Betsy Warland (born 1946 in Fort Dodge, Iowa) is a Canadian writer and poet.
Betsy Warland obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Art and Education at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, Warland studied at Pennsylvania's State College before immigrating to Canada in 1972. In 1975, she initiated the Toronto Women's Writing Collective, which lasted until 1981. In 1980, Warland became a Canadian citizen and three years later, in 1983, Warland initiated and helped to organize the Women and Words/Les femmes et les mots conference in British Columbia. The conference proceedings were later converted into book form through In the Feminine: Women and Words Conference Proceedings. Warland was also a participant in the Federation of BC Writers, one of the largest writer's associations in Canada. This participation continues to this day. Involved in the development of arts in general, Warland also contributed to the Special Council Committee on the Arts for the Vancouver City Council.[1][2][3]
Much of Warland's contributions to literature have been in the form of essays (and collections thereof), poems and books relating to feminism, women's studies and lesbian issues. In 1991, Press Gang Publishers produced InVersions: Writing by Dykes, Queers and Lesbians, a collection of essays by Canadian and American writers, edited by Betsy Warland.[1][4] From 1993 to 1994, Betsy Warland was the writer in residence at the Saskatoon Public Library, in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. This position was in partnership with the Saskatoon Public Library and the Canada Council.[5]
Warland continues to participate in writing projects and frequently runs talks and sessions such as the Vancouver Manuscript Intensive.[6] A set of Warland's personal documents, interviews, photographs and manuscripts acquired in 1996 currently reside in the Library and Archives Canada's literary archives.[1]