Vi Gale

Viola M. Gale ( Håkansson; 1917–2007) was a Swedish-born American poet and publisher, who worked in Oregon. She began writing poems and short stories that were published in minor magazines and reviews in the 1950s. Gale's first book was published in 1959, and released five more throughout her life. In 1974, she established the small printing house Prescott Street Press in Portland to promote unknown authors and produce well-designed affordable books. One of Gale's works was selected by the Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission as one of 100 Oregon books from 1800 to 2000 "best representing the state's literary heritage" in 2003.

Early life Gale was born Viola Håkansson in 1917, in a rural village called Noret along Central Sweden's Västerdal River in Dalarna County. She was the daughter of Erland G. Håkansson and Maria Håkansson. Gale had one brother. They came to the country via Ellis Island, and settled in the Swedish community of Clatskanie, Oregon, She became a naturalized United States citizen that same year, and began to attend literature and writing courses at the University of Colorado Boulder, Portland State University, Lewis & Clark College, and the University of Oregon in the late 1940s. Gale contributed to Colorado Quarterly, December, Kansas Magazine, Midwest Quarterly Review, Northwest Review, Poetry Northwest, Poetry (Chicago), Pacific Spectator among other publications. Her work was featured in the books Oregon Signatures in 1959, Golden Year: The Poetry Society of American Anthology in 1960, and NW Manuscript Poems in 1966.

Personal life Gale married Jim Gale in 1942. She died in 2007, having lived the whole of her adult life in Oregon and having never gone back to Sweden.

Method and legacy Gale's poems came from personal experiences and memories, with some featuring Scandinavian recollections, and several displaying "a keen sense of place". She said she was highly encouraged by opening up American poetry by the Beat Generation. Through Gale's career, she wrote in a more experimental and relaxed away from "the slightly formal feel of the strict stanzaic patterns in her early work".

Her work, Several Houses, was selected as one of 100 Oregon books from 1800 to 2000 by the Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission as "best representing the state's literary heritage" in 2003. In February 2008, a celebration of the life and career of Gale took place in Portland. The Lewis & Clark College Special Collections and Archives holds a collection relating to Gale, including her biographical information, personal correspondence, photographs, poetry manuscripts, and teaching materials connected to her life and other materials about Prescott Street Press.