Alice Major

Alice Major won the inaugural Poet's Corner Award (sponsored by Broken Jaw Press) for Tales for an Urban Sky, and two of her books have been runners-up for the City of Edmonton Book Prize. Major has published eight collections of poetry and a novel for young adults, and served as the first poet laureate for the city of Edmonton from 2005-2007. She was born in Scotland and her family came to Canada when she was eight. She grew up in Toronto before moving west to work as a reporter on The Williams Lake Tribune in British Columbia. She is an active supporter of the arts and writing community, having served as president of the League of Canadian Poets, president of the Writers Guild of Alberta, chair of the Edmonton Arts Council, and as a founder of the Edmonton Poetry Festival.

Her latest book is The Office Tower Tales (University of Alberta Press, 2008). “This long poetic work is both extremely readable and erudite.” (Shawna Lemay, Edmonton Journal) “Alice Major’s tremendous new book of poetry takes a cue from a sprawling epic of English literature, The Canterbury Tales, but grounds its pilgrims in present-day Edmonton and the meaningless office drudgery of the 9-to-5 life….Each story has a five-line stanza form, and each stanza contains a rhyme and closes with a short line. ‘I needed something that would sound conversational and give me strong rhythmic presence as well,’ Major said. ‘It’s a project where you’re solving all the problems and challenges of poetry as well as the challenges of fiction.’” (Richard Helm, Edmonton Journal). You can learn more about Alice Major’s writing at http://www.alicemajor.com/