Alice Major
{{short description|Canadian poet, writer, and essayist}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Alice Major
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| birth_place =Scotland
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| occupation =writer
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| nationality =Canadian
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| notableworks =Welcome to The Anthropocene, and The Chinese Mirror.
}}
Alice Major is a Canadian poet, writer, and essayist, who served as poet laureate of Edmonton, Alberta.{{Cite web |url=http://www.poetrymap.ca/profile.php?PoetID=2 |title=Alice Major Edmonton, Alberta Poet Laureate |access-date=2010-01-21 |archive-date=2012-02-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120220160957/http://www.poetrymap.ca/profile.php?PoetID=2 |url-status=dead }}
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.{{cite web |last1=Townsend |first1=Sean |title=U of A names honorary degree recipients for 2019 fall convocation |url=https://www.ualberta.ca/folio/2019/10/u-of-a-names-honorary-degree-recipients-for-2019-fall-convocation.html |website=University of Alberta |access-date=26 April 2023}}
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.{{cite web |title=Alice Major: Biography |url=https://canpoetry.library.utoronto.ca/major/index.htm |website=Canadian Poetry Online |access-date=26 April 2023}} 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,{{cite web |title=WGA Board of Directors Archive |url=https://writersguild.ca/about/board-of-directors/ |website=WGA website |accessdate=21 January 2019}}{{Cite web |url=http://www.poets.ca/Linktext/direct/major.htm |title="Alice Major", League of Canadian Poets |access-date=2010-01-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091008140930/http://www.poets.ca/linktext/direct/major.htm |archive-date=2009-10-08 |url-status=dead }} as well as former chair of the Edmonton Arts Council.{{cite web |title=Alice Major: Biography |url=https://canpoetry.library.utoronto.ca/major/index.htm |website=Canadian Poetry Online |access-date=26 April 2023}} 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.{{cite web |title=Alice Major |url=https://artsawards.ca/artist/alice-major/ |website=The Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Arts Awards |access-date=26 April 2023}} During her tenure as poet laureate, she founded the Edmonton Poetry Festival in 2006.{{cite web |title=Our Story |url=https://edmontonpoetryfestival.com/about/our-story/ |website=Edmonton Poetry Festival |access-date=26 April 2023}} In November 2019 she received an honorary doctorate of letters from the University of Alberta.
Awards (selected)
- 2017 Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Distinguished Artist Award.{{cite web |title=Alice Major |url=https://artsawards.ca/artist/alice-major/ |website=The Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Arts Awards |access-date=26 April 2023}}
- 2016 Robert Kroetsch Award for Poetry, for Standard Candles.{{cite web |title=BPAA Awards Winners Announced |url=http://bookpublishers.ab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Media-Release-AB-Book-Publishing-Awards-2015-Winners.pdf |website=Book Publishers Association of Alberta |access-date=26 April 2023}}
- 2012 National Magazine Award Gold Medal (essay category) for “The Ultraviolet Catastrophe.”{{cite web |title=The Winners of the 35th anniversary National Magazine Awards! |url=https://magazine-awards.com/en/2012/06/07/35th-national-magazine-awards-winners/ |website=National Magazine Awards |date=8 June 2012 |access-date=26 April 2023}}
- 2012 Wilfrid Eggleston Award for Non-fiction, for Intersecting Sets.{{cite web |last1=Helm |first1=Richard |title=Edmonton writers dominate awards |url=https://edmontonjournal.com/entertainment/books/edmonton-writers-dominate-awards |website=Edmonton Journal |access-date=26 April 2023}}
- 2011 Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Memory’s Daughter.{{cite web |last1=Mather |first1=Nicholas |title=2011 Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Memory's Daughter. |url=https://www.theatrealberta.com/2011/06/23/2011-alberta-literary-awards-winners-announced/ |website=Theatre Alberta|date=24 June 2011 }}
- 2009 Pat Lowther Award for The Office Tower Tales.{{cite web |title=Pat Lowther Memorial Award |url=https://poets.ca/awards/lowther/ |website=League of Canadian Poets |access-date=26 April 2023}}
- 2001 Malahat Review Long Poem Competition.{{cite web |last1=Stephens |first1=Melissa |title=Unconventional Insight: Melissa Stephens in Conversation with Alice Major |url=http://www.malahatreview.ca/interviews/major_interview.html |website=The Malahat Review |access-date=26 April 2023}}
=Shortlisted (selected)=
- Raymond Souster Award, for Welcome to the Anthropocene (2019), and Standard Candles (2016).
- City of Edmonton Book Prize, for Welcome to the Anthropocene (2019), The Office Tower Tales (2009), Tales for an Urban Sky (2000), and Lattice of the Years (1999).{{cite web |title=The Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize Past Finalists |url=https://writersguild.ca/city-book-award-finalists/ |website=Writers' Guild of alberta |access-date=26 April 2023}}
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.{{cite web |title=Anne Szumigalski Lecture Series |url=https://poets.ca/szumigalski/ |website=League of Canadian Poets |access-date=26 April 2023}}
- 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).{{cite web |title=September 17 Provost's Lecture with Alice Major |url=https://news.stonybrook.edu/oncampus/september-17-provosts-lecture-with-alice-major-2/ |website=Stony Brook University |date=28 August 2013 |access-date=26 April 2023}}
- Numbers with Personality: Ordinal Linguistic Personification – presentation to plenary session, Bridges Conference on Mathematics, Music, Art, Architecture, Education, Culture (University of Waterloo, 2017).{{cite web |title=Bridges Waterloo 2017 |url=https://archive.bridgesmathart.org/2017/#gsc.tab=0 |website=The Bridges Archive |access-date=26 April 2023}}
- Convocation address – University of Alberta honorary degree presentation, 2019.{{cite web |last1=Igali |first1=Monika |title=Alice Major's Convocation Address |url=https://sites.library.ualberta.ca/ualbertapressblog/2020/01/22/alice-majors-convocation-address/ |website=University of Alberta |access-date=26 April 2023}}
- Perhaps the Plaintive Numbers Flow – presented at Bridges Conference on Mathematics, Music, Art, Architecture, Culture (Online, 2020).{{cite web |title=Bridges 2020 |url=https://archive.bridgesmathart.org/2020/#gsc.tab=0 |website=The Bridges Archive |access-date=26 April 2023}}
=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".{{cite book |author1=Don Perkins |author1-link="Metaphors, myths, and the eye of the magpie |editor1-last=Carriere |editor1-first=Marie |editor2-last=Purcell |editor2-first=Jason |title=Ten Canadian Writers in Context |date=2016 |publisher=University of Alberta Press |pages=122–138}}
- Querengesser, Neil: "Science and the City".{{cite book |last1=Melnyk |first1=Neil |author2=Neil Querengesser |author1-link=Science and the City: Poetics of Alice Major's Edmonton |editor1-last=Melnyk |editor1-first=George |editor2-last=Coates |editor2-first=Donna |title=Writing Alberta: Alberta Building on a Literary Identity |date=2017 |isbn=978-1-55238-891-4 |pages=117–134|publisher=University of Calgary Press }}
References
External links
- [http://www.alicemajor.com/ Alice Major's website]
- University of Alberta Press – [https://www.uap.ualberta.ca/titles-by-author?author=major-alice titles by author Alice Major]
{{Pat Lowther Award}}
{{Authority control}}
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Category:20th-century Canadian poets
Category:21st-century Canadian poets
Category:20th-century Canadian women writers
Category:21st-century Canadian women writers