Alice Major Explained

Alice Major
Birth Place:	Scotland
Occupation:	writer
Nationality:	Canadian
Notableworks:	Welcome to The Anthropocene, and The Chinese Mirror.

Alice Major is a Canadian poet, writer, and essayist, who served as poet laureate of Edmonton, Alberta.^[1]

She has published 12 collections of poetry and a collection of essays on poetry and science. Her work has received multiple awards, most recently an honorary doctorate from the University of Alberta.^[2]

Biography

Major emigrated from Scotland at the age of eight, and grew up in Toronto, Ontario before working as a weekly newspaper reporter in central British Columbia. She has lived in Edmonton, Alberta since 1981. She has a BA (English, history) from Trinity College, Toronto at the University of Toronto.^[3] Her first book was a prize-winning YA fantasy novel. Since then she has published 12 books of poetry and an essay collection on poetry and science.

She is past-president of both the Writers' Guild of Alberta and the League of Canadian Poets,^{[4] [5]} as well as former chair of the Edmonton Arts Council.^[6] In 2005, she was appointed to a two-year term as the first poet laureate for the City of Edmonton, and then went on to receive the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Distinguished Artist Award in 2017.^[7] During her tenure as poet laureate, she founded the Edmonton Poetry Festival in 2006.^[8] In November 2019 she received an honorary doctorate of letters from the University of Alberta.

Awards (selected)

• 2017 Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Distinguished Artist Award.^[9]
• 2016 Robert Kroetsch Award for Poetry, for Standard Candles.^[10]
• 2012 National Magazine Award Gold Medal (essay category) for “The Ultraviolet Catastrophe.”^[11]
• 2012 Wilfrid Eggleston Award for Non-fiction, for Intersecting Sets.^[12]
• 2011 Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Memory’s Daughter.^[13]
• 2009 Pat Lowther Award for The Office Tower Tales.^[14]
• 2001 Malahat Review Long Poem Competition.^[15]

Shortlisted (selected)

• Raymond Souster Award, for Welcome to the Anthropocene (2019), and Standard Candles (2016).
• City of Edmonton Book Prize, for Welcome to the Anthropocene (2019), The Office Tower Tales (2009), Tales for an Urban Sky (2000), and Lattice of the Years (1999).^[16]

Works (selected)

Books

• The Chinese Mirror. (Irwin Publishing, 1988)  
• Time Travels Light. (Rowan Books, 1992)  
• Lattice of the Years. Bayeux Arts Inc. 1998. .
• Tales for an Urban Sky. Broken Jaw Press. 1999. .
• Corona Radiata. (St. Thomas Press, 2000)
• Some Bones and a Story. (Wolsak and Wynn, 2001)  
• No Monster (Victoria, Poppy Press, 2002)  
• The Occupied World. (University of Alberta Press. 2006) .
• The Office Tower Tales (University of Alberta Press, 2008)  
• Memory's Daughter (University of Alberta Press, 2010)
• Intersecting Sets: A Poet Looks at Science (University of Alberta Press, 2011)
• Standard Candles (University of Alberta Press, 2015)
• Welcome to the Anthropocene (University of Alberta Press, 2018)
• Knife on Snow (Turnstone Press, 2023)

Presentations/Papers (selected)

• Scansion and Science – The Anne Szumigalski Memorial Lecture, Toronto, 2017.^[17]
• A superposition of brains – Provost’s Lecture at Stony Brook University of New York (cosponsored by the Humanities Institute at Stony Brook and the C.K. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics).^[18]
• Numbers with Personality: Ordinal Linguistic Personification – presentation to plenary session, Bridges Conference on Mathematics, Music, Art, Architecture, Education, Culture (University of Waterloo, 2017).^[19]
• Convocation address – University of Alberta honorary degree presentation, 2019.^[20]
• Perhaps the Plaintive Numbers Flow – presented at Bridges Conference on Mathematics, Music, Art, Architecture, Culture (Online, 2020).^[21]

Anthologies (selected)

