Anne Simpson

Photo by Kate Waters.

Anne Simpson has spent periods of time working or studying in Italy, West Africa and the U.K. She lives in Antigonish, where she teaches part-time.

Publications

The Marram Grass: Poetry and Otherness. Gaspereau Press, 2009.
ISBN 978-1-55447-072-3 (bound)
ISBN 978-1-55447-071-6 (paperback)

Falling. McClelland & Stewart, 2008. ISBN 978-0771080906, 978-0-7710-8089-0 (paperback).
Winner of the Dartmouth Fiction Award.

“Profound and sharply observed…like any good requiem, [its] song swings toward the universal.” - The Globe and Mail

“Simpson has brought together character, plot, language and metaphor with both subtlety and intensity. The result is a potent mix…” - The National Post

Quick. McClelland & Stewart, 2007. ISBN 978-0-7710-8091-3
Winner of the Pat Lowther Poetry Award.

“In her irony and experiment, she calls to mind Anne Carson. But the lushness of her words…evokes Anne Michaels.” The Globe and Mail

Loop. McClelland & Stewart, 2003. ISBN 0-7710-8075-1.

"With its strong lyric voice and simple yet dynamic forms, Loop is a collection that draws you, and draws you in."
-- Quill & Quire

"Simpson's lines ring lean and mature, and, like the late Bronwen Wallace, are full of people you know and people you don't, but want to."
-- Elm Street

Canterbury Beach. Penguin Canada, 2001. ISBN 0-670-89484-2.
Click here for WFNS' description of this book.
Shortlisted for the 2002 Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award.

"A touching and perceptive first novel that journeys through the delicate intricacies of family life, its shifting alliances, its unique ability to wound, its capacity for forgiveness. The characters speak to the parent and child in us all." - Merilyn Simonds.

“An extraordinary, darkly shimmering novel.” -The Globe and Mail.

Light Falls Through You. McClelland & Stewart, 2000. ISBN 0-7710-8077-8.
Click here for WFNS' description of this book.
Winner of the Atlantic Poetry Prize, and the 2001 League of Canadian Poets' Gerald Lampert Award for best first book of poetry.

"Light Falls Through You is strongly original--in its supple music and lucid imagery, its range of reference (to archaeology, painting, the mythological and natural worlds) and in the scope of its moral concerns. Anne Simpson has written an outstanding work."
-- League of Canadian Poets' press release on the winners of the Gerald Lampert Award

"Simpson's lines ring lean and mature and are full of people you know and people you don't, but want to."
- Elm Street

"Each poem is meticulously constricted and is eerily and beautifully lit from within . . . Simpson's poems deserve to be lingered on, like a beach on those ever shortening summer nights."
-- ArtBeat

Editions

An Orange from Portugal: Christmas Stories from the Maritimes and Newfoundland. Edited by Anne Simpson. Goose Lane Editions, 2003. ISBN 0-86492-345-7.
Click here for WFNS' description of this anthology.

Anthologies

Essays

“The Joshua Stone” in Double Lives: Writing and Motherhood. Edited by Shannon Cowan, Fiona Tinwei Lam, and Cathy Stonehouse. McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-7735-3377-6

"Orpheus Recalling Eurydice" in A Ragged Pen: Essays on Poetry and Memory. Gaspereau Press, 2006.
ISBN 1-55447-030-7

First Writes: Edited by Kelley Aitken, Sue Goyette, and Barbara Scott. Banff Centre Press, 2005. ISBN 1-894773-16-0

Poetry

"Deer on a Beach" in Open Wide a Wilderness: Canadian Nature Poems.  Ed. Nancy Holmes.  Waterloo, ON: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2009

Open Field: 30 Contemporary Canadian Poets. Edited by Sina Queyras. Persea Books, 2005.
ISBN 0-89255-314-6

In Fine Form: The Canadian Book of Form Poetry. Edited by Kate Braid and Sandy Shreve. Raincoast Books, 2005.
ISBN 1-55192-777-2

The New Canon: An Anthology of Canadian Poetry. Edited by Carmine Starnino. Véhicule Press, 2005. ISBN 1-55065-208-7

Desire, Doom & Vice: A Canadian Collection. Edited by Nathaniel G. Moore. Wingate Press, 2005. ISBN 0-9735977-7-1

The Griffin Poetry Prize Anthology: A selection of 2004 shortlist. Edited by Phyllis Webb. House of Anansi Press, 2004.
ISBN 0-88784-699-8

Coastlines: The Poetry of Atlantic Canada. Edited by Anne Compton, Laurence Hutchman, Ross Leckie, and Robin McGrath. Goose Lane Editions, 2002. ISBN 0-86492-313-9

Words Out There: Women Poets in Atlantic Canada. Edited by Jeanette Lynes and Gwendolyn Davies. Roseway Publishing, 1999. ISBN 1-896496-09-1

Short Fiction

"Dreaming Snow" in Atlantica: Stories from the Maritimes and Newfoundland. Lesley Choyce, Editor. Goose Lane Editions, 2001. ISBN 0-8692-309-0.
     Click here for WFNS' description of this book.

"Green Knight" in Home for Christmas: Stories from the Maritimes and Newfoundland. Edited by Sabine Campbell. Goose Lane Editions, 1999.

"Waters of Immortality" in Rip-Rap: Fiction and Poetry from the Banff Centre. Edited by Edna Alford, Don McKay, Rhea Tregebov, and Rachel Wyatt. Banff Centre Press, 1999. ISBN 0-920159-65-6

"The Memory Theater of Guilano Camillo," Water Studies: New Voices in Maritime Fiction. Edited by Ian Colford. Pottersfield Press, 1998. ISBN 1-895900-12-3

"Dreaming Snow" in The Journey Prize Anthology 9. Selected with Nino Ricci. McClelland & Stewart, 1997. ISBN 0-7710-4425-9

"The Day Elvis Rose from the Dead," Fiddlehead Gold: The Fiddlehead Golden Anniversary Anthology. Edited by Sabine Campbell, Roger Ploude, and Demetres Tryphonopoulos. Goose Lane Editions, 1995. ISBN 0-86492-177-2

Awards

• Winner of the Dartmouth Fiction Award for Falling.
• Winner of the Pat Lowther Poetry Award for Quick.
• Finalist for the 2008 Atlantic Poetry Prize for Quick.
• Winner of the 2004 Griffin Poetry Prize for Loop
• Finalist for the 2003 Governor-General 's Award, Poetry, for Loop.
• Nominated for the Pushcart Prize XXIX for Loop.
• Finalist for the 2002 Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award.
• Winner of the 2001 Atlantic Poetry Prize for Light Falls Through You.
• Winner of the 2001 Gerald Lampert Award for Light Falls Through You.
• Finalist for the 2001 Pat Lowther Award for Light Falls Through You.
• Winner of the 1999 Bliss Carman Poetry Award.
• Winner of the 1997 Journey Prize (shared with Gabriella Goliger) for "Dreaming Snow."

You can send mail to Anne Simpson
c/o Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia