Betsy Warland


Betsy Warland is a Canadian feminist writer of over a dozen books of poetry, creative nonfiction, and lyrical prose. She is best known for her collection of essays, Breathing the Page: Reading the Act of Writing.

Life

Warland was born in Fort Dodge, Iowa, in 1946. She studied at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, before emigrating to Canada in 1972. She started the Toronto Women's Writing Collective, which hosted events, including co-hosting Writers in Dialogue, featuring Adrienne Rich, Nicole Brossard, May Sarton, Audrey Thomas, Margaret Atwood, and Marge Piercy. She initiated and co-organized the Women and Words/Les Femmes et les mots conference at the University of British Columbia in 1983.
From 1986 to 1987, Warland was the executive director of the Federation of BC Writers; additionally, she initiated Spring Rites, the annual competition for BC Writers. Warland sat on the Special Council Committee of the Arts for the Vancouver City Council. Warland has mentored writers such as Jónína Kirton. She co-founded the Creative Nonfiction Collective with Myrna Kostash in 2004 and served on its board. She served on the National Council of the Writers' Union of Canada from 2009 to 2012.
She designed the Writer's Studio program at Simon Fraser University in 2001 and served as its director until 2012, during which time she helped initiate the Thursdays Writing Collective in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. In 2007, she founded the Vancouver Manuscript Intensive program, for which she continues to serve as a director. Warland has led multiple workshops in the United Kingdom at the Poetry School, the Poetry Library, and the Arvon Foundation. She also led workshops in Canada at Sage Hill, Booming Ground, the Metchosin International School of the Arts, Hollyhock, and Simon Fraser University, among others.
An annual book award honoring Warland, the VMI Betsy Warland Between Genres Award, was launched in 2021. Jordan Abel was the inaugural 2021 winner for his book, Nishga. In 2022, the winning book was Remnants, written by Céline Huyghebaert and translated by Aleshia Jensen. The 2023 winner was Nicholas Dawson, with translator D.M. Bradford, for the book House Within a House.
Warland's personal documents, interviews, photographs, and manuscripts have been acquired by the literary archives at Library and Archives Canada.

Writing

Much of Warland's literary output has been in the form of essays, memoirs, and poetry books relating to the writing process, feminism, women's studies, and lesbian issues. Her work has appeared in both Canadian and international journals, as well as anthologies.

Selected works

Breathing the Page: Reading the Act of Writing. Second edition. Cormorant Books, 2023,Bloodroot: Tracing the Untelling of Motherloss. Second edition. Inanna Publications/York University, 2022Lost Lagoon/Lost in Thought., 2020
  • Oscar of Between: A Memoir of Identity and Ideas., 2016
  • Oscar's Salon, an interactive online salon of excerpts from Oscar of Between in concert. BetsyWarland.com, 2012–2017Breathing the Page: Reading the Act of Writing. Cormorant Books, 2010Only This Blue: A Long Poem with an Essay. The Mercury Press, 2005Bloodroot: Tracing the Untelling of Motherloss. Second Story Press, 2000What Holds Us Here. Buschek Books, 1998Two Women in a Birth. Guernica Editions, 1994The Bat Had Blue Eyes. Women's Press, 1993InVersions: Writing by Dykes, Queers and Lesbians. Press Gang, 1991Telling It: Women and Language across Cultures. Press Gang, 1990Proper Deafinitions: Collected Theorograms. Press Gang, 1990serpent rite:. Coach House, 1987Double Negative. Gynergy books/Ragweed Press, 1986open is broken. Longspoon Press, 1984A Gathering Instinct. Williams-Wallace, 1981

Awards