Alexandra Oliver

{{short description|Canadian poet (born 1970)}}

{{Use mdy dates|date = February 2025}}

{{Infobox writer

| name = Alexandra Oliver

| birth_name = Alexandra Edith Amelia Oliver

| image =

| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1970}}

| birth_place = Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

| death_date =

| death_place =

| occupation = Poet

| period = 1990s-present

| spouse = Dragan Basekic

| website = {{official website|http://www.alexandraoliver.ca/}}

| education = {{plainlist|

}}

| awards = Pat Lowther Award (2014)

}}

Alexandra Edith Amelia Basekic ({{Nee|Oliver}}; born 1970) is a Canadian poet. She began as a Vancouver-based slam poet in the early 1990s,"Hot Shots of '93: They're young and they're dazzling". Vancouver Sun, May 8, 1993. and appeared in the 1998 documentary film SlamNation.{{Cite web |date=2013-11-15 |title=Michael Lista, On Poetry: Meeting the Tormentors in Safeway, by Alexandra Oliver |url=https://nationalpost.com/entertainment/books/book-reviews/michael-lista-on-poetry-meeting-the-tormentors-in-safeway-by-alexandra-oliver |url-status= |access-date=2025-02-08 |website=National Post}} Oliver won the 2014 Pat Lowther Award for her collection Meeting the Tormentors in Safeway.

As of 2025, Oliver is an instructor at OCAD University.{{Cite web |title=Alexandra Basekic |url=https://www.ocadu.ca/academics/explore-faculty/basekica |access-date=2025-02-08 |website=OCAD University |language=en}}

Early life and education

Alexandra Edith Amelia Oliver was born in Vancouver in 1970.{{Cn|date=February 2025}}

She received a Master of Arts in drama from the University of Toronto in 1992, a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Southern Maine's Stonecoast MFA Program in Creative Writing in 2012,{{Cite web |title=Alexandra Basekic |url=https://english.humanities.mcmaster.ca/people/alexandra-basekic/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200813151728/https://english.humanities.mcmaster.ca/people/alexandra-basekic/ |archive-date=2020-08-13 |access-date=August 12, 2020 |website=McMaster University}}{{Primary source inline|date=February 2025}} and a Doctor of Philosophy in English and cultural studies from McMaster University.{{Cite web |last=Siddiqui |first=Tabassum |date=2022-06-07 |title=Alexandra Oliver delves into suburbia's darkness in the poetry collection Hail, the Invisible Watchman |url=https://www.cbc.ca/books/alexandra-oliver-delves-into-suburbia-s-darkness-in-the-poetry-collection-hail-the-invisible-watchman-1.6478210 |access-date=2025-02-08 |website=CBC Books}}

Awards and honors

CBC Books included Hail the Invisible Watchman on their list of the "best Canadian poetry of 2022".{{Cite web |date=2022-12-08 |title=The best Canadian poetry of 2022 |url=https://www.cbc.ca/books/the-best-canadian-poetry-of-2022-1.6678441 |access-date=2025-02-08 |website=CBC Books |archive-date=December 27, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227102038/https://www.cbc.ca/books/the-best-canadian-poetry-of-2022-1.6678441 |url-status=live }}

class="wikitable"

|+Awards for Oliver's work

!Year

!Work

!Award

!Result

!{{Ref heading}}

2014

|Meeting the Tormentors in Safeway

|Pat Lowther Award

|Winner

|{{Cite web |last=Carter |first=Sue |date=June 9, 2014 |title=Anne Compton, Alexandra Oliver, Murray Reiss win League of Canadian Poets awards |url=https://quillandquire.com/awards/2014/06/09/anne-compton-alexandra-oliver-murray-reiss-win-league-of-canadian-poets-awards/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170606121209/http://www.quillandquire.com/awards/2014/06/09/anne-compton-alexandra-oliver-murray-reiss-win-league-of-canadian-poets-awards/ |archive-date=June 6, 2017 |access-date=March 15, 2023 |website=Quill and Quire |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Jacobs |first=Danny |date=2016-06-09 |title=The Outlier |url=https://thewalrus.ca/the-outlier/ |access-date=2025-02-08 |website=The Walrus |language=en-US}}

2017

|Let the Empire Down

|Pat Lowther Award

|Shortlist

|{{Cite news |last=Medley |first=Mark |date=April 6, 2017 |title=Finalists for Canadian poetry awards announced |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/finalists-for-canadian-poetry-awards-announced/article34612395/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211017200836/https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/finalists-for-canadian-poetry-awards-announced/article34612395/ |archive-date=October 17, 2021 |access-date=March 15, 2023 |work=The Globe and Mail |language=en-CA}}

Personal life

She is married to engineer Dragan Basekic,{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2010-05-21 |title=Local poet striving to draw new fans to art form |url=https://www.insidehalton.com/things-to-do/local-poet-striving-to-draw-new-fans-to-art-form/article_f913f28b-7e59-55d1-b7a4-466cece987a9.html |access-date=2025-02-08 |website=InsideHalton.com |language=en |agency=Burlington Post}} and she is a parent.{{Cite web |date=2019-04-18 |title=Alexandra Oliver finds poetry in old films, the loneliness of parenthood and the aftermath of disaster |url=https://www.cbc.ca/radio/sunday/the-sunday-edition-for-april-21-2019-1.5099057/alexandra-oliver-finds-poetry-in-old-films-the-loneliness-of-parenthood-and-the-aftermath-of-disaster-1.5099102 |access-date=2025-02-08 |website=CBC Books}}{{Primary source inline|date=February 2025}}

Publications

  • Meeting the Tormentors in Safeway (2013)
  • Measure for Measure: An Anthology of Poetic Meters, co-editor with Annie Finch (2015)
  • Let the Empire Down (2016){{Cite web |last=Gillis |first=Susan |date=May 14, 2017 |title=Measured Pleasures: Alexandra Oliver's Let the Empire Down |url=http://arcpoetry.ca/2017/05/14/measured-pleasures-alexandra-olivers-let-the-empire-down/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230131074755/https://arcpoetry.ca/2017/05/14/measured-pleasures-alexandra-olivers-let-the-empire-down/ |archive-date=January 31, 2023 |access-date=2025-02-08 |website=Arc Poetry Magazine |language=en |url-status=live }}
  • On the Oven Sits a Maiden (chapbook) (2018)
  • Hail the Invisible Watchman (2022){{Cite web |last=Corbett |first=Maryann |date=2022-05-02 |title=Check the Doors: On Alexandra Oliver's "Hail, the Invisible Watchman" |url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/check-the-doors-on-alexandra-olivers-hail-the-invisible-watchman/ |access-date=2025-02-08 |website=Los Angeles Review of Books |archive-date=July 18, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240718022046/https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/check-the-doors-on-alexandra-olivers-hail-the-invisible-watchman/ |url-status=live }}

References

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