Susan Musgrave

Susan Musgrave (born March 12, 1951) is a Canadian poet novelist, essayist, editor, cookbook writer and children's writer. She was born in Santa Cruz, California, to Canadian parents, and lives in British Columbia and spends part of every year in the west of Ireland where she lived in the early 70s. Her roots are Anglo-Irish; her great-great-great grandfather, Sir Richard Musgrave, wrote “Memoirs of the Irish Rebellion of 1798.

Musgrave left school at 14, and had her first works published at 16.

She has two daughters, Charlotte Nelson Musgrave (with Paul Oscar Nelson)

She teaches poetry at the University of British Columbia's School of Creative Writing Master of Fine Arts program.

Musgrave's archives are held by the William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections at McMaster University.

Her book Exculpatory Lilies was shortlisted for the 2023 Griffin Poetry Prize as well as the Governor General’s Award for Poetry, and the Derek Walcott Poetry Prize.

Awards

Exculpatory Lilies shortlisted for Governor General’s Award for Poetry, 2023 Exculpatory Lilies shortlisted for the 2022 Derek Walcott Poetry Prize Honorable Mention, Exculpatory Lilies, 1st Annual Sunshine Coast Writers and Editors Society Book Awards for BC Authors 2023 Tears of Things Wins Gold at Magazine Awards for Best Poetry, 2023 Shortlisted Griffin Poetry Prize, June, 2023, for Exculpatory Lilies. Exculpatory Lilies Globe and Mail 100 Best Books of the Year, 2022 Longlisted Frontier OPEN, top 3% of submissions: “The Spinning Want the Still to Spin,” 2021 Short-listed, Fish Poetry Prize (Ireland) May 2021 “The Colour of Water” First Prize, Arc’s Award of Awesomeness, September 2020 Third Prize, Fish Poetry Prize (Ireland) Judge Billy Collins, May 2020 for poem “Wild and Alone” Gold winner, Taste Canada Awards for A Taste of Haida Gwaii November 14, 2016: Bill Duthie Bookseller’s Choice Award (BC Book Awards) for A Taste of Haida Gwaii April 30, 2016 Matt Cohen Award: In Celebration of a Writing Life (presented by the Writer’s Trust) 2014 Toronto Public Library 2012 First & Best Booklist in Canadian books for children from birth to age five: Kiss, Tickle, Cuddle, Hug Second Annual CBC Bookie Awards Finalist, 2012 Accenti Writing Contest, April 14, 2012 “Silent in its Shout” (personal essay) first prize ($1000) Lush Triumphant Literary Awards Competition (SubTerran Magazine) First Prize, 2012, “The Goodness of this World” Lifetime Achievement Award, Pandora Collective, Vancouver, B.C. 2010 Honourable Mention Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize, 2000, for Things That Keep and Do Not Change National Magazine Award for Personal Journalism, “Visitor’s Rites,” in Saturday Night, 2000 Dreams are More Real than Bathtubs (Orca) selected by The Canadian Children’s Book Centre, Our Choice 1999-2000 Vicky Metcalf Short Story Editor’s Award, 1996 CBC/Saturday Night/Tilden Award for Poetry, 1996 (First Prize) Short-listed for the Stephen Leacock Award for Humour, for Musgrave Landing: Musings on the Writing Life Readers’ Choice Award for poems published in the Winter 1993 edition of Prairie Schooner First Prize b.p. nichol Poetry Chapbook Award for In the Small Hours of the Rain: Reference West, 1991 Short-listed for the Stephen Leacock Award for Humour, for Great Musgrave, 1990 P. Adams Short Fiction Award (Third Prize) for “The Remains Of Edward’s”, published in Negative Capability, Mobile, Alabama,1989 Finalist In Seal First Novel Competition, McClelland & Stewart, for The Charcoal Burners, 1980 Grave-Dirt and Selected Strawberries short-listed for Governor General’s Award, 1974

Fiction The Charcoal Burners — 1980 (nominated for a Governor General's Award) The Dancing Chicken — 1987 Cargo of Orchids — 2000 Given — 2012

Non-fiction Great Musgrave — 1989 Musgrave Landing: Musings on the Writing Life — 1994 You're in Canada Now... Motherfucker: A Memoir of Sorts — 2005 A Taste of Haida Gwaii: Food Gathering and Feasting at the Edge of the World — 2015

Children's literature Gullband — 1980 Hag Head — 1980 Kestrel and Leonardo — 1990 Dreams Are More Real than Bathtubs — 1998 Kiss, Tickle, Cuddle, Hug — 2012 Love You More — 2012 More Blueberries, 2015 My Love is For You, 2019

Compiled or edited by Musgrave Because You Loved Being a Stranger: 55 Poets Celebrate Patrick Lane — 1994 Nerves Out Loud: Critical Moments in the Lives of Seven Teen Girls — 2001 You Be Me: Friendship in the Lives of Teen Girls — 2002 The Fed Anthology — 2003 Certain Things About My Mother: Daughters Speak — 2003 Perfectly Secret: The Hidden Lives of Seven Teen Girls — 2004

Song lyrics "Ode to the missing but not forgotten" — 2006 (performed by the guitarist Brad Prevedoros and singer Amber Smith)