Lorna Crozier

Lorna Crozier (born 24 May 1948 in Swift Current, Saskatchewan) is a Canadian poet and holds the Head Chair in the Writing Department at the University of Victoria.^[1]

Crozier 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.^[2] 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.^[1]

Crozier has authored 15 books of work, which typically focus on human relationships, the natural world, language, and memory and perception.^[3] 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).^[4]

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.^[5] 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.^[6]

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. 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 19 May 2005 Crozier recited a poem for Queen Elizabeth II as part of Saskatchewan’s Centennial Celebration.^[1]

Poetry

• Inside is the Sky - 1976 (as Lorna Uher)
• Crow's Black Joy - 1979 (as Lorna Uher)
• Humans and Other Beasts - 1980 (as Lorna Uher)
• No Longer Two People - 1981 (with Patrick Lane)
• The Weather - 1983
• The Garden Going On Without Us - 1985 (nominated for a Governor General's Award)
• Angels of Flesh, Angels of Silence - 1988 (nominated for a Governor General's Award)
• Inventing the Hawk - 1992 (winner of the Governor General's Award for poetry, and the Pat Lowther Award)
• Everything Arrives at the Light - 1995 (winner of the Pat Lowther Award)
• A Saving Grace: Collected Poems - 1996
• What the Living Won't Let Go - 1999
• Apocrypha of Light - 2002
• Bones in their Wings: Ghazals - 2003
• Whetstone - 2005
• Bones in Their Wings: Ghazals - 2006
• The Blue Hour of the Day: Selected Poems - 2007

Anthologies

• A Sudden Radiance - 1987 (with Gary Hyland)
• Breathing Fire - 1995 (with Patrick Lane)
• Desire in Seven Voices - 2000
• Addicted: Notes from the Belly of the Beast - 2001 (with Patrick Lane)
• Breathing Fire 2 - 2004 (with Patrick Lane)

Non-Fiction

• Small Beneath the Sky - 2009
• The Book of Marvels: A Compendium of Everyday Things - 2012

References