• Going it Alone: Plays by Women for Solo Performance. (Nuage Editions, 1997)
• What if...? Amazing stories, Monica Hughes Ed. (Tundra Books, 1998)
• Threshold: An Anthology of Contemporary Writing from Alberta. (University of Alberta Press. 1999.)
• Poetry and Spiritual Practice: Selections from Contemporary Canadian Poets (St. Thomas Press, 2002)  
• Reading the River: A traveller’s companion to the North Saskatchewan River (Regina, Coteau Books)
• How the Light Gets In: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry from Canada (Waterford, Ireland, School of Humanities at Waterford Institute of Technology, 2009)
• Locations of Grief: An Emotional Geography (Wolsak & Wynn, 2020)
• Waiting: An Anthology of Essays (University of Alberta Press, 2018)

Further reading

• Perkins, Don. "Metaphors, myths, and the eye of the magpie".^[22]
• Querengesser, Neil: "Science and the City".^[23]

References

1. Web site: Alice Major Edmonton, Alberta Poet Laureate . 2010-01-21 . 2012-02-20 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120220160957/http://www.poetrymap.ca/profile.php?PoetID=2 . dead .
2. Web site: Townsend . Sean . U of A names honorary degree recipients for 2019 fall convocation . University of Alberta . 26 April 2023.
3. Web site: Alice Major: Biography . Canadian Poetry Online . 26 April 2023.
4. Web site: WGA Board of Directors Archive . WGA website . 21 January 2019.
5. Web site: "Alice Major", League of Canadian Poets . 2010-01-21 . https://web.archive.org/web/20091008140930/http://www.poets.ca/linktext/direct/major.htm . 2009-10-08 . dead .
6. Web site: Alice Major: Biography . Canadian Poetry Online . 26 April 2023.
7. Web site: Alice Major . The Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Arts Awards . 26 April 2023.
8. Web site: Our Story . Edmonton Poetry Festival . 26 April 2023.
9. Web site: Alice Major . The Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Arts Awards . 26 April 2023.
10. Web site: BPAA Awards Winners Announced . Book Publishers Association of Alberta . 26 April 2023.
11. Web site: The Winners of the 35th anniversary National Magazine Awards! . National Magazine Awards . 8 June 2012 . 26 April 2023.
12. Web site: Helm . Richard . Edmonton writers dominate awards . Edmonton Journal . 26 April 2023.
13. Web site: Mather . Nicholas . 2011 Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Memory's Daughter. . Theatre Alberta. 24 June 2011 .
14. Web site: Pat Lowther Memorial Award . League of Canadian Poets . 26 April 2023.
15. Web site: Stephens . Melissa . Unconventional Insight: Melissa Stephens in Conversation with Alice Major . The Malahat Review . 26 April 2023.
16. Web site: The Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize Past Finalists . Writers' Guild of alberta . 26 April 2023.
17. Web site: Anne Szumigalski Lecture Series . League of Canadian Poets . 26 April 2023.
18. Web site: September 17 Provost's Lecture with Alice Major . Stony Brook University . 28 August 2013 . 26 April 2023.
19. Web site: Bridges Waterloo 2017 . The Bridges Archive . 26 April 2023.
20. Web site: Igali . Monika . Alice Major's Convocation Address . University of Alberta . 26 April 2023.
21. Web site: Bridges 2020 . The Bridges Archive . 26 April 2023.
22. Book: Don Perkins . "Metaphors, myths, and the eye of the magpie . Carriere . Marie . Purcell . Jason . Ten Canadian Writers in Context . 2016 . University of Alberta Press . 122–138.
23. Book: Melnyk . Neil . Neil Querengesser . Science and the City: Poetics of Alice Major's Edmonton . Melnyk . George . Coates . Donna . Writing Alberta: Alberta Building on a Literary Identity . 2017 . 978-1-55238-891-4 . 117–134. University of Calgary Press .

External links

• Alice Major's website
• University of Alberta Press – titles by author Alice Major