Dorothy Livesay

Dorothy Kathleen May Livesay, (October 12, 1909 – December 29, 1996) was a Canadian poet who twice won the Governor General's Award in the 1940s, and was "senior woman writer in Canada" during the 1970s and 1980s.

Life Livesay was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Her mother, Florence Randal Livesay, was a poet and journalist; her father, J.F.B. Livesay was the General Manager of Canadian Press. Livesay moved to Vancouver in 1935, and married Duncan Macnair, a fellow socialist, in 1937. They had two children, Peter and Marcia.

In the early 1940s, Livesay suggested to Anne Marriott, Floris McLaren, and Doris Ferne that they start a poetry magazine which would serve as a vehicle for poets outside the somewhat closed Montreal circle. Alan Crawley agreed to edit the magazine, and the first issue of Contemporary Verse appeared in September 1941, After Macnair died in 1959, Livesay worked for UNESCO in Paris, and then in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) as a field worker from 1960 to 1963.

Between 1951 and 1984, she was an instructor and a writer-in-residence at many Canadian universities, including the University of British Columbia (1951–1953 and 1966–1968), University of New Brunswick (1966–1968), University of Alberta (1968–1971), University of Victoria (1972–1974), University of Manitoba (1974–1976), Simon Fraser University (1980–1982), and University of Toronto (1983–1984). In 1975, Livesay founded the journal Contemporary Verse 2 (CVII). She died in Victoria, British Columbia in 1996.

Writing

Livesay's first collection of poetry, Green Pitcher, was published in 1928, when she was only nineteen. The Encyclopedia of Literature says, "these were well-crafted poems that not only showed skilled use of the imagist technique but prefigured Margaret Atwood's condemnations of exploitative and fearful attitudes to the Canadian landscape." The book "later disappointed Livesay by its failure to deal openly with social issues.

She published her first short story, "Heat", in the Canadian Mercury at the same age (in January, 1929).

Awards and honours Livesay won the Governor General's Award, Canada's top poetry honour, twice: in 1944 for Day and Night, and in 1947 for Poems for People.

In 1983, she was made a Doctor of Athabasca University and in 1987, she became an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Discography Celebration: Famous Canadian Poets CD Canadian Poetry Association — 2001 (CD#2) (with Eli Mandel)