Congratulations from Artmob!

The Artmob project would like to congratulate Canadian Writers in Person for bringing their important video archive to the public. This collection is a testament to the creativity and dedication of both the authors and the organizers of the series, and we are proud to have played a part in its online presence.

Artmob is a York University-based research project dedicated to building accessible public archives of Canadian art. For more information visit us at www.artmob.ca.

Betsy Warland

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Poet, nonfiction writer, essayist, teacher and editor Betsy Warland was born in Fort Dodge, Iowa in 1946. She obtained her BA in Art and Education at Luther College, Decorah, Iowa in 1970. Warland emigrated to Canada in 1973, becoming a citizen in 1980. Over the past twenty-five years she has been one of Canada's leading feminist writers as well as influential innovative writers.

In her most recent book, Only This Blue: A Long Poem with an Essay (The Mercury Press, 2005), she traces moments of awe and dread on her journey through a life-threatening experience. Light, colour, sound, all are evoked in poetic lines pared to the bone, reflecting daily perceptions turned on their head. In her essay, “Nose to Nose,” she deepens her investigation of the relationship between scored space and scored line. A textual meditation, her essay invites readers to consider the shape and movement of poetry and prose, their origins and their possible place in the written world.

Perhaps most known for her language-focused writing and ways of working with silence, her scoring of blank space on the page evokes as much meaning as her inscribing of written language. The unsayable, the secreted, the unknowable: these are her obsessions — how one encounters them in lover relationships, family, a homophobic society, a mono-truth society, or the inner work of spiritual practice.

A writer dedicated to emerging writers, Betsy Warland mentors and teaches various textual forms — Poetry, Lyric Prose, Nonfiction — in The Writer's Studio Program at Simon Fraser University's Writing and Publishing Program in Vancouver. This is a year-long, part-time (non-credit) intensive Certificate in Creative Writing.

Bibliograhy
Only This Blue - A Long Poem with an Essay (The Mercury Press, 2005)
Bloodroot - Tracing the Untelling of Motherloss (Sumach Press/Second Story Press, 2000)
What Holds Us Here (Buschek Books, 1998)
Two Women in a Birth (Guernica Editions, 1994) with Daphne Marlatt
The Bat Had Blue Eyes (Women's Press, 1993)
Proper Deafinitions (Press Gang Publishers, 1990)
Double Negative (gynergy press/Ragweed Press, 1988) with Daphne Marlatt
serpent (w)rite (Coach House Press, 1987)
open is broken (Longspoon Press, 1984)
A Gathering Instinct (Williams-Wallace Press, 1981)
InVersions: Writing by Dykes, Queers and Lesbians (Press Gang Publishers, 1991) as Editor
Telling It: Women and Language across Cultures, (Press Gang Publishers/Raincoast Books, 1990) as Editor

Submitted by prathna on Thu, 07/16/2009 - 17:44.

Works in the Archive

Betsy Warland - Introduction

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Betsy Warland was born in Iowa and studied Art and Education at Luther College, Decorah, Iowa. Since emigrating to Canada in 1973, Warland has been active as a poet, writer, educator and editor. She is the director of The Writer’s Studio at Simon Fraser University and has taught creative writing at various writing schools. She is a member of the Writers Union of Canada and the Saskatchewan Writers Guild and was writer-in-residence at the Saskatoon Public Library.

Submitted by Artmob Guest on Thu, 07/16/2009 - 20:13.

Betsy Warland - Q & A

Betsy_Warland-QA.jpg

Betsy Warland was born in Iowa and studied Art and Education at Luther College, Decorah, Iowa. Since emigrating to Canada in 1973, Warland has been active as a poet, writer, educator and editor. She is the director of The Writer’s Studio at Simon Fraser University and has taught creative writing at various writing schools. She is a member of the Writers Union of Canada and the Saskatchewan Writers Guild and was writer-in-residence at the Saskatoon Public Library.

Submitted by Artmob Guest on Thu, 07/16/2009 - 20:12.

Betsy Warland - Reading

Betsy_Warland-Reading.jpg

Betsy Warland was born in Iowa and studied Art and Education at Luther College, Decorah, Iowa. Since emigrating to Canada in 1973, Warland has been active as a poet, writer, educator and editor. She is the director of The Writer’s Studio at Simon Fraser University and has taught creative writing at various writing schools. She is a member of the Writers Union of Canada and the Saskatchewan Writers Guild and was writer-in-residence at the Saskatoon Public Library.

Submitted by Artmob Guest on Thu, 07/16/2009 - 20:14.

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