Di Brandt

Di Brandt(born 31 January 1952) (néeJanzen)often stylized asdi brandt,is aCanadianpoetandscholarfromWinnipeg,Manitoba.She became Winnipeg's first Poet Laureate in 2018.

Life and career

Brandt grew up inReinland,aMennonitefarming village in southernManitobanearWinkler.Her first volume of poetryquestions i asked my motherwas published byTurnstone Pressin 1987. Since then she has published seven more volumes of poetry, as well as literary criticism. Brandt has degrees from theUniversity of ManitobaandUniversity of Torontoand has also taught Canadian literature and creative writing.She was poetry editor atPrairie Fire MagazineandContemporary Verse 2during the 1980s and 90s. She also served as Manitoba and Prairie Rep at the League of Canadian Poets National Council and the Writers' Union of Canada National Council. In 2018, she became the first Poet Laureate of Winnipeg, a position she held through 2019,and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate byMacEwan Universityin 2021.

Bibliography

Poetry:

• questions i asked my mother(Winnipeg:Turnstone Press,1987)
• Agnes in the sky(Winnipeg:Turnstone Press,1990)
• mother, not mother(Toronto:The Mercury Press,1992)
• Jerusalem, beloved(Winnipeg:Turnstone Press,1995)
• Now You Care(Toronto:Coach House Press,2003)
• The Lottery of History(Brandon, MB: Radish Press, 2008). Chapbook.
• Walking to Mojacar,with French and Spanish translations by Charles Leblanc and Ari Belathar (Winnipeg:Turnstone Press,2010)
• SHE: Poems inspired by Laozi,with ink drawings by Lin Xu (Brandon, MB: Radish Press, 2012). Chapbook.
• The Sweetest Dance on Earth: New and Selected Poems(Winnipeg:Turnstone Press,2022)

Essays:

• Wild Mother Dancing: Maternal Narrative in Canadian Literature(Winnipeg, MB:University of Manitoba Press1993).
• Dancing Naked: Narrative Strategies for Writing Across Centuries(Toronto: Mercury Press 1996).
• Re:Generations: Canadian Women Poets in Conversation(Windsor, ON:Black Moss Press2006), ed. with Barbara Godard.
• So this is the world & here I am in it(Edmonton:NeWest Press2007).
• Wider Boundaries of Daring: The Modernist Impulse in Canadian Women's Poetry(Waterloo, ON:Wilfrid Laurier University Press2011), ed. with Barbara Godard.

Collaborations:

• Awakenings: In Four Voices,a collaborative poetry/music audiorecording (CD) withDorothy Livesay(posthumously),Carol Ann WeaverandRebecca Campbell(2003).
• Emily, The Way you Are,a one-woman chamber opera about the life and work of Emily Carr, with musical score byJana Skarecky,premiered at the McMichael Gallery in Kleinburg, ON, in 2011, featuring mezzo-sopranoRamona Carmellyand theTalisker Playersdirected byGary Kulesha.
• Watermelon Syrup: A NovelwithAnnie JacobsenandJane Finlay-Young(WLUP 2011).
• Coyotes do not carry her away,a musical setting of Di Brandt's poems, by Manitoba composerKenneth Nichols,commissioned by the Brandon Chamber Society and premiered at Brandon City Hall in 2012, featuringNaomi Forman(soprano),Catherine Wood(clarinet) andAnn Germani(harp).

Awards and recognition

• Gerald Lampert Awardfor "best first book of poetry in Canada," forquestions i asked my mother.
• McNally Robinson Manitoba Book of the Year AwardforAgnes in the sky.
• CAA National Poetry PrizeforJerusalem, beloved.
• Foreword Gold Medal for FictionforWatermelon Syrup.
• Gabrielle Roy Prizefor "best book of literary criticism in Canada," with Barbara Godard, forWider Boundaries of Daring: The Modernist Impulse in Canadian Women's Poetry.
• Brandon University President's Medal for Research, Teaching and Service2011.
• Canada Research Chairin Literature and Creative Writing, Brandon University, 2005–2011.
• SSHRCResearch Fellow, University of Alberta, 1996–1998.
• Research Excellence Award, University of Windsor, 2006.
• Gold Medal for Exceptional Service to Brandon University, 2009.
• Research Fellow, Ledig House, New York, 2004.
• Research Fellow, Hawthornden Castle, Scotland, 1999.
• Research Fellow, Chateau de Lavigny, Switzerland, 2001.
• Research Fellow, Fundacion Valparaiso, Spain, 2006.
• Governor General's Award for Poetrynomination, forquestions i asked my mother.
• Governor General's Award for Poetrynomination, forJerusalem, beloved.
• Griffin Poetry Prize2004 shortlist, forNow You Care.
• Trillium Ontario Book of the Year AwardforNow You Care.
• Pat Lowther Awardfor "best book of poetry by a Canadian woman, nomination, formother, not mother.
• Pat Lowther Awardnomination, forJerusalem, beloved.
• Pat Lowther Awardnomination, forNow You Care.
• McNally Robinson Manitoba Book of the Year Awardnomination, forSo this is the world & here I am in it.
• McNally Robinson Manitoba Book of the Year Awardnomination, forWild Mother Dancing: Maternal Narrative in Canadian Literature.
• McNally Robinson Manitoba Book of the Year Awardnomination, forWalking to Mojacar,with French and Spanish translations by Charles Leblanc and Ari Belathar.

See also

• Canadian literature
• Canadian poetry
• List of Canadian poets
• List of Canadian writers

External links

• Griffin Poetry Prize biography
• Griffin Poetry Prize reading, including video clip
• Mennonite Voices in Poetry
• Giessener Elektronische Bibliothek:Julia Michael,Narrating communities: constructing and challenging Mennonite Canadian identities through narrative,thesisUniversität Gießen2017, thereinDeconstructing Images of Motherhood in Di Brandt's "Mother, not mother",pp. 157–173