Di Brandt (born 31 January 1952) (née Janzen)[1] often stylized as di brandt, is a Canadian poet and scholar from Winnipeg, Manitoba.[2] She became Winnipeg's first Poet Laureate in 2018.[3]

Life and career

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Brandt grew up in Reinland, a Mennonite farming village in southern Manitoba near Winkler.[4] Her first volume of poetry questions i asked my mother was published by Turnstone Press in 1987. Since then she has published seven more volumes of poetry, as well as literary criticism. Brandt has degrees from the University of Manitoba and University of Toronto and has also taught Canadian literature and creative writing.[5] She was poetry editor at Prairie Fire Magazine and Contemporary Verse 2 during the 1980s and 90s. She also served as Manitoba and Prairie Rep at the League of Canadian Poets National Council and the Writers' Union of Canada National Council. In 2018, she became the first Poet Laureate of Winnipeg, a position she held through 2019,[6] and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by MacEwan University in 2021.[7]

Bibliography

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Poetry:

  • questions i asked my mother (Winnipeg: Turnstone Press, 1987)
  • Agnes in the sky (Winnipeg: Turnstone Press, 1990)
  • mother, not mother (Toronto: The Mercury Press, 1992)
  • Jerusalem, beloved (Winnipeg: Turnstone Press, 1995)
  • Now You Care (Toronto: Coach House Press, 2003)
  • The Lottery of History (Brandon, MB: Radish Press, 2008). Chapbook.
  • Walking to Mojacar, with French and Spanish translations by Charles Leblanc and Ari Belathar (Winnipeg: Turnstone Press, 2010)
  • SHE: Poems inspired by Laozi, with ink drawings by Lin Xu (Brandon, MB: Radish Press, 2012). Chapbook.
  • The Sweetest Dance on Earth: New and Selected Poems (Winnipeg: Turnstone Press, 2022)

Essays:

  • Wild Mother Dancing: Maternal Narrative in Canadian Literature (Winnipeg, MB: University of Manitoba Press 1993).
  • Dancing Naked: Narrative Strategies for Writing Across Centuries (Toronto: Mercury Press 1996).
  • Re:Generations: Canadian Women Poets in Conversation (Windsor, ON: Black Moss Press 2006), ed. with Barbara Godard.
  • So this is the world & here I am in it (Edmonton: NeWest Press 2007).
  • Wider Boundaries of Daring: The Modernist Impulse in Canadian Women's Poetry (Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press 2011), ed. with Barbara Godard.

Collaborations:

Awards and recognition

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Di Brandt". Quill and Quire. 13 May 2004.
  2. ^ "Di Brandt". Quill and Quire. 13 May 2004. Retrieved May 21, 2021.
  3. ^ Winnipeg welcomes first poet laureate - Di Brandt will make poetry relevant for Winnipeggers again (December 11, 2017) - Winnipeg Free Press
  4. ^ "Di Brandt". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved May 21, 2021.
  5. ^ Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature. Oxford University Press.
  6. ^ "Meet Winnipeg's new poet laureate". Winnipeg Free Press. Retrieved May 21, 2021.
  7. ^ "UWinnipeg's Di Brandt recognized". University of Winnipeg. 12 November 2021. Retrieved Nov 17, 2021.
  8. ^ "2004 Griffin Poetry Prize Shortlist-Di Brandt". Retrieved 13 August 2018.
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