Margaret Avison

Avison, the daughter of a Methodist minister, was born in Galt, Ontario, in 1918. She moved to Regina, Saskatchewan, in 1920, and Calgary, Alberta, a few years later. As a teenager she was hospitalized for anorexia. Before she finished her B.A. she was a published poet; the poem "Gatineau" appeared in the Canadian Poetry Magazine in 1939. ==Career==

Besides writing poetry, Avison worked a variety of other jobs, such as working as a file clerk, proofreader, and editor. In 1951, Avison's junior high school textbook, History of Ontario, was published. Avison taught at Scarborough Hall, University of Toronto, between 1966 and 1968, and also volunteered at Presbyterian mission named Evangel Hall during this time. In 2003, Avison's Concrete and Wild Carrot won the Griffin Poetry Prize. Avison was honoured for her contributions to Canadian literature by various honorary degrees: Acadia University (1983), York University (1985), and Victoria University (1988). Margaret Avison died in Toronto on July 31, 2007, age 89, from undisclosed causes. ==Writing==

Avison can be considered a spiritual or metaphysical poet; "her work is often described by reviewers as introspective, observant, and deeply spiritual." With Winter Sun, "Avison established herself as a difficult and introspective poet given to private images and subtle shadings of emotion that challenge and frustrate the reader" (says The Canadian Encyclopedia). "These complexities in her writing conceal a deeply religious and vulnerable sensibility." The Dumbfounding was "a more accessible record of spiritual discovery, and a more revealing account of the unmasked, narrative 'I.'" The University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections holds the Margaret Avison Fonds. ==Publications==

Poetry • Winter Sun. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1960. London, UK: Routledge, Kegan Paul, 1960. • The Dumbfounding. New York: Norton, 1966. • The Cosmic Chef Glee & Perloo Memorial Society under the direction of Captain Poetry presents an evening of concrete (poems by Margaret Avison [and others] edited by B.P. Nichol.); courtesy Oberon Cement Works. Ottawa: Oberon P, 1970. • sunblue. Hantsport, NS: Lancelot P, 1978. • Winter Sun/ The Dumbfounding: poems, 1940-66. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1982. • Margaret Avison: Selected Poems. Toronto: Oxford UP, 1991. • No Time. Hantsport, NS: Lancelot P, 1989; London, ON: Brick Books, 1998. • Not Yet but Still. Hantsport, NS: Lancelot P, 1997; London, ON: Brick Books, 1998. • Concrete and Wild Carrot. London, ON: Brick Books, 2002. (winner of the 2003 Canadian Griffin Poetry Prize) • Always Now: The Collected Poems. (in three volumes) Erin, ON: Porcupine's Quill, 2003–2005. • Momentary Dark. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2006. • Listening: The Last Poems of Margaret Avison. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2009. Prose • I am Here and Not Not-There: An Autobiography. Porcupine's Quill, 2009 • A Kind of Perseverance. Hantsport, N.S.: Lancelot Press, 1994 • ''A Doctor's Memoirs'' (from papers and conversations with Dr. A. I. Wolinsky) Macmillan, 1960 • Acta Sanctorum (translation in collaboration with Ilona Duczynska & Peter Owen, 1966) • History of Ontario [for Grade VII] [illustrations by Selwyn Dewdney]. Toronto : W. J. Gage, 1951. • The research compendium; review and abstracts of graduate research, 1942–1962. [Toronto] University of Toronto Press [c1964] Source for list of publications: "100 Canadian Poets" and the Margaret Avison page at Canadian Poetry Online]. ==Works on Margaret Avison==

Books • Kent, David, ed. Lighting Up The Terrain: The Poetry of Margaret Avison. Toronto: ECW, 1987. • Kent, David A. Margaret Avison and Her Works. Toronto: ECW, 1989. • Mazoff, Chaim D. ''Waiting for the Son: Images of Release and Restoration in Margaret Avison's Poetry''. Dunvegan, Ont.: Cormorant, 1989. Articles • Anderson, Mia. "Conversation with the Star Messenger: An Enquiry into Margaret Avison's Winter Sun." Studies in Canadian Literature/Etudes en Literature Canadienne (SCL), 6.1 (1981): 82–132. • Bowen, Deborah. "Phoenix from the Ashes: Lorna Crozier and Margaret Avison in Contemporary Mourning." Canadian Poetry: Studies, Documents, Reviews. 40 (1997): 46–57. • Calverley, Margaret. "'Service Is Joy': Margaret Avison's Sonnet Sequence in Winter Sun."Essays on Canadian Writing. 50 (1993): 210-30. • "The Avison Collection at the University of Manitoba: Poems 1929-89." Canadian Poetry: Studies, Documents, Reviews. 28 (1991): 54–84. • Cohn-Sfetcu, Ofelia. "To Live in Abundance of Life: Time in Canadian Literature." Canadian Literature. 76 (1978): 25–36. • Guptara, Prabhu S. "A Dark Reservoir of Gladness: Margaret Avison's Third Volume of Verse."The Literary Criterion. 16.1 (1981): 42-45. • Jones, Lawrence M. "A Core of Brilliance: Margaret Avison's Achievement." Canadian Literature. 38 (1968): 50–57. • Kent, David A. "Wholehearted Poetry; Halfhearted Criticism." Essays on Canadian Writing. 44 (1991): 67–78. • Mazoff, David. "Through the Son: An Explication of Margaret Avison's 'Person.'" Canadian Poetry: Studies, Documents, Reviews. 22: (1988): 40–48. • Moisan, Clement. "Rina Lasnier et Margaret Avison." Liberte. 108 (1976): 21–33. • New, William H. "The Mind's (I's) (Ice): The Poetry of Margaret Avison." Twentieth Century Literature: A Scholarly and Critical Journal. 16 (1970): 185–202. • Quinsey, K. M. "The Dissolving Jail-Break in Avison." Canadian Poetry: Studies, Documents, Reviews. 25 (1989): 21–37. • Redekop, Ernest H. "Sun/Son Light/Light: Avison's Elemental Sunblue." Canadian Poetry: Studies, Documents, Reviews. 7 (1980): 21–37. • Somerville, Christine. "The Shadow of Death: Margaret Avison's 'Just Left or The Night Margaret Laurence Died.'" New, W. H. (ed.). Inside the Poem: Essays and Poems in Honour of Donald Stephens. Toronto: Oxford UP, 1992: 55–59. • Sullivan, R. "The Territory of Conscience: The Poetry of Margaret Avison." Literary Half-Yearly." 32.1 (1991): 43-55. • Zezulka, J. M. "Refusing the Sweet Surrender: Margaret Avison's 'Dispersed Titles'" Canadian Poetry 1 (1977): 44–53. • Zichy, Francis. "'Each in His Prison/Thinking of the Key': Images of Confinement and Liberation in Margaret Avison." Studies in Canadian Literature. 3 (1978): 232–43. Source for list of publications: "100 Canadian Poets" and the Margaret Avison page at Canadian Poetry Online . ==See also==