Halfe, Louise (1953-)

Louise Halfe.

Coteau Books

Born on April 8, 1953, on the Saddle Lake Reserve in Two Hills, Alberta, Halfe was sent In 1959 to the Blue Quills Residential School in St. Paul, Alberta, where she stayed until the age of 16. She continued her studies at St. Paul’s regional high school and began writing about her experiences. Afterwards, she attended the University of Regina, where she earned her Bachelor of Social Work, and the Nechi Institute, where she earned certificates in Addictions. Halfe’s first work was published in 1990, in Writing the Circle: Native Women of Western Canada, an anthology of writing by Native women. Her first book, Bear Bones & Feathers, was published in 1994. The book received the Canadian People’s Poet Award and was a finalist for the Spirit of Saskatchewan Award. In 1998 her second book, Blue Marrow, was published; it was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award for Poetry, the Pat Lowther Award, the Saskatchewan Book of the Year Award, and the Saskatchewan Poetry Award. Halfe’s work has appeared in various anthologies and in magazines such as NeWest Review. In 2005, Louise Halfe was named as Saskatchewan’s new Poet Laureate.

Dagmar Skamlová

Further Reading