Crozier, Lorna (1948-)

Lorna Crozier, June 2004.

University of Regina, Photography Department

Lorna Crozier, described by Margaret Laurence as “a poet to be grateful for,” was born in Swift Current, Saskatchewan. She holds a BA from the University of Saskatchewan (1969) and completed an MA in English at the University of Alberta in 1980. A high school English teacher for several years, Crozier has held teaching positions or given creative writing workshops in a number of institutions including the Banff School of Fine Arts, Red Deer College, the Saskatchewan Summer School of the Arts, the Sage Hill Writing Experience, and the Sechelt Summer Writing Festival. She has been a writer-in-residence at the Cypress Hills Community College, the University of Toronto, and the Regina Public Library. Currently Professor of Poetry and Chair of the Department of Writing at the University of Victoria, Crozier has received numerous awards for her work, including the Canadian Authors' Association Award for Poetry, the Governor General's Award for Poetry, two Pat Lowther Awards for the best book of poetry by a Canadian woman, and the National Magazine Awards Gold Medal. She has been invited to take part in various writers' festivals in Canada and abroad, and for a time worked as a CBC arts show host. In 2004, the University of Regina bestowed an honorary Doctor of Laws degree on Crozier, whose collected papers are housed in the Archives of the University.

Not only a writer of poetry but a theorist as well, Crozier describes her writing experience as a woman: “I throw out the poem like a net and pull things together with the threads of language that need mending, that need new patterns to catch the light, this is my woman's work, pulling these threads through my voice.” Her books include Inside is the Sky (1976), Crow's Black Joy (1979), Humans and Other Beasts (1980), No Longer Two People (with Patrick Lane, 1981), The Weather (1983), The Garden Going on Without Us (1985), Angels of Flesh, Angels of Silence (1988), Inventing the Hawk (1992), Everything Arrives at the Light (1995), A Saving Grace (1996), What the Living Won't Let Go (1999), Apocrypha of Light (2002), and Bones in Their Wings: Ghazals (2003). Crozier has also edited two collections of essays: Desire in Seven Voices (2000), and Addicted: Notes from the Belly of the Beast (with Patrick Lane, 2001).

Ellen J. Chapco