Lorna Crozier



Lorna Crozier (born 24 May 1948) is a Canadian poet and academic. She holds the Head Chair in the Writing Department at the University of Victoria.

Life
Crozier was born in Swift Current, Saskatchewan. She attended the University of Saskatchewan where she received her B.A. in 1969, and the University of Alberta where she received her M.A. in 1980. Before publishing her poems and stories, Crozier was a high school English teacher and guidance counsellor. During these years, her first poem was published in Grain magazine. She also taught creative writing at the Banff School of Fine Arts, the Saskatchewan Summer School of the Arts, and the Sechelt Summer Writing Festival. Crozier has served as the writer-in-residence at the Cypress Hills Community College in 1983, the Regina Public Library, and the University of Toronto in 1989.

Crozier has authored 15 books, which typically focus on human relationships, the natural world, language, and memory and perception. Alongside partner Patrick Lane, Crozier has co-authored, No Longer Two People (1979), and co-edited Breathing Fire: Canada’s New Poets (1995), and Breathing Fire 2 (2004). Crozier has given various benefit readings for organizations such as the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Wintergreen Studios, The Land Conservancy of British Columbia, the Victoria READ Society, and PEERS, a group devoted to getting prostitutes off the streets. She has read her poetry on every continent other than Antarctica, and on May 19, 2005 Crozier recited a poem for Queen Elizabeth II as part of Saskatchewan’s Centennial Celebration.

A book review from The Globe and Mail by Jacqueline Baker on Crozier’s book, "Small Beneath the Sky: A Prairie Memoir", emphasized Crozier’s prairie roots, and gave positive feedback on this memoir. In an interview with Joseph Planta of TheCommentary.ca regarding the same book, she reveals the alcohol and poverty that surrounded her as a child. Although she grew up with a fairly difficult childhood, Crozier took her past and turned it into well renowned poetry.

Recognition
She has received a 1992 Governor General's Awards, the Canadian Author’s Association Award for Poetry, the National Magazine Award (Gold Medal), and first prize in the National CBC Literary Competition. Crozier received the University of Victoria’s Distinguished Professors Award and the University of Regina presented her with an honorary Doctorate of Law in 2004.

Poetry

 * Inside is the Sky (as Lorna Uher). Saskatoon: Thistledown Press, 1976.
 * Crow's Black Joy (as Lorna Uher). Edmonton: NeWest Press, 1978.
 * Animals of Fall. Saskatchewan: Very Stone House in transit, 1979.
 * Humans and Other Beasts (as Lorna Uher). Winnipeg: Turnstone Press, 1980.
 * Animals of Winter. Toronto: League of Canadian Poets, 1980.
 * No Longer Two People (with Patrick Lane). Winnipeg: Turnstone Press, 1981.
 * Death Wish [microform]. Ottawa: National Library of Canada, 1981.
 * The Weather. Moose Jaw, SK: Thunder Creek Publishing Co-operative, 1983.
 * The Garden Going On Without Us. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1985.
 * Inventing the Hawk. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1988.
 * Angels of Flesh, Angels of Silence. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1988.
 * Honor Kever, Stations Along the Way (with Bruce Grenville). Saskatoon: Mendel Art Gallery, 1989.
 * The Sex Lives of Vegetables: A Seed Catalogue (with Lise Melhorn-Boe). North Bay, ON: Transformer Press, 1990.
 * Inventing the Hawk - 1992 (winner of the Governor General's Award for poetry, and the Pat Lowther Award)
 * Eye witness: Variations for the Spring Equinox. BC: Reference West for the Hawthorne Society, 1993.
 * Everything Arrives at the Light. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1995.
 * The Transparency of Grief. Salt Spring Island, BC: {m}Öthêr Tøngué Press, 1996.
 * A Saving Grace: : The Collected Poems of Mrs. Bentley. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1996.
 * What the Living Won't Let Go. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1999.
 * Apocrypha of Light. Toronto: M&S, 2002.
 * Bones in their Wings: Ghazals. Regina: Hagios Press, 2003.
 * Whetstone. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2005.
 * Bones in Their Wings: Ghazals - 2006
 * The Blue Hour of the Day: Selected Poems - 2007
 * Small Beneath the Sky - 2009

Edited

 * Branch Lines: Writings from Southwest Saskatchewan (edited by Lorna Uher). Swift Current, SK: Southwest Saskatchewan Writers Project, 1981.
 * A Sudden Radiance: Saskatchewan Poetry (edited by Lorna Crozier and Gary Hyland). Regina, SK: Coteau Books, 1987.
 * Breathing Fire: Canada’s New Poets (edited by Lorna Crozier and Patrick Lane). Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 1995.
 * Selected Poems: Alden Nowlan (edited by Lorna Crozier and Patrick Lane). Concord, ON: Anansi, 1996.
 * Desire in Seven Voices (edited by Lorna Crozier). Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1999.
 * Addicted: Notes from the Belly of the Beast (edited by Lorna Crozier and Patrick Lane). Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2001.
 * Breathing Fire 2: Canada's New Poets (edited by Lorna Crozier and Patrick Lane). Roberts Creek, BC: Nightwood Editions, 2004.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy Brock University.