Alberta poet Alice Major will read in the Doris Crowston Gallery of the Sunshine CoastArts Centre in Sechelt, 8 p.m.,Friday, March 20.Named the city of Edmonton's first poet laureate in July 2005, Major has lived in Edmonton since 1981. Establishing herself there as a major (ahem) poet, sheserved as president of the Writers Guild of Alberta and of the League of Canadian Poets, as well as chair of the Edmonton Arts Council. Her eighth collection of poetry, The Office Tower Tales, was published in spring 2008. It followed The Occupied World, 2006. Both volumes are very much focused on her home city - its geology, history and mythology - and have received much favourable critical attention.
Major was born in Scotland and came to Canada with her family at the age of eight. She grew up in Toronto before coming west to work as a reporter on the Williams Lake Tribune. In 2001 she won the Malahat Review's long poem contest and has been short-listed for the Pat Lowther Award, the City of Edmonton Book Prize (twice) and three times for the Stephan G. Stephanson Award.
Admission to Major's March 20 reading is free thanks to the Canada Council for the Arts and the Literary Committee of the Sunshine Coast Arts Council.
