Alice Major

Alice Major. Courtesy Canadian Poetry Online.

Alice Major (born 1949) is a Canadian poet, who served as poet laureate of Edmonton, Alberta.

Life

Youth and education

Major emigrated from Scotland with her parents and sister at the age of 8, and grew up in Toronto, Ontario.

She has a B.A. in English and history from Trinity College, University of Toronto.

Career

Major worked as a weekly newspaper reporter in central British Columbia. She has lived in Edmonton, Alberta since 1981. She works as a freelance writer specializing in utility issues.

She is past president of the Writers Guild of Alberta, and the League of Canadian Poets. She has published several collections of poetry.

Her poetry has always been influenced by her interest in science, and she has published a collection of essays, Intersecting Sets: A poet looks at science, 2011.

Recognition

Major served as the inaugural Poet laureate of Edmonton, Alberta, from 2005 to 2007.

Awards

• Winner, Pat Lowther Award, for The Office Tower Tales, 2009
• Winner, Alberta Book Publishers Association Trade Book of the Year (fiction) for The Office Tower Tales, 2009
• Winner, “Poetics of Space” competition, 2004 (Sponsored by CV2)
• Shortlisted, Pat Lowther Award, for Some Bones and a Story, 2002 (National award for best book of poetry by a Canadian woman)
• Winner, Malahat Review Long Poem Competition, 2001
• Winner, Poets Corner Award, for Tales for an Urban Sky, 1999.
• Shortlisted, City of Edmonton Book Prize, for Lattice of the Years, 1999, Tales for an Urban Sky, 2000 and The Office Tower Tales, 2009
• Shortlisted, Stephan G. Stephanson Award, Writers Guild of Alberta, for Tales for an Urban Sky, 2000; and The Occupied World, 2007.
• Winner, Shaunt Basmajian Chapbook Competition, for Scenes from the Sugar Bowl Café, 1998
• Winner, Alberta Writing for Youth Competition, for The Chinese Mirror, 1988.
• Finalist, Canadian Library Association Book of the Year, for The Chinese Mirror, 1988

Except where noted, award information courtesy Promoting Authors.

Publications

Poetry

• Time Travels Light. Edmonton, AB: Rowan Books, 1992. ISBN 1-895836-01-8
• Complete within Herself: St. Marina, St. Scholstica (chapbook). Victoria, BC: Reference West / Hawthorne Society, 1997. ISBN 1-894010-06-X
• Scenes from the Sugar Bowl Café, (chapbook). Fredericton, NB: BS Poetry Society, 1998. ISBN 0-9694127-4-6
• Lattice of the Years. Calgary, AB: Bayeux Arts, 1998. ISBN 1-896209-25-4
• Tales for an Urban Sky. Fredericton, NB: Broken Jaw Press, 1999. ISBN 1-896647-11-1
• Corona Radiata. Toronto: St. Thomas Press, 2000. ISBN 0-9685339-3-0
• Some Bones and a Story. Toronto: Wolsak & Wynn 2001. ISBN 0-919897-74-6
• No Monster. Victoria, Poppy Press, 2002 ISBN 8-1-894603-03-6
• The Occupied World. Edmonton, AB: University of Alberta Press, 2006.
• The Office Tower Tales. Edmonton, AB: University of Alberta Press, 2008.
• Memory's Daughter. Edmonton, AB: University of Alberta Press, 2010.
• Standard Candles. Edmonton, AB: University of Alberta Press, 2015.

Non-fiction

• Shumka: Tradition in motion (edited by Gordon Gordey). Edmonton, AB: Reidmore Books, 1991.
• Intersecting Sets: A poet looks at science. Edmonton, AB: University of Alberta Press, 2011. ISBN 978-0-88864-595-1

Juvenile

• The Chinese Mirror. Toronto: Irwin, 2008.
• The Jade Spindle (e-book) eSisters Publishing, 2012.

Alice Major

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

• List of Canadian poets

External links

Poems

• "Vienna Exposition, 1873"
• Alice Major at Canadian Poetry Online (6 poems)
• Poetry and Writing

Audio / video

• Alice Major at YouTube

Books

• Alice Major at Amazon.com

About

• Alice Major in Alberta Writers Directory
• Alice Major Official website