Accession 2013-7 - Lorna Crozier

Lorna Crozier was born in Swift Current, Saskatchewan in 1948. She graduated from W.A. Beatty Collegiate in Swift Current in 1966, studied at the University of Saskatchewan, Regina Campus (now the University of Regina), and obtained her Bachelor of Arts in 1969. She received a Master of Arts from the University of Alberta in 1980. In addition to her university education, she attended creative writing courses at the Saskatchewan Summer School of the Arts at Fort San (1974-1977), and took courses in Advanced Writing and Speech Writing from the Public Service Commission.

Crozier taught high school English in rural Saskatchewan from 1970 to 1973, and taught English at the University of Regina (1976), the University of Alberta (1978-1979), and the University of Saskatchewan (1986-1991). She has been Associate Professor in the Department of Writing at the University of Victoria since 1991 and became a Distinguished Professor at the University of Victoria in 2002.

Lorna has been writer-in-residence at the University of Toronto (1988, 1989-1990), Douglas College, British Columbia (1989), the University of Lethbridge (1987), and the Regina Public Library (1984-1985), among others.

She has published 15 books of poetry and her poems have been included in dozens of journals and magazines. Crozier's work has also been featured in numerous anthologies, and her poetry and writing have resulted in her winning many prizes, such as First Prize in the CBC Radio National Poetry Competition (1987), the Western Magazine Award for Nonfiction (1989), the Governor General's Award for Poetry (1992) for Inventing the Hawk, the National Magazine Gold Medal for Poetry (1995). She has received two Pat Lowther Awards for the best book of poetry by a Canadian woman, a Canadian Author’s Association Award and a Dorothy Livesay Award. She has also published a memoir, Small Beneath the Sky.

Crozier has conducted many readings and has lectured widely in Canada and the United States, as well as England, the former Yugoslavia, France, Chile, Africa and Australia. She has been heavily involved in the writers profession, and has served on various juries and judging panels.

Crozier has Honorary Doctorates for her contributions to Canadian Literature from the University of Saskatchewan and the University of Regina. In 2009 she was inducted into the Royal Society of Canada.

Crozier currently resides outside of Victoria with her husband, poet Patrick Lane.