Daphne Marlatt

Daphne Marlatt,bornBuckle,CM(born July 11, 1942 inMelbourne,Australia), is a Canadianpoetand novelist who lives inVancouver,British Columbia.

At a young age, her family moved toMalaysiaand at age nine, they moved to British Columbia, where she later attended theUniversity of British Columbia.There she developed her poetry style and her strongfeministviews. In 1968, she received anMAin comparative literature fromIndiana University.

Her poetry, while considered extremely dense and difficult,is also much acclaimed. In 2006, she was made a Member of theOrder of Canada.

Life and work

Early life

Daphne Marlatt is an author, teacher, writer, editor, mother and feminist. Her works include two novels, several poetry pieces, and many edited literary journals and magazines. Daphne Marlatt was born to English parents, Arthur and Edrys Lupprian Buckle, in Melbourne, Australia on July 11, 1942.

At the age of three, Marlatt's family moved toPenang,Malaysia and then at the age of nine her family immigrated to Vancouver. Marlatt received her B.A. from the University of British Columbia in 1964 and while there, in 1963, became an editor forTISH,a Canadian literary journal.

After traveling around the continent with her husband, Gordon Alan Marlatt, a clinical psychologist, she then settled down for a while inBloomington, Indianawhere she received her M.A. from theIndiana UniversityinComparative literaturein 1968. It is here where she started to writeFrames of a Story(1968).Robert Lecker,in the 1978 article "Perceiving It as It Stands" fromCanadian Literature,says "Marlatt has every right to join Kay and Gerda in flight, for their predicament, and the development of their story, serve as ametaphorfor the problems of growth encountered by a poet struggling to break away from the frames imposed by established word patterns and the falsities implied by a world view which categorizes experience, storytelling it in standardized form, as if the motion of living was always the same, always sane. "

In 1969, Marlatt publishedleaf leaf/s,which is a collection of shorter poems. In 1971, Marlatt publishedRings,a collection of poems about pregnancy, birth, and early parenting. She started teaching writing and literature atCapilano Collegeand also edited forThe Capilano Review.In 1972 she publishedVancouver Poems.Marlatt published a well known piece of hers,Steveston,in 1974. This piece is about a smallfishing villagethat Marlatt explains the relation to its history as a camp forJapanese CanadiansduringWorld War II.

Later life

In 1975, Marlatt publishedOur Lives,a poetry piece about "organic implosions of relationships", according toBookRags.Marlatt and her partner, the poet and artistRoy Kiyooka,separated in the late 1970s. In 1977,The Story, She Saidwas published and so was her book,Zocalo.Zocalois a collection of long poems about the travels had through theYucatán.Marlatt's,What Matters: Writing 1968-1970,includes some of her early writings, including "Rings," and was published in 1980.

Also, in 1980 she had,Net Work: Selected Writing,published, which contains new "confidence and authority", according toFred Wah,a professor at theUniversity of Calgary.He goes on to say that "the flow of town and history, of the Japanese people and the cannery, especially of the river and language, are more securely rooted in place and concentrated in the writing consciousness than in any other of her books." And according to www.athabascau.ca,Net Work: Selected Writingis "a selection of poetry spanning fromFrames of a Story(1968) toWhat Matters(1980) is an excellent cross-section of her early poetry. "It is through these pieces and earlier pieces that Marlatt'sfeminist theorybegins to emerge.

In 1977, Marlatt co-foundedperiodies: a magazine of prose(1977–81) and in 1981 publishedhere & there.It was around this time that Marlatt became more involved in feminist concerns, and attended and organized several feminist conferences. She also, in 1985, co-foundedTessera,which is a feminist journal. Around this time, Marlatt is quoted to saying, "a time of transition for me as i tried to integrate my feminist reading with a largely male-mentored postmodernist poetic, at the same time coming out as a lesbian in my life as well as in my writing."

In 1983, Marlatt'sHow Hug a Stonewas published, which follows that journey traveled by herself and her son, in 1981, to England. In 1984,Touch to My Tonguewas published. Both pieces "express her intense apprehension of the continually changing world.", according to Douglas Barbour, an author ofThe Canadian Encyclopedia.

Marlatt created two books,Mauve,published in 1985 andcharacter/jeu de letters,published in 1986, with Quebec feminist and writerNicole Brossard.Double negative,a piece that was put together between Marlatt andBetsy Warland,her significant other, was published in 1988.

In 1988, the introduction of one of Marlatt's most distinguished pieces,Ana Historic,was published. This novel, according to www.athabascau.ca, "describes the experiences of women both historic and contemporary." Marlatt describes her novel,Ana Historic,in a 2003 interview with Sue Kossew, a professor at theUniversity of New South Wales,as follows: "I like rubbing the edges of document and memory/fiction against one another. I like the friction that is produced between the stark reporting of document, the pseudo-factual language of journalism, and the more emotional, even poetic, language of memory. That's why I used such a hodgepodge of sources inAna Historic:a little nineteenth-century and very local journalism that sounds like a gossip column, a 1906 school textbook, various historical accounts, some contemporary feminist theory, and a school teacher's diary from 1873 that was completely fictitious. "

According to Caroline Rosenthal, author ofNarrative Deconstructions of Gender in Works by Audrey Thomas, Daphne Marlatt, and Louise Erdrich,"Marlatt, inAna Historic,challenges the regulatory fiction of heterosexuality. She offers her protagonist a way out into a new order that breaks with the law of the father, creating a "monstrous" text that explores the possibilities of a lesbian identity. "

In 1991, Marlatt's piece,Salvage,was published, which explores parts of Marlatt's life and puts it together with a feminist's point of view. In 1993Ghost Workswas published, which contains prose poems, letters, diary entries, short-line poems, and travel books to make a narrative.

In 1994,Two Women in a Birth,was published. This piece was written by both Marlatt and her significant other, Betsy Warland. This piece is "This collection of [poetry] represents ten years of collaborative work by two of Canada's leading feminist writers" according to books.google.com.

In 1996, Marlatt's second novel,Takenwas published. This novel that is a tribute to women whose lives have been taken by war. In 2001,This Tremor Love Iswas published.This Tremor Loveis a collection of love poems over a period of twenty-five years, from Marlatt's first writing to her most recent. Marlatt's recent published piece, a collection of poetry calledSeven Glass Bowls,was published in 2003.

In addition to all of Marlatt's published works she can be heard on the CDLike Light Off Water,Otter Bay, 2008, reading passages from her classic poetry cycle, Steveston. With music by Canadian composers Robert Minden and Carla Hallett, the CD offers a delicate resonance ofmicrotonalnuance and lyrical intimacy surrounding Marlatt¹s poetic voicing, rhythm and imagery. In 2006 Marlett and her work were the subject of an episode of the television seriesHeart of a Poetproduced by Canadian filmmakerMaureen Judge.

Marlatt has also taught at several colleges and universities. These include:University of Alberta,University of British Columbia,Capilano College,University of Calgary,University of Manitoba,McMaster University,Mount Royal College,University of Saskatchewan,Simon Fraser University,University of VictoriaandUniversity of Western Ontario.She also received four awards in her career. She received the MacMillan and Brissenden for creative writing; theCanada Councilaward; the Vancouver Mayor's Arts Award for Literary Arts; and theOrder of Canadafor her contributions toCanadian literature.Marlatt also founded the West Coast Women and Words Society.

Marlatt is currentlya student of theGelugschool ofTibetan Buddhism,and currently lives inVancouver,B.C.

Bibliography

• Frames of a Story- 1968
• leaf leaf/s- 1969
• Rings- 1971
• Vancouver Poems- 1972
• Steveston- 1974
• Our Lives- 1975
• Zocalo- 1977
• The Story, She Said- 1977
• Opening Doors: Vancouver's East End- 1979 (oral history project, co-edited withCarole Itter)
• Net Work: Selected Writing- 1980
• What Matters- 1980
• here & there- 1981
• How Hug a Stone- 1983
• Touch to My Tongue- 1984
• MAUVE- 1985 (withNicole Brossard)
• Feminist Literature in the Feminine- 1985 (edited with Ann Dybikowski, Victoria Freeman, Barbara Pulling and Betsy Warland)
• Double Negative- 1988 (with Betsy Warland)
• Ana Historic- 1988
• Telling It: Women and Language Across Cultures- 1990 (with Betsy Warland,Lee MaracleandSky Lee)
• Salvage- 1991
• Ghost Works- 1993
• Two Women in a Birth- 1994 (with Betsy Warland)
• Taken- 1996
• Readings from the Labyrinth- 1998
• Winter/Rice/Tea Strain- 2001
• This Tremor Love Is- 2001
• Seven Glass Bowls- 2003
• The Given- 2008
• The Gull- 2010 (Noh Play)
• Opening Doors in Vancouver's East End: Strathcona- 2011 (edited with Carole Itter)
• Liquidities: Vancouver Poems Then and Now- 2013
• Rivering: The Poetry of Daphne Marlatt- 2014
• Intertidal,collection of poems - 2017

See also

• Canadian literature
• Canadian poetry
• List of Canadian poets

External links

• Bibliography of Marlatt criticism
• Strategies of Difference and Opposition.Daphne Marlatt and Hélène Cixous' writing strategy ofécriture féminine.
• Opening Out.Daphne Marlatt shares her thoughts about transcending gender in spiritual life.
• "'The Inner Geography of Home': The Ecofeminist Poetics of D. Marlatt's Taken." By Eva Darias-Beautell:[1]
• Records of Daphne Marlatt are held by Simon Fraser University's Special Collections and Rare Books
• Recordings of Daphne Marlatt are available online in the Unarchiving the Margins Collection at Simon Fraser University's Special Collection and Rare Books
• Archives of Daphne Marlatt(Daphne Marlatt fonds, R11776)are held atLibrary and Archives Canada