By 1946, several of Wilkinson's poems had appeared in
literary journals, and subsequently she published two collections of poetry,
Counterpoint to Sleep (1951) and
The Hangman Ties the Holly (1955), the latter of which was flagged by
Northrup Frye as a volume of "poetry of particular importance" that year. She also published two books of prose before her untimely death from lung
cancer in 1961:
Lions in the Way (1956), a history of her maternal family, the Oslers, and
Swann and Daphne (1960), a modern fairy tale for children. A founding editor and patron of the literary quarterly
The Tamarack Review, her work appeared in several prominent Canadian publications of the day, including
Northern Review. It was anthologized in
The Oxford Book of Canadian Verse (ed. A.J.M. Smith, 1960),
The Penguin Book of Canadian Verse (ed. Ralph Gustafson, 1975),
Canadian Poetry 1920 to 1960 (ed. Brian Terhearne, 2010, was broadcast on CBC Radio's
Anthology, and was recorded on the album
Six Toronto Poets, alongside the poems of
W.W.E. Ross,
Raymond Souster,
Margaret Avison,
James Reaney and
Jay Macpherson. Her close friend
A. J. M. Smith edited and introduced
The Collected Poems of Anne Wilkinson and a Prose Memoir, which was posthumously published in 1968. Her writing was celebrated by artist/filmmaker
Joyce Wieland and author
Michael Ondaatje, and set to music by composer
Oskar Morawetz. In the early 1990s it was re-examined by Joan Coldwell, who edited a new edition of the poems, as well as a volume of Wilkinson's autobiographical writings. Wilkinson's work has enjoyed a revival since the publication in 2003 of
Heresies: The Complete Poems of Anne Wilkinson, 1924–1961, edited by Dean Irvine, with appearances and discussion in more recent anthologies such as
An Anthology of Canadian Literature in English,
Modern Canadian Poets, ''Wider Boundaries of Daring: The Modernist Impulse in Canadian Women's Poetry
, and Earth and Heaven, An Anthology of Myth Poetry''. ==Selected works==