Comparative Literature. When he held The Mariano Elia Chair in Italian-Canadian Studies at York University in 1987-88, he taught the first course on Italian-Canadian literature offered anywhere. In 1985 he edited Contrasts: Comparative Essays on Italian-Canadian Writing which became a seminal book promoting ethnic minority writing. His other publications include: Africadian Atlantic: Essays on George Elliott Clarke (2012), Echo: Essays on Other Literatures (1994), Mary di Michele: Essays on Her Works (2007), The Anthology of Italian-Canadian Writing (1998), and Caterina Edwards: Essays in Her Works (2000). His new books are: Sheila Watson: Essays on Her Works (2015), and Rina Del Nin Cralli, From Friuli: Poems in Friulan, with English Translations (2015, Longbridge Books, Montreal).
Joseph Pivato is Professor Emeritus of Literary Studies at Athabasca University in Edmonton. His Ph.D. is in Comparative Literature. When he held The Mariano Elia Chair in Italian-Canadian Studies at York University in 1987-88, he taught the first course on Italian-Canadian literature offered anywhere. In 1985 he edited Contrasts: Comparative Essays on Italian-Canadian Writing which became a seminal book promoting ethnic minority writing. His other publications include: Africadian Atlantic: Essays on George Elliott Clarke (2012), Echo: Essays on Other Literatures (1994), Mary di Michele: Essays on Her Works (2007), The Anthology of Italian-Canadian Writing (1998), and Caterina Edwards: Essays in Her Works (2000). His new books are: Sheila Watson: Essays on Her Works (2015), and Rina Del Nin Cralli, From Friuli: Poems in Friulan, with English Translations (2015, Longbridge Books, Montreal).
Christopher Wiseman s poetry, short fiction, reviews and critical writings have been published and broadcast extensively on both sides of the Atlantic. He has won two Province of Alberta Poetry Awards, the Poetry Prize from the Writers Guild of Alberta, and an Alberta Achievement Award for Excellence in the literary arts. He was Founding Vice-President, and later President of the Writers Guild of Alberta, and started the Creative Writing programme at the University of Calgary. He lives in Calgary.
KAREN SOLIE grew up in southwest Saskatchewan. Her five previous collections of poetry–Short Haul Engine, Modern and Normal, Pigeon, The Road In Is Not the Same Road Out, and The Caiplie Caves–have won the Dorothy Livesay Award, Pat Lowther Award, Trillium Poetry Prize, and the Griffin Prize, and been shortlisted for the Derek Walcott Prize and the T.S. Eliot Prize. A 2023 Guggenheim Fellow, she teaches half-time for the University of St Andrews in Scotland and lives the rest of the year in Canada.
E. D. Blodgett (Ex Nihilo – Poetry, author), Poet, literary critic, and translator of more than 20 collections of poetry and the winner of the 1996 Governor General's Award for his collection Apostrophes: Woman at a Piano. In 1999, Jacques Brault won the Governor-General's Award for Translation for Transfiguration (1998), a translation of Blodgett's poetry. Poet Laureate for the City of Edmonton (2007) and Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature at the University of Alberta and also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
Pauline Johnson (1861–1913) was Canada’s first native author. Her most famous collection of verse, Flint and Feather went into many printings and was successfully followed by two volumes of short stories, The Moccasin Maker and Legends of Vancouver.
Pauline Johnson (1861–1913) was Canada’s first native author. Her most famous collection of verse, Flint and Feather went into many printings and was successfully followed by two volumes of short stories, The Moccasin Maker and Legends of Vancouver.
Pauline Johnson (1861–1913) was Canada’s first native author. Her most famous collection of verse, Flint and Feather went into many printings and was successfully followed by two volumes of short stories, The Moccasin Maker and Legends of Vancouver